BNEW strengthens Barcelona as one of the cities with the most technological future

The Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), which will take place between October 5 and 8, has already confirmed the attendance of professionals from 145 nationalities and the participation of 800 inspirational speakers chosen from a large number of applications from professionals from leading national and international companies.

--- What does BNEW bring to Barcelona?

--- Undoubtedly, the objective of the first edition of BNEW was successfully achieved: to position Barcelona as the world capital of the new economy. We were present in 111 countries and it was the first major hybrid economic event after the start of the pandemic. In this edition, we continue to work to consolidate this positioning. The city already has an important innovative ecosystem and is positioned as one of the cities with the most future in the technological sector, but even so, having an event on the new economy with a high percentage of internationality contributes to strengthening this position ahead of other cities.

--- Do you fear that BNEW will overshadow the celebration of the other events organized by the Consorci?

--- No, the International Logistics Exhibition (SIL), the Barcelona Meeting Point (BMP) or eDelivery Barcelona have a great trajectory and companies that are looking forward to their return. Despite the rapid digitalization of the events sector, the in-person factor will continue to play a very important role when it comes to physically seeing certain materials or meeting with other companies in the sector. As I said, the great differentiating factor of BNEW is that it is multisectoral and allows easy access to everyone, but we are sure that it will be one more event, complementary to our range of usual fairs.

The great differentiating factor of BNEW is that it is multisectoral and allows easy access to everyone, but we are sure that it will be one more event, complementary to our range of usual fairs

--- Last year we approached 11,000 registered participants, and our goal for this year is to surpass that number; for now, we are seeing a very good pace of registrations. All individuals who register for BNEW are professionals or companies, as it is a 100% B2B event.

--- What nationality has the most participation?

--- Obviously, Spain is the country with the most participation, although we have 50% internationality. In second place is Venezuela, also with a large number of participants, and a little further behind, Colombia occupies third place. The figures demonstrate the great relationship and influence that the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona has with Latin America. It should be noted that as of today, we have registrants from 145 different countries, a brutal figure if we consider that there are a total of 194 recognized countries in the world.

--- Technologically, does the event incorporate novelties in its dissemination and participation system?

--- The functionalities are the same as in the first edition, but perfected. Last year we had to develop the entire concept in record time, as well as the platform, a function we entrusted to SIRT. However, the result was exceptional, and we have a unique platform and virtual networking tool. In this second edition, we are working again with SIRT on the development and operation of the platform, and we have focused on improving the participant's experience, so that any registered person from anywhere in the world can follow all BNEW content from any mobile phone.

--- On the BNEW online platform, interviews and debates from the first edition can still be consulted. Do they have many views?

--- BNEW is a hybrid event, where the virtual platform plays a very important component but is only enabled during the days of the event, from October 5 to 8 in the case of this year. Thus, from the moment the in-person sets are turned off, the platform also ceases to be operational for registered users. BNEW is an event that takes place over four days and during this time all attendees can do quality networking or learn about the latest innovations and technologies in the market through BVillage, among other activities. Once the event is over, the content can be consulted through BNEW's social networks and, more specifically, from its YouTube account. We like to see that we are creating a community and that BNEW's content, whether it's the debates or the interventions of the inspirational speakers, continues to be of interest beyond the days of the celebration.

We like to see that we are creating a community and that BNEW's content, whether it's the debates or the interventions of the inspirational speakers, continues to be of interest beyond the days of the celebration

--- From the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, we are clear that the new economy has arrived with new challenges and opportunities, and also with new formats. In the current context, brief and dynamic formats are more accepted, and from the beginning, we wanted it to be a multi-sectoral event ---one of BNEW's main differentiating factors---, where we would give the same importance to each of the verticals. Therefore, all of them are developed simultaneously and can be followed through the different channels of the platform. If someone wants to watch content they couldn't follow because it overlapped with another, they can watch it on demand on the platform during the event days. Qualitatively, the event would not be better for lasting more days, and instead, we are sure it would lose interest. We must get used to these new ways of communicating.

--- Who are the most prominent speakers in this second edition?

--- This year we have more than double the speakers than in the first edition, with 800 specifically. All of them are top-level professionals recognized within their field of action. It is very difficult to highlight some among these 800 speakers because we have selected them taking into account the interest of the topics we wanted to address, their public speaking ability, their experience. We have received many applications from professionals from prominent companies who wanted to be speakers at this second edition of BNEW, but in many cases, we have had to discard them because they did not fit what we were looking for. The selection of speakers has been very careful, and we have done it directly with the team of professionals from the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona who have worked throughout the year to make BNEW the great economic event of the year. Another notable aspect is that half of the speakers will be women and the other half will be men, so equality is guaranteed because BNEW is an event fully committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

--- Have any concrete projects emerged from the networking activity carried out in the first edition that can be mentioned?

--- During the event, we provide participants with the platform and the powerful virtual networking tool, which works through Artificial Intelligence to make direct contact between supply and demand. Thanks to this function, last year more than 23,000 contacts were made during the four days of the event. However, once BNEW ends, we lose track, as it is the companies themselves that continue this relationship outside the platform, so unfortunately we cannot know what percentage of the initial approaches has finally been successful. We hope many, in fact, we are sure it is so.

--- As general director of the Consorci, what assessment do you make of the evolution of the first half of this year?

--- The beginning of 2021 has been full of challenges, mainly because the health situation was still quite complicated and, in this sense, we have not been able to celebrate SIL, BMP and eDelivery Barcelona. However, we have focused on major projects such as BNEW and DFactory Barcelona, ​​which position both the entity and Barcelona internationally, but we have also created a new event, the Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week (BWAW). From the Women's Council of the Zona Franca de Barcelona, ​​which we promote from the CZFB but which has important female executives from companies in the industrial park, we wanted to create a meeting that would allow sharing the main challenges and opportunities for women, mainly within the world of work. In this sense, taking advantage of International Women's Day (March 8), from March 3 to 5 we held an event that sought not only to share reflections but also to find solutions that would allow progress in terms of equality.

Last year, more than 23,000 virtual networking contacts were made between companies from all over the world during the four days of BNEW

--- In the entity, we are fully aligned with the SDGs adopted by the United Nations in its 2030 Agenda. In this sense, we constantly work to find ways to contribute to the different SDGs to become an example to follow in their implementation in the labor and industrial spheres.

--- What are the most immediate projects you are working on?

--- The most immediate is DFactory Barcelona, as we plan to inaugurate the first phase of 17,000 square meters this November. This is a project in which we have invested 20 million euros so far and we have Leitat as a technological partner. The goal is for it to become the main industry 4.0 hub in Southern Europe. DFactory will be a tool that will help transform the Spanish productive fabric and accompany companies in their digital transformation process. The building will host high-tech offering companies and demanding companies that need resources to create innovative products or services. In fact, HP has already started producing in 3D printing and Huawei is also part of the project, becoming a technology facilitator and an active participant in different research and development projects. In this way, since last July, it also became the first company to establish its Center of Excellence, AI HERMES, in Barcelona, which addresses artificial intelligence applied to the digital health, e-mobility, and smart grids sectors, among others.