Integrating Santa Catarina's innovation ecosystems with those abroad is the focus of the IXL Center's Boston Innovation Gateway program, which received a business mission from Colombia last week. In addition to the integration, the series of four-day visits resulted in the referral of business with some companies, such as RD Station, Exact Sales, and Pollux, informs the program manager for the IXL Center, Manuel Mendes.

In Florianópolis, the group of 10 Colombian businesspeople visited Santa Catarina Technology Association (Acate), Sapiens Parque, technology companies, and the Federation of Industries of Santa Catarina (FIESC).

The mission also included the Agora Tech Park, in Joinville and Balneário Camboriú.

According to Mendes, the objective is to integrate technology and innovation centers to increase the internationalization of the economy and attract investments. Who articulates the program in SC is the president of Sapiens Parque, Daniel Leipnitz, former president of Acate. At FIESC, the group was welcomed by the Director of Innovation and Competitiveness, José Eduardo Fiates, and the president of the Chamber of Foreign Trade, Maria Teresa Bustamante, who is Colombian.

 

- We are going to start doing this work of connecting ecosystems not only with Colombia but also with the United States, Italy, and other countries. In June, through FIESC, we are going to take a group of industries to Bologna, Italy – Mendes says.

 

According to him, this mission from Colombia was the pilot project of the program and exceeded expectations. There will be a next round in November, with thematic agendas for business. According to the IXL manager, among the differentials of Santa Catarina that surprised the Colombians are the state's natural beauties, the decentralization of technology centers in several cities in the State and the new Joinville model.

- There is a specificity in relation to the ecosystem of Santa Catarina, which is the following: Joinville, before it was a large industrial park in Perini, like all the others that exist in Brazil and the world. But from the moment they put Ágora inside and connected the university and innovation with industries – the real economy – that made the Joinville ecosystem unique – concludes Mendes.