The Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW) once again brings together companies and initiatives from the new economy, consolidated as a benchmark event in this field. With the forecast of exceeding 12,000 attendees from more than a hundred countries, BNEW will be held from October 7 to 10 in the unique building of DFactory Barcelona, where it will showcase the evolution of new economies over the last five years.
Organized by the Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), BNEW will bring together nearly 350 speakers, who will participate in 100 sessions, panels, and debates generating 140 hours of content, which can be followed both in person and online from anywhere in the world through a platform that encourages networking.
The event will revolve around seven key verticals: digital industry, sustainability, talent, mobility, health, and aviation, which is incorporated in this edition as a novelty, with the conviction that the aerospace industry is called to be a key agent for the new economy. In this sense, sector experts will analyze how innovation, the latest technological trends, digitalization, and sustainability are redefining this field. In the last edition, BNEW gathered 8,400 professionals, so this year it expects to grow not only in verticals but also in attendees, up to these 12,000.
In this edition, the sessions on October 7 and 8 will focus on digital industry, mobility, and sustainability, while panels related to aviation, health, and talent will take place on October 9 and 10. The BNEW Experience vertical will be transversal throughout the event, with the aim of bringing Barcelona's leisure, cultural, and gastronomic offerings closer to attendees.
Record participation of startups
This fifth edition will also feature the participation of more than 170 emerging companies in the BNEW Startup Innovation Hub, the highest number to date. Participating startups will have the opportunity to network with professionals from different sectors and will be candidates for the BNEW 2024 Best Startup Award in each of their verticals.
Through its seven verticals and the participating companies and professionals, BNEW "has become the leading global event of the new economy that interrelates the key sectors of this new economy," as defended by the special delegate of the State in the CZFB, Pere Navarro. And it is that "collaboration and alliances between governments, companies and citizens will be key to building an economy that benefits everyone and ensures a prosperous and sustainable future," added the general director of the CZFB, Blanca Sorigué, who highlighted that the event connects more than 12,000 professionals from different sectors in a single space, with a focus on the economy of the future: "We are not yet aware of everything that is to come," Navarro predicted.
Given this question, the new economy requires "being prepared, knowing how to adapt, collaborating and forging alliances," Navarro added, and this is also reflected by the companies and startups that have participated in the BNEW 2024 New Economy Observatory. The study, carried out by the CZFB with 657 professionals from participating companies and startups, reveals that two out of three companies are committed to collaborating with startups, and that 79% of emerging companies already collaborate or are in the process of doing so with large companies and multinationals. In addition, 56% of companies plan to invest more than 100,000 euros in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data and blockchain ---22.7% plan to exceed one million in investment---, and 84% of startups plan to increase their workforce in the next year.
Given this commitment by large companies and startups to collaborate with each other, BNEW stands as "the only event that generates networking opportunities with professionals, corporates, startups and administrations from seven different sectors," according to Navarro. Thus, the event reaffirms itself as a reference meeting attended by professionals who set the roadmap for the economy of the future.