Mobile World Capital Barcelona, a leader in mobile entrepreneurship, at the 10th edition of the Mobile World Congress

• 4Years From Now (4YFN), the international mobile startup event organised by MWCB and GSMA as part of the Mobile World Congress, tripled participation and quadrupled the number of investors with respect to its first edition
• mSchools featured the presentation of the document “Mobile Technologies in Educational Centres”, approved yesterday, 4 March, at the plenary session of Catalonia’s School Education Council
• The mHealth program signed an agreement with Harvard University for the joint creation of a course on mobile health aimed at sector professionals and technologists
• MWCB shared with the public the latest new features and trends in the world of mobile technologies, with activities at the Mobile World Centre and through the Mobile Ready initiative

March 5, 2015

Mobile World Capital Barcelona reaffirms its commitment to entrepreneurship as the cornerstone of all its activity. Within the framework of the Mobile World Congress, MWCB shared with the international technology and mobile sector the progress made in its programs of Entrepreneurship and innovation, Education, Health and Smart Living.

4Years From Now (4YFN), the international mobile startups event organised by Mobile World Capital Barcelona and GSMA as part of the Mobile World Congress program, reinforced its status as a leading mobile innovation platform in Europe. At its second edition, 4YFN tripled participation, with 8,000 attendees, and quadrupled its number of investors, which rose to 250. In total over 5,000 meetings were held between more than 450 startups and investment funds, featuring the likes of Intel, Samsung, Caixa Capital Risk, Deutsche Telecom, Aquology, European Young Ventures, Barcelona Business Angels and Tecnalia Ventures.

4YFN’s exhibition area boasted over 235 exhibitors – startups, accelerators and corporations – sharing their mobile products and innovations. And the 4YFN workshops program trained over 1,200 people, and 4YFN offered 160 hours of talks centring on the event’s three thematic axes: Disrupted by Mobile, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Media.

4YFN 2015 also organised the 4YFN Awards, three mobile startup competitions that received more than 500 applications. On Monday 2 March Caravelo, a Spanish project directed at travel agencies and companies, won “Disrupted by Mobile”. The winners of the competition centred on IoT were London’s Hanhaa, which presented an innovative app in the courier services sector. Finally, the PhotoMath camera/calculator won the Digital Media competition held yesterday.

“Changing Education Together”

Today, Thursday, the mSchools program celebrated “Changing Education Together”, a Mobile World Congress event that featured the participation of 500 Catalonian schools. The day, inaugurated by Irene Rigau, Minister of Education of the Regional Government of Catalonia, John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA Ltd., and Albert Forn, director of Mobile World Capital Barcelona’s mSchools program, focused on analysing the use and incorporation of mobile technology into classrooms. Ferran Ruiz, president of Catalonia’s School Education Council, was also there to present the document 1/2015 Mobile Technologies in Educational Centres. This document, approved yesterday, Wednesday 4 March, at a plenary session of the council, contains reflections on the presence and use of mobile devices in Catalan educational centres, the development of students’ digital skills, and mobile technologies’ potential to promote learning.

Advancing towards mobile health

Mobile World Capital Barcelona’s mHealth program held the Health and Wellness and Global mHealth Marketplace and Innovation symposiums. These events drew more than 500 sector professionals, who analysed the use and potential of mobile health.

Today, Thursday 5 March, MWCB’s mHealth program announced an agreement with the Division of Clinical Informatics – An Academic Division of the Dept. of Medicine at Medical Harvard Faculty Physicians at BIDMC. Inc. Both organizations will offer a training program centring on mHealth. The course, aimed at health professionals and technologists, comes about with a view to promoting awareness and implementation of mobile health solutions. The digital course will be available as of autumn 2015, and will also include in-person workshops in Barcelona and Boston with experts in the sector. It will also offer an overview of the mHealth market, innovative methodologies, the analysis of results, and examples of good practices, among other things.

In order to mark the close of the program’s activity at the Mobile World Congress, Joan Cornet, MWCB’s mHealth director, welcomed Catalan Minister of Health Boi Ruiz and other sector authorities at the foundation’s stand.

Smart tourism in Barcelona

MWCB also backed the second edition of Mobile Ready, an initiative designed to offer smart experiences to Barcelona visitors and citizens. This time around Mobile Ready promoted the adoption of mobile solutions in sectors key to the city’s development, like tourism, hotels and restaurants.

MWCB presented a series of features that can be visited until Friday 6 March at the Hotel Royal Passeig de Gràcia, the Hotel Alexandra Barcelona ─a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel─ the Hotel Condes de Barcelona, the Hotel Eurostars BCN Design, Barcelona-El Prat Airport, and the Hotel NH Collection Barcelona Constanza. All of them displayed latest-generation solutions to improve visitors’ experiences in smart cities like Barcelona.

Mobile World Centre, a window to the congress

Over the two first weeks of March at the Mobile World Centre nine manufacturers are displaying a selection of their latest developments, presented at the Mobile World Congress 2015. Through this initiative Telefónica and Mobile World Capital Barcelona allowed citizens to learn, in person, about the latest innovations in tablets, smartphones and wearables by Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, LG, HTC, Alcatel, Huawei, ZTE and Motorola.

On Monday 2 March “Connected beings” got underway, the new Mobile World Centre lecture series that examines connected life and the value of shared information. Organised by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the exhibit features a route illustrating the applications and the potential which connectivity boasts when applied to people’s day-to-day lives, homes and transport systems.

The exhibit’s installations include a scale model of Barcelona constructed with LEGO blocks and incorporating elements and sensors characteristic of a smart city; an indoor garden equipped with sensors and devices that render its plants self-sufficient; different areas to educate attendees on the challenges posed by technological ultra-connectivity; an area for them to experience new materials featuring built-in conductive nanotechnology, and a visual installation symbolising today’s information, its traffic and speed.

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