Digital rights and ethics; disinformation and metaverse were the star themes of Mobile Week Barcelona 2022

• Mobile Week Barcelona closes its sixth edition with 4,500 participants, more than 60 activities, the participation of 80 speakers and 40 collaborating organisations
• Workshops, talks, conferences, and seminars such as Pymes Day and Family Day made up the most participative programme of Mobile Week Barcelona

5 April, 2022

Barcelona, ​​05 ^th of April 2022.- Mobile Week Barcelona, an initiative of Mobile World Capital promoted jointly with the City Council, closed the sixth edition of Mobile Week Barcelona as the most participative year of its legacy: seven days, more than 60 activities, 40 collaborating organisations, 80 speakers, 60% of whom were women, and 4,500 participants.

As a result of this week, citizens were the real protagonists of the event and had the opportunity to discover and debate about technology, its impact, opportunities, and risks. Focusing on how technology itself should be designed, placing people at the centre of the digital transformation, and acquiring a more critical sense of the impact of technology on society itself. This year the most outstanding novelty was Pymes Day, a day to promote the digitalisation of SMEs and self-employed professionals held with the complicity of Barcelona Activa, Pimec, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), All Women Tech and Cibervoluntarios at the Antigua Fábrica Estrella Damm. In addition, for the third consecutive year, the initiative concluded with the Family Day, a proposal of workshops, activities, children’s talks, and live music to enjoy with the family and bring technology closer to the youngest members of the family.

The proposals focused on three pillars: digital rights, digital professional skills – with special emphasis on disinformation and the promotion of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Graphic Arts and Mathematics) in teens – and culture, creativity, entertainment, and new digital media. The activities related to metaverse, new virtual media, disinformation, digital rights, and ethics received the most interest, attention, and participation from the public.

Workshops, the resounding success of Mobile Week Barcelona

Mobile Week Barcelona concludes with a programme designed in collaboration with approximately thirty Barcelona organisations and focusing on citizen’s participation to encourage experimentation. During the week, more than 60 activities were carried out in 40 different spaces distributed throughout the city to respond to the social, cultural, and ethical concerns and needs of citizens, through different free participatory workshops.

Some of the most popular workshops were 5G Gaming Arena, where citizens took part in eSports; the workshop led by Marta Ordeig, founder and CEO of Garage Stories, who explored the potential of virtual reality and the art of telling immersive stories through storytelling; or the workshop of the Generalitat de Catalunya of the Department of Social Rights ‘the impossible city’, a playful proposal based on learning by challenges, which combine programming, educational robotics, the gender perspective on science and the knowledge of women scientists to solve the challenges of the city from the perspective of children between 9 and 16 years old.

Among the STEM-focused workshops some of the main highlights were the DigiCraft workshop by the Vodafone Foundation to create holograms from a tablet or mobile phone for children, and the STEM workshop by CaixaBank, which seeks to encourage young people to ensure responsible use of technology and the sustainability of the planet.

Another highlight was the presentation of the Gender Equality Tech Hub, by Patricia Fernández Carrelo, director of gender equality at All Women, a public-private initiative that aims to bring together Barcelona companies committed to gender equality in the field of technology to promote and develop specific measures to combat the gender divide in the technological sector. Or the open day and workshops of the Ateneu de Fabricació Digital del Parc Tecnològic, where users of Nou Barris exposed real examples of innovation spaces where you can develop your own product in the technological and industrial field.

Talks and conferences to reflect about the challenges of digitisation

Do we know how to use the Internet safely? What digital skills will be most in demand in the future? How has the pandemic affected children’s use of technology? Are we discovering new virtual entertainment environments? These are some of the questions that have been addressed in the various talks spread throughout the week, which have reflected about the challenges of digitisation with the participation of speakers like: Charlotte Webb, co-founder of Feminist Internet; Simona Levi, co-founder of Xnet and Jordi Sellas, executive director of IDEAL.

Some of the talks that generated most awareness and interest were the dialogue between Nacho Guadix, Head of Education and Children’s Digital Rights at UNICEF Spain, Fernando Suárez, president of the General Council of Professional Associations of Computer Engineering and the Professional Association of Computer Engineering of Galicia and Eduard Martin, director of the Intelligent Connectivity programme at Mobile World Capital Barcelona, who debated about the impact, opportunities and risks of technology within teens. Or the round table with different points of view of experts in cybersecurity and disinformation such as: Alba Tobella, co-founder of Verificat; Mercè Molist, journalist and co-founder of Fronteras Electrónica or Eli Vivas, CEO of Story Data, among others, who reflected on the challenges of navigating and informing oneself properly and safely on the internet, focusing on the great challenge of disinformation and how to combat it.

In addition, the Hospital Universitari Vall de Hebron talked about how new technologies will help humanize the hospitals of the future in a round table moderated by Dr. Anna Sala, head of the Innovation Unit of the Hospital Universitari Vall de Hebron and researcher of the Systemic Diseases of the Vall de Hebron Research Institute (VHIR).

Mobile Week Barcelona is an initiative of Mobile World Capital, promoted jointly with the Barcelona City Council and with the support of CaixaBank and Damm.