Highlights from the 4th Spanish Innovation index 2026 Awards Conference
At the 4th ÍEI conference, we celebrated business innovation from the consumer perspective. We had a very enjoyable and enriching day.
The welcome panel was chaired by Teresa Riesgo, Carmen Paz-Aparicio, and José Luis Cortina, who spoke about the importance of continuing to invest in innovation and the usefulness of the Spanish Innovation Index as a valuable KPI for companies.
The ÍEI leaders, Lola C. Duque and Luis Santamaría Luis, presented the results from four years of developing the index and the lessons learned from it: the relevance of social and environmental innovation for consumers, the pathways to being perceived as innovative, and the opportunity that the 60+ age group represents for companies seeking to innovate.
Juan de Rus Gutiérrez spoke about the importance, for customer experience, of companies understanding the context in which consumers find themselves. To this end, he explained the relevance of using BECO libraries in AI training.
Kristina Heinonen, coordinator of the Innovation Index Coalition, compared innovation measured at the global level, based on spending as a share of GDP, with innovation measured from the consumer perspective. She shared insights from experience in this field in the Nordic countries, noting that collaboration between companies and regions is key to driving innovation.
We held a panel with representatives from companies highlighted in the ÍEI ranking, moderated by Emma Bernardo Sampedro and Lola Duque. The panelists were Ignacio Zunzunegui from Revolut, Alfonso Negrete Guerrero from Ikea, and Jose Miguel Grande Saiz from Amazon. The discussion was highly enriching, and attendees had the opportunity to ask several interesting questions.
And of course, the “Innovation Awards 2026” were also announced. These awards are given to the most innovative companies by index — commercial, social, and digital — both globally and in Spain, as well as to the winner in each sector according to the commercial index. Congratulations to all the award-winning companies.
Thank you to EVERYONE who contributed to making this event so special. We look forward to continuing to create these spaces for meeting, learning, and exchanging ideas.
Award-winning companies
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IKEA, Toyota Motor Corporation, Apple
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ZARA, Balay, idealista
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Meliá Hotels International, Wallapop
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Iberia, Toyota, Revolut, Estrella Galicia, Mutua Madrileña, Amazon, Bosch, Airbnb, Red Bull, Iberdrola, Apple, Spotify, McDonald’s, Zara, Sanitas, Glovo, Netflix, Lidl España, Movistar Empresas España, Ikea, Uber