The Palau Robert has temporarily become an extension of Mobile, the world's most important technology fair, which has been held in the city for 18 years. The Mobile World Capital Foundation (MWCapital) has moved the exhibitor that congress attendees saw at the end of February at the Fira Gran Via venue and has turned it into an exhibition, which can be visited until November 3 at this cultural facility located on Paseo de Gràcia with Diagonal.
The exhibition Remember the Future, organized by MWCapital together with the Generalitat, focuses on the past of Barcelona companies, as was done at the fair, to highlight how innovations that occurred long ago have ended up shaping the business present. Visitors can see originals of some of the inventions that have transformed the industry over the last century, with historical pieces manufactured in Catalonia such as the first integrated circuit boards, a motorized loom, an ammeter, or a radiator from a Hispano Suiza car. An experience on par with the more than 100,000 congress attendees who attended Mobile this year, but, here, with free admission.
With this purpose, an interactive tour begins at the Palau Robert, where one encounters Catalonia's textile past and the history of factories like Bonaplata, installed on Tallers street at the end of the 19th century. It was the first in Spain to use steam power to move textile machines made of cast iron. A weaving machine that serves to remind us that this sector not only boosted the economy but also served to develop others, such as the pharmaceutical sector, thanks to all the knowledge generated around dyes, and even computing. It was in Barcelona where the country's first computer emerged, at Telesincro on Diputació street, where the legacy of textile factories was palpable, for example, in memory cards, where weavers were in charge of wiring the boards, made up of an infinity of threads.
Not everything is past and it is also necessary to see how those first integrated circuit boards, precursors of microchips, have evolved, seeing how the first Telesincro device has transformed into a supercomputer capable of replicating the human heart from the pulsations of visitors. The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and the spin-off Elem Biotech are in charge of manufacturing digital humans with the aim of advancing towards personalized medicine to prevent diseases and cure them better. This means that they can test how certain medications work, based on the massive analysis of data thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), which allows accelerating the time needed to validate therapies by testing them on many virtual twins.
The present is also observed in the Palau Robert with brands like Desigual that propose designing clothes using AI or like Hispano Suiza that invite to pilot one of their fastest electric cars on the urban circuit of Montjuïc, with some quite complicated curves. If we talk about electric cars, the Catalan Wallbox could not be missing, with a model that shows the new charging options for the homes of the future.
All this while experiencing an immersive sensory journey, with virtual reality glasses included, to discover how the four industrial revolutions have developed in Catalonia. That is, from mechanics to the arrival of electricity, through the digital explosion, without forgetting the future shaped by AI and other emerging technologies.
For a more accessible Mobile
MWCapital was born to extend the impact of Mobile beyond the four days of the exhibition and to be able to prolong it throughout the year, with a focus on reaching citizens who do not attend the fair. "For us, it is essential that citizens experience and get closer to MWC firsthand. That is why this exhibition is born, where we bring closer those more disruptive activities that we at MWCapital have presented at the congress, and in a spectacular location like the one offered by Palau Robert," explains its CEO, Francesc Fajula. In addition, Fajula emphasizes that "the experiential is key in this proposal because we want it to be an interactive exhibition that encourages the participation of visitors, from the youngest to the oldest, and that technology be the excuse to talk about how it is changing our society and economy."