MWCB positions Barcelona as an international leader in entrepreneurship, tourism, health and mobile education

• 4YFN builds on its standing as Europe’s top startup event in the mobile ecosystem
• MWCB will bring together for the first time 500 educators at the Mobile World Congress to discuss the educational opportunities offered by mobile devices
• Barcelona will offer visitors and citizens pioneering smart tourism experiences
• Mobile World Centre will share with citizens the latest developments to be presented at the congress

February 19, 2015

Mobile World Capital Barcelona intensifies its regular activity as the Mobile World Congress approaches. The objective pursued by all the programming is to showcase the potential for society promised by mobile transformation in sectors such as entrepreneurship, health, education and tourism. The MWCB events will transcend the activities of the congress and 4Years From Now (4YFN), spilling over to different sites around the city, such as the facilities at Montjuïc and Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, the Mobile World Centre, Barcelona-El Prat Airport, and several hotels of Barcelona.

The second edition of 4YFN, an event of MWCB and GSMA Mobile World Congress is expected to double the participation of startups and investors to convene over 5,000 mobile industry professionals. This will further establish 4YFN, as a leader in entrepreneurship and mobile innovation at the European level. The event takes place at the Fira de Barcelona facilities on Montjuïc from 2-4 March. On 5 March 4YFN attendees will have access the Mobile World Congress facilities on the Gran Via, where they will be able to schedule meetings with exhibitors and visitors.

4YFN will boast the participation of Slava Rubin, co-founder of IndieGoGo, one of the largest international crowdfunding platforms, who joins the panel of professionals already confirmed. Of special note are Andrew Creighton and Hosi Simon, president and global general manager of VICE Media; Renaud Visage, co-founder and CTO of Eventbrite; Rich Riley, CEO of Shazam; John Ploumitsakos, senior director of Product Strategy & Sales at Twitter; Mike Curtis, vice-president of Engineering at Airbnb; and Philippe Botteri, a partner at Accel Partners, the fund that invested in Facebook, Dropbox, LinkedIn and Kayak when they were still just getting started.

mSchools, supporting Catalonia’s mobile educators and students

On 26 February the third edition of the Mobile Learning Awards 2015 will take place. These prizes recognise top educational initiatives using mobile devices. This year they will include a new category, “Mobile History Map”, that will recognise the best proposal to the mSchools heritage elements georeferencing project, featuring participation by primary, secondary and vocational training students. The new category joins “Educational Experiences with Mobile Devices” and “Audiovisual Micronarrations,” in place since the first edition of the awards, which recognise the innovative work of Catalonian teachers and students.

On 5 March, as part of the Mobile World Congress, mSchools will gather for the first time 500 representatives from Catalonian educational centres in order to analyse mobile technologies’ potential to make valuable contributions to the educational field.

Advancing in smart tourism: Mobile Ready and Mobile Thinking Days

This year Mobile Ready, the MWCB project marking its second edition, will focus on tourism, an industry key to Barcelona. From 27 February to 6 March Mobile Ready will offer smart experiences to travellers and Barcelona citizens.

A digital retail experience using mobile devices at Terminal 1 of Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, a 300º panoramic view of Barcelona from the terrace of the Hotel Royal thanks to mobile devices featuring augmented reality and virtual reality, choosing a menu with a digital table at the Condes de Barcelona Hotel, discovering a smart room at the Hotel Eurostars BCN Design, an innovative way to access and pay for services at the Hotel Alexandra, and 3D, life-size, telepresence holograms at the Hotel NH are just some of the experiences and activities offered by Mobile Ready. Through all of them travellers and citizens will experience mobile technology’s potential in the tourism sector and discover the experiences and services that this sector will offer in the near future.

The aim of Mobile Ready is to share with citizens trends in the mobile sector featuring technological solutions applied in a real urban context, and to promote the adoption of mobile solutions by agents in the industry.

With the same objective, MWCB, the IESE Business School and the strategic consultancy firm RocaSalvatella have launched Mobile Thinking Days, a forum designed to address the digital transformation of the tourism sector and the challenges that it will confront in the coming years. 30 innovation, technology, strategy, e-business and marketing executives from prominent hotels and key infrastructures, and companies in the leisure, entertainment, commerce, culture and dining sectors have already engaged in two days of discussions. The last of the four days scheduled will take place on 2 March, with a double session at Mobile World Congress and 4Years From Now (4YFN).

The evolution of mobile health

On the occasion of the Mobile World Congress, the MWCB mHealth team will hold “Health & Wellness,” a 2-day event aimed at health professionals during the Mobile World Congress.  On 3 March at the Mobile World Centre and on 4 March at the Mobile World Congress more than 200 professionals will participate in the only event specifically addressing mobile health on the congress’s program.

mHealth will also offer the “Global mHealth Marketplace and Innovation” seminar, an overview of the latest developments in the health market, to be held on Thursday, 5 March at the Mobile World Congress.

In addition, this February the Regional Government of Catalonia approved the mHealth.cat Mobility Plan, coordinated by the Fundació TICSalut in collaboration with MWCB. This is the first strategic mHealth plan in the European Union, and its objective is to facilitate the transformation of the system and contribute to its sustainability, as well as to improve and to personalise people’s health and well-being.

Mobile World Centre, a window on the congress

The MWCentre will become a platform illustrating innovations in mobile technology. Starting on the 2nd and during the two first weeks of March, Telefónica will be displaying, on the ground floor of the MWCentre in Barcelona, the latest developments that nine manufacturers of tablets, smartphones and wearables will be bringing to this year’s edition of the Mobile World Congress. Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, LG, Huawei, Motorola, HTC, Alcatel and ZTE will have exclusive areas to show off their most recent releases to all citizens, with promoters who will explain to the public their new products’ features and carry out technological tests to share with visitors their mobile devices’ technological firsts.

On Monday 2 March “Connected beings” will kick off, a route through several installations offering an in-depth look at the value of shared information. The event will turn the Mobile World Centre into the capital of connected life, with an itinerary illustrating the different applications of the Internet of Things – IoT- in the day to day of people, companies, the city, homes and transport systems.

“Connected beings,” a free exhibit for the general public, may be visited until next July.

Mobile World Capital presents a global vision that effectively integrates mobile technologies into the fabric of the industries transforming our lives. Committed to expanding the mobile experience throughout Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain with strong support of the public and private sector.

Mobile World Capital is leading mobile transformation through commitments in Competence Centres, local Industry Development, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation programmes.

MWCapital offers an open platform and exhibition showroom where citizens can understand and experience how mobile is enhancing our lives: The Mobile World Centre, located in the heart of Barcelona on Plaza Catalunya.