The new economy. It is a concept that still sounds like the future, something yet to arrive. But many of the features that define it are already here. Artificial intelligence has made its way into business and is redefining how people work and trade. Humanoid robots and robot-assisted surgery no longer belong to the realm of fiction. And, beyond technology, change is also visible in how energy is produced and consumed, in scientific advances, in food, and in a video game industry that keeps stretching its boundaries.
All of this is already part of the present and, at the same time, is sketching out what the economy of the coming years will look like. It is these transformations that will be the focus of the seventh Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), which will take place from 5 to 7 October at DFactory Barcelona.
Organised by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), BNEW has established itself as a global platform for spotting change and anticipating trends, generating business opportunities and connecting the key players of the new economy. As Pere Navarro, executive chairman of the CZFB, puts it, BNEW is ‘a living event, able to adapt to change and to reflect the trends transforming the global economy’. That philosophy is also reflected in the event's format, which combines live sessions, professional connections and in-person experiences.
This year's edition broadens its scope with five new verticals: AI, Energy, Agrofood, Science and Gaming. They join the established Talent, Aviation & Space and Health. The programme will take up some of the transformations set to shape the coming years, from the impact of artificial intelligence on employment to the energy transition, automation in healthcare, the future of food and the evolution of a video game industry that goes far beyond entertainment. It will do so with 270 national and international speakers taking part in more than 50 panels, debates and sessions.
The different strands of the programme will feature prominent voices from business, technology and the public sector. On artificial intelligence, technology and business, the speakers will include Fernando de Santos, IAON coordinator at Ibercaja; Alfonso Cossío, director of Applications for Iberia at Oracle; Diego Perino, director of the AI Factory at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center; Antoni Paz, executive director of KIMBCN; and Olga Escriu, director of Business and Corporate Banking Solutions in Catalonia at BBVA.
On science and health, the programme will feature Jorge Juan Fernández, Chief Innovation Manager at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona; Antoni Gilabert, director of Innovation at Hospital del Mar; Gemma Marfany, professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona; and Susana Jiménez-Murcia, head of the Clinical Psychology Department and professor of psychology at Bellvitge University Hospital.
Talent and people management will also have a prominent place, with Consuelo Rebolledo, Talent Manager at Mobile World Congress, and Laia Parellada, HR Manager for Spain and Portugal at easyJet, among others. In agrifood, participants include professionals such as Olga Martínez, director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Bimbo EMEA, while gaming will bring names like Joan Francesc Bañó, Executive Director at GameBCN.
Hands-on innovation
But BNEW will not only talk about the new economy; attendees will also be able to ‘touch it and experience it live’, in the words of Blanca Sorigué, director general of the CZFB. BNEW Experience will offer more than 40 activities and experiences that let attendees get close to some of the technologies shaping this new landscape: from an F-18 cockpit to a surgical robot, humanoid robots, autonomous surveillance robots and self-driving mobility solutions.
Technology will share the space with creativity and culture. Fashion, design, architecture, art and dance will be part of a programme that includes immersive exhibitions, 3D ceramic printing, robot-assisted art and painting with cobots. Food and leisure will round out an experience that also showcases Barcelona's cultural wealth and the possibilities it offers for making professional connections.
Just as BNEW takes the experience beyond the conference hall with live innovation, it also takes the event beyond the venue itself. The first edition, held in the thick of the pandemic, already went hybrid, combining in-person activity with an online connection. For the seventh edition, that format continues and is consolidated as one of the ways of reaching an international audience. So, the sessions can be streamed from anywhere in the world. Attendees need only register in advance to attend in person or follow the broadcast online. The broadcast will draw on a large audiovisual set-up, with three television studios, cameras and screens.
This drive to connect people and content extends to networking, with tools for exchanging contacts, arranging meetings and putting together a schedule of appointments, as well as to BBot, BNEW's virtual assistant, which will help participants find their way around the programme and get the most out of the event.
It will all take place at DFactory Barcelona, Europe's leading Industry 4.0 ecosystem, which over three days will bring together companies, startups, institutions, investors, research centres and professionals to share knowledge, make connections and explore the opportunities of a new economy that is already taking shape.