The Gran Canaria Blue Economy Forum returns to the Infecar fairgrounds on 7 October with presentations, talks, round tables and a Shaping and Glassing workshop. The wave and surf industry will be the central theme of this edition, which will begin at 9:00 am with the inauguration by the president of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales.

After the inauguration, at 9:30 a.m., Pedro Quevedo, Councillor for Tourism, Employment and Local Development and Equality, Diversity and Solidarity of the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, will be the first to take the stage in the Sala Canarias to talk about ‘The strategy for blue growth in beach activities’.

Then it will be the turn of Euken Sese, advisor and former director of the Sociedad de Fomento de San Sebastián, who will unveil the strategy that has been developed in the Basque Country to turn surfing into a lever for the economic development of San Sebastián.

Guillermo Santana, a technician from the Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria, will speak about the development opportunities in Gran Canaria for companies linked to the Blue Economy at 10:00 am.

He will be followed at 10:25 by José Manuel Odriozola, CEO of Wavegarden, with a talk on ‘Engineering at the service of the waves’. Wavegarden is a world leader in wave generation systems and will present the possibilities of developing a project of this kind anywhere in the world.

After a coffee break, the colloquiums will begin, the first of which will focus on new employment opportunities in the surfing sector. Sergio San Román, manager of the Association of Surf Schools in Gran Canaria, Adur Latamendía, from Pukas, and Sergio Galanó, from Flamasurf, will be responsible for explaining the job opportunities, professional profiles, qualifications and training for the new employment opportunities.

Next, the surfer Óscar Pérez and the Territorial President of the Canary Islands ONCE, Miguel Ángel Déniz, will speak about diversity and inclusion in surfing, as well as the conditions of Gran Canaria to become a benchmark as a destination for adapted surfing.

At 12:30 pm, the colloquium ‘The sporting event’ will begin. Event organisers Máximo Tavío, from El Frontón King, José Fernández, from Las Américas Pro, and Björn Dunkerbeck, from Pozo Izquierdo, will address the importance of holding world competitions that promote the internationalisation of the sport and the territory that hosts it.

The last colloquium of the day will take place at 13:15 and will deal with ‘The future of surfing. Canarian talent’. Surfer Lucía Machado and Kalani Da Silva, from Kalani Surf Academy, will reveal how Canarian surfing talent is becoming the best allies to promote sporting, professional and business development opportunities in the archipelago.

The event will have a break from 14:00 to 16:00 so that surfing and blue sector enthusiasts and professionals can meet and exchange ideas in the catering area that will be set up in Infecar.

The round table discussions will begin at 16:30 with ‘From the protection to the rehabilitation of waves: interventions in natural sports facilities’, with the participation of Carlos Acosta, CEO of WET Ingeniería Hidráulica y Marítima and editor of the Canary Islands wave catalogues promoted by the Canary Islands Government; Ángel Lobo, president of the Canary Islands Surfing Federation and specialist in maritime and coastal spatial planning; and Ignacio García, geographer and specialist in beach planning.

Afterwards, the experts in communication, dissemination and media, Miguel Ángel Goma, from Radical Surf Mag, and José Moreno, from Surf Movie Night Canarias, will discuss the opportunities that are opening up in these sectors in ‘Waves, magazines, videos and cinema’.

The last panel discussion will feature Elena Allo, from Quiksilver, and Elena Morales, designer and founder of Elena Morales, with a discussion dedicated to ‘Made in the Canary Islands: Surf fashion, trends and sustainability’ at 18:15.

In addition, the Roque Nublo Hall will host a Shaping and Glassing workshop given by shapers who will bring boards to show, with real examples, the different manufacturing and repair procedures. The workshop will be divided into two groups, one at 16:00 and the other at 17:30.

All presentations, discussions and dialogues will be moderated by Alicia Gómez, expert in Vocational Training in the field of the Blue Economy.

The Gran Canaria Blue Economy Forum is promoted and financed by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, with the organisation of Infecar, and has the collaboration of the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spegc, Best in Gran Canaria, the Maritime Cluster of the Canary Islands, the Association of Surf Schools of Gran Canaria, the Canarian Surfing Federation and Cajasite, as official collaborator.

Find out all the details of the programme for this edition of the Blue Economy Forum Gran Canaria at this link and buy your free ticket here. We are waiting for you!