It is well known and generally accepted that the 22@ district is one of Barcelona's great urban, economic, and above all strategic successes in the last 30 years, perhaps the greatest. Barcelona and its rulers had the vision to anticipate that the future of the city, like that of the world, would pivot on innovation, technology, and sustainability as transversal vectors present in one way or another in all economic sectors, cultural trends, and social movements.
During these almost three decades, the district has consolidated itself as the urban hub of reference for innovation, at a city and international level, as exemplified each year by the long list of delegations from all continents that visit the district in search of inspiring models, throughout the year but particularly during the Smart City Expo World Congress (which is already in its fifteenth edition in Barcelona and whose success is not unrelated to the existence of 22@), when groups of congress attendees wander through the neighborhood.
Like many other companies in the city, attracted by the power of 22@ and its leadership as a pole of innovative and leading future, in 2016 Cuatrecasas moved its headquarters to the heart of the new district. It was a great decision. Although legal advice is not spontaneously identified as a New Economy sector, for Cuatrecasas it was a "transformational" decision: coexistence and interaction with the deeply disruptive ecosystem of 22@ accelerated our digital transformation processes, with the creation of Cuatrecasas Innova (the centralizing hub for all the firm's open innovation initiatives), the Celia Program (Cuatrecasas Legal Expert in Artificial Intelligence) and other technological initiatives that over time have become worthy of numerous international awards and recognitions. Along with this, innovation has also translated into a determined attitude of relaxing presenteeism, despite its importance in the value-added legal services sector, placing efficiency and availability at the center of the equation.
Despite the resounding and undeniable success of the 22@ model, we cannot fall into complacency. Competition is global and, more or less, all relevant cities and territories have in recent years placed innovation and technology at the heart of their growth strategies or urban renewal. Looking ahead, some major challenges remain for which we must continue to bet, in a scheme of close and effective collaboration between administrations, associations and the private sector.
The need to increase the commercial and services fabric in general stands out (the lack of references in the restaurant sector compared to other neighborhoods in the city is notorious), the convenience of reforming the housing stock ---often aged and in poor condition--- and increasing density, the progressive replacement of old factories, premises and workshops to generate space for the knowledge economy, the attraction ---ideally--- of headquarters of some large companies in the country, which can act as flagships and, very importantly, the increase of horizontal collaboration between companies and institutions already present in the district. Regarding this last aspect, it is necessary to highlight the enormous task carried out by the association 22@ Network Barcelona as a unifying core of much of this collaboration and interlocutor with the administrations.
In short, it is necessary to persist in the elements that explain the bursting success of 22@ ---vision, determined attitude, effective collaboration between ecosystem actors--- and reinforce those others ---urban fabric, housing, renewal of the business park, attraction of headquarters--- where there are pending tasks. And always and in any case avoid being tempted by complacency.