Dan Azagury, serial entrepreneur in health arena, at Bizbarcelona 2013

By Biocat

The third edition of the Bizbarcelona fair for entrepreneurs and businesspeople, on 5 and 6 June at Fira Barcelona, will offer more than 160 conferences and workshops, as well as advisory and networking spaces to accelerate new business and boost growth of existing SMEs. Fair organizers expect 12,000 visitors, like last year, mainly from Catalonia, looking for inspiration, practical solutions, institutional support and pathways to access funding.

Bizbarcelona encompasses a wide variety of economic sectors, but in recent years has given particular attention to the life sciences due to the importance this area has taken on in our country and because it has unique characteristics in company management, internationalization and funding. At the 2013 edition there will be three activities of interest:

Conference Biodesign: technology innovation as a discipline
6 June at 4 pm, Palau de Congressos (Hall 5)

Given by Dr. Dan E. Azagury, surgeon at the Geneva University Hospital, co-founder of Ciel Medical, alumnus of the Stanford Biodesign Fellowship (2012) and professor in the Design Health Barcelona program offered through Moebio (Biocat’s newly launched talent-development initiative that has Ciemat-MINECO).

Over his career, Azagury has developed six medical devices. He is currently putting the finishing touches on two, one to improve treatment of kidney stones and another to increase protection against pneumonia associated with intubation and mechanical ventilation in patients in intensive care units (ICU). This is the most common and serious infection associated with medical care in the ICU.

Nowadays, 90% of start-ups end in failure. Dr. Azagury will explain the prestigious biodesign innovation process developed by Stanford University, a successful tool to create innovations in the health arena. Since it was created in 2001, the program has led to 26 new companies, attracted more than $200 millions in venture capital and generated more than 500 jobs. Furthermore, the products designed by these new companies have been used to treat more than 150,000 patients.

"Medicine is full of dogmas. Many professionals carry out procedures in a certain way simply because that is how it has always been done and has shown good results. They don’t question whether there are more appropriate ways to get better results and improve patient care,” explains Azagury.

Starting in September 2013, through the Design Health Barcelona program, doctors, scientists, engineers and designers will have the opportunity to learn the biodesign innovation process in Barcelona and gain a competitive advantage in a growing job market. Biocat has started up this groundbreaking training initiative to develop entrepreneurial talent in the health and life sciences sector and to boost innovation in these fields.

If you are interested in attending the conference, Biocat has tickets that will be given out by order of request (send an e-mail to info@moebio.org and we will send you an access code).

Conference Genomics DNA, the last frontier. Now you can manage your own health
5 June at 1:20 pm

Given by Dr. Mostafa Ronaghi, vice-president and Chief Technology Officer of Illumina. Biocat CEO Dr. Montserrat Vendrell will introduce the speaker.

Symposium Entrepreneuring from science in changing times
5 June at 10:30 am, Palau de Congressos (Hall 3)

Organized by the Spanish Association of Scientific and Technological Entrepreneurs (AEECT), the Catalan Association of Biotechnologists (ASBTEC) and the Spanish Federation of Biotechnology (FEBiotec). With registration for the symposium entrance to Biz Barcelona is free of charge.

Other conferences of interest will deal with the Alternative Stock Market (MAB) as a new form of funding, how to validate a business model, and the possibilities available in social media to raise awareness of a business project, among others.

Finance marketplace

Bizbarcelona will once again open the Finance Marketplace, where entrepreneurs and companies can present their project to banks, financial institutions, and representatives from networks of angel investors and venture capital funds, as well as large corporations searching for innovative companies to acquire.

Using the speed-dating system, there will be a first round of project presentations and if investors are interested, further meetings will be held to discuss the project in more detail. Last year this initiative generated more than 1,500 contacts and total investment of €94 millions from the 16 participating investors.

San Francisco-Barcelona Connection

New this edition is the session entitled San Francisco-Barcelona: entrepreneurial spirit. Learn from the best, which will take place on 5 June. Catalan entrepreneurs working in California will explain how they are developing their companies to be leaders in the global market, including Iñaki Berenger (Pixable), Pepe Agell (ChartBoost), Eneko Knorr (Ludei) and Xavier Verdaguer (TMT Factory, Innovalley, Imagini and member of the d·HEALTH Barcelona advisory board).

Date: 5 and 6 June 2013
Time: 10 am to 7 pm
Place: Montjuïc Fairgrounds • Palau 1 and Palau de Congressos • Av. Reina Maria Cristina, s/n • Barcelona

In 2012, Biocat brought one of the leading European trainers of entrepreneurs, Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius of KaosPilot, who is also on the d·HEALTH Barcelona Advisory Board, to Bizbarcelona.

Follow the fair on Twitter with the hashtag #bizbarcelona

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