The American multinational McDonald's brings together from today until Thursday in Barcelona more than 14,000 managers, employees, franchisees and suppliers of the company around the world in its biannual convention, which for the first time takes place outside of North America.
A legion of workers from the fast food firm participate in the meetings held at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via venue and move around the city, eager to have fun, and dressed in corporate clothing (vests, t-shirts, logoed sneakers , flag caps of their respective countries. The main objective is to reinforce the feeling of belonging to the company in a meeting that this year reaches its 30th edition.
The decision to move this convention to Barcelona was announced in September 2022 and the company has given few details of the meeting, although as reported yesterday by Betevé, a great end to the party is planned with a private concert for those attending these corporate meetings with the participation of leading stars of the international music scene such as Dua Lipa and The Killers.
This is the 30th time that McDonald's has organized this meeting. The first convention took place in Florida in 1965, when the company that had been founded 10 years earlier had 738 restaurants. It is currently present in more than a hundred countries and has more than 40,000 stores.
With this first McDonald's convention to take place on European soil, which has contributed to high occupancy in Barcelona hotels, as well as in bars and restaurants, the Catalan capital takes over from places like Las Vegas, Toronto, Chicago or Hawaii.
In Barcelona these days there is a presence of personnel from the American company from all over the world. The executives participating in this international convention go to Barcelona with their expenses paid, while the franchises have had to pay for their flights and accommodation.
The United States is the country with the most McDonald's stores open, followed by China and Japan. Spain, according to 2021 data, occupied position number 13 with more than 550 restaurants.
