“It is incredible to think that ten years ago we were only four cats walking through the Montjuïc Fairgrounds,” reflected yesterday Pere Duran, director of the 4YFN entrepreneur congress, while walking through one of the crowded hallways of the hall, which is held parallel, but integrated, to the Mobile World Congress.
On its 10th anniversary, 4YFN is fitter than ever. It has gained a pavilion compared to the previous edition, presents more vigorous stands and, in some areas, has covered the floor with carpet, a privilege that until now only Mobile attendees enjoyed.
“We hope to break attendance records, exceeding last year's 50,000 visitors and 900 exhibitors,” said Duran, who did not venture to detail more figures. Among the attendees, you can find the usual suspects: Barcelona Activa, Tech Barcelona, the Action department of the Generalitat, Enisa, Caixabank, Banco Sabadell, public and private universities, investors, business schools and dozens of small startups – both local as international – who want to make themselves known and gain clientele.
“4YFN is the biggest festival of Barcelona's digital ecosystem, an exhausting but essential congress to stay connected with each other and project ourselves towards the global market,” said Miquel Martí, general director of the Tech Barcelona association, which has experienced the expansion of the congress. practically from the beginning.
According to their perception (compared with other agents), 4YFN has become a reference show in Europe among professionals linked to the world of startups. “4YFN is the largest entrepreneur fair in Europe after the Web Summit, which is held annually in Lisbon,” said Martí. “It is a complete reference. In the last decade, the congress has scaled in the same way that the startups in our country have done,” said Irene Gómez, CEO of Wayra, the Telefónica company specialized in startups, which has also experienced the transformation of the congress during the last decade.
Among the crowd, yesterday you could see long lines of young professionals waiting to attend the conferences given by leaders in the sector, such as Ariadna Font (Alinia, former Twitter), Rubén Bonet (Fractus), Jordi Romero (Factorial) or Avi Meir ( Travelperk), among others. The list of speakers is long and, in the coming days, interventions are expected from other professionals, such as Oscar Pierre (Glovo), Olga Shikhantsova (Speedinvest), Sara Bisbe (Aily Labs) or Pau Gasol (former athlete and investor).
In addition to young people, yesterday there were also veteran professionals, dressed in suits, browsing among the stands. “For the senior executives of the Mobile World Congress, the 4YFN is a showcase of the trends that will dominate the technology industry in the future,” said Gómez.
As it could not be otherwise, the trend that is being the protagonist of 4YFN this year is Artificial Intelligence. So are digital health, businesses that fight climate change and those that develop deep tech technologies or those with a high technological component. “This year, we have opted for these three verticals because we see that they will be key in determining the future of the economy and society,” Duran explained.
If at the MWC mobile phones lose prominence every year, the truth is that at 4YFN they have never had it. “Here we come to look for business opportunities in a broad sense, to meet startups open to collaborating and improving Vueling's operations,” commented Javier Álvarez, the airline's IT director, who is repeating this for the third consecutive year.
Less ambitious is the commitment of the Music Tech Hub, a project that begins its journey with the aim of promoting startups linked to the music industry in Catalonia. “4YFN is a great showcase that allows us to reach audiences different from those we are used to and meet potential collaborators,” said Rita Giménez, one of the promoters of the initiative.
Despite having become a large-scale event, 4YFN maintains its initial mission intact, which is none other than to make visible the work of startups by taking advantage of the potential of the world mobile congress.
