Huawei hosted Europe Innovation Day 2024 in Paris – an event where European tech executives, business representatives and innovation experts explored opportunities for cross-border and cross-industry collaboration. Under this year’s motto “Unleashing the Potential of European Innovation”, the event addressed the key challenges of digital transformation in Europe and highlighted strategies to strengthen regional ecosystems and improve global competitiveness.
Driving digital progress in Europe through collaboration
Jesus Contreras, Chief Operations and Financial Officer at EIT Digital, explained: “Innovation is never a solo effort, but rather relies on collaboration and exchange between all parties involved.” As he emphasized, digital innovation flourishes when global partners and customers meet with different perspectives, bringing energy and momentum to our joint efforts.
Nicola Caputo, Regional Minister of Campania (Italy) and member of the European Committee of the Regions, highlighted the challenges Europe faces in digital transformation, such as insufficient digital literacy, slow commercial uptake and inconsistent 5G coverage . He called on governments to expand cross-border cooperation to increase Europe’s global competitiveness in the digital economy.
Ximo Puig, Spain’s permanent representative to the OECD, commented: “In essence, innovation is a framework. Governments, businesses and society must use this framework to work together to promote long-term development and build a fully connected world.”
Laurent Lafforgue, a renowned mathematician at Huawei Technologies France, said: “The rapid progress of technological innovation is based on solid fundamental theories. Solid theoretical research is essential to achieve sustainable and long-term technological progress.”
Huawei is committed to long-term investments
“Innovation is a long-term process,” said Yu Liang, vice president of Huawei Cloud Global Ecosystem. He reiterated Huawei’s commitment to promoting open collaboration that creates both social and commercial value. Yu also announced Huawei’s partnership with Station F to launch a sustainability-focused incubation program. This program will support ten start-ups in sectors such as retail, automotive and industrial manufacturing with the aim of achieving dynamic growth within a seven-month incubation period.
Driving digital transformation and shaping the future of Europe
At the “Driving Digital Transformation for Europe’s Emerging Innovators” forum, co-organized by Euronews and Huawei, participants highlighted the need for cross-sector collaboration and open ecosystems. Keynote speakers included Horst Heitz, Chair of the SME Connect Steering Committee, Ana Paula Nishio de Sousa, Director of Digital Transformation and AI at the UN Industrial Development Organization, Alexander Pisemskiy, CEO at Zenpulsar, and Gaurav Tripathi, CTO at Partex NV Speakers reiterated the need for open data sharing platforms and collaborative ecosystems to create a more inclusive and adaptive innovation environment.
“Huawei Cloud will continue to invest in Europe by providing stable and reliable cloud infrastructure, working with government agencies and universities to cultivate digital talent, and helping startups scale in other regions,” said Zhu Xiaoming, Vice President, Huawei Cloud Global Industry Development. He noted that digital transformation in Europe is lagging behind the goals of the “Europe Digital Decade 2030” plan, especially in areas such as data and artificial intelligence.
Promoting inclusion and innovators
Berta Herrero, Head of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion at Huawei Europe, moderated a panel discussion around promoting women as innovators. Panelists included Rebeca de Sancho Mayoral, senior advisor for EU innovation and access to finance at the European Commission, Egle Ciuoderiene, founder of Duevo, Iva Tasheva, co-founder and head of cybersecurity at CyEn, and Gaia Verzelli, Women Leadership graduate School of Huawei. They provided insights into the EU’s funding and policy initiatives to support women entrepreneurs and called for greater participation of women in the tech innovation ecosystem to promote an inclusive and diverse environment.
A call to action
At the end of the event, Tony Yong Jin, Director of Business Environment Affairs of the European Region at Huawei, urged us to be determined to advance digital innovation and build a more connected, inclusive and sustainable Europe: “Today I call on all of us to: “To embrace digital innovation – because of its enormous potential, but also because of its far-reaching impact on every individual, every family and every community.”
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