SwitchMed Connect 2016

Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, Barcelona, 18-20 October 2016

The SwitchMed Connect 2016 will feature a unique blend of expert discussions, entrepreneurial stories, good cases and hands-on applications. The event will be held on the 18-20 October in Barcelona at Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

SwitchMed Connect: an annual gathering of Mediterranean stakeholders

Launched in October 2015, SwitchMed Connect is an annual gathering of Mediterranean stakeholders to build synergies, exchange knowledge, and scale up eco and social innovations. Annually, leading start-ups and entrepreneurs, industry agents, change agents, policy and financial institutions working on applications of productive, circular and sharing economies in the Mediterranean come together in Barcelona. It serves as a platform for sharing the stories, expertise and experience on eco and social innovations. It is also a valuable opportunity to exchange in interactive sessions and find synergies, as well as to get inspired on how to scale eco and social innovations, and create actions in the scaling up labs.

Last edition gathered more than 400 leading start-ups and entrepreneurs, industry agents, change agents, policy and financial institutions working on applications of productive, circular and sharing economies in the Mediterranean countries.

The tracks planned for this year’s event include Policies, Industries, Entrepreneurs, Civil Society, Business & Retailers and Financiers Track.

The main themes that will be addressed are: agro-food production and consumption, tourism, safe alternatives to toxic chemicals in products, smart buildings and housing, textiles (incl. leather, apparel), plastics and packaging waste, waste prevention and innovative sourcing of materials.

SwitchMed Initiative

SwitchMed is an initiative that supports and connects stakeholders to scale up eco and social innovations in the Mediterranean. It provides the Mediterranean stakeholders like you with tools and connections of supporting partners for the eco and social innovative solutions, to achieve productive, circular and sharing economies in the Mediterranean. This initiative provides green business entrepreneurs and start-ups with training programmes, empowers grassroot innovative solutions and builds capacity for sustainable industry service providers. Furthermore, it engages with policy institutions to establish a regulatory and policy framework to boost the market for sustainable products and services.

The SwitchMed Programme is funded by the EU and implemented by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP),Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC) and the UNEP’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (UNEP/DTIE). In addition, local partners in target countries, expert teams and strategic partners in and around the Mediterranean contribute in implementing the SwitchMed Initiative.

The European Union is funding this initiative which is run in close collaboration with the UfM-labelled project MED-RESCP Post Rio+20: Supporting the adoption of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and Resource Efficiency (RE) models in the Mediterranean Region.

Further information:

www.switchmedconnect.com
www.switchmed.eu
www.theswitchers.eu