BNEW reaches its fifth edition as a leading event in the new economy

• The new Aviation vertical is one of the main novelties of this fifth edition, which will focus on the aerospace industry as a key agent for the new economy.

• Organized by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, it will feature 7 verticals, the participation of 350 speakers, 100 sessions and more than 170 startups that will showcase disruptive solutions in the new economy.

• The CZFB has also presented the II Observatory of the New Economy BNEW 2024, which reveals that 2 out of 3 companies are committed to collaborating with startups and that 79% of startups already collaborate or are in the process of doing so with large companies or multinationals.

Barcelona, 3 October 2024.- The Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) presented this morning at a press conference the fifth edition of Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), which will be held from 7 to 10 October. The event, which will take place in the unique DFactory Barcelona building, consolidates its position as the world’s leading event for the new economy and makes visible its evolution over the last five years.

In this special edition, BNEW will bring together nearly 350 top speakers who will offer up to 140 hours of content distributed in 100 panels, sessions and debates. The event maintains its hybrid nature by being able to follow all the content telematically from anywhere in the world, through a state-of-the-art digital platform that also allows networking through the exchange of messages and the request for meetings between users. All in all, BNEW is expected to exceed last year’s 12,000 attendees, who will be able to enjoy a complete programme of content structured in seven key verticals: Digital Industry, Sustainability, Mobility, Aviation, Talent, Health and Experience.

As the main novelty, BNEW adds the new Aviation vertical, in which experts from the aerospace sector will discuss the current state of the aviation industry, on its way to becoming an innovative and sustainable sector. Thus, they will analyze how innovation, the latest trends in technology, digitalization, sustainable practices, are redefining the skies and opening new frontiers for aviation.

The special delegate of the State in the CZFB, Pere Navarro, explained during the press conference that “in 5 editions BNEW has become the great world leading event of the new economy that interrelates the key sectors of this new economy and that is capable of bringing together attendees from 106 different countries”. Navarro stressed that “the new economy is about being prepared, knowing how to adapt, collaborating and weaving alliances. Continuous training is no longer an option, but an obligation because everything evolves by leaps and bounds. We are not yet aware of everything that is to come”.

Following the success of the last edition, the sessions corresponding to the Digital Industry, Mobility and Sustainability verticals will be held on 7 and 8 October, while the panels corresponding to Aviation, Health and Talent will take place over the following two days, 9 and 10 October. The only vertical that will take place over the four days and in person will be BNEW Experience, bringing those attending the event closer to the leisure, cultural and gastronomic offer of the city of Barcelona.

For her part, the general director of the CZFB, Blanca Sorigué, has assured that “for 4 days BNEW will turn Barcelona into the capital of the economy of the future, a space where the professionals who mark the roadmap of the new economy come. This year we have 350 top-level speakers and more than 100 content sessions.” Sorigué also explained that “today changes are happening so immediately that we have to be prepared and know how to adapt to them. Collaboration and partnerships between governments, businesses and citizens will be key to building an economy that benefits all and ensures a prosperous and sustainable future”.

II Observatory of the New Economy

At the press conference held this morning, the special delegate of the State at the CZFB, Pere Navarro, and the general director of the CZFB, Blanca Sorigué, presented the II Observatory of the New Economy BNEW 2024, a study carried out by the CZFB to sound out the interests and concerns of the companies and startups participating in the event.  in which a total of 657 professionals have participated (64% companies and 36% startups).

The study reveals that 82% of all respondents indicate that their organizations are leading or plan to lead a sustainability initiative. Regarding the investments planned for next year, while 84% of startups plan to increase their workforce, 56.3% of companies plan to invest more than 100.000 euros in AI, Big Data, Blockchain or other technologies, even 22.7% are committed to exceeding one million euros of investment.

About collaboration between companies and startups, the Observatory shows that 40% of the companies surveyed already collaborate with startups and that 33% are studying this possibility, i.e. that 2 out of 3 companies are committed to outsourcing their services to a startup. For their part, 79% of the startups participating in the study collaborate or are in the process of collaborating with large companies or multinationals, a figure that corroborates that large corporations entrust part of their services to emerging companies.

All in all, the II Observatory of the New Economy carried out within the framework of the fifth edition of BNEW concludes that 82% of the entities surveyed, both companies and startups, collaborate on open innovation issues with companies from other sectors.

The special delegate of the State at the CZFB, Pere Navarro, pointed out that “BNEW is a clear example of the multiple possibilities offered by collaboration between companies from different sectors, being the only event in the world that generates networking opportunities with professionals, corporates, startups and administrations from seven different sectors”.

Record startup participation

The BNEW Startup Innovation Hub will feature the participation of more than 170 emerging companies, which will play a leading role in their corresponding verticals. These startups will be able to network through face-to-face B2B meetings and the BNEW platform with professionals from different economic sectors, industries, companies, administrations and institutions, as well as access specialized knowledge of the sector with free tickets.

All the projects submitted will be candidates for the BNEW 2024 Best Startup Award, which will be awarded in each vertical. The awards ceremony will take place at a gala dinner that will take place at DFactory Barcelona on Wednesday, October 9 from 7 p.m. In addition, the five finalist startups from each vertical will present their projects in a round of pitches that will take place on Thursday 10 on the set of the Talent vertical, starting at 1 pm.

Blanca Sorigué, general director of the CZFB and BNEW, stressed that “we are committed to giving visibility to startups at BNEW because the innovative format of the event allows the quality content we offer to reach anyone anywhere in the world, while that same person can network with the rest of the participants, through the digital platform. In other words, we connect 12,500 professionals from different sectors in a single space”.

In this regard, it should be noted that the Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW) is reaffirmed in its fifth edition, as a benchmark event that has positioned Barcelona as the capital of the 4.0 economy, as confirmed by the data accumulated in these five years: 37 verticals, 24 TV sets, more than 2,500 speakers, 735 sessions, 880 hours of content,  more than 48,000 attendees, 424 startups participating in the BNEW Startup Innovation Hub and nearly 1,400,000 views through its YouTube channel, where it already exceeds 1,000 videos published.