The Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation Board confirms its commitment to extending the city’s “capital” status and continuing to host the Mobile World Congress until 2023

• Today the first meeting of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCB) Foundation Board was held, presided over by its new president, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau. Also attending were the new members representing the City of Barcelona: Gerardo Pisarello and Agustí Colom
• The session concluded with the formal delivery to GSMA of the proposal to sustain the city’s “capital” status and continue to host the Mobile World Congress (MWC), signed by all the Board Members

July 9, 2015

The Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation Board has certified the commitment of all its members to the renewal of Barcelona’s status as the world’s mobile “capital” and the site of the Mobile World Congress until 2023. At the Board meeting, held today at Barcelona City Hall, all the participants signed the joint proposal for the extension of the current accord with GSMA, which expires in 2018. The new president of the MWCB Foundation and Barcelona Mayor, Ada Colau, submitted the proposal to John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA Ltd., as a formal requirement of the offer submitted a few months ago.

It was Colau’s first time presiding over a meeting of the Board, which also featured participation by Deputy Mayor Gerardo Pisarello, and Agustí Colom, Alderman for Employment, Business and Tourism, as new members present on behalf of the City of Barcelona. The meeting included representatives from all the institutions and organisations making up the Foundation: Víctor Calvo-Sotelo, Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society; John Hoffman, Managing Director of GSMA Ltd.: Felip Puig, Minister of Business and Employment for the Regional Government of Catalonia; Julio Linares, Vice-president of Telefónica; Carmen Recio, General and Board Secretary at Orange Spain; Francisco Román, President of Vodafone Spain; Enric Crous, CEO of Damm; and Agustí Cordón, CEO of Fira de Barcelona and Vice-president of MWCB.

Barcelona’s digital transformation 

The Board had a very positive assessment of the MWCB’s activity and the initiatives promoted through its entrepreneurship, education, health and smart living programmes, it being particularly impressed by their impact on the public and industry. It also had praise for the collaboration with the mobile telephony operators forming the governing body (Telefónica, Orange and Vodafone), and Damm for the implementation of mobile technology-related projects.

In this regard the Board pointed to the consolidation of 4 Years From Now (4YFN), an event that stands as an international landmark for mobile startups and entrepreneurs. In 2015, its second year, the event tripled its preceding attendance figures. 4YFN is also growing and expanding its activity as a business platform beyond the MWC through its participation in leading international events that focus on innovation, including unBound Digital (United Kingdom) and the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival (Israel), and at industry forums like the Smart City Expo World Congress, focused on smart cities, held in Barcelona.

The Board also applauded the Acceleration Programme’s capacity to attract to Barcelona international accelerators like Startupbootcamp, a programme that licensed 10 IoT-sector startups during its first year in Barcelona. It also underscored the potential of the Technological Transfer Programme, which will foster the creation of companies centring on advanced technologies coming out of Spanish research centres and universities. Both projects’ activity will be channelled through the company Barcelona Mobile Ventures.

In the field of Education the mSchools programme, backed by MWCB in cooperation with the Regional Government of Catalonia, the City of Barcelona and GSMA, has received a warm welcome, with 25% of Catalonian students now participating in at least one of its initiatives. This year over 17,000 Catalonian students took the course “Let’s Mobilise Computer Technology,” with 32% of them shifting their professional preparation towards technological degrees.

After the Regional Government of Catalonia’s approval of the mHealth Cat Plan in February of 2015, MWCB’s mHealth team has been working, in collaboration with the Fundació TicSalut, on its implementation and development in the region. Plans call for the programme to also publish a white paper indicating the results of the Personal Health File pilot programme.

Finally, Smart Living, the programme that addresses citizens’ interaction with the city, will centre its activity on four main areas: commerce and tourism, digital identity, Big Data and transport. After the positive reaction to the two editions of Mobile Ready, the initiative designed to offer Barcelona citizens and visitors smart experiences, and the success of the first Mobile Thinking Days forum, centring on the impact of mobile technologies on tourism, the programme will continue working to encourage the adoption of mobile solutions by city agents.