The transformation of the social care and long-term care sector continues to accelerate. This week, the Connect Group team participated in two of the most relevant events held in Spain around social services, care innovation, and community-based support: the 1st Multi-Site Congress on Social Services, Care and Community “The Care We Want”, held in Valencia, and SocioCARE, the 1st European Care Expo Congress, held in Madrid.
Although different in format and scope, both events shared a common objective: exploring how to build more sustainable, more human-centered, and more effective care systems.
Valencia: Reflecting on the Future of Care
On June 9th, Connect Group attended the Valencia edition of the 1st Multi-Site Congress on Social Services, Care and Community “The Care We Want”, an initiative promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, and funded through the European Union’s NextGenerationEU programme.
The congress was conceived as a platform for dialogue and reflection for professionals, public administrations, social organizations, and stakeholders involved in social services and long-term care. Its aim is to highlight recent progress across the sector while encouraging debate on the next steps required to modernize care systems and consolidate person-centred, community-based models of support.
Throughout the event, discussions focused on some of the key challenges facing the sector today: population ageing, social isolation, sustainability of care systems, digital transformation, climate challenges, and workforce attraction and retention.
Above all, the congress reinforced a vision that strongly resonates with Connect Group: advancing towards care models that prioritize individual autonomy, community inclusion, and support delivered as close as possible to people’s everyday environments.
For Connect Group, participating in these conversations provides an opportunity to align our work with the trends shaping the future of care. Many of the topics addressed throughout the congress — person-centred care, integrated services, innovation, digital transformation, and workforce development — are closely connected to the projects we deliver alongside care organizations across Europe.
SocioCARE: A Comprehensive Vision of Care Transformation
Attending SocioCARE in Madrid enabled us to build on and further develop many of the conversations initiated in Valencia.
While the Multi-Site Congress focused on the vision and principles of future care systems, SocioCARE addressed the practical, organizational, and technological challenges that care providers are already facing today.
Over three days, the event brought together policymakers, care providers, technology companies, social organizations, and sector leaders to discuss topics including new residential care models, workforce development, rural care, integrated care systems, care humanization, long-term care policy, the role of the third sector, and emerging technologies in care delivery.
One message consistently emerged throughout the congress: transforming care requires simultaneous action across people, processes, organizations, and technology.
Among the many sessions offered, two roundtables were particularly relevant to our work.
The first, “Caring in Rural Spain: Roots and Care”, explored the challenges of delivering quality services in sparsely populated territories and highlighted the importance of community-based support and proximity care.
The second, “Technology Challenges in Care”, focused on one of the key enablers of sector transformation: digital innovation.
It was during this discussion that we found some of the reflections most closely aligned with Connect Group’s own vision.
Technology with Purpose
One of the strongest messages emerging from the roundtable was the need to rethink how organizations approach digital transformation.
Technology alone does not transform care.
Participants highlighted the risk of acquiring isolated solutions without a clear strategy, creating fragmented technology ecosystems that fail to deliver meaningful impact.
The discussion revolved around several key themes:
- Data orchestration and governance.
- System interoperability and integration.
- Cross-functional communication.
- Measuring outcomes and quality of care.
- Managing data diversity.
- Change management, training, and user adoption.
- The growing role of artificial intelligence in predictive and proactive care models.
- The importance of working with technology partners capable of supporting organizations throughout their transformation journey.
Ultimately, the challenge is not to have more technology, but to ensure technology contributes to better care.
Data as the Foundation of Transformation
Many of the ideas discussed during the session reflect a principle that lies at the core of Connect Group’s approach: digital transformation begins with data.
Organizations cannot effectively coordinate teams, generate meaningful insights, automate processes, or leverage artificial intelligence if information remains fragmented, duplicated, or disconnected.
This is why our approach always starts with building a solid foundation: integrating systems, connecting processes, and creating a single source of truth that enables organizations to make informed decisions and continuously improve care delivery.
Digital transformation is not primarily a technology project.
It is an organizational transformation project that requires technology, structured data, methodology, and expert guidance to generate real impact.
More Than Suppliers: Strategic Technology Partners
Another recurring theme throughout the discussion was the evolving role of technology providers.
Care organizations increasingly need partners rather than vendors.
Partners who understand operational realities.
Partners who facilitate communication across teams.
Partners who support implementation and change management.
Partners who contribute to the development of shared organizational models.
And partners who evolve alongside the organizations they support.
This philosophy is reflected in initiatives such as our Centro Estrella framework, where technology serves people and organizations by simplifying processes, improving coordination, and enabling more personalized, efficient, and person-centred care.
Our objective has never been simply to deploy technology.
Our objective is to help organizations become better prepared to face the challenges of care, both today and tomorrow.
Looking Ahead
If there is one lesson we take away from these two events, it is that the future of care will be increasingly person-centred, connected, evidence-based, and collaborative.
The good news is that many of the answers are already emerging: community engagement, innovation, workforce development, integrated systems, quality data, and technology with purpose.
The challenge now is turning these ideas into reality.
At Connect Group, we remain committed to supporting organizations on that journey, helping technology become a practical tool for delivering better care.