The Talent Tour, the tour promoted by the Fundació Princesa de Girona (FPdGi) to encourage the exchange of ideas, initiatives and projects among young people, started yesterday in Lleida in the presence of Queen Letícia. The first stop, in which for a few days more than a thousand young people participate in colloquiums and talks, also served to meet the winner of the CreaEmpresa 2024 award, which went to the young Sevillian architect Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros.
The jury chose Espinosa de los Monteros’ project from among five finalists. The winner founded Auara, a company dedicated to the commercialization of mineral water whose profits are used to finance drinking water projects in areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The four finalists were Diana Ballart, founder of the startup The Smart Lollipop, which says it can do analytics with a kind of candy; Alberto Cabanes, creator of the Adopta un Abuelo application, with which he unites elderly people who live alone or in residences with volunteers to keep them company; Ana Ye, creator of Ostofix, a medical device that replaces ostomy bags, and Loreto Crespo, CEO of Genotipia, where she teaches clinical genetics courses.
The Queen began her visit with a tour of the Sorigué Foundation, and the president of the entity, Anna Vallés, who is also president of the Sorigué group of companies and, in turn, patron of the FPdGi, explained to the Queen funds projects relating to social inclusion. Together, they then toured the exhibition La vida en emergency by the artist Juan Zamora, who in 2017 received the Princess of Girona award for Arts and Letters.
While the Queen was learning about the projects of the Sorigué Foundation, on the other side of Lleida, next to the AVE station, about a thousand young people from Catalonia and Aragon, mainly, attended the Llotja theater in the first meeting Princesa de Girona CongresFest, in which there were talks, colloquiums and musical performances.
Among the speakers, Ousman Umar, who in 2022 received the Princess of Girona Social award for his work at the oenagé NascoFeeding Minds that develops educational projects in various rural areas of Africa. Umarva left Ghana at the age of 13 taking a route full of difficulties even reaching Spain. The Lleida businessman Jordi Giné, deputy councilor of ILERNA, which facilitates online professional training, and the singer Alfred García, OT contestant and who, along with Amaia Romero, participated in the festival also took part in the event. Eurovision 2018, in addition to explaining his experience, he was in charge of putting music to the meeting with his song Els teus ulls.
The aforementioned, in addition to Elisenda Bou, CreaEmpresa 2022 award, and Rafael Jordà, CreaEmpresa 2023 award, participated in the last part of the meeting attended by Queen Letícia, who exchanged greetings at the end of the event and shared selfies with the enthusiastic participants of CongresFest, whose activities will continue in Lleida until Friday.
The Queen was accompanied by the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, the mayor of Lleida, Félix Larrosa, the president of the FPdGi, Francesc Belil, and the delegate of the central government, Carles Prieto, among other authorities. No representative of the Generalitat attended the various events. The Tour del Talent 2024, which continues the tour in Salamanca, Cadiz, Santander and Madrid, will close in Girona in the summer with the award ceremony, which, in its various forms, will be made public in each Tour stop.
