In the midst of the digital revolution, Barcelona increasingly attracts investment from technology companies, which has led to three out of every ten job offers published being digital. One of the main factors for choosing the city lies in the existing business ecosystem, driven by events such as the Mobile World Congress (MWC), as well as its extensive network of universities and vocational training centers. All of this translates into the demand for digital talent having doubled in the last five years, and it has done so despite the drop recorded last year in venture capital fund investment, going from 15,900 offers in 2018 to 34,200 in 2023.
But the same has not happened with the supply. For some time now, many companies have struggled to find profiles for the vacancies they have, which ultimately hinders their development. The MWC has sought to address this with the Talent Arena, a new event that focuses on awakening technological vocations. With this initiative, the technology congress wants to replicate the success of Four Years From Now (4YFN), a younger sibling focused on startups that ended up growing and consolidating itself as a reference space.
"The MWC and 4YFN are made possible by people, and it was necessary to close the circle," defends the CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital), Francesc Fajula. For now, the Talent Arena is exceeding all expectations, with queues at the doors of Fira Montjuïc when the maximum allowed capacity, about 5,000 simultaneous attendees, is exceeded. The MWC has thus once again occupied a fairground it had abandoned with the pandemic, when 4YFN moved to Fira Gran Via, where there is no longer room for a pin and the construction of a new pavilion is eagerly awaited.
With 20,000 square meters dedicated to encouraging young people and not so young people to work in areas such as data analysis and web programming, Monday was the first day of the Talent Arena, with free admission, and it already went well, but this Tuesday they expect to double the figures. Its interior is buzzing with students and young professionals who want to listen to industry idols like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who stirs passions wherever he goes. Around him, rivers of admirers follow him, taking selfies from a distance, as if they had seen a god.
Such has been the expectation to hear Wozniak that not only have all the chairs been filled and there were people standing everywhere, but another stage has had to be set up to follow his talk from a distance. The co-founder of Apple has criticized the entry into politics of tech entrepreneurs like Tesla founder, Elon Musk. "I don't like what's happening at all. The skills needed for politics are very different from those needed to run a tech company," said the co-founder of Apple along with Steve Jobs. Ironically, one of the main attractions of the Talent Arena was getting into Tesla's Cybertruck, with constant queues to try it.
But it didn't stop with Wozniak and the Talent Arena has brought other high-level speakers such as former chess player, Garry Kasparov, known for his criticism of the Kremlin, or astronaut and former Minister of Science, Pedro Duque. This has recovered a tradition lost by the MWC for many years, when there was still interest in attending its presentations because names like Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, came, now starring little-known and not at all sexy names.
In addition to the talks, the Talent Arena has hosted hackathons, with a hundred participants designing pilot projects such as calculating the people in a specific area from their phones, using data from Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange networks. With the support of Nokia, the test has lasted from Monday until this Tuesday, with the best five participating groups presenting their solution to the executives of the multinationals.
Barcelona Activa will start training in cybersecurity after an agreement with CiscoThere has also been space for thementoring, with professionals from the IT Academy programming school of Barcelona Activa advising those who approached on the best path to follow. "We accompany from 0 to the first job," says the head of Digital Talent and Innovation at Barcelona Activa, Martí Rodríguez Mestre.The center, which offers free courses, will now add the cybersecurity leg to its training after closing an agreement with Cisco to train 250 students.To date, the IT Academy has trained 3,500 students in web programming and data analysis, with 40% women. From now until 2030, it plans to train 3,500 more.
There were those who went to the Talent Arena looking for work, like Anna and Miranda, both recent graduates of the IT Academy. It's not exactly what they found, with the few exhibiting companies having no open positions and only providing a QR to send resumes. "The programming field is saturated, it's hard to stand out. There are many senior profiles and it's hard to raise your hand when you're a junior," they said after a walk around the Montjuïc fairgrounds.
City strategy for generative AI
A day after an edition of Mobile marked by artificial intelligence (AI) began, the Barcelona City Council announced that it is preparing a government strategy to implement, regulate, and promote generative AI in the city. According to Mayor Jaume Collboni, the aim is to introduce this technology into public management to improve efficiency and the relationship with citizens, but also to boost the entrepreneurial and economic ecosystem around it. "We not only want to be the technological capital but also the capital of making good use of technology at the service of citizens," he stated. For the city council, the implementation of AI must guarantee the rights and freedoms of Barcelona residents, which is why citizens will be trained.