Great success of the ninth edition of the Be Basque Talent Conference held in Hamburg

The ninth edition of the Be Basque Talent Conference organized by the Association to Attract, Retain and Link Talent to Bizkaia-Basque Country, promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, took place at the weekend of 11 June.

Bizkaia talent held a new edition in the German city of Hamburg and on this occasion it mainly focused on the energy and aerospace sectors, since this city houses the headquarters of the European Consortium Airbus. This international event was attended by 45 highly-qualified professionals as well as Basque development agencies, clusters and companies.

“This year, at the ninth edition, we had the opportunity to have organizations which are a point of reference in their field at the level of the Basque Country and in some cases at the international level, such as BEAZ, SPRI, the aerospace cluster HEGAN, the research centre LEARTIKER and the companies SENER, GRUPO VELATIA, LAULAGUN and IETEAM” the managing director of bizkaia talent, Ivan Jimenez, explained.

The aim of these events is to know first-hand the present and future situation of strategic sectors, as well as career development possibilities in the case of those professionals who left the Basque Country and decide to return and/or engage in projects developed in our country.

Jimenez said that the Be Basque Talent Conferences offer the participating professionals the opportunity to get to know the current and the future socio-economic and scientific-technological situation of the territory, discuss issues related to talent mobility, participate in theme workshops and chat with representatives from the 8 organizations and companies which travelled to Germany. He also thanked them for the effort they made during the marathon session to try and connect Basque professionals with the organizations which can make their return possible.

Likewise, Basque organizations have a unique opportunity to meet people with top-level technical skills and abilities and extensive international experience, while at the same time provide first-hand information about the present and future situation of their business as well as the career development possibilities they offer.

“This way, the meeting provides the opportunity to promote professional links with high added value professionals in a relaxed atmosphere and get to know the concerns and the worries of these professionals” the managing director said.

The event

The Be Basque Talent Conference was divided in several parts for the attendees to obtain as much information as possible from all the attending organizations and their representatives.

This way, the event started with the presentation of bizkaia talent by its managing director, Ivan Jimenez, and continued with the presentations by the director of the aerospace cluster Hegan, Jose Juez; the mechanical engineer, Oscar Barbero, and the financial manager, Javier Lizarraga of Laulagun; the director of Leartiker, Rikardo Hernandez; the Internal Communication and People Development manager of Velatia, Ainhoa Ros; the CEO of Ieteam, Iñigo Ugarte  and the Chief Engineer of Sener, Gabriel Ybarra.

They talked about the current situation of the sectors they come from and the expectations for the future. They also talked about hiring needs and the professional profiles which are most in demand.

After their presentations, the Director of the Basque Economic Development Agency SPRI in Germany, Maria Sarrikolea, presented the services that this organization under the Basque Government offers in Germany (second Basque destination for exports outside the State and first for imports) to professionals and companies.

Then, there was a debate under the slogan “Professional Development: Innovation and Talent with a view to Horizon 2020”.

After that, all the professionals had the opportunity to exchange opinions and carry out networking before going on to the individual professional interviews of the attendees and the collaborating organizations so as to discuss work collaboration opportunities.

At the same time, there were two workshops: in the first one, the person in charge of the Relocation Service of bizkaia talent, Carmen Mendez, explained the operation of the initiative which receives highly-qualified professionals and their families from other countries when they decide to come to work to the Basque Country. She also informed about the possibilities offered to the people who decide to return to our country.

On the other hand, the innovation director of BEAZ, Javier García, talked about the entrepreneurial spirit in Bizkaia and about the opportunities offered by the territory to this end, as well as the programmes and projects which are being carried out in this regard from the provincial organization.

Previous experiences

So far, around 400 professionals and more than 40 companies have participated in the international Be Basque Talent Conferences organized by bizkaia talent in cities such as Munich, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Hannover, Toulouse, Amsterdam, Dublin or London.

This way, the work and business collaborations which have been established at these events as well as the high value of the CONTACT NETWORK which has been created have contributed to the high level of satisfaction that all the participants have shown with regard to the meetings.

Be basque Talent Network.

With this type of meetings, the aim is to promote the connectivity of Talent with the Basque Country and strengthen the Be Basque Talent Network, the largest network of professionals who want to have a link with the Basque Country, which is currently made up of more than 7,500 professionals in more than 80 countries and about 200 Basque companies.