AI assistants to shorten and optimize processes; talks on digitalization, workshops to capture attention in the digital environment, strategies to connect with clients through emotion, methods to protect a brand, and much more. With a range covering all areas of management and promotion for SMEs or self-employed businesses, Bizbarcelona deploys until this Thursday resources and tools ranging from financing to talent acquisition, including digitalization, with Verifactu and AI as protagonists.
With the Montjuïc venue of Fira de Barcelona transformed into a meeting point for SMEs and self-employed individuals in the city, the fair acts as a showcase for ideas, proposals, key resources, and new perspectives to guide these businesses in defining their roadmaps, or in refining and adapting them to new times and new technologies. Among the changes to come, the Verifactu regulation (the verifiable electronic invoicing system) stands out, becoming a central theme of multiple stands.
Globally, the exhibition area brings together 75 companies and entities with products and services that contribute to boosting businesses, from any area of their management and promotion: digital solutions, marketing, tax advice, coworking spaces, professional associations and institutions and entities with programs and services. All of them extend throughout the pavilion, which also hosts a personalized advice area and multiple activities that take place continuously and simultaneously during the fair, organized by Fira de Barcelona and promoted by the Barcelona City Council through Barcelona Activa, the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), Pimec and the Chamber of Commerce.
"We are in a dynamic moment of change for the business ecosystem," highlights Talenom Barcelona's business director, Anna Gràcia Nialet, from her stand. The company, of Finnish origin with 26 offices and 300 employees nationwide, attends the fair for the second consecutive year with a dual objective: "To be present and connect with the city's business ecosystem," promoting its "360 advisory" services, which range from fiscal to accounting, legal, and labor, to "smooth the path for entrepreneurs and businesses and shed light on these issues."
The effects of the regulations on the business ecosystem are not limited to Verifactu, but also extend to rules such as the Time Control Law. The obligation to clock in has led to the emergence of initiatives such as the TimeNeos system, which comes to the fair to make itself known "to more companies and to partners who distribute our system," explains David Viñas from the company, SoftNeos, on a first day in which the strike called by Palestine between 10 and 12 was noticeable.
A toolbox for businesses
The proposals and resources that exhibitors have presented at the fair, along with the talks and workshops, form a complete and varied toolbox for SMEs and freelancers, who also concentrate on institutions such as Barcelona Activa"We have replicated our business support service here, so that attendees can get advice," emphasizing freelancers, businesses, and equality between women and men, as highlighted by the executive director of Business and Entrepreneurship at Barcelona Activa,Itziar Blasco.
This toolbox also takes shape through institutions such as Pimec, which attends the exhibition to "accompany companies, entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals in their competitiveness and growth processes, and to make Pimec's programs and services available to them," according to David Giménez, its managing director. The Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona participates with the same objective: to publicize its services, but not only that: "We want to listen to business owners and self-employed individuals so they can tell us their needs and study how we can respond to them," highlighted Roger Omella from the institution.
While some are already regulars at the exhibition, others arrive at Bizbarcelona for the first time, such as brand strategy consultant Nerea Gutiérrez, "mentor and coach to discover the messages and story that build a personal or commercial brand, from storytelling." The company debuts at the exhibition to "expand business, gain visibility and generate networking and get in touch with more people, more visions, more stories and experiences," as Gutiérrez highlights. And she goes further: "We seek visibility beyond social networks; we believe that we need to return a bit to in-person interaction, and these spaces are needed more than ever."
This praise for in-person interaction is compatible with the rise of technology, such as that of Chattyhiring, "an AI recruiting agent." Driven from Barcelona by Carlos Guerrero, the tool facilitates employee search processes by filtering resumes, evaluating them, and engaging in conversations with candidates via Whatsapp. A couple of stands away, another initiative to facilitate selection processes: Resilient Co. With offices in Argentina, Barcelona, and the United States, it specializes in headhunting and talent management, with upskilling and reskilling options: "We come to do networking," emphasizes its CEO, Oscar Campos, who arrived from Argentina to participate in the exhibition.
AI and the uses of time
With its ability to optimize processes ranging from talent acquisition to the day-to-day management of a business, AI can also have an impact on the uses of time and work-life balance, as discussed from the stand of the Barcelona Provincial Council. In the framework of theTime Use Week, thealsohas participatedAMB, which is committed to the salon with the will that "public and private initiatives accompany and help each other to generate sustainable and quality growth, and that it extends throughout the population," according to the director of Social Policies and Equality Services of the AMB,Elisabet Tejero Gil.Hand in hand with the Employment Fair
These recruitment processes and talent management are, at the same time, the main focus of theHall of Occupation,that is once again developed in parallel at the Montjuïc exhibition center. Also organized by Fira and promoted by Barcelona Activa, the event offers more than160 activities, which include workshops, conferences, demonstrations, and guidance that allow attendees to improve their resume, practice job interviews, and even take a professional photograph, in addition to getting in touch with companies looking for workers.
Numerous entities and institutions that facilitate job searching constantly advise dozens of attendees to the fair, both from a generalist approach to more specialized ones, such as that of Accem, focused on migrants through "a personalized approach," explains Eduardo Beltrán from the entity. A few meters away, hairdressing spaces with on-site practices, a TMB bus, talks, and real interviews for companies fill the fair. All with the aim of promoting quality employment, within a business ecosystem that is boosted a few meters away, through a Bizbarcelona and an Employment Fair that go hand in hand.
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