The international hub of innovation and technological entrepreneurship of Castilla y León celebrates its first provincial event in León with two days aimed at young people, startups, innovative SMEs, freelancers, women entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and public administrations with the support of the City Council of León and the University of León.

The CYL-HUB project has been subsidised with 1,342,280 million euros by the Junta de Castilla y León and channelled through the European Union's Next Generation funds.

CYL-HUB is designed to stimulate and boost innovation and technological and social entrepreneurship, supporting freelancers, startups and innovative SMEs in Castilla y León, with the aim of promoting and giving visibility to the ecosystem of León at regional and national level, connecting it mainly with corporations, investors and the media. 

The León event will be held on 5th and 6th of May at the University of León and the Palacio de Exposiciones de León respectively in collaboration with the University of León and the City Council of León, as they are co-organisers of the meeting. In addition, the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León joins the event as a collaborating institution. 

The conference will be inaugurated by the Mayor of León City Council, José Antonio Diez, the Rector of the University of León, Juan Francisco García and the CEO of Startup Olé and Director of the CYL-HUB project, Emilio Corchado. 

The event will feature great speakers and experts from the entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem such as Rodrigo del Prado, Co-founder of BQ, Jesús González Nieto-Márquez, Managing Director of BME Growth, José Zudaire, General Director of ACRI, Mariano Andrés Martínez, Head of Strategic Watch at ADIF, Jesús Hernández, Director of Universal Accessibility and Innovation of the ONCE Foundation, Esteban Mayoral, Deputy Director of the Innovation Centre at Impulsa Visión of RTVE, Jesús Díez, Coordinator of the Circular Economy Strategy of Castilla y León, Lucio Fuertes Soto, Co-founder and CEO of LEASBA Consulting and President of Aletic, Laura Martín, Communication Director of Ayúdame3D, Maysoun Douas, Founder of Startup Commission, Ricardo González, Ente Regional de la Energía de Castilla y León, Carlos Capataz, National Director of technological services at Cruz Roja, Esther Molina, Co-founder of Wildcom, Álvaro Portellano, Head of Iberdrola Venture Builder, Raúl Santa Eufemia Rodríguez, First Officer at Iveco, Guillermo Ruiz, Director OCI Developer Evangelism at Oracle and Sergio García, Director of Business Creation at Enagás Emprende. 

The event on 5th of May will be packed with activities aimed at promoting talent and entrepreneurial culture, all of which will take place on the University of León's university campus. One of the main activities of the day will be an inspirational talk by Rodrigo del Prado, co-founder of the company BQ, who will be interviewed by the famous journalist and RTVE presenter, Juanma Romero. 

In addition, the event's agenda will include a wide range of activities such as a Hackathon organised by the company Roams, which aims to identify talent and generate employment. Another of the activities is a workshop for children by Genyus School, which will organise activities aimed at children, in order to promote entrepreneurship from the ground up and the development of social skills through games and dynamics.

In the event there will be round tables that will address different topics such as entrepreneurial culture, the role of young women entrepreneurs or employment and gender equality, all of them will be composed by great speakers such as Pedro Carrillo, CEO of Genyus School, Alberto Martín, Promoter of Ágora Digital Hub, Blanca García, president of AJE Salamanca, Tania F. Navarro, COO & Promoter of entrepreneurial mindset in Genyus School or David Abril, president of AJE León. 

On the other hand, Dani Pérez, Founder of TalentÁrea and Conexión Tierrina, will present the new project Conexión Tierrina, an initiative to promote the return of professionals to the province of León.  

Juanma Romero, RTVE presenter, will give a talk on "How to achieve greater visibility in the media at zero cost". During the event there will be different mentoring sessions, one on the first steps to entrepreneurship by Félix López, Director SEK Lab EdTech Accelerator, another one given by the ONCE Foundation and a third one by SECOT. 

The first day of the event will also feature two masterclasses, one on how to go from idea phase to startup by Prudencio Herrero, Managing Director of Foro de Consejeros and another on how to create a successful national startup from scratch, by Eduardo Delgado, CEO of Roams. 

The activities on 6th of May will take place at the Palacio de Exposiciones de León and will be aimed at professionals from the ecosystem, where there will be a startup fair, pitch competition, business rounds between startups and investors and round tables related to the five cross-cutting themes of the CYL-HUB project, such as job creation, ecological transition, social and territorial cohesion, digitalisation and gender equality.

In addition, one of the round tables will address the specialisation of the main sectors and technologies that define León's ecosystem and will be moderated by the Junta de Castilla y León.

On 6th of May there will be a very interesting round table on investment called "how to be a business angel and not die trying" which will be formed by José María Baños, CEO of Letslaw, Yolanda Díaz, Founding Partner of Idea Be Hubs, Jaime Biel, Managing Director at Faraday, Karel Escobar, CEO of Back Fund and as moderator the business angel, René de Jong. 

The second day of the event will feature a very special space "On the sofa with Juanma Romero", in which the journalist and presenter of RTVE, Juanma Romero, will advise entrepreneurs, completely free of charge, on communication issues.At the event on 6th of May, there will also be a "Fire Side Chat" by Jesús González Nieto-Márquez, Managing Director BME Growth.

The event in the province of León will end with a great networking cocktail, where all attendees will be able to connect and look for possible synergies and ways of collaboration. 

The CYL-HUB project provides all its participants with a digital networking tool that, once registered, allows all participants with common interests to connect. For example, connecting startups with investors or corporations with job offers and demands, as well as offering mentoring possibilities.