Creating music with Artificial Intelligence, exploring Barcelona's industrial evolution with virtual reality, interacting with robots, participating in a prompt battle, virtually getting to know the MareNostrum supercomputer, generating a comic with AI, competing in innovative races on a slot circuit, and being amazed by electronic magic. These are some of the proposals with which the Tech&Play festival aims to attract citizens of all generations to the old Fabra i Coats factory, in Sant Andreu, where it will offer more than 40 activities with a clear purpose: to bring the most cutting-edge technological innovations to all audiences.
The festival, organized by the Mobile World Capital, will address areas such as robotics, Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, immersive realities, and gaming from a playful and educational perspective from April 25 to 28. It will do so through workshops, debates, technological experiences, and shows, culminating in a family day on Sunday. With a focus on the youngest audience, it will offer activities for ages three to eight, and eight to twelve.
MWCapital promoted the festival last year with the aim of bringing the innovations of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) to citizens and families, highlighted the CEO of MWCapital, Francesc Fajula, alongside the foundation's IT manager, Eduard Martín, at the event's presentation. Fajula recalled that the festival's purpose is in full alignment with one of the foundation's main objectives: to generate a legacy of the MWC in Barcelona and its surroundings.
In fact, the festival, which has the collaboration of the City Council, Generalitat, and Government, takes advantage of initiatives and projects that the foundation brought to the MWC, adapted from a format aimed at professionals to versions that aim to dialogue with citizens. "The audience profile is very different, but the innovations are the same," so the cost of the festival is "relatively small," according to Fajula.
In its second edition, the event changes location and dates to move away from the MWC, and grows in both duration and proposals: there will be four days with more than 40 technology-related activities, with the participation of 30 speakers and with the forecast of reaching some 4,000 visitors, exceeding the 2,500 of the first edition, which was held at the Teatre Lliure de Montjuïc.
The first edition of the event hosted dynamic debates in which the audience stole the spotlight from the speakers, and brought together visitors of all ages, something they hope to repeat. Fajula recalled an anecdote from the last edition to illustrate this objective: "A person of about 80 years old approached me and asked me if I was part of the organization to express their gratitude, after they had used virtual reality glasses for the first time."
Specifically, the festival will offer 15 technological experiences, a dozen workshops to explore technological innovations, and debates that will cover digital rights, the use of screens in the family environment, cybersecurity in adolescents, and AI, among other topics. The lineup of speakers will be varied, and will include profiles such as singer and songwriter Maria Arnal —who will address her experimentation with sound, technology, and art—, the director of the Societat Digital de la Generalitat, Liliana Arroyo, and the director of Information Security at CaixaBank, Natalia de Seras.
The scientific council of adolescents from Hospital Sant Joan de Déu will also participate in the festival. Under the name KIDS Barcelona, the council will debate the importance of society's commitment to advance research in health sciences. Tech&Play will also feature a session to digitally train teachers and empower students in the exercise of their digital rights, hand in hand with the SX3 Academy. These meetings will be part of a program that aims to provide citizens with a way to approach new technologies, and invite them to reflect from playful proposals on how these can benefit them.