Smart City Expo and 4YFN create an area on mobile entrepreneurship and smart cities

• The Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) – the premier international summit on smart cities, organised by Fira de Barcelona – and 4Years From Now (4YFN), the international conference on mobile startups backed by Mobile World Capital Barcelona and GSMA, will organise the new 4YFN Village at the next edition of the conference on smart cities.
• This forum will welcome entrepreneurs and startups specialising in smart urban solutions based on mobile technologies. The collaboration will also involve 4YFN’s participation in the congress’s programme and the celebration of an urban edition of the 4YFN Awards.

July 8, 2015

4YFN Village is envisioned as a showcase for startups with projects in the fields of sustainability, mobile technologies, energy, technology and governability in a smart city. Located within the Smart City Plaza, the event’s central exhibition area, the space will feature 40 startups, both Spanish and from around the globe, presenting their projects to the international public.

The agreement also entails Mobile World Capital Barcelona’s participation in the SCEWC’s congress programme through three talks to promote entrepreneurship related to smart cities. The talks will address the needs and challenges of a startup in the context of smart cities, and how to bolster the scalability of projects so as to maximise their global impact.

The collaboration between SCEWC and 4YFN will also include the organisation of the first ‘4YFN Awards Smart City Edition’, a startup competition to recognise the most disruptive ideas in the area of smart urban solutions. The application period is open and startups can submit their proposals until 25 September. The organisation will select five finalists, to present their projects through 5-minute pitches at the Smart City Expo World Congress. A judging panel made up of tech sector and entrepreneurship professionals and investors will assess the innovation, viability and potential of each project, and select the winning startup.

Fifth summit on smart cities

Smart City Expo World Congress, to mark its 5^th edition from 17 to 19 November, will will featured new spaces, the Citysense symposium organized by the World Banc, and will have a special focus on smart mobility woth the joint organization of BcnRetail. At its last edition it drew 11,000 attendees to Barcelona from more than 400 cities, including disruptive scientists and thinkers, along with leaders from top companies in the industry from all over the world to share knowledge, promote new initiatives, and address the urban challenges of today and tomorrow.

Entrepreneurship in the mobile industry

4YFN (4 Years From Now) initiative by Mobile World Capital Barcelona is the meeting point for the growing community of global technology startups. This business platform brings together startups, investors and large companies, in order to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem that positions Barcelona as a leader in digital entrepreneurship. Throughout the year, 4YFN’s team deploys a full spectrum of activities aimed at building tech startup communities. The highlight of the programme is 4YFN, held at the Mobile World Congress, in partnership with GSMA. This event has become the world’s most influencial startup event devoted to innovation in the digital ecosystem. The next edition will take place on 22th-25th February 2016 in Barcelona.

Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCB) is an initiative designed to turn the city into a landmark in the sphere of mobile and digital technologies, as well as to improve citizens’ quality of life.