Regional authorities led the launch of the TRANSFORMA 2026 Summit in Puerto Varas, an event that has strong support from the public, private and academic worlds.

With a wide call for authorities, leaders of the innovation ecosystem and representatives from the public and private sectors, the official launch of TRANSFORMA 2026: Innovation & Technology Summit took place, an event that positions the Los Lagos Region as a key territory for the technological and sustainable development of the country.

The event was attended by the regional governor of Los Lagos, Alejandro Santana; the mayor of Puerto Varas, Tomás Gárate; the regional director of Corfo Los Lagos, Eduardo Arancibia; the regional deputy director of Corfo, David Espinoza; as well as representatives from companies, academia, entrepreneurs and media.

During the launch, the relevance of this summit as a concrete instance of coordination between strategic actors in regional development was highlighted, strengthening public-private collaboration and projecting southern Chile as an innovation hub with a purpose.

Under the slogan "Welcome to the future, welcome to the south that transforms", the event will take place on 16 and 17 April in Puerto Varas, simultaneously at the Bellavista and Wyndham Pettra hotels, bringing together more than 800 attendees and prominent national and international speakers.

The meeting will address six key areas: innovation, sustainability, technological trends, energy efficiency, biotechnology and people & culture, promoting a cross-cutting and multi-industry view of current challenges.

In addition to the talks, panels and keynotes, which will take place at the Wyndham Pettra hotel, the summit will also feature a technology and entrepreneurship fair, set up at the Bellavista hotel, creating concrete spaces to highlight solutions, generate alliances and connect the territory's capabilities.

From the organization it was emphasized that TRANSFORMA 2026 does not aim to be just an event, but a turning point to promote a culture of innovation with a purpose, where technology is at the service of people, sustainable development and the productive transformation of the country.

This project, supported by Corfo through the Viraliza program, has the backing of various public and private institutions, reflecting a shared vision: transformation is a collective task that requires the active participation of all ecosystem actors.

The call is clear: to be protagonists of change, strengthen collaboration and build from the south a more innovative, sustainable future connected with people.

Regional boost

The regional governor of Los Lagos, Alejandro Santana, highlighted the importance of this type of initiative, stating "this means opening the region to the world, especially because of the quality of the speakers who will be participating. We are convinced that the Los Lagos Region has all the capabilities and human resources to stand out globally as a region linked to innovation. In a highly competitive, innovation is the key to success, and we will continue to invest to strengthen this path.

As for the mayor of Puerto Varas, Tomás Gárate, he highlighted the territorial impact of the event, emphasizing that "it allows to consolidate a vision that is already becoming a reality: that Puerto Varas, the Llanquihue lake basin and its connection with Puerto Montt are consolidated as one of the main hubs of the Southern Hemisphere. This is reflected in concrete projects such as the circular economy centre and the first startup lab of biotechnology of the country, which projects services on a global level.

From Corfo, the regional deputy director, David Espinoza, explained the institutional support for the event: "Corfo funds this event through the Viraliza instrument, which has high appeal. We hope to have national and international speakers, and to call on the regional entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem to participate actively, taking advantage of the business networks that will be generated. We also invite the media to be part of this great event on 16 and 17 April in Puerto Varas”.

Meanwhile, Rodrigo Rodríguez, director of the TRANSFORMA 2026 project, highlighted the collaborative origin of the summit: "This event was born from a very clear conviction: innovation and technology only make sense when they improve people's lives. And with a long-term vision, linked to the decentralization of spaces for strategic reflection on innovation and technology. It arises from the joint work with the public world, especially with Corfo, and then the Regional Government and municipalities join in. We hope to bring together and integrate all the actors in the ecosystem and to project this meeting at a national level.

Also, he added that "for entrepreneurs the event is free and the information to register is available on the summit's website and social networks."

Recognized speakers, big topics

Among the exhibitors are:

  • Orlando Riquelme, CEO of HPE, will talk about how artificial intelligence stopped being an experiment and became a strategic tool.
  • Facundo Jamardo, regional leader of Cybersecurity at EY, will speak about the end of optional cybersecurity and strategies to comply with the framework law.
  • Adolfo Alvial, executive director of the Chilean Aquaculture Innovation Club, will speak about the route of innovation in aquaculture in Chile.
  • Ginés Guerrero, director of the National High Performance Computing Laboratory, will speak about the present and future of HPC in Chile, supercomputing and artificial intelligence.
  • Andrés Klein, director of Science and Innovation at UDD Medicine, will take a look at the " (r)evolution" of medicine.
  • Francisco Valenzuela, executive director of CETIUC, will present the trends in Chile regarding modernization and innovation in a safe environment.
  • Julio Brintrup, executive director of the Regional Innovation Center Los Lagos, will speak about decentralized innovation systems, specifically about scalability models from the Los Lagos Region.
  • Gonzalo Oyanedel, head of Artificial Intelligence at Walmart Chile, will share experiences on retail in the era of AI, "a world without search bars".
  • John Atkinson, doctor in Artificial Intelligence with more than 28 years of experience in research, teaching and consultancy, will share with those present an analysis on the good and bad practices in the corporate adoption of artificial intelligence.
  • Walter Montenegro, regional manager of Cybersecurity at Cisco, will present the talk "Security: the basis of the AI era. Going back to the basics in the era of misinformation."

They will also be present Fernando Sánchez, CEO of País Digital; Luis Tobar, VP Digital & Tech of SQM; Rocío Ortiz, subdirector of Future Industries of the UC Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center; Pía Salas, CEO of Fortinet; Mariana Thielemann, venture manager of SOFOFA Hub; Patricia Barrientos, director and founder of Red Mad; Eduardo Wallach, CEO of Kura Biotech; Carlos Aubert, director of Duoc UC; Humberto Salinas, founder and president of the Circular Challenge Foundation and academic from the Circular Economy and Sustainable Business areas of UVM; Ángel Izurieta, VP Huawei Latam; Marcel Villegas, partner and leader of Consulting at EY Chile; Julio Pertuzé, academic from the Engineering School of PUC and co-founder of the consultancy Foresight; among others.