The Retina Reset event brings together experts and professionals to explore building a digital and sustainable future

In a bid to tackle the new challenges we face due to the coronavirus crisis, Retina Reset, organized by EL PAÍS, this year brought together leading figures – including Nadia Calviño, Michelle Bachelet, Michael Osterholm and Stefania Giannini – to debate innovation and digitization. This year’s event was held in a virtual format.

The current pandemic dominated discussion at this year’s Retina Reset and the focus was firmly on how we might avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and how to work on building a better world now that we are starting out almost from scratch as familiar models prove increasingly inefficient.

Under the title Retina Reset: building a digital and sustainable future, the event was spread out over two days, the first on Wednesday, November 18 and the second on Thursday, November 19.

On the first day, the Third Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, reviewed the systemic shortfalls that the pandemic has revealed, such as deficiencies in the education system and the acquisition of digital skills, and the digitization of SMEs. Calviño pointed out that if we are to take advantage of the full potential of this emerging landscape, there needs to be greater confidence in Europe and in Spain.

Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile, spoke of the coronavirus as "a great opportunity to transform current models”, but stressed that politics must listen more to citizens and change course accordingly.

Dr Micahel Osterholm, a US epidemiologist, set his sights on the future, warning about "pandemic fatigue" and the possibility of new pandemics. “We have to be prepared for the future," he said.

The second and final day opened with a talk by Marie-France Tschudin, president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, who explained that treatments and therapies for many diseases do not get to patients due to budgetary restrictions, treatment guidelines and access to drugs. The digital transformation in recent months has brought positive changes, she said, before concluding that the digitization of health will provide a better quality of life.

Meanwhile, philosopher and sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky said that the crisis of this new era will usher in transformations rather than revolutions. Lipovetsky said that while he did not foresee major changes, we would see an acceleration of existing trends.

This edition of Retina Reset brought together a wide variety of experts and professionals who sought to contribute to a better understanding of how the crisis we are experiencing is transforming corporate strategy and accelerating digitization, in turn affecting the economy, politics and society as a whole. The event, promoted by Santander and Telefónica, and sponsored by Accenture, Novartis, Philip Morris, Renfe, UNIR and Red Eléctrica de España, provided a space for reflection on the new context and the role that innovation and technology are set to play in recovery and in the new future in a post-pandemic world.