Barcelona events – The most important trade fairs in Barcelona

March 19, 2018November 30, 2021Natàlia Gibernau

One of the most well-known Barcelona events has to be our trade fairs. If you have come here for one before, you’ll know why the Catalan capital is among Europe’s leading trade fair venues: the pleasant Mediterranean climate, plus being easily accessible from the rest of Europe, and many choices of big and small exhibition halls across the city are just a handful of the reasons. No wonder businesses from all economic sectors are attracted to exhibit here all year-round, including trade fairs related to gastronomy, fashion, and technology just to name a few. Keep reading for the most important Barcelona events related to trade fairs!

Most important Barcelona events – Trade Fairs

Mobile World Congress

Probably the most famous of all Barcelona events is the Mobile World Congress. All the biggest players in smartphones, computers, tablets and mobile devices come together for this highly anticipated event, hosted annually at Fira Barcelona. Heavyweights like Samsung, Huawei, Lenovo, Sony and more use the opportunity to debut flashy new products, and to showcase the latest technology trends. Some exciting new trends that dominated the recently held 2018 trade fair included 5G, mobile money, smart cities and artificial intelligence.

To be hosted on 25th – 28th February 2019

Comic Fair – Saló del Còmic – Barcelona International Comic Fair

Takes place in Barcelona since 1981 and is the festival which showcases all the most important new developments in the world of comics. If you visit it, make sure you wear a fancy dress, every year, the Barcelona Comic Salon awards the most original proposals.

To be hosted on 12 Apr 2018 – 15 Apr 2018.

Alimentaria – Barcelona Trade Fair

With a reputation for producing some of Spain’s finest cuisine, it is only fitting that one of Europe’s most popular gastronomy and hospitality trade fairs be held here in Barcelona. Live cooking shows, seminars and discussions on food innovation, workshops, tastings, plus a dizzying variety of products: bottled, preserved, cured, fermented, dried, fresh… You name it, it’ll be somewhere in the massive acre-sized hall of Fira Barcelona. More than 140,000 visitors from 157 countries attended the last edition, joining some 4,000 exhibitors, which goes to show that Alimentaria one of the many Barcelona events that captures not just the Spanish eye, but that of the world.

To be hosted on 16th – 19th April 2018.

Hostelco – Barcelona Trade Fair

The International Restaurant and Hotel 2018 exhibition expects more than 41,520 visitors. The fair is being held alongside Alimentaria and is hosted every two years to bring new trends in hotel equipment.

Hostelco is a leading fair in technological innovation and international impact in the fields of manufacturing, import and distribution.

To be hosted on 16th – 19th April 2018.

B-Travel – Barcelona Trade Fair

This international fair is a travelers meeting point, where they can discover the latest developments about travel and tourism.

Its offer is presented around five big categories: B-Happy (experiences of well-being in company), B-Special (unique ideas), B-Culture (for fans of art, history and culture), B-Adventure (trips with sport, nature and adventure as protagonists) and B-Delicious (food and wine plans).

To be hosted on 20th – 22nd April 2018.

Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week – Barcelona Trade Fair

Every year in April, a flurry of bridal designers and models come from all over the world and descend upon Barcelona; and in tow with them are suitcases spilling open with dresses of white satin, lace, tulle, sequins, and everything bridal. During this Barcelona event, the industry’s hottest names host exclusive invitation-only catwalk shows, such as celebrity favorites Ángel Sanchez and Galia Lahav just to name a few. Hundreds of boutique and international brands exhibit their latest and most sparkly creations that will have you falling head over heels in love. With so much excitement and glamour, it’s impossible to deny that romance is in the air when this Barcelona trade show is happening.

To be hosted on 23rd – 29th April 2018.

Bizbarcelona

This trade fair is the best chance to meet roughly 14,000 visitors from SMEs and entrepreneurs seeking solutions for their transformation. The event is already a reference in the promotion of entrepreneurship and the competitiveness of SMEs. In this coming edition, digital transformation will be a highly anticipated hot topic.

To be hosted on 30 – 31 May 2018

Salón Náutico de Barcelona – Barcelona Boat Show

Barcelona Boat Show brings the latest nautical and leisure products. Motor and sail boats, fishing boats, canoes, kayaks, boats, trailers and sportswear share the exhibition space in one of the largest nautical fairs in Europe. More than 55,000 visitors and 200 exhibitors get together making it the largest of its kind in Spain. In its last edition it gathered 275 exhibitors, and also more than 700 boats were exhibited.

To be hosted on 10^th – 14^th October 2018

To check the calendar of upcoming Barcelona events and trade fairs at Fira, click here. If you’re visiting Barcelona for an important trade fair soon and are looking for an executive-style apartment, be sure to check out bizFlats for short term and long term rental options. Or check out our comprehensive guide for things to do in Barcelona during your 1 day, 3 day or 5 day stay!

Electronic Music Lovers Unite at Sónar Festival Barcelona

April 28, 2015August 6, 2020bizFlats

One of the best things about visiting Barcelona is their thriving creative community whose members are undoubtedly drawn there by things like the myriad works of Gaudi throughout the city. With both a prevalent creative class and large universities who are contributing to the global new media movement, Barcelona was the perfect choice as one of the world’s Sónar destinations. The Sónar Festival Barcelona, taking place June 18th through the 20th is a celebration of creativity, technology and business, aiming to inspire artists and entrepreneurs alike to start thinking without limits. This Barcelona stop is one that features both the world’s frontier-minded electronic musicians, its most inventive new media artists, and most forward thinking entrepreneurs.

Sónar Festival Barcelona Music

One part music festival, Sónar-goers can expect earth-shattering sounds from an eclectic mix of electronically inspired musicians. You’ll recognize names like Duran Duran, Hot Chip, DJ Fresh, The Chemical Brothers, Skrillex, and Southern Hospitality, who are on a long list of over 100 emerging artists of the mixed genre. If you love to move to unique beats, and that strange place where technology meets music, Sónar is definitely a world you will want to explore. You will very easily get lost in the music, and enter the artists’ worlds of creation.

Sónar +D

Sónar +D is a sensory experience. Not only will you witness the most cutting edge electronic music scene, but you’ll also get to experience completely new art forms from a the place where digital fabrication and rendering meet the tangible world and interact with audiences of the Sónar Festival Barcelona. Whether you’re coming as an entrepreneur, a creative job seeker or someone who’s interested in a little bit of everything, +D will inspire you to go to lengths you would never have imagined.

This interdisciplinary gathering of creative-minded businesspeople happens in an intriguing mental space where creativity and technology meet the transformation of cultural industries. Taking place at Fira Montjuic, alongside the ongoing musical performances, +D will be a conference and showcase for innovative people to display their ideas and creations. The diversity of things present will certainly be astounding as you’ll witness innovations in everything from turntables and computer innovation to robotics and virtual reality.

Part of what makes the +D such an excellent addition to the music festival is the impressive list of speakers and presenters who travel from around the world to share their innovate ideas that apply to both work and lifestyle. This year’s showing will include multiple Mego executives, Amy Robinson from EyeWire; Christina Hug from The Maker’s Nation; David Cuartielles, the creator of Arduino; Indy Saha from the Google Creative Lab; and Jeremy Boxer, the Creative Director of Vimeo. These giants in the creative class have some things to share for people interested in using crowdsourcing and technology for trailblazing their industry.

The Sónar Festival Barcelona is one of the best events of the year, and well worth booking a short term rental for. From the comfort of your very own city flat, you’ll have the true Barcelona experience, getting a feel for the creative class here in Catalonia!

How to do Business in Barcelona – Zuckerberg Style

November 18, 2014August 6, 2020Alí Araúz

Barcelona is considered an attractive tourist destination and an important business center, hosting worldwide shows as EIBTM 2014 and Mobile World Congress 2015.

EIBTM 2014

Development of infrastructure and strengthening of the business sector has lead Barcelona to become an international hosts of business events, gathering experts from different fields, such as economy, tourism, technology, etc. Therefore, numerous corporate events are organized in Barcelona every year, providing to the business professionals a huge opportunity for networking and establishing successful collaborations. One of the largest business events organized this year is EIBTM event, taking place now in Barcelona (18-20 November 2014).

The purpose of such event is to bring together the professionals from different industries, especially from travel industry in an event that will combine conferences, presentations, as well as business meetings and networking opportunities. This kind of event is a perfect opportunity for a companies to showcase its work to the other business professionals, and influential people in the sector.

Mobile World Capital Barcelona will host the Mobile World Congress from the 2nd until the 5th of March, 2015

This congress is one of the most important events focused on the latest innovations of mobile communication and technology. However, you will agree that attending such a huge congress might be a bit overwhelming and time consuming – not to mention poor sleeping hours.

If this is your first time attending EIBTM or Mobile World Congress, here you have some tips that will save you time and energy (to be used later on your “networking events”):

Download the complete agenda of the event, as well as the directions on how to get to the venue (available online at EIBTM and MWC2015).
Once you have defined the location of the event, you should make your own agenda. Which events are you interested? Are you having meetings? Would you like to attend networking events? Will you like to enjoy Barcelona each day after the congress? Or you prefer to stay some additional days to do so?
Having an agenda will let you search the perfect accommodation for your stay. Do it in advance, as you do not want to be at risk of not being able to find suitable accommodation, or staying away from the city center. Business apartments are available near the city center, as well as in the other parts of Barcelona. You can find apartments that are located near the venue where the MWC2015 is taking place. This way, you will significantly reduce the time necessary to reach the venue every morning and to get back to the apartment every evening.
Keep in mind that these events are organized in the middle of the week, so you could extend your stay in Barcelona over the weekend, which would be a great idea if you want to combine the business trip with a couple of days of vacation. In this way, you would be able to both attend the event, and spend some time sightseeing or enjoying at the beach. All you need to do is to find where to stay and you are ready to spend great time in Barcelona.

Networking Events

Networking is an important part of EIBTM, MWC and any other business show, as it represents a great opportunity for the participants to meet leading experts, colleagues and other people from from different fields. Besides the chance to acquire some new contacts, this kind of event can also help you establish or improve the existing relationship with other participants, regardless if those are the companies that might be up for a certain collaborative project, or individuals whom you may hire as experts, consults on certain topics, etc.

The atmosphere on networking events is much more relaxed than during different corporate activities on the actual event. Networking events are organized every day in the evening and they are open to all. The final day of the EIBTM event is reserved for a club night. It is a popular tradition in these events to organize an evening in the local club. This year’s club night will be held in Opium Mar, Passeo Maritim de la Barceloneta, from 10 until 2 in the morning.

The next edition of Mobile World Congress will host a number of conferences with renowned keynotes and panel discussions, exhibitions, as well as networking and business opportunities. Some of the keynotes speakers in the event that is going to be held in Barcelona in March, 2015 include: Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman and Rotating CEO at Huawei, Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman at Mozilla Foundation, Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, Charles Scharf, CEO at Visa, and many other people who run world-famous companies.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder & CEO, at MWC 2014

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder & CEO, attended the MWC2014, as a keynote speaker. This made sense given that mobile is key to Facebook’s strategy. This event gave him the opportunity to engage with key mobile operators and publicly announce Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp.

If you are not from Barcelona, but you would like to attend the next edition of the MWC, you should try to find business apartments, as they are perfect for professionals who are in need of fully furnished apartments while participating in corporate events or attending seminars, conferences, etc., so corporate housing is pretty common in this city.

Finding the Perfect Accommodation for Mobile Congress

We have said before your sleeping hours will be reduced so, you should take the best of that time to have a restful sleep. Finding business apartments is much better solution for you than staying in a hotel. Not only is it more comfortable, but it is a much more flexible solution, especially if you need accommodation for a longer period of time.

The major benefit when staying in a furnished apartment is that you will have all the perks you get from a real home. Besides more spacious environment, you will also be able to prepare food on your own, which is great if you prefer eating at home than going to the restaurants. In addition, if you are going to attend this event with couple of colleagues, staying in a business apartment will help you reduce the accommodation costs, as you can find apartments with several bedrooms. Finding opportunities for corporate housing in a city such as Barcelona is important, as you will probably have a lot of situations to attend various events that are organized in this city, and establishing a relationship with a company that provides corporate housing opportunities would be a great benefit for your company.

There is no doubt that you will enjoy attending the business events but if you get the chance to explore Barcelona, the visit will be even more complete, as Barcelona is one of those places in the world you simply must visit at least once. It is a place that has much to show off, including magnificent architecture and design, numerous art works and historic locations around the city, delicious traditional cuisine, exciting night life, a lot of shops and shopping areas, as well as a beach that resembles the beaches from the most beautiful resorts. All of this is combined into a city that lies on Mediterranean coast and is well connected with other parts of Spain, Europe and other major capitals of the world.

If you will be attending EIBTM or MWC2015 or if you will be relocated for business in Barcelona, don’t worry! You will find a lot of corporate housing and business-class apartments that will make your stay a memorable one.

To MWC or not to MWC

February 15, 2011August 6, 2020Jaume Barberena

Mobile World Congress. Em. Double u. Cee. I finally find myself using the official abbreviation, after holding out for a long time still calling it 3GSM, like an old timer. Back when it started in Barcelona five years ago, it was a different beast. Back then, all the buzz was about highly technical network stuff I didn’t really understand. But there was a promise that it would make mobile internet fast, really fast. Well, I’m not so sure that we have a fast – really, really fast – mobile internet connection anywhere near Barcelona, or that I could afford it if it did.

So fast forward to 2011, and one more MWC – this time around it’s tablets, tablets, tablets… I am writing this on my ipad, finally cutting edge technology even I can understand. Used to be a time when 3GSM MWC week was the only time of the year I didn’t feel completely awkward about carrying two blackberrys, speaking into one, while writing messages on the other… at the same time!

A chance encounter with cool blogger Rob Kerr on Sunday night – his light light up while he tells me and a friend about the new Xperia Play game phone he just saw at the SonyEricsson presentation, and I’m hooked. There might be something in it for me, after all.

As anyone who’s ever innocently tried to book a Valentine’s day getaway to Barcelona on the expectation that it is the middle of February, so low season, and couldn’t find an apartment in Barcelona or anywhere nearby knows, this is the highest week of the year in the city. It is an incredibly busy week, everyone is in a rush to set up their booths, go to meetings, tweetups, more meetings… and did I mention the parties?

We often get requests from clients ranging from recommending a catering supplier, delivering a package to our office or getting a hair dryer. All in a day’s work. But what in the world do you tell someone who asks you for a submarine??

Monday 17:00 I walk through the gates of mobile nirvana, only a couple of hours to get my fix. Good. Don’t wanna overdo it, there’s still three more action-filled days to go.

Jaume birra — Free as in free beer, courtesy of Miyowa

Special thanks to Markus Lonka and his great crew at Mixem Solutions for generously providing a pass to MWC.

Why Design Loves Barcelona

October 26, 2010August 6, 2020albert

Barcelona is world famous as a city that emanates culture, creativity, art, trends and design, elements that combine and interact to trace the particular style of an international brand.

poster BCN Design Week — Pic from last edition of BCN Design Week

In the last 25 years, the city has become one of the favourite bases of operation for architects, designers, photographers, illustrators and creative professionals from all over the world. These artistic professionals have turned design into one of Barcelona’s signs of identity, adding to the talent already in place, an building on the legacy of universal artists such as Gaudí, Miró, Tàpies or Brossa to name but a few.

After putting on one of the most impressive Olympic Games ever, Barcelona confirmed itself as Read more →

X marks the Spot

December 11, 2009August 6, 2020Jaume Barberena

One of my favorite games as a child was to discover buried treasure. Of course, you needed a gang of like-minded ‘mates a couple of spades… and a treasure map! Before you knew knew it, we’d dug up half the garden and half the lovely old lady nextdoor’s garden too. The time we got really lucky, we dug up a couple of worms, and kept them to go “fishing” the next day.
Flash back to reality… now that we are all grown up, the romance of the treasure hunt remains entrenched in our hearts. So what better way to pay tribute to our childhood memories than by creating a treasure map of our own?

So we at bizFlats did just that, we created a map with all our properties on it so you can quickly find an apartment in your favorite area of Barcelona. It’s still in beta, so if you see anything strange happenning, be assured we’ll work to sort it out. Have a look at the map below

Pinpoint your exact requirements

You can add and remove the apartments in any area of Barcelona. Likewise, you can add and remove the types of apartments most suitable to your requirements. Then click on a property’s icon on the map itself to get the vital statistics and a picture in the nifty little bubble.

Atop the map you can see a list of apartments too, which is especially useful when you seek out multiple apartments for a big group, all in one location.

Toggle to your heart’s content

Now you can see your chosen apartments either on a list – the traditional way – or on the map. When you include the dates of arrival and departure you’ll get the prices too. So just click the tabs at the top and toggle back and forth as much as you like. Soon, we’ll add a synchronization so if you make a change to the list, you’ll update the map and vice versa.

The treasure of a lovely stay in Barcelona is right here waiting for you to find it.

Do you have suggestions on how to make the map tool even better? Is there a particularly useful tool you have found on another website that you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments below

How to get Google Website Optimizer and Joomla to work together

August 5, 2009December 11, 2009Jaume Barberena

Finally, I mustered up the courage and took the time to write my first post. Do read, enjoy, comment, curse to your heart’s desire. If I like the experience, maybe I’ll write even more … you have been warned!

Ever wanted your website to be more profitable?

Nowadays, websites for hobbyists, are well, just for fun; everything else is serious business, so undoubtedly turning a profit is first and foremost. How can you know if you’re not leaving money on the table? One sure way is to tweak your website to get more revenue from each visitor. Making simple changes can lead to large increase in conversion rates and profits.

Google’s Website Optimizer (GWO) probably needs no introduction by now, but let’s say that it’s a tool which allows you to test changes to your website scientifically in a controlled environment, before fully committing them, thus saving you from the painful mistakes of just following a gut feeling. I know from firsthand experience that can hurt, bad.

I won’t go into the gory details of how GWO works or how to set up experiments since google’s documentation covers that pretty well. However, I will say that if you can use just one tool to make better profits from your website, GWO is definitely the one. Heck, even optimization guru Bryan Eisenberg says he’d take it to a desert island! Read more →

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