The World Cities 2022 report, prepared by the UN, estimates that 68% of the world's population will live in cities in 2050, compared to 56% in 2021, which will mean an increase of 2.2 billion people living in metropolises. In this context of great changes, the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) promotes the Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), which will debate the main trends in the real estate market and investments from October 3 to 6, in an event that already It is in its third edition and it expects to bring together more than 12,000 attendees and 1,500 registered startups.
Real Estate, Digital Industry, Mobility, Sustainability, Talent, Invest and Experience are the seven themes selected to structure the event, due to the important involvement of each of them in this global transformation. This new edition presents a new proposal: BNEW Invest. Created with the aim of addressing new investment trends, this section will offer a precise perspective on the risks and opportunities in the economy that emerged after the impact of the pandemic, both for large companies and for SMEs in Europe, Latin America, the United States United States, Africa and the Middle East.
BNEW Invest will feature personalities such as Juan Pablo Rivera, CEO of the Bogota Free Trade Zone (Colombia); Carlos Wong, General Director of the Coyol Free Trade Zone (Costa Rica); o Maria Camila Moreno, executive director of the Association of Free Zones of the Americas (AZFA).
In turn, for greater interest in the real estate sector, it will also feature the economist Gonzalo Bernardos, the president of the General Council of the Official Associations of Real Estate Agents of Spain and Barcelona, and of the Association of Real Estate Agents of Catalonia, Gerard Duel; the president of the Association of Building Promoters of Spain, Xavier Vilajoana; and the president of the National Association of Real Estate Agents of Spain, Vicenç Hernández, will be speakers at BNEW Real Estate.
The most prominent companies in the real estate world will attend a conference where 600 specialists will analyze the current economic transformation over 180 hours of content. During these days relevant real estate issues will be addressed under the axes: macroeconomics, investment, residential, commercial real estate, sustainability - Smart Cities and Proptech. One of the essential sessions will be “NextGeneration. Defining the future of the real estate industry”. The meeting will also place a special focus on the social aspect of this sector with the session "Social innovation in housing".
“We deal with the different themes transversally. In this way, we talk about something as important as sustainability in verticals such as Real State, Mobility or Invest, in addition to having its own section”, explains Blanca Sorigué, general director of the CZFB and BNEW. Likewise, during the celebration of the BNEW Real Estate, the CZFB will present the new approach of the Barcelona Meeting Point (BMP), which will be resumed in 2023, to respond to the new situation that the sector is experiencing due to the impact of COVID-19 , to the rapid development of the 4.0 economy and to new forms and lifestyles.
"Given that industry 4.0 is advancing at such a fast pace, with the third edition of BNEW we want to analyze the transformation that sectors such as real estate are undergoing in the advance towards the new economy", explains Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the CZFB. "Thanks to this meeting, Barcelona will once again become the capital of digitization where different businesses will be able to connect with each other to advance and promote projects with a social and economic impact", he points out.
The event will take place in the spectacular DFactory building, the main node of industry 4.0 in southern Europe, promoted by the CZFB. In this location, the participants will explore new investment trends and destination opportunities with the aim of establishing new businesses. After two years marked by the restrictions of the pandemic, the CZFB bets in this edition on face-to-face.
DFactory will be the protagonist of all the conferences, panels and experiences. This avant-garde center is also a tool to promote the transformation of the Spanish productive framework and supports companies during their digitization process, promoting the creation of an ecosystem to attract talent, technology and investment.
The desire to promote face-to-face events has not made this congress forget other forms of communication. The CZFB will offer a hybrid experience through its digital platform where all activities can be followed from anywhere in the world, both live and recorded. BNEW's goal is to help create economic opportunity and drive progress toward the new economy. In this sense, Blanca Sorigué points out that “BNEW was born with a clear international vocation” and adds that “this year, we hope to surpass ourselves with more than 12,000 attendees from more than 100 countries”.
