The Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) has signed an agreement with BBVA to renew its commitment to the Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), which will take place from September 29 to October 2, 2025, in this city. BBVA will support the Digital Industry vertical to continue betting on an event that positions Barcelona as the capital of the new economy, with the commitment to promote new technologies and the economic projection of the city.
The signing took place on July 23 at the facilities of DFactory Barcelona, the iconic building that will host the new edition of the event, and was attended by Francisco Pla, regional director of BBVA in Catalonia, and Blanca Sorigué, general director of CZFB and BNEW.
Francisco Pla, regional director of BBVA in Catalonia, emphasized that “at BBVA, we understand innovation as an essential lever to drive growth and business competitiveness. Renewing our collaboration with BNEW reinforces our commitment to the business community and the economic development of Catalonia. We want to be a strategic partner for Catalan companies, making available to them the technological capabilities provided by our scale and the proximity offered by our extensive presence in the territory. This combination allows us to support them in their growth and adaptation to new challenges, especially at a time when technologies like artificial intelligence open new opportunities for progress.”
Boosting the new economy
For her part, Blanca Sorigué, general director of CZFB, celebrated BBVA’s commitment to continue supporting BNEW for another year: “Having partners like BBVA allows us to carry out high-value initiatives such as BNEW, which ultimately represents a meeting and knowledge point where entities, companies, and professionals from different sectors share ideas, trends, and concerns, generate synergies, and even establish alliances to develop innovative projects together, thereby contributing to the advancement of the new economy. All this, with a social component and a commitment to people, making this knowledge accessible to everyone through the digital platform.”
The sixth edition of BNEW will once again connect seven key sectors for the new economy, such as Aviation, Digital Industry, Health, Talent, Sustainability, Mobility, and Experience, which will be developed across three television sets. This audiovisual and hybrid format allows simultaneous outreach to professionals from different economic sectors, industries, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, administrations and institutions, and startups.
To achieve this, it will feature 320 speakers, 100 hours of content, and 66 panels addressing the challenges, opportunities, and latest trends in each of the represented sectors.
The vertical chosen by BBVA this time, Digital Industry, will include a content program delving into aspects such as: the strategic role of Artificial Intelligence in the digital industry, advanced cybersecurity strategies, the future of industrial automation, the transformative role of robotics, the convergence between the human mind and AI, extended reality and its push toward the new digital era, green technologies, the quantum revolution, or the challenges of deepfakes, among others.
The already recognized hub for Industry 4.0, DFactory Barcelona, will once again serve as the event’s venue. This iconic building, housing companies and large corporations across its 17,000 m² that work on solutions and projects based on technologies such as 3D printing, Blockchain, Big Data, augmented reality, sensor technology, Cloud Computing, IoT, and robotics, represents the seed of the District 4.0 being promoted by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona to embed this ecosystem across the entire industrial zone. Hosting BNEW in this space underscores the institution’s commitment to consolidating Barcelona’s position as the capital of the new economy.
