BNEW 2022, the biggest disruptive event of the new economy, kicks off

• The opening ceremony of Barcelona New Economy Week was presided over by the Government Delegate in Catalonia, Mª Eugenia Gay, third deputy mayor of Barcelona City Council, Laia Bonet, Secretary for Business and Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Albert Castellanos, special delegate of the State at the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, Pere Navarro, CEO at Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, Blanca Sorigué

• The emblematic DFactory building hosts the third edition of the BNEW, with themes such as the future of urban mobility, industrial digitalisation and the circular economy

Barcelona, 3 October 2022 – The third edition of Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), promoted by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), kicked off today with more than a hundred experts sharing with all attendees their learnings in relation to their work, covering different areas of the new economy. The event, which is being held in person at the emblematic DFactory Barcelona building although it has a hybrid nature, so that all the conferences can also be attended remotely, has explored multiple aspects related to the new socio-economic opportunities on its first day.

Opening ceremony

The event began at 10:00 am with an opening ceremony presided over by the Government Delegate in Catalonia, Mª Eugenia Gay, Third Deputy Mayor of Barcelona City Council, Laia Bonet, Secretary for Business and Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Albert Castellanos, Special State Delegate at the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, Pere Navarro, CEO at the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, Blanca Sorigué.

The Government delegate in Catalonia wanted to emphasise that “Barcelona, as a leading technology hub in Europe, is an attractive location for investment and the growth of the new economy in our country”. Mª Eugenia Gay added that “Public-private collaboration is an excellent lever for Industry 4.0”.

Pere Navarro, in his speech: “since its first edition, we saw that the BNEW was necessary for the economic reactivation, generating proposals and relationships between the people linked to this environment”. The delegate also stated that “there is no better setting for this event than the DFactory building, Barcelona’s factory of the future for the world. A place where 500 people already work innovating for the new economy and where new projects are created with the best talent”.

Among the various events that took place today, the new challenges of urban mobility for public transport were discussed in the session entitled “The challenge of public transport in smart cities”. The presentation was moderated by Pilar Conesa, CEO and founder of ANTEVERTI, who said that “in Barcelona 7 million people enter and leave the metropolitan area every day, which is a challenge for public entities“. Given this premise, the participants, Carles Casas, Director of Strategic Planning and Foresight of Ferrocarrils de Catalunya, and Gerardo Lertxundi, CEO of TMB, listed the keys to achieving a better sustainable flow of large populations. Casas commented that “the implementation of technology is an important part of sustainability in public transport. For example, the TMobilitat ticket is a gateway to countless options for both management and integration of services; it is not only a change of support, but also to be able to bring together a wider range of options and operators for users”. Lertxundi, for his part, highlighted the innovation in public transport using liquid hydrogen in its bus network to obtain zero emissions, Barcelona being the leading city in Europe.

Some of the most outstanding sessions held during the first day were “Public-private collaboration in the field of housing in Spain and Catalonia”, “@22, a focus for talent and investment” and “Investment in Senior Housing & Healthcare” at BNEW Real Estate; “Education & SMEs, a joint challenge” and “Tech Talent or how technologies are at the service of talent” in BNEW Talent; “Building the future of mobility in the Mediterranean”, in BNEW Mobility; “Solutions to the water emergency” in BNEW Sustainability; or “How will the metaverse affect the smart manufacturing model” in BNEW Digital Industry; among others. Also, in the BNEW Experience area, attendees were able to enjoy a show cooking given by the chef Nuria Gironés from the Ca l’Isidre restaurant and a cheese tasting by Xerigots.

Mónica Peinado, Head of News at Cadena Ser, moderated the BNEW Real State vertical session “BCertain – The Era of uncertainty. How will financial markets evolve?” with the participation of Ismael Clemente, CEO of Merlin Properties, and Gonzalo Bernardos, Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona. The roundtable focused mainly on the reaction of financial markets, housing and real estate and central banks’ control of inflation.

“It is possible that Spain will suffer a slight recession during the second half of the year and 2023. In particular, the real estate sector is better positioned for this scenario than during the 2008 crisis. Right now, the rise in interest rates and raw materials, especially energy, is having a greater impact on other industries such as technology,” said Gonzalo Bernardos, professor of economics. For his part, Ismael Clemente, CEO of Merlin Properties, said that “the real estate sector is no stranger to the economy, however, it is slowing down. It is possible that we will see a drop in consumerism, an increase in savings and a reduction in transactions in the real estate sector in the coming months.

The first day of BNEW concluded with an inspirational talk by Josef Ajram, a stock market specialist, who spoke about his own experiences in the sector, connecting with the audience through his own experiences.

“The main objective of the BNEW is to contribute to generating economic opportunities and to promote progress towards the new economy. One of the hallmarks of BNEW is its transgressive character, which has been a revolution and has marked the future of new events.  And in this third edition we hope to meet the expectations of all attendees,” said Blanca Sorigué, CEO at the CZFB. “In this year’s edition, we are continuing our commitment to a global event thanks to the interconnection of professionals from all over the world to create synergies, and we have strengthened the face-to-face and experiential aspects. This year we are committed to showing the world the potential of the DFactory, bringing together the on-site development of the event in this building,” she added.

The BNEW has a website with information about the event, open for registration. In addition, through its state-of-the-art digital platform, any user can follow all the activities from anywhere in the world, both live and recorded. Meanwhile, the highlights of the event will be disseminated on Twitter and LinkedIn profiles.