Penedès Summit 2026: AI, culture, and sustainability to rethink industrial competitiveness

This September 15 and 16, INDPULS held a new edition of the Penedès Summit, a gathering with INDPULS partners, individuals, and organizations linked to our ecosystem to share knowledge, contrast challenges, and spark new questions about the future of industry.

This edition was especially aligned with the three major challenges INDPULS is working on throughout 2026 alongside its 19 partners: driving artificial intelligence as a strategic lever, strengthening INDPULS’s culture as a way of working and progressing, and consolidating sustainability as a cross-cutting axis with real transformative capacity.

An agenda connecting technology, people, and business

Over two days, the Penedès Summit brought together voices from business, technology, industry, and management to address how to integrate AI with sound judgment, transform experimentation into real results, and strengthen organizational culture to move from reflection to action.

The first day opened with welcome remarks from Esteban Bretcha and Maria Font, president and vice president of INDPULS. Followed by the keynote address by Pep Martorell, partner at Invivo AI, on understanding the present to anticipate the future.

Throughout the day, participants explored topics such as circularity and competitiveness with Elisabet Alier; AI innovation with Laura Gil; AI implementation with Ezequiel Navarro; a practical AI application case study with Esteban Bretcha; organizational culture with Jon Angulo; and high-performance humanists with Carmina Sánchez and Roger Pallarols.

The second day began with welcome remarks from Mireia Mir, director of the association, and a masterclass by Xavier Ferràs, professor of Innovation at ESADE, presenting an expert view on AI. Key principles for moving toward an AI-First organization were shared with Albert Esplugas; a panel discussion examined sustainability as a driver of competitiveness; Carol Rius covered the new industrial sector of permanent CO₂ capture with BIOFIX; and Xavier Marcet closed the Summit with an inspiring address to all attendees.

Three challenges shaping the INDPULS agenda

Artificial intelligence served as one of the Summit’s main threads—not merely as a technology, but as a strategic capability compelling companies to rethink processes, data, governance, talent, and decision-making. For INDPULS, the core challenge is advancing genuine AI adoption aimed at generating shared value and tied directly to the concrete needs of industrial firms.

Culture also played a central role. At INDPULS, culture goes beyond internal dynamics; it reflects a working methodology: sharing challenges, engaging in open conversations, facilitating peer learning, and translating reflection into action. Innovation depends not just on spotting opportunities or adopting new tools, but on fostering trust, preparing teams, guiding leadership through change, and building organizations equipped to learn, decide, and act.

Sustainability completed this perspective as a cross-cutting foundation. Circularity, competitiveness, CO₂ capture, and novel industrial models represent connected facets of the same dialogue: uniting environmental impact, corporate strategy, and tangible transformative power.

A summit for inspiration

The Penedès Summit offered a space to step back from the daily corporate routine and gain broader perspective on key challenges—listening to diverse voices, exchanging experiences among partners, and starting conversations that bring fresh ideas back to each organization.

At INDPULS, we view this gathering as a tool to strengthen community, bridge knowledge, and build shared perspective around the industry’s major challenges.

AI, culture, and sustainability are not three separate discussions; they address a single question: how we build industrial companies that are better prepared, better equipped to collaborate, and more driven to generate real value.