La Zona Franca de Barcelona has reinforced its commitment to the new economy with the expanding of BNEW

• The CZFB is consolidating its role as an economic recovery engine organzing a new edition of the event, which last year had nearly 11,000 registrations from 111 countries and 360 speakers.

• The event will double its program with five new areas (Mobility, Sustainability, Talent, Science and City) that will add up to those already present in the first edition (Logistics, Digital Industry, Ecommerce, Economic Zones and Real Estate).

Barcelona, 29 April 2021.- El Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) is boosting the second edition of the Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), which will be held from October 5 to 8 with an expanded program that doubles the topics covered in its first edition and thus consolidating the role of the CZFB as a recovery and new economy engine. The second edition of BNEW will feature ten subjects that will address different sectors and topics around future challenges, with a very clear focus on innovation, talent and sustainability. Thus, to the five 2020 themes (Logistics, Digital Industry, Ecommerce, Economic Zones and Real Estate), five new areas of a more transversal nature will be added this year: Mobility, Sustainability, Talent, Science and City.

The CZFB thus redoubles its commitment to generate a benchmark event after BNEW’s   first edition success, which counted with nearly 11,000 registered professionals from 111 countries. In this sense, the special delegate of the State at the CZFB, Pere Navarro, stated that “the first BNEW’s extraordinary balance has confirmed the need and usefulness of an event of these characteristics, 100% professional, totally disruptive with a hybrid format, both physical and virtual ”. In this sense, Navarro added that “BNEW is an example of how the Consorci de la Zona Franca acts as a transformation engine”.

The second edition of BNEW will continue to strive towards internationalization as a key element, as well as a acting as a tool to generate business through 100% virtual networking using artificial intelligence, matching interests and directly connecting supply and demand. Likewise, the participating companies of the BVillage space will be able to present their products or services via videoconference while they interact with the attendees. The organization expects to increase the number of companies present in this space from the 128 companies that participated last year to 400 in this new edition. The CZFB also plans to expand the number of speakers and go from 389 to 700 in this new edition. Servihabitat will once again be the main sponsor. The servicer, with extensive experience in the management of financial and real estate assets, understands innovation and the commitment to talent and sustainability as the only way to evolve and adapt to the new environment, especially marked by specialization and synergies between all the economic areas. In this way, with their support, the entity highlights the important role of the real estate sector as one of the engines of economic recovery.

BNEW will also focus on the promotion of new entrepreneurial projects with a high component of innovation that operate in any of the thematic areas developed by the event. Last year 52 start-ups were present at BNEW. Five of them (one from each sector present at the event) were granted an award to the Best Innovation, delivered by the king Felipe VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. Blanca Sorigué, CEO of the CZFB, has pointed out that “BNEW is the only scenario that allows generating synergies and business between companies from very different sectors”, and adds with respect to the 2021 edition that “we will once again place Barcelona as a world innovation center. This year also with a new proposal of physical experience that will allow us to enjoy the city and the recovery of normal life ”.