First open call for organisations and first event for SMEs, the main new features of Mobile Week Barcelona 2022

• The sixth edition of Mobile Week Barcelona will feature more than 60 activities in 40 different venues throughout the city of Barcelona
• This year is the most collaborative edition: almost half of the proposals will be organised by the entities that took part in Mobile Week Barcelona’s open call for proposals
• This year’s edition will feature the first day dedicated exclusively to SMEs and self-employed. Pymes Day is a day of activities, workshops and talks to provide tools and promote the digital transformation of the productive ecosystem

15 March, 2022

Barcelona, ​​15^th of March 2022.- Mobile Week Barcelona, an initiative of Mobile World Capital, promoted jointly with the City Council, reaches its sixth edition with a programme designed in collaboration with Barcelona’s organisations and focusing on the digitisation of SMEs. From the 28^th of March to the 3^rd of April, Mobile Week will connect the tools offered by digital technology with the social, cultural, and ethical concerns and needs of citizens, through different participatory activities open to all citizens – from conferences to workshops, debates, experimentation, and events such as Pymes Day – bringing technology closer to the public. The week will conclude with Family Day, a weekend of activities designed especially for children and families.

Throughout the week, more than 60 activities will take place in 40 different venues throughout the city of Barcelona. The proposals focus on three themes that have become particularly relevant in recent times: digital rights, empowered digital professionals – with special emphasis on disinformation and the promotion of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Engineering, Graphic Arts and Mathematics) in teens -, and culture, creativity, entertainment, and new digital media.

Under the slogan “Where technology and society connect”, this sixth edition aims to make citizens the protagonists of the event and create spaces that challenge them in order to make them part of the process, so that they can really be at the centre of the digital transformation and acquire a more critical sense of the impact of technology on society itself.

The initiative will allow citizens to reflect and debate, but also to experience, the impact that the use of technology has on their daily lives and the digital future. Cristina Colom, head of Mobile Week at Mobile World Capital Barcelona, emphasises that “Mobile Week is a key player to help fight against the digital divide. We have a very clear mission: to ensure that no one is left behind and to awaken the desire to learn and understand, to go beyond and encourage critical thinking”.

In turn, the third deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, says: “Mobile Week has established itself as a benchmark event in our city, we want technology to be focused on people to improve their quality of life. After the pandemic, we all must be aware that the introduction of technologies in our lives cannot allow us to generate new inequalities and that is why we have to be active, educate ourselves, inform ourselves, become aware of our digital rights and prevent technologies from having a negative impact on our society. In addition, this year we are placing special emphasis on the perspective of women because we cannot afford to lose half of society’s talent in the design and drawing of the technology we want, which has a positive impact on people’s quality of life.

Collaborative programme

One of the main novelties this year was the open call to all public and private entities and institutions in the city to present their proposals for Mobile Week activities. Thus, 30 of the scheduled activities will be organised by the city’s associations and institutions, making this edition the most collaborative since its inception, with the aim of bringing together all those agents who work daily to address the digital divide.

Some of the outstanding proposals are those of the Hospital de la Vall d’Hebron, with a round table on the humanisation of hospitals through immersive technology; the Esplai Foundation, with a seminar on education and the use of technology with a gender perspective; Habilis of Abacus Cooperativa, which will hold a workshop to encourage STEAM vocations among children and, above all, girls; and All Women, with an open day with the dissemination of participatory technology focused on women. The Ateneu Barcelonès, Fab Lab Barcelona, Mecal, Colectic, Barcelona Pensa (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Barcelona), Fundación Telefónica and the Catalan Down’s Syndrome Foundation, among others, who will also contribute with their knowledge in the field of technology and society as part of Mobile Week Barcelona 2022.

SMEs, the productive front against the digital divide

Another new feature of this edition focuses on the digitisation of the city’s essential productive ecosystem: SMEs and self-employed. Which, for the first time, incorporates the Pymes Day, which will be held on the 30^th of March at the Antigua Fábrica Estrella Damm in Barcelona. According to the current context, where the pandemic has caused an accelerated and asymmetric digitisation of companies, before the pandemic, only 14% of companies in our country had a digitisation plan. This means that the vast majority were not digitally prepared. With this special programme, Mobile Week Barcelona aims to provide ways for SMEs and self-employed to acquire digital skills through workshops and presentations.

The day will focus on three thematic areas: digital marketing and e-commerce; digitisation of the company; and cybersecurity. The contents of the activities will be carried out in collaboration with the Universidad Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona Activa, Cibervoluntarios, Allwomen, and the Barcelona City Council’s Department of Social Rights, Global Justice, Feminism and LGTBI.

Free activities for all ages

The programme includes a wide range of free activities open to everyone, led by more than 80 experts and analysts such as Charlotte Webb, CEO and founder of Feminist Internet; Lorena Jaume-Palasí, founder and director of Ethical Tech Society; Simona Levi, co-founder of XNET; María Sefidari, President of the Wikimedia Foundation; Laura Fernández, CEO and co-founder of AllWomen; Nacho Guadix, Head of Education and Digital Rights for Children at UNICEF Spain; and Mar López, Director of the Cybersecurity and Disinformation Unit of the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary of the National Security Council. Among the programmed activities is the workshop “A connected world”, organised by CaixaBank, which repeats for the third year in its commitment to promote scientific and technological vocations among the youngest Barcelona residents; or the Cibernàrium of Barcelona Activa, where they offer various training courses in digital professional skills, like disinformation, Artificial Intelligence and digital rights.

The inaugural event will take place on Monday 28^th of January at 19h, at the Digital Arts Centre IDEAL, with a totally immersive experience, where technology and humanism will interact with the philosopher Elisabeth Duval and the designer Isabel Inés Casanovas.

Mobile Week Barcelona will conclude with Family Day, a day to be held on Sunday 3^rd of April at the Antigua Fábrica Estrella Damm in Barcelona, designed to enjoy, and learn as a family through entertainment. For the third consecutive year, children and their families will be able to learn about different aspects of technology in a dynamic and fun way. Family Day aims to be a meeting point to discuss technology as an ally. To debate or understand and even propose creative solutions to the great challenges of today, stressing the importance of using it safely. The Family Day event includes activities such as the Digicraft Workshop, where children’s digital skills are promoted with different training itineraries in emerging technologies, organised by the Vodafone Foundation, or the round table ‘Impact of technology on adolescence: relationships, risks and opportunities’ in collaboration with UNICEF Spain, the University of Santiago de Compostela and the College of Engineers, among others.

Mobile Week Barcelona was born in 2017 with the aim of bringing technology closer to citizens to empower and provide them with the necessary skills to leave no one behind in the digital transformation. It is a Mobile World Capital initiative promoted jointly with Barcelona City Council and with the support of CaixaBank and Damm.