This year Barcelona commemorates the 20th anniversary of the arrival of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the global connectivity congress organized by GSMA that will kick off on March 2. Two decades of strategic alliance that have consolidated the city as one of the main technological connection centers in southern Europe and have turned the MWC into one of the most relevant technological events in the world, with more than 100,000 attendees with accreditation in the last edition.
To bring this trajectory closer to citizens, Barcelona City Council, in collaboration with the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, promotes theConnect Spacewhich will tour the ten districts of the city with a traveling exhibition and open and free activities.
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The arrival of the MWC was not an isolated event, but the result of a process that began decades before. From the Olympic Barcelona to the consolidation of the 22@ district, the creation of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, the 4YFN or the Smart City Expo World Congress, the city has consistently opted for innovation, digital infrastructures and international projection.
During these twenty years, Barcelona has integrated technologies such as 4G, 5G, the cloud, big data and artificial intelligence in areas such as mobility, energy management, public services and citizen participation. Initiatives such as the public Wi-Fi network, the deployment of municipal fiber optics, manufacturing athenaeums, the Decidim platform or projects linked to the smart city have consolidated a digital development model oriented to the common good.
Today, Barcelona is projected as a capital of digital humanism: a city that uses technology to improve the quality of life, reinforce social cohesion and generate new opportunities for talent and economic activity.
Espacio Conecta: a traveling exhibition and activities in the ten districts
The exhibition “Barcelona and the MWC, twenty years of innovation” reviews this evolution through a story that connects technology and everyday life: how we move, how we work, how we learn, how we communicate or how we participate in community life.
The exhibition has been inaugurated at the Convent de Sant Agustí Civic Center (Ciutat Vella) and, over the next few weeks, it will travel to all the districts:
- Old City: from February 23 to 27
- Nou Barris and Sant Martí: from March 2 to 6
- Sants-Montjuïc: March 3
- The Eixample, Les Corts and Gràcia: from March 9 to 13
- Sarrià–Sant Gervasi, Sant Andreu and Horta-Guinardó: from March 16 to 20
Workshops, itineraries and conversations to understand digital transformation
The project includes a program of activities designed for all audiences: workshops on assistive robotics, artificial intelligence and programming; itineraries through the 22@ district or through the urban transformation of L’Eixample; conversations about AI entrepreneurship; sessions on supercomputing, astronomy and digital meteorology; and family robotics and computational thinking activities in libraries.
Manufacturing athenaeums, civic centers, libraries, educational facilities and innovation spaces such as Ca l’Alier or the Canòdrom will offer these proposals with the aim of making innovation accessible and promoting digital training.
More than a congress
The 20th anniversary of the MWC is not just an anniversary. It is the opportunity to share with citizens how digital innovation has transformed Barcelona and how the city wants to continue advancing towards a responsible, inclusive and people-oriented technological model.
The MWC acts as a window to the future, but the focus remains on Barcelona and its people: on the talent that is being trained, on the companies that grow and on the citizens who live and participate in this transformation.
