Tech Night was a unique chance to learn all the details about the latest technological advances and digital tools from experts on one of the city’s prime terraces, Pier01 at Tech Barcelona. As Sara Pastor (Lic&MBA 05 / Promociona 20), president of the Esade Alumni Business Innovation & Technologies Club, highlighted all evening, Tech Night aims to share the club’s passion for technology and create a space where challenges can be shared and participants can learn through dialogue with tech speakers.
The session entitled “What’s Hot in Tech & Business in 2024” aimed to offer a threefold vision (entrepreneurial, corporate, and academic) of the latest innovations, with the participation of Miquel Martí (MBA 02), CEO of Tech Barcelona; Laura Gil, director of Digital Transformation at Damm; and Josep Lluís Cano (Lic&MBA 89), senior associate professor in the Department of Operations, Innovation, and Data Sciences and director of Custom Programs at Esade, with Eduard Menal (Lic&MBA 12), member of the Esade Alumni Business Innovation & Technologies Club board, as the moderator. Thanks to a dynamic involving dialogue with the audience, the speakers analyzed the trends and key new developments in business technology: from what seemed to be a revolution but just ended up being hype, to the hottest things right now, and even to the new tech on the horizon. Miquel Martí said that some technologies that seem not to have taken off, like metaverse, are actually evolving concepts whose time has not yet come. Meanwhile, Josep Lluís Cano highlighted the importance of investing in technologies that add value and surpass human capacities because “everything we have right now is not going to be very useful with what has yet to come.” In this sense, quantum technology, mixed reality, and the spatial economy were some of the future novelties highlighted.
Next, Edgar Martin Blas, CEO of Virtual Voyagers, a multidisciplinary team focused on creating large virtual metaverse projects for major brands, focused his presentation (“Future Prospects: Metaverse and Virtual”) on Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s first spatial computer also known as “Apple glasses,” which blends digital content with the physical world. As Martín Blas explained, Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas that crosses the boundaries of a traditional screen and presents a totally three-dimensional interface operated by the user’s eyes, hands, and voice. “They change the way users interact with apps; they can capture and recall moments, enjoy film programs, and connect with other people in a spatial or three-dimensional Internet,” Martin Blas said. In his expert opinion, in the future the glasses will be a wearable that will also include multiple devices in a single one, perhaps even replacing computers. In fact, spatial computation can recognize space, create immersive environments, and position three-dimensional elements in reality, thus revolutionizing the way we interact with computers and opening up endless opportunities for developing immersive experiences for a host of technologies and sectors.
The participants had the chance to experience Vision Pro firsthand, as well as the latest in VR technology, AI applications, culinary innovations like molecular cocktails, blockchain, robotics, IoT, holographs, and more from both world-class companies and innovative startups (Pearls Molecular Experience, Smybox Foto, HandPoem, Mediapro, Admira, Salesforce, Vottum, Fermat/Nemeda, and Keybotic) in the thematic corners during the cocktail dinner, which became the perfect social and experiential moment.
Anna Buixó (Lic&MBA 05), vice-president of the Esade Alumni Business Innovation & Technology Club
“I think that events like this one are extremely enriching, because they enable us to keep up to date, experience the latest technologies firsthand, and expand our network of contacts. Plus, this time the venue was incredible!
I loved the panel discussion format for "What's Hot in Tech & Business in 2024," which was totally open to the audience’s participation and extremely dynamic. The Apple Vision Pro demo was also spectacular. Obviously, generative artificial intelligence is already a turning point in many aspects of our everyday lives. Mixed reality is clearly going to be another of the major disruptions in the upcoming years, and soon we’ll probably begin talking about the applications of satellite technology.”
Roberto Cáceres (EMDB 22)
“This type of event enables us to learn about experiences firsthand from experts in our sector, in addition to reconnecting with and meeting people interested in technology and innovation. The most interesting part was being able to enjoy the technology, like the virtual reality room presented by the Visyon team at Mediapro, or learning how the Keeper robot from the company Keybotic helps industry work to prevent accidents with its ability to identify gases or smells, among its other functionalities.
Plus, we were able to learn about the experiences of different companies that showed how they have implemented the new technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the glove-shaped electronic device by Handpoem, which enables us to turn our gestures into a medium for combining technology and digital music to create new sounds.”
