BNEW 2021 closed with a record participation and consolidated Barcelona as the world capital of the new economy

• More than 12,000 online participants, 3,000 physical attendees and 33,000 views in the second edition of the new economy week organized by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona.

• During the last day, the following debates must be highlighted: Blue economy: a trend or a need? Conclusions Barcelona 4.0: towards a city project and affordable housing rental plan and Urban regeneration: a strategy to revitalize cities.

• The closing ceremony took place at the Estación de Francia with Raquel Sánchez, Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Jaume Collboni, First Deputy Mayor of the Barcelona City Council, Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in at the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona and president of BNEW and Albert Castellanos, secretary of the Department of Business and Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Barcelona, 8 October 2021. – BNEW – Barcelona New Economy Week, a hybrid and 100% professional event organized by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), has successfully closed its second edition today, projecting Barcelona as the world capital of the new economy. Driven in the midst of a pandemic, BNEW’s objective since its inception has been to promote global economic recovery, a purpose for which it has doubled the conferences in this edition: apart from last year’s topics such as logistics, real estate, digital industry, e-commerce, and economic zones, it has delivered five more topics such as mobility, sustainability, science, talent and the city. During the four days of the event, which has generated 240 hours of content, it has had 12,137 people who have followed the event online and another 3,000 who have done so physically throughout the four days of BNEW. Likewise, a total of 33,828 views have been reached. The most followed sessions have been those of the inspirational speakers and the logistics, real estate, digital industry, sustainability and eCommerce verticals. The Barcelona New Economy Week thus closed its second edition, reaffirming its role as a catalyst for the recovery of the economy, generating high-quality and interesting information that aims to provide solutions to the context of social and economic transformation, with a clear focus on sustainability. and digitization.

Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, ​​highlighted that “we closed the second edition of BNEW with figures that confirm its success For four days, Barcelona has once again become the headquarters of the new economy and has shown to have a strong, consolidated and diverse business fabric, as well as great potential in terms of digitization, innovation and progress ”. Likewise, Navarro has announced the dates for the third edition of the event, which will take place from October 3 to 6, 2022.

BNEW in numbers

 The event featured an agile and dynamic program of debates and panels with 821 top-level international speakers in 244 sessions. Likewise, the hybrid format of the event has guaranteed that 47% of participants were international, belonging to 145 different countries, among which th Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Argentina stand out. A totally disruptive event whose contents have been followed both in person and online, live or delayed, through a unique and innovative technological platform.

Blanca Sorigué, CEO of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona and BNEW has stated that “we are very proud and happy with the impact of BNEW in its second edition. Promoting an event of these characteristics, with a clear international and multisectoral vocation, was undoubtedly a risky idea in these times. However, the national and international online monitoring figures show that companies and professionals need a shared space more than ever to advance towards the new economy, with actors from all over the world and with an eye on the economy’s reactivation”.

Sustainability within the economic framework

The panel: Blue Economy: a trend or a necessity? held within BNEW Sustainability has been one of the most outstanding ones on the fourth day of the event. It has taken place at the Roca Barcelona Gallery and has brought together experts as renown as Gemma Quílez Badía, scientific director of Seastainable Ventures; Kristian Teleki, Global Director of the Oceans Program, Director of Friends of Ocean Action and Head of the Secretariat of the High Level Group for a Sustainable Ocean Economy; Anna Majó Crespo, Director of Business Innovation and Head of the Blue Economy at Barcelona Activa; Rémi Parmentier, founder and director of The Varda Group; and Jordi Torrent, head of strategy for the Port of Barcelona.

At the session, the professionals concluded that sustainability must go hand in hand with the economy to achieve a resilient planet, and that Barcelona, ​​as a Mediterranean city, must enhance this opportunity in its new economic agenda (BCN GreenDeal) and the local and international ecosystem jointly promote its blue economy.

Towards a new city model

BNEW Real Estate delivered the panel Conclusions Barcelona 4.0: towards a city project  with the aim of analyzing the city of Barcelona to see what solutions could be applied to turn it into a Smart City. In this context, the speakers were Aurora Catà, president of Barcelona Global, Javier Faus, president of Cercle d’Economia, Adolfo Ramirez-Escudero, CEO of CBRE Spain, and Alfonso Vergara, president and founder of Fundación Metrópoli. The moderator of the session was Enrique Martínez Laguna, vice president of CBRE Spain. The main conclusion of the panel was that Barcelona has great leadership potential in terms of 4.0 cities, for which it is essential to have a clear vision, be strong, have great consensus and take care of even the smallest details.

BNEW Real Estate has also hosted the session Affordable Housing Rental Plan. Urban regeneration: a strategy for revitalizing cities. Cristina Alvarez-Campana, production director of SEPES, acted as moderator and highlighted that for the entity urban regeneration is not a trend, since it has been acting in this regard for a long time, which is why it has a long history “regenerating and putting itself at the service of the citizenry”. Among the participants, the special delegate of the State in the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, ​​Pere Navarro, pointed out that the CZFB has some land in the Marina del Prat Vermell where the construction of houses “would serve as a transition from a hard place like the industrial area of the Zona Franca de Barcelona with the city of Barcelona”. David Lucas Parrón, secretary general of Urban Agenda and Housing for the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, has pointed out that “the measures to promote the rental of affordable housing seek greater cohesion and well-being for citizens. Cooperation between communities and municipalities is optimal, also requiring private collaboration”. For his part, Asier Abaunza, Councilor for Urban Planning and Works, Services, Urban Rehabilitation and Public Space of the Bilbao City Council, has assured that Bilbao is an example in terms of the effectiveness of public resources and has pointed to the “difficulty of public-public collaboration, when two administrations must work together on the same project”. Lastly, Antonio Muñoz, councilor for Urban Habitat, Culture and Tourism of the Seville City Council, pointed out that Seville is “dotted with heritage and we understand that if we put it at the service of urban regeneration, connected with the city model that we want to achieve, can play an important role in connecting peripheral neighborhoods and changing dynamics”.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was be attended by Raquel Sánchez, Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda; Jaume Collboni, First Deputy Mayor of the Barcelona City Council; Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, ​​Albert Castellanos, secretary of the Department of Business and Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and Blanca Sorigué, CEO of the CZFB.