Mobile World Capital, IESE and RocaSalvatella promote their first forum for the analysis of digital transformation in the tourism sector

• Mobile Thinking Days will address the business opportunities that mobile technologies offer tourism sector entities
• Participating in the program will be 30 executives from companies operating in the areas of Leisure, Entertainment, Commerce, Culture, Dining and Infrastructure
• The four Mobile Thinking Days will be held on the IESE campus and at the Mobile World Centre, Casa Batlló, Mobile World Congress and 4 Years From Now

February 16, 2015

Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the IESE Business School and RocaSalvatella are backing the Mobile Thinking Days program, a forum designed to address the digital transformation of the tourism sector and the challenges that it will face in the coming years. The event begins on Monday, 16 February and will run for four days (16, 17 and 26 February and 2 March).

The Mobile Thinking Days forum will bring together 30 professionals specialised in innovation, technology, strategy, e-business and marketing, from leading hotels and companies engaged in the areas of Leisure, Entertainment, Commerce, Culture, Dining and Key Infrastructures.

The work sessions will be headed up by Oscar Pallarols, director of the Smart Living Program at Mobile World Capital Barcelona; Javier Zamora, a professor at the IESE and the academic director of Mobile Thinking Days; Sandra Sieber and Josep Valor, Information Systems professors at the IESE; Genís Roca, partner and president at RocaSalvatella; and Marc Cortés, partner and general manager at RocaSalvatella.

Also on hand will be Nuria Oliver, scientific director of Telefónica R&D, and Javier Creus, founder of Ideas for Change, who will be working with the group. These speakers will address issues essential to the sector’s development, such as the management of Big Data in tourism contexts, and the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) in this area.

The line-up of activities and contents, centring on the analysis of real and practical cases, will furnish participants with an in-depth examination of the possibilities offered by smart cities like Barcelona.

The goal is for industry leaders to get behind the implementation of smart solutions, so as to offer tourists unique experiences through the incorporation of mobile technologies. The forum will also analyse the possibilities that this evolution makes possible with regards to business development and industry growth.

The initiative, benefitting from collaboration by Turisme de Barcelona, will take place at the IESE (16 February), Mobile World Centre (17 February) and Casa Batlló (26 February), and will conclude on 2 March with a double session at Mobile World Congress and 4Years From Now (4YFN).

Building smart tourism

Mobile Thinking Days, in addition to a professional and networking experience for participants, represents a clear opportunity to transform the tourism sector.

In this way Mobile World Capital Barcelona, IESE and RocaSalvatella promote sector-wide, in-depth reflection that will make it possible to establish clear foundations on which to build smart services and solutions for visitors to tomorrow’s smart cities.