Lift Industry Newsletter
December 2024

Report On SILC 2024

(Santander International Lift City 2024)

The opening paper entitled “The impact of digitalisation on SME’s profitability” was presented by Juan De la Guardia from the Advantere School of Management and Former Managing Director of Thyyssenkrupp Elevator. His paper sparked great interest and emphasised the need to move with the modern world. In simple terms, digitise and connect or suffer the consequences.

The next paper was presented by Francisco Vallejo Torres, Head of Product & Enterprise solutions at Vodafone Spain. This was a super presentation explaining how the mobile networks work and associated connectivity. Fransisco was followed by Elena Mauro, Functional Safety Certification Expert from the LiftInstitute who took us through the integration of PESS (Programmable Electronic Safety Systems) in lift design. This gave us an insight into systems and I have an indelible memory of a slide showing a locked gate with no security features either side of it in my mind!

After lunch Ralf Arnold, Head of Product Management at Ziehll Abegg Drives took us through an insightful paper on the interaction between components and digitalisation. 

This was followed by my paper, where I presented an argument that digitalisation and connectivity isn’t the whole story and, as humans, we need to maintain client contact and conversation.

The last session of the day was a panel of experts where Juan de la Guardia, Alfredo Gómez, Francisco Vallejo, Dave Cooper as well as the R&D Director of IMEM, Vicente Pacheco, discussed and debated the digital transformation and connectivity and how getting the right approach is crucial. The panel took questions from the floor and panel members gave their different perspectives on getting it right.

In 2022  at the inaugural SILC the UK was represented by our dear friend, Dr Gina Barney, who sadly passed away in 2023. A super tribute to Gina and her achievements as very well received by the audience.

Having completed the first day of presentations the evening concluded with a dinner at the Real Sociedad de Tenis de La Magdelana in Santander where the conviviality continued and great discussion was had.

Day 2, moved us away from Santander to the village of Comillas which is the home of the Pontificial University. There is no other way to describe this venue other than stunningly beautiful and the photographs that go with this report will fully justify my position on this.

The day was opened by Maria Jose Saenz de Buruaga, the President of Cantabria, who was due to close the event but had been called to Madrid in her ministerial position but still wanted to be involved with the event. She thanked the audience for coming to Cantabria and also IMEM for their great involvement in organising the event.

The first technical paper of the day was by Inigo de la Serna, Vice President of TYPSA and Former Minister for Public Works and Transport as well as President of Smart Cities Federation in Spain, who presented on smart cities, current status and new trends. Post coffee he was followed by Alfredo Gomez, Responsible of Technological Innovation at ITAINNOVA, who presented on digital tools and advanced technologies in lift design. The penultimate technical paper was presented by Miguel Tablado and Javier Menendez Pallo, PhD in AI and Microsoft AI Most Valuable Professional, both from Kyndryl, who spoke about artificial intelligence and rising towards a 360 degree model. 

The final speaker was a motivational speaker: David Meca who is a 28 times world champion in the world of swimming. He spoke about many of his exploits in overcoming adversity after receiving an unfair and incorrect ban in Brazil as well as some amazing achievements including swimming across the Strait of Gibraltar.

The event was brought to a close by Antonio Pérez who emphasized that SILC is a forum where, as a main goal, the best experts of the lift industry across the world are sought. They and the rest of delegates are given extraordinary locations for their dissertations.

From this approach, and applying the excellence to all details surrounding the symposium, the state of the art in the Lift Industry is tackled.

This speech was followed by the firing of a cannon into the bay and further conversation over a wonderful lunch. I am very much looking forward to the next event in 2026.


Dave Cooper, our roving reporter attended the second Santander International Lift City event in September 2024

SILC is a forum to meet, promote and improve the lift sector through knowledge developing talent, and connecting companies and professionals from around the world

Day one was held in Centro Botin in Santander. The venue is a purpose built museum and arts centre which boasts a superb conference centre with outstanding views across the bay.