50 top speakers for Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week’s 3rd edition

• BWAW 2023 is organized by a partnership between Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona and INCYDE Foundation. It will address different issues as, for example, the incorporation of women into Industry 4.0, female entrepreneurs’ profile, female managers at public institutions and their role, as well as women at STEM industry.
• Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia), Government of Spain, Barcelona City Council or Spanish National Cancer Research Center will be represented at the event, as well as other relevant companies such as Danone, Caixabank, Infojobs and Woman

Barcelona, 2 March 2023 – Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week (BWAW), organised by Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), will gather a panel of 50 top speakers –national and international, men and women– in order to reach solutions that enable move forward gender equality within the business and industrial fields.

This event –organised in collaboration with Spanish Chamber of Commerce’s INCYDE Foundation– will address, for the third time, initiatives looking for women’s visibility at key areas of the economy. Coinciding with International Women’s Day (8^th of March), CZFB will gather on the 9^th and 10^th of March 50 representatives from the most important national and international companies, as well as representatives from the main public administrations.

The event –which hosted 2,500 assistants last edition– will be divided into 10 sessions where several experts will reflect on the current situation and improvements in terms of gender equality. Blanca Sorigué, CEO of CZFB, will welcome everybody at the opening ceremony. She will be accompanied by José Luis Bonet, President of Spanish Chamber of Commerce’s INCYDE Foundation; Mª Eugènia Gay, Delegate of the Government in Catalonia; Pere Navarro, Special Government Delegate at CZFB; and Laura Pérez Castaño, Deputy Major for Social Affairs, Global Justice, Feminism and LGTBI at Barcelona City Council.

The first session is called “Gender perspectives within the digital industry. Boosting Technology 4.0 development” and will gather, among others: Joana Barbany Freixa, Business Development Director in Page Group and Ambassador Women in Tech BCN; Gabriela Chasifan Chicaiza, Senior Software Developer and Leader for Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness at Thoughtworks Spain; and María Galindo García-Delgado, Board Member Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission at the European Commission. The second conference will address “Women’s leadership at the public sector”. Joan Clos, President of ASVAL and Lluïsa Moret Sabidó, Mayor of Sant Boi de Llobregat (Catalonia), among others, will be part of this panel.

Arantxa Bernadí Ros, Board Member and CEO of Bernadí Woman in Office Design, Sandra Garcia Tamayo, CEO of CBA Design (Ogilvy Spain), and Isabel Roig, CEO of Barcelona Design Centre (Barcelona Centre de Disseny), will be part of the panel called “Creativity leaded by women and its impact”. The next and last session of the day, called “Women’s role at jobs of the future” will be conducted by some of the following participants: José Luis Durán Moyano, Head teacher at Institut Escola del Treball (educational institution based in El Treball) and vicepresident of Asociación de Centros de FP FPEmpresa (association of vocational training educational centres); Natalia Molina, Director of Generation Spain Foundation’s Alianzas y Empresas; Gemma Sorigué Borrell, General Manager of Infojobs-Adevinta Spain; and Gemma Verdés Prieto, Director of Post-compulsory and Special Studies at Consorci d’Educació of Barcelona.

“Moving towards gender equality: Cases of success within the private industry” will be the first conference taking place on the 10^th of March, and the following personalities, among others, will attend: Lucila Ballarino, CEO of Womenalia; Sara Castro, Responsible for Human Resources at Danone Iberia; and Ángeles Delgado López, President of Fujitsu. The second session, called “Female Health and Science”, will have the contribution of Anna Bigas Salvans –Chief of Parc de Salut Mar Group, Responsible for Science at Ciberonc and Vice director at Institut Josep Carreras’ Investigación Preclínica (a research and health clinic)–, as well as María A. Blasco Marhuenda, Director at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, and Myriam Serrano, Chief editor at Woman magazine. The third conference will take place at 11 a.m. and it is called “Pros of gender diversity within the financial world”. Some of the speakers of this session are the following: María Alsina, Regional Director of Caixabank at Barcelona; Myriam Santos-Morán, Regional Director of Ibercaja Bank at the Mediterranean area; MªÀngels Vallvé Ribera, President of the Board of Directors of GVC Gaesco Group; and Mireia del Pozo, Director of European Women’s Study Centre (Centro Estudios Mujeres Europa).

After the lunch break, Anna Lloveras Armengol –Responsible for Science at Ocean Ecostructures–, Celeste Reglà, –Impact Ventures Programmer Officer at EIT Urban Mobility–, Inmaculada Riera, –CEO of Spanish Commerce Chamber– and Blanca Sorigue –CEO of CZFB and BWAW– will be part of the conference in which they will talk about “What are the challenges female entrepreneurs have to face?”. Finally, María Helena de Felipe –President of the Association of Organizations of Mediterranean Businesswomen–, Carmen Geha –Founder & Managing Director at Soltara Consulting– and Clara Gruitrooy –General Secretary for Euro-Mediterranean-Arab Association– will debate, among others, about “Female entrepreneurs at vulnerable countries”.

Blanca Sorigué said: “If we want to overcome gender obstacles, we should show the existence of women who have reached the highest responsibility positions, especially at fields where men have been historically more”. She also added: “The presence of female professionals is, not only a sign of success of some of the initiatives, but also reflects its role as an example to be followed by new generations and the future of female talent”.

In addition, Pere Navarro asserted: “Not only the representation of the main companies is important, but it also showing women’s hard work in the public field. If we want to accomplish UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 5 and its guidelines, both public administrations and private companies must work together. Being able to gather both at the same space is an honour and a privilege for us”.

Conferences will be hybrid again, due to the possibility of following every of them through Barcelona Woman Acceleration Week’s online platform. Registrations can be done through the event’s website, where further information is provided. Meetings will take place onsite at DFactory Barcelona: this is the main hub of Industry 4.0 in southern Europe, focused on the creation of an ecosystem that attracts talent, technology and investment in a unique space that brings together the most innovative companies, start-ups, innovation centres and laboratories.