The re-founding of Fira de Barcelona in 2000 ---with the creation of the current governance structure based on public-private collaboration--- marked a true turning point in the entity's trajectory, as it represented the beginning of a successful period of growth that has led the Catalan capital to play in the Champions League of the European trade fair sector and to be an international benchmark. We are, consequently, facing a truly stellar moment in the recent history of the city and, for this reason, the president of Fira de Barcelona, Pau Relat, will be this October the guest of the cycle The New Barcelona – Moments Estel·lars, organized by The New Barcelona Post and presented by journalist and UPF-BSM professor Toni Aira.
The fifth session of the cycle, which has the collaboration of Must Media Group, CASA SEAT and Barcelona Global, will be held on Monday, October 10 at 6:30 p.m. in the CASA SEAT auditorium. To attend as an audience and be able to ask questions to the speaker, it is necessary to reserve a place in advance. To get your ticket, click here.
The conversation between Toni Aira and Pau Relat to analyze the role of Fira de Barcelona as an engine of the city's economy will be recorded and can later be retrieved in podcast format on Spotify or in video format on our Youtube channel. The first four chapters of Moments Estel·lars are already available, starring Juan Antonio Samaranch, Lluís Bassat, Joan Laporta and the tandem formed by Maite Esteve-Joan Oliveras on September 5.
Born in Montcada i Reixac in 1968, Pau Relat has a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona and also completed an MBA at IESE Business School. Almost his entire business career has been linked to the MAT Holding group, of which he has been CEO since 2004, although his relationship with the company dates back to 1994, when he joined the commercial department of Industrias Químicas del Vallès (IQV), one of the main companies that make up this Catalan family group. Under his leadership, MAT Holding has become a company with a turnover of more than 300 million euros, becoming a global leader in the manufacture and marketing of copper salts for agriculture and one of the benchmarks in water conduction and control systems for the agricultural and industrial sectors.
Relat has been part of Fira de Barcelona's governing bodies since 2011, when he was appointed a member of the entity's General Council representing the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. The General Council, chaired by the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, is the highest governing body of the fair institution, in which, in addition to the Chamber, the two public administrations on which Fira depends are represented: the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat.
These three institutions agreed at the end of 2018 to appoint Pau Relat as president of the Board of Directors of Fira de Barcelona, replacing José Luis Bonet, who held the position for 14 years. The first president after the re-founding, prior to Bonet, was Jaume Tomàs. Unlike the General Council, public administrations do not participate in the Board of Directors, as it is exclusively composed of businessmen, who are the ones who make decisions and design the entity's growth strategies. The general director, Constantí Serrallonga, with his management team, is responsible for executing all these plans and the day-to-day operations of the Fira.
Thanks to the good functioning of this governance model established in 2000, Fira de Barcelona has experienced two decades of strong growth, consolidating itself as one of the main engines of the city and a key piece for the internationalization of Catalan companies. The construction of the new Gran Via exhibition center; the success of historical events such as Alimentaria, Náutico, and Automobile; the launch of new events such as Smart City Expo and IOT Solutions; and the attraction of major international fairs such as MWC, ISE, and Seafood are just some of the milestones achieved by the Fira in these last two decades. The integration of the CCIB and the signing of agreements to export knowledge and organize events abroad or manage exhibition centers in other countries such as Cuba and, more recently, China are also examples of this expansive phase of the entity that was interrupted by the pandemic.
With Pau Relat, we will talk about how the Fira has managed these two years of crisis and also about the strong process of resuming fair and congress activity, with more than one hundred events scheduled until the end of the year. But, without a doubt, the great success that will mark his mandate is the agreement for the automatic annual renewal signed with the Mobile World Congress, which means that Barcelona becomes the permanent headquarters of this important global event, which expects to attract between 70,000 and 80,000 attendees next year.
Fira de Barcelona, which set itself the goal of earning 170 million euros for 2022, has many other challenges ahead that we will address in the conversation, such as the expansion of the Gran Via exhibition center, the attraction of new large events, and the remodeling and updating of the entire historic Montjuïc complex, coinciding with the centenary of the 1929 Universal Exhibition.