The general director of the Consorci of the Free Zone of Barcelona (CZFB), Blanca Sorigué, explained that the 2025 edition of the Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW) plans to congregate 12,000 visitors, 320 speakers and 120 startups. The sixth edition of the event will be held from September 29 to October 2 in Dfactory Barcelona.
Sorigué has detailed that, of the total number of participants, 70% will be face -to -face and 30%, telematic. He stressed that business meetings are already being held on the event platform, and that they are literally investing in “the best platform in the world to connect the physical and digital world.” This year, the digital platform incorporates as a novelty the BBOT virtual assistant.
“BNEW is an event that connects and relates different sectors because today we live in a society, and an economy, global and interconnected, both from the geographical and sectoral point of view. The great differential fact of BNEW is that we connect different worlds,” said the general director.
This year’s edition of the BNEW will have seven verticals dedicated to aviation, talent, health, sustainability, digital industry, mobility and experience. Sorigué has ventured that, in the edition of the next year, the institution could launch a vertical focused on defense, in view of the current debates about military spending.
On the other hand, an expert committee has selected five startups In each vertical to participate in the BNEW Talent program. These emerging companies will be the finalists of the awards, whose winners will be announced at the ceremony that will take place on October 1 in the afternoon.
Observatory
Sorigué has explained that the CZFB has prepared the third edition of the Observatory of the New Economy, a survey in which 473 companies have participated and startups participants in the event.
He stressed that 46.7% of companies believe that digital transformation will expand their workforce, while 5.2% point out that it will reduce it. Likewise, 71.5% use applications with AI in their day to day and 15.6% foresee it, percentages that are at 79.2% and 9.3% in the case of startups.
