🤝Local Representatives Summit in Vienna - EIT Health Innovators Community

On 25 November was the EIT Health Innovators Community LR Summit in Vienna, following the EIT Health Career Path event: From Students to Innovators. 

After many online events, all representatives were happy to arrive at Albert Hall in Vienna to work toward creating value for all the EIT Health Innovators Community members and partners.

The day kicked off with Krishna Reddy (moderator) welcoming and thanking all the Local Representatives and Regional Coordinators from nearly every region across Europe. Followed up by an entertaining Power Ranger icebreaker to get everyone started, led by Clara Rionda and myself. 

It was followed by Robin Maxton (community manager) presenting an overview of our community, introducing the rebranding of the EIT Health Innovators Community and its main goals. He highlighted how much we have grown in the past year, with a community of over 3000+ members, more than 80 events created during the past year, and 90+ jobs posted on the board. Let’s not forget the impressive figure for our newsletter opening rate, showing how engaged and enthusiastic our community members are. 

Following a short intermission, the main session of the evening started with the question, ‘How do you see the community in 2025?’ This was an opportunity to ideate and start new conversations about the values we bring to members with different events and activities. During the co-creation sessions, we worked on plans addressing local and regional trending topics to create new opportunities for our members, representatives, and partners. Throughout the sessions, we discussed new ideas, challenges, and projects, with an excellent response from all the representatives. The session ended with an open round table discussion, opening a pandora’s box of interesting topics and answering the questions everyone had to make our most innovative ideas happen. To close the event, we made a small summary of our discussions, but let’s say Krishna had difficulties stopping our brainstorming as we were so enthusiastic about all the new projects we wanted to create. The task now is to start developing all the innovative ideas and projects for the following year.

Some of the highlights of this meeting were: 

- A quick recap of this year and future goals for the EIT Health Innovators Community.

- Several sessions of co-creation activities to brainstorm ideas, challenges, and opportunities for next year.

- Creating a roadmap and ideating plans for each region.  

- Worked on new ideas for future projects and events, giving greater focus on creating more value for members. 

After many remote events, this has been an incredible opportunity for exceptional professionals, innovators, entrepreneurs, and CEOs representing our community to meet and work toward a common goal answering some of the biggest health challenges and shaping healthcare innovation in Europe. 

“I was thrilled to participate in the EIT Health Innovators Community meet-up in Vienna on November 25, after three transformational years of online meetings. The reunion brought together many (excited!) familiar faces as well as newly engaged members of the Community. Furthermore, it paved the way for inspiring discussions and highly-motivating future plans. It has been an unparalleled experience where the development of the local communities, cross-KIC collaboration, diversity, inclusion, and a high interest in the EIT’s Deep Tech Talent initiative have been the core topics under the spotlight. As an EIT Health Alumna and leader of the EIT Alumni Board, I am very much looking forward to supporting the EIT Health Innovators Community ambitions in 2023 and fostering impactful cross-sectoral collaborations for its members within the EIT ecosystem and beyond.”
Anca del Rio, EIT Alumni President.

This event is a very small presentation of what our network has become. Our community now has members from all industry areas, from digital health, medical devices, and Medtech, to consultancy, venture capital, fintech, and artificial intelligence experts. Plus, it is present in almost all regions across Europe showing how eager and passionate we are about creating a better and bigger community. 

Thanks to Robin Maxton, Krishna Reddy, Clara Rionda Rodríguez, and Lisbet Casavilca for helping to organise the event and all the network members that participated. It was a magical evening in Vienna. 

Written by Maria Cristina Cadena

Maria Cristina is a healthcare professional and Registered Dietitian (RD). She holds a Master’s in Metabolism and Research (MSc), and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) and specialises in Digital Marketing and communication. She has experience in multiple industries, working in cross-functional teams and implementing strategies to develop new solutions with significant long-term impacts. She has been part of EIT Health since 2017, participating in several events, as a student, mentor and currently as an EIT Health Barcelona Local Representative.