INNDAY 2026: the power of innovating from different perspectives
On October 29, university students, intrapreneurs, and startups will come together once again at INNDAY 2026, one of the flagship events from Santalucía Impulsa. After months of hard work, learning, and developing new ideas, various approaches to innovation will share the stage at an event that this year focuses on creative tension: the value that emerges when different perspectives meet, challenge one another, and help ideas evolve.
Innovation rarely involves following a single path. An idea can come from someone still in university, from someone who knows an organization from the inside, or from a startup that has been working on a specific problem for some time. The starting points are different, as are the ways of developing, testing, and turning those ideas into solutions.
This diversity will be a key theme of INNDAY 2026, taking place on October 29. The event will once again bring together university students, intrapreneurs, and startups following months of work within the various Santalucía Impulsa programs.
Under the theme "Creative Tension: The Power of Innovation," this edition will focus on what happens when different perspectives collide. Because challenging an idea, questioning it, or looking at it from a new angle can also be a way to move it forward.
INNDAY, the meeting point for innovation at Santalucía Impulsa
INNDAY is much more than just a moment to present projects. For Santalucía Impulsa, it serves as a meeting point for initiatives that have been developed over months and represent different ways of driving innovation.
University students, employees, and startups arrive at the event from different backgrounds, but they share a process of learning, experimentation, and evolution of their proposals. INNDAY brings these journeys together, creating a space where ideas can be shared, tested, and enriched by other perspectives.
It also represents the connection between internal and external innovation that is central to the Santalucía Impulsa model. The knowledge that exists within an organization meets new generations of talent and entrepreneurial projects capable of contributing technologies, capabilities, and different ways of tackling the same challenge.
The 2025 edition of INNDAY already brought these three perspectives together, turning the event into a space for presenting projects, sparking conversations, and recognizing the proposals developed throughout the year. In 2026, INNDAY will once again bring these journeys together, this time under a concept closely linked to that diversity: creative tension.
University students: learning to innovate by doing
One of these perspectives comes from the university. Bringing students closer to innovation allows them to complement their academic learning with the opportunity to face challenges, develop ideas, and put them to the test.
Through Santalucía Impulsa Universidades, participants are introduced to the methodologies and dynamics of entrepreneurship and innovation, working on problems that allow them to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. It is also an opportunity to start developing skills they will need when they enter the professional world, such as teamwork, defending an idea, adapting it after receiving feedback, and finding solutions to problems that do not have a single answer.
After all, the talent being trained in universities today will be the talent joining companies and organizations tomorrow. Facilitating these types of experiences helps prepare professionals with a greater ability to navigate changing environments, ask new questions, and transform their knowledge into concrete proposals.
And this relationship works in both directions. Incorporating the perspective of young talent brings new ways of observing problems, questioning certain ideas, and approaching challenges that other profiles might interpret differently. For Santalucía Impulsa, listening to these viewpoints is also part of the program's value.
Intrapreneurs: innovating from within
Intrapreneurs start from a very different place. They are professionals who already work within the organization and know its processes, needs, and opportunities for improvement firsthand. During the program, in addition to their regular duties, they take on the challenge of thinking and working like entrepreneurs to develop an idea from the inside.
For this to be possible, the organization must also create the necessary conditions. Fostering intrapreneurship means giving employees space to develop their ideas, providing them with training and tools that may not be part of their daily routine, and supporting them as they learn to validate a proposal, test it, and work on its viability.
That is why an intrapreneurship program is also a way to invest in the development of internal talent. Participants acquire knowledge and skills related to innovation and entrepreneurship that they can then apply to their own work, while the company leverages the expertise of those who know its operations best to identify new opportunities.
Innovation thus extends beyond the teams specifically dedicated to it. At Santalucía Impulsa, this learning is built through guidance and the exchange of experiences—a philosophy we have already explored with those who have moved from developing their own proposals to helping other intrapreneurs advance theirs.
Startups: new perspectives for real challenges
The third perspective comes from outside the organization. Startups provide specialization, agility, and solutions that can offer new answers to existing needs or anticipate others that are beginning to emerge.
Collaborating with them allows for the incorporation of different knowledge and capabilities and the exploration of solutions without the entire innovation process having to take place within a single company. It is one of the foundations of open innovation, a model in which companies, startups, universities, and other ecosystem agents combine capabilities to advance on common challenges.
At Santalucía Impulsa, we have analyzed precisely why companies no longer innovate alone and how collaboration with external agents can expand the possibilities for finding and developing new solutions.
INNDAY allows that external perspective to coexist in the same space with the internal knowledge of intrapreneurs and the perspective of university students.
When ideas meet, they also evolve
University students, intrapreneurs, and startups arrive at INNDAY from different backgrounds and with different ways of approaching a challenge. It is precisely that diversity that gives meaning to the concept of this edition.
An unexpected question, a different perspective, or a new way of interpreting a problem can force us to revise a proposal and open up possibilities we hadn't previously considered. That is creative tension: the value that can emerge when different ways of thinking meet and make an idea evolve.
Under the concept "Creative tension. The power of innovation," INNDAY 2026 will highlight these encounters and the ability to turn the contrast between perspectives into an opportunity to find new solutions.
When ideas meet, they also evolve
On October 29, all those paths will converge at INNDAY 2026. It will be the time to share months of work, learning, and idea development, and to pool different ways of understanding and practicing innovation.
For Santalucía Impulsa, the event makes visible something that happens all year round: connecting people, knowledge, and different ecosystems to help ideas evolve and become solutions capable of responding to real problems.
University students, intrapreneurs, and startups will arrive at INNDAY from different starting points. And it will be precisely that encounter that allows us to see how far ideas can go when they are shared, questioned, and continue to advance.
On October 29, we will meet again to celebrate the power of innovation.
Frequently asked questions about INNDAY 2026
What is INNDAY?
INNDAY is the annual Santalucía Impulsa event where university students, intrapreneurs, and startups present the projects they have developed over months in their respective programs. It is the meeting point between internal and external innovation that is part of the Santalucía Impulsa model.
When is INNDAY 2026 held?
INNDAY 2026 will be held on October 29, 2026, under the theme "Creative Tension: The Power of Innovation."
What does creative tension mean?
It is the value that emerges when different perspectives meet, challenge each other, and evolve an idea. An unexpected question or a new way of interpreting a problem can force a proposal to be re-examined, opening up possibilities that had not been considered before.
Who participates in INNDAY?
Three profiles: university students from Santalucía Impulsa Universidades, who learn to innovate by working on real challenges; intrapreneurs, employees who develop ideas from within the organization; and startups, which provide specialization, agility, and external solutions within the framework of open innovation.
What is intrapreneurship?
It is the practice where professionals within an organization take on the challenge of thinking and working like entrepreneurs for a period of time to develop an idea from the inside. It requires the company to provide space, training, and support, and represents an investment in developing internal talent.
