fira de barcelona

The 20^th edition of the Manga Fair is taking place between Thursday 30^th October and Sunday 2^nd November at the Fira de Barcelona's Montjuic exhibition space. The Manga Fair is an annual event that celebrates the popular Japanese anime, bringing together fans from all around the world, through a series of exhibitions and activities in Barcelona. This year, the space has increased to 50,000m², and the opening times will be extended. There will be a variety of special guests attending, including the author Kengo Hanazawa, artist Takeshi Obata from Japan, and Ken Niimura, a Spanish author of Japanese descent. There will also be a number of musicians participating, such as the Japanese pop group Loverin Tamburin. The programme features various exhibitions on Japanese authors and illustrators. On the catering side, the event will feature Michelin-star chefs including Ricardo Sanz and Jordi Roca.

The 18^th Edition of the Barcelona Meeting Point will take place between 29 October and 2 November in Fira de Barcelona's Montjuic venue. The trade fair is a real estate exhibition that brings together buyers and sellers to network and learn about the latest industry trends. This year there will be 265 participating companies from 23 countries. According to the show’s President, Enric Lacalle, it will be the first edition to open in a recovering housing sector, after 6 years of crisis and setbacks. The real estate market is strengthening; there was a 36.6% increase in the acquisition of houses by foreigners in 2013 and a 12.5% rise in housing sales throughout Spain. In addition, real estate investment in Barcelona is expected to exceed €1.6 billion in 2014, 30% more than last year. In fact, 21 international investment funds will participate in the trade fair. The show will also include a series of talks and presentations, and offer financing options for property purchase.

Barcelona will be hosting the International Boat Show 2014, between the 15^th and the 19^th of October. The 54^th Edition of the Show is expected to be the most successful yet, and organizers are confident it will show that the marine industry has left the crisis behind for the first time in 7 years. The Port of Barcelona is the perfect location for such an event, and is a significant contributor to the Catalan economy. An exhibition of both commercial and recreational marine vessels, organizers expect high levels of participation and sales. One of the highlights of the exhibition will be Lehr and Nautigas, maker of the innovative engine that runs on propane, leading the way in environmentally-friendly vessels. Among the show’s 19 facilities there will also be organic fuels on display, with explanations of both their environmental and financial benefits.  

This Saturday the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the most world's most important heart specialist conference, will begin in Barcelona. Up until the 3^rd of September the Catalan capital will host 30,000 cardiology specialist participants in a summit where 4,500 new studies will be presented about the latest discoveries in vascular diseases, which cause 47% of deaths in Europe. The Catalan Minister for Health, Boi Ruiz, said that efforts should be concentrated on reducing the "inequality" between different areas of the world which register mortality rates that are "unreasonably different".

Barcelona has gone from 22^nd to 7^th place in the list of 468 European cities with the best economic prospects; it is ranked the 19^th most competitive city in the world and the 10^th in Europe; it stands at 10^th in the world in terms of receiving new business investments; and it became the 4^th city hosting the largest amount of congresses at world level. The report was produced by the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona in collaboration with the City Council. Furthermore, another study compiled by ESADE business school stressed that Barcelona is the 1^st European city in money spent per tourist in shopping, ahead of London and Paris. The Mayor of Barcelona, ??Xavier Trias, welcomed the news but also emphasised the ''shadow'' of having more than 100,000 unemployed in Barcelona, a number he finds “unbearable.”

Sónar, Barcelona´s ‘Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art’ came to end on Saturday night with a total attendance of 109,000 people, the second best in the festival’s 21 year history. However, it is a 10% less than 2013 record figures. 53% of those attending the 2014 edition were foreigners. Sónar by Night on Saturday has claimed the ability to make the masses dance with a program marked by disco anthems from Nile Rodgers of Chic to performances by Rudimental and DJ Snake. Massive Attack were among the best performers of the night, in their second concert after the opening day. Multiple simultaneous stages with performances from some of the biggest names in electronic music gave national and international festival-goers a lot to choose from.

Sónar+D is an international conference for creativity and technological innovation which coincides with the Sónar by Day Festival. The conference will organize lectures, project exhibitions, stage activities and hold meetings with experts to enhance talent and further opportunities in the digital environment creating a strong parallel to the music festival. This year is the second edition of Sónar+D and the conference is growing now bringing together more than 100 companies, as well as artists, entrepreneurs and technicians from around the world to promote talent and business opportunities in the area of ??culture. The festival's co-director Enric Palau recently revealed details about this year’s program, which is a new initiative divided into four areas. An area dedicated to round table conferences, an exhibition area where more than 40 featured worldwide technology projects are to be on show, a space for art shows and an area where attendees can meet renowned professionals.

The 21^st edition of the International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art Sónar 2014 is set and ready to take over the Catalan capital from the 12^th -14^th June. As in recent years, the festival will alternate between two different locations depending on whether it is a day or a night event. Fira Montjuïc is the location for Sónar by Day whereas Sónar by Night takes place in Fira Gran Via L’Hospitalet. In this way, the festival offers two different venues for the crowd, one for those who prefer a relaxing chill out in the Mediterranean sunshine and another for a greater party atmosphere as the night draws in. The two locations are ready to play host to the performances of a packed line-up made up of more than 130 artists, bands and deejays. With several stages and a program replete with star names, the Sónar crowd is in for a treat as top notch electronic musicians from all over the world will perform before a local and international crowd.

Throughout this week the Fira de Barcelona's Montjuic exhibition venue in the Catalan capital is transformed into a business fair for start-ups and entrepreneurs. The BizBarcelona event takes place on Wednesday the 4^th and Thursday the 5^th of June and is the second edition of this innovative business fair. The event serves several purposes and contains as many as six different areas including e-commerce, the financial markets, exports, franchises, business consulting as well as cooperation and networking. The event offers various opportunities for established and future entrepreneurs. BizBarcelona is a welcome initiative. First quarter financial reports revealed a decrease in bankruptcy proceedings, and with a high unemployment rate in Catalonia and Spain it is hoped that these new companies can create jobs.

The Spanish telecommunications multinational Telefónica will open a new call centre to take care of consumer queries in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city literally attached to Barcelona's municipality. The new facilities will be operational from the 26^th of May. It will initially start with 50 workers but by November it will already employ 310 people. According to Kim Faura, Telefónica's Director for Catalonia, the company's strategy is to relocate call centres and place them near the areas where consumers live.  This new call centre will be Telefónica's fourth one in Catalonia and will focus on helping clients going through digital environments. Faura's aim is to make this centre Spain's flagship for this sort of issues.

More than 300 innovations from the agri-food industry are presented between the 31^st of March and the 3^rd of April in Alimentaria, one of the main trade fairs for this sector in Europe. The 20^th edition of this event, which takes place in the Catalan capital every two years, focuses on innovation and internationalisation. In fact, 40,000 visitors, 30% of the total 140,000 visitors, are foreigners. In addition, as explained by the Director General of Alimentaria, Antoni Valls, this year the organisers have managed to assemble 600 of the world's main international buyers, which is double the number at the previous fair in 2012. These top buyers have already arrived for 8,000 pre-scheduled business meetings with the 3,800 exhibiting companies at the fair, which occupies 94,500 square metres of Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue.

Japanese multinational Olympus, specialized in optics and reprography, has unveiled its new headquarters for Spain and Portugal, aimed at becoming its main centre for Southern Europe. The new facilities are located in the business district of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city literally attached to Barcelona, between the Catalan capital and El Prat Airport. The new offices occupy 2,500 square meters in a building on the Europa Square, close to the Fira de Barcelona. It will welcome 30 employees of the divisions of Consumer Product, Microscopy, Industry, and Medical Systems. Merging the headquarters for Spain and Portugal constitutes a step forward to gain weight on the Southern Europe market, said Olympus Iberia's CEO.

GSMA, the organisers of the Mobile World Congress, have announced on Thursday that more than 85,000 visitors from over 200 countries participated in this year’s event. The figure sets a new impressive attendance record with an overall increase of 18% on last year’s edition. Around 80,000 attendees participated at the Mobile World Congress at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venues and more than 5,000 visitors attended mPowered industries programme at Fira’s Montjuïc venues. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty delivered highly anticipated keynote speeches, while close to 1,800 international market leading companies presented their latest innovative products and services. In the Global Mobile Awards, the HTC One scooped top award of the Best Smartphone of the year, while Apple iPad was announced the Best Mobile Tablet. Wearable devices were also an exciting highlight of the 2014 MWC.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been held in Barcelona from the 24^th to the 27^th of February. All the halls have been filled with excitement as international competitive exhibitors showed their latest products and growing trends in the mobile phone industry. This year, ‘wearable devices’ received world-wide attention. Samsung showcased the newest smartwatches called ‘Gear 2’ and ‘Gear 2 Neo’, and also its cutting-edge smartband called ‘Gear Fit’. Sony also released its latest smartband, called ‘Core’. Other companies such as Motorola, which announced at the MWC it was going to launch a new smartwatch, are about to join this emergent part of the industry.

The App Planet at the Mobile World Congress is one of the biggest app events in the world, and the Catalan App companies have taken full advantage of the opportunity to showcase their latest products. Not only this, several Catalan App companies have come together to form the group ‘Catalunya Apps’, in which big and small companies alike have joined in order to survive and compete on the global stage. ‘InQBarna’ had extraordinary success since last year with their Music based app; they have had 700,000 downloads and Apple named the best music app in 2013. Inqbarna isn’t the only large company to commit to ‘Catalunya Apps’; Sixtemia, founded 5 years ago, is on board as well.