La Nit de les Telecos (The Telecommunications Night) was held in Barcelona recognizing companies specializing in technology. What do these companies do to publicize their achievements? Which innovative communication efforts should be made to be promoted? Is simply being innovative enough to capture the interest of the media? The article below analyzes the situation of the winners of the most recent Telecommunications Night and how successful companies communicate in the ICT sector.
The 21st edition of the event, organized by the Catalan Association d’Enginyers of Telecomunicació and the Col·legi Oficial d’Enginyeria Informàtica de Catalunya, recognized the most outstanding professionals in categories such as personality of the sector, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the year, the young entrepreneur and social commitment.
During this event, I witnessed the communicative effectiveness of the personalities who received an award, which made me wonder: how are these projects communicated? What channels do they use? How do you create a communication strategy worthy of winning recognition? Does marketing success play a role? At AMC, we believe that communication is part of success.
Salvà i Campillo Prize
“In the future it will be possible to communicate with thought,” Núria Oliver, Salvà i Campillo Award winner for Most Outstanding Personality and Scientific Director of Telefónica, said in an interview. Núria Oliver is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she earned her Ph.D. Oliver, an expert in mobile communication, also says it is no coincidence that our message reaches further because the smartphone is undoubtedly one of the most revolutionary pieces of technology of the decade.
Núria’s task of promoting her field has been a long journey. The amount of social media activity at Telefónica I+D is impressive, and the corporate giant is directly involved in promoting knowledge toward IT, IoT, Big Data, among other related topics. Their participation in the Mobile World Congress included full hours of creating content with the tag #MWC16 and issuing all proposals for customer service. Its website is certainly suggestive: a short scroll, with a few wispy, very visual slides, inviting people to learn about the projects and gain first-hand information on the latest developments in IoT.

Manel Sanromà, former CIO at City of Barcelona. Source: http://goo.gl/NFpQX4
CIO of the Year
Manel Sanromà Alan Turing received the CIO of the year award. His passage by the City of Barcelona as Manager of the Municipal Institute of Informatics left a mark, and he continues his work today in the Consortium of Open Administration of Catalunya, an administrative scanning service offering tools for online management of public services and government transparency. Still, his presence in the media or networks is negligible. With a quasi-public agency, communication passes through bureaucratic channels and does not address the public directly. This is shown by a website with a fairly simple format. The prize, in this regard, further recognizes the efforts of Manel Sanromà to boost digital data management in management and professional support with events like MWC, which is so important for Barcelona.

Paulo Rodrigues, CEO at Mint Labs. Source: http://goo.gl/WiFD0e
Young Entrepreneur Award
Something very strange happened with the next winner. The first thing to know about Mint Labs is this attractive message: “Google Maps for the brain.” Suggestive, is it not? This application for neurosurgeons and neuroimaging professionals was awarded recognition in the Young Entrepreneur category. After constituting as a startup for the e-health sector with validated technology and health potential, Mint Labs’ current mission is to finance its growth. In turn, communicating its project in key portals between the investment community, such as AngelList, CrunchBase or Kiteinvest, is extremely important. It is also important to create noise in networks with mentions from large companies and by utilizing the emergence of digital health or the Big Data sector. Mint Labs’ implementation in the Wayra accelerator has allowed it to enhance its product as high-interest investment capital, such as activities for startups 4YFN integrated in the MWC. Mint Labs’ communicative culture is also well represented ultimately by its website, where you can quickly access its services and become well informed about its partners and customers, as well as its numerous media appearances.
tech4Freedom was awarded as well. Its application of spatial recognition and audio description for the blind has generated much excitement, and the award it won for social commitment was well deserved. “The project has attracted interest from associations of blind people in 14 countries,” according to Viaempresa.cat. The prototype testing process created an echo in the media outlets, which led to Jaume Concill, CEO of tech4Freedom, to contact different groups in Europe including the crowdfunding campaign platform Indiegogo. The aTICser consulting business, tech4Freedom’s parent company, handles their communications actions.