Barcelona, Spain, February 14, 2018–
Barcelona is once again at the epicentre of technological innovation thanks to
the Barcelona Mobile World Capital Foundation (MWCapital). The programme of
events includes activities both at the Mobile World Congress and 4YFN and will
involve the general public in initiatives around the city for the second year
running. The aim is to show the impact on society of the digital transformation
of sectors ranging from industry to entrepreneurship, education and technology.
Barcelona is once again at the epicentre of technological innovation thanks to
the Barcelona Mobile World Capital Foundation (MWCapital). The programme of
events includes activities both at the Mobile World Congress and 4YFN and will
involve the general public in initiatives around the city for the second year
running. The aim is to show the impact on society of the digital transformation
of sectors ranging from industry to entrepreneurship, education and technology.
Carlos Grau, CEO of MWCapital, has presented the Foundation’s programme
of activities at an event presided over by Ada
Colau, Mayor of Barcelona and President of the Mobile World
Capital Barcelona Foundation, who commented that, “Mobile World Congress
strengthens the importance of the city’s research, innovation and science
centers’ ecosystem. Mobile World Capital works to make this innovative city
reach all citizens with initiatives such as Mobile Week, which grows in
activities to exceed the areas of the congress and allows advances in fields
such as education, science and technology”. Carlos Grau added that, “Together, we have established the city of Barcelona
as a leading digital hub. Now we need to consolidate the impact of this
transformation on the local area and create more proposals from our city that
will have an impact globally.”
The presentation also saw the participation of José
María Lassalle, Secretary of State for the Information Society and the
Digital Agenda and Vice-president of the MWCapital Board of Trustees, who
explained that, “From the Spanish Government we want, not only to
consolidate Barcelona as the Mobile World Capital, but also to deepen into its
story and internationalization in the new digital ecosystem”. Pau
Villoria, General Secretary of Business and Knowledge at the Regional
Government of Catalonia and Vice-president of the MWCapital Board of Trustees
pointed out that, “Catalan companies and SMEs in the ICT field have
grown and evolved in parallel with the Mobile World Congress. This event has
become an important source of innovation and internationalisation, while at the
same time one of the main drivers of digital transformation in Catalan industry.” Constantí
Serrallonga, CEO of Fira de Barcelona and Vicepresident of the MWCapital
Executive Committee, also took part in the event and pointed out that, “The GSMA Mobile World Congress
is a great challenge in which Fira is greatly involved on a logistical and
organisational level.” He added that, “It highlights Barcelona’s hosting capacity and
infrastructures, the dynamism of its business network and the desire to play an
important role in the technological field”.
Barcelona
as a European 5G hub
On 9 January 2018, the Regional Government of Catalonia,
Barcelona City Hall, the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, the i2CAT
Foundation, the CTTC (Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya),
Atos and the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) presented the
5GBarcelona initiative, which aims to convert the city into a European 5G Open
Lab.
During the GSMA Mobile World Congress, the first projects
linked to 5GBarcelona will be revealed along with the first sectorial
applications that will be carried out over the course of 2018.
4YFN: the
fifth anniversary of the meeting point for startups
4 Years From Now (4YFN), the business platform that connects startups, investors,
public institutions and large corporations, is returning for its fifth edition
and lends a voice to “local heroes” – entrepreneurs in the 4YFN ecosystem who
have established their projects in Barcelona. Carlota Pi, cofounder of Holaluz,
Javier Figarola, CEO of ABA English and Javier Suárez, cofounder of TravelPerk,
are some of the cases that will be presented on the Nestlé Stage at 4YFN.
4YFN Barcelona 2018 will welcome 600 startups from more than
145 countries to the Fira de Barcelona in Montjuïc in addition to 12
international delegations from Belgium, Colombia, France, Germany, Israel,
Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. It
also expects to attract over 19,000 visitors in an event that will see more
than 600 investors take part.
In this edition, the 4YFN Awards will honour
the most innovative national and international talent. 10 startups from 4
countries (Israel, Holland, the United Kingdom and Spain) will compete for a
place in the final on Wednesday 28 February. To encourage
relationships between startups, investors and large corporations, the
entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to present their projects to an
audience in the Startup Pitches. They will also be able to take part in
guidance sessions with mentors from several different fields who will give them
advice on raising funds, business strategy, marketing and international growth,
among other subjects.
For its part, The Collider, the MWCapital
venture builder that connects scientific knowledge with entrepreneurial talent,
will host two networking sessions at 4YFN that will gather researchers,
entrepreneurs and large corporations to demonstrate the possibilities of tech
transfer.
4YFN Barcelona 2018 will also include featured programmes
such as GSMA Women4tech, which proposes
solutions to tackle gender equality in the worldwide tech community; Digital
Health & Wellness Summit, which gives visibility to innovation in the healthcare field; Impact
Accelerator, which is powering the next European Superstar Startups; and Ship2B
Social Innovation Challenge, the leading accelerator for social sector solutions in
Barcelona.
Barcelona:
the setting for the future of technology
MWCapital and GSMA are organising the third edition of Mobile
Lunch Barcelona, a meeting aimed at the business community to extend
digitalisation to every sector of industry. On Sunday 25, the event
will gather more than 500 entrepreneurs and representatives of institutions,
research centres, universities, large corporations and SMEs, and will see the
participation of Fabian Simmer, Digital Officer at SEAT; Àlex Sicart, founder
of Sharge.io; Tim Juergens, Head of Health Solutions and Services&Emminens
at Roche Diabetes Care; and Silvana Churruca, CEO of Payment Innovation Hub.
Together with Carlos Grau, CEO of MWCapital, these speakers will reveal the
potential of digitalisation in their sectors and explain the vital role that
Barcelona plays in the field of innovation.
MWCapital is also launching Mobile
Week Barcelona – an initiative that fuses art, science and technology
– for the second year running, with the aim of maximizing the impact of
digitalisation on the entire city. Between 15 – 24 February, mWeekBCN has organised
a broad-ranging programme of more than 120 free activities in almost 90 spaces
throughout the city.
mWeekBCN 2018 has grown with respect to last year’s edition
and will involve more than 100 speakers, 20 artists and 180 contributors while
hoping to see an audience of more than 16,000 people.
Once again, the Mobile World Centre will house “A
window on the Mobile World Congress”, which will display the latest innovations by Huawei,
Samsung and bq, in addition to the demos by Luca, Telefónica’s big data service
that has applications in the sports and eSports sectors.
Finally, with the aim of boosting Barcelona’s digital
ecosystem and demonstrating the impact the congress has had on Barcelona, the
various MWCapital exhibition areas at GMSA Mobile World Congress and 4YFN will
display a snapshot of different sectors, entrepreneurial and innovation success
stories and an introduction to the digital future of the city that we will see
in coming years.
The
challenge of digital transformation
MWCapital will also present the evolution of its digital
transformation programmes d-LAB and Going Digital. d-LAB, a digital
programme that aims to resolve social issues using mobile and digital
technology, will present the results of its pilot project carried out at the
Las Arenas shopping centre at the end of 2017 with Wayfindr, the ONCE
Foundation, Ilunion, ONCE Catalonia and the Arenas de Barcelona shopping
centre. This solution outlined the use of a mobile audio guide to give
visually-impaired visitors full autonomy in public indoor areas. On Tuesday 20, d-LAB
will also announce the winners of its third challenge, which aims to combat
cyberbullying using technology, during the session on education that will take
place as part of Mobile Week Barcelona.
On March 1, d-LAB will also hold a seminar with the title of “Mobile
& digital technologies accelerating the impact of digital social
innovation”. The session will take place at GSMA Seminar Theatre 1, Level 1,
CC1 at the GMSA Mobile World Congress (Fira Gran Via).
Meanwhile, Going Digital, an educational
programme for sharing knowledge on digitalisation aimed at professionals,
managers and business owners, will take 250 managers of companies unrelated to
the field of ICT to the congress. The initiative, carried out in partnership
with ACCIÓ, Agència Catalana de Turisme, EVERIS, Cambra de Comerç d’Andorra,
ACES and Forcadell seeks to identify new opportunities that could be generated
by mobile technology in businesses that are currently undergoing a digital transformation.
The
importance of technology in education centres
mSchools is the digital empowerment programme sponsored by
MWCapital in cooperation with the Regional Government of Catalonia, Barcelona
City Hall and GSMA. It aims to strengthen students’ digital abilities, lower
school dropout rates and improve academic performance and future employability
by developing an entire curriculum linked to mobile technology and its social
and economic applications.
mSchools will hold the Mobile Learning Awards
(MLA) during the GSMA Mobile World Congress to honour the most
innovative projects created by teachers and schools in Catalonia using mobile
technology in education. It will also host the Changing Education Together
seminar, which will once again gather directors of education centres,
representatives from the education sector and policy makers to debate on the
role of technology in teaching and share best practices.
mSchools will also be at the Youth Mobile Festival (YOMO),
the event sponsored by GSMA in partnership with MWCapital and aimed at students
between the ages of 10 and 16, where it will organise a virtual reality
experience to bring children closer to technology and gather teachers in the
Teacher Tracks, an activity that will show them innovative teaching methods
they can apply in the classroom.
