An important agreement was signed with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV) on Wednesday, December 19, during the opening ceremony of Puerto Ventanas’ Third Meetup of Innovation. The goal is to create a program to strengthen the culture of innovation in the port, from delivering tools to the company’s workers, so they can develop all their creative potential.
The general manager of Puerto Ventanas, Jorge Oyarce, explains: “we want our workers to believe in innovation and open to the personal change that this provides, from their internal conviction to developing their work with passion, to look at innovation as an opportunity.”
He added that “in this challenge, we have generated spaces so that, from the standpoint of our workers’ experience and knowledge, they can give ideas and propose improvements that project us to be the port we dream of in the future.”
This program has been co-financed by Corfo and will allow, systematically and methodologically, to pay attention to the new challenges in terms of productivity, competitiveness, efficiency, and sustainability.
On the other hand, the director of economic affairs and legal representative of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Alex Paz, said that “Puerto Ventanas joins leading companies in the industry who have introduced innovation to their business strategy. As a university, we want to contribute to strengthening their capacities by giving tools to the workers to solve their problems and create their initiatives”.
In the same way, Javier Pérez, executive of Corfo’s regional management department, said: “I want to congratulate the workers and Puerto Ventanas for this initiative, as it involves their employees in their innovations. These are people who, with their experience, are capable of finding simple solutions to their problems.”
 

Third Innovation Summit at Port Ventanas
For the third consecutive year, Puerto Ventanas held a summit of innovation, to promote spaces to generate innovations within the companies through the initiatives and projects of its employees.
The event took place on December 19 and 20 and promotes the innovation within the company to solve the problems of the port, improving its processes with initiatives thought for by the workers themselves.
This way, the Regional Secretary for Labor and Social Welfare, Maria Violeta Silva, present during the opening ceremony of the meeting, said: “We are delighted because this is the way the work is done well. When companies are open to ideas from their workers, and they are willing to collaborate in continuous improvement, you get a great result. We have witnessed in this event innovators that have been recognized by the company today. There are important contributions to reduce production costs, improve the operations of the port and, best of all, move forward in best labor safety for all workers.”
During the innovation summit, eight projects of innovation were presented. These were carried out by the company’s employees who, in their different fields of work, developed initiatives to improve processes and provide practical solutions to specific problems.
The meeting also incorporated 5 exhibitions in the two days of the event: “Innovate or die” by Francisco Gazmuri, an experienced speaker on innovation issues; “Innovation in port logistics” by Lorena Bearzotti, academic of the School of Transportation Engineering of the PUCV; “How to generate innovation?” given by PUCV incubator; “Leadership for innovation” by Sylvio Campos, Civil Engineer from the University of Chile. Finally, the conference “Chile before climate change: what does the future hold?”, by Gianfranco Marcone, weather expert from MEGA television channel’s Mucho Gusto and Ahora Noticias.