As you may know the Mobile World Congress (MWC)  is the biggest professional meeting in Europe related to mobile industry (more than 3,000 exhibitors, 100,000 visitors, 1,000 CEOs,...).  Each year brings a new challenge to grow and grow yet after more than 15 editions...this year was CANCELLED due to corvid-19 issues! 

Alongside the MWC, 4YFN (4 years from now) host an event to connect startups, investors, entrepreneurs,... from around the world. More than 6,000 visitors... BUT this too was CANCELLED 

Disclaimer: We do not want to belittle the threat of the virus in anyway or the make a statement on the decision by the organisers. This is a post to show an example of Exponential posibilities in the 21st Century.

On 12 February we got the announcement on the news: cancelation of MWC2020 and 4YFN... BIG SHOCK, more than €400 million in economic impact for the city was gone!!!

BUT the Barcelona's tech ecosystem started to move, to share ideas, to start organizing events, small ones, bigger ones,... last weekend telegram was burning... 19 groups, more than 3,000 people sharing ideas, venues, resources,... amazing!  

BARCELONA TECH SPIRIT was born!!!

Being a digital ecosystem with a strong commitment to this movement has resulted in more than 200 events in more than 30 venues! There are a number of different topics, some of which were not going to be present at MWC2020 like Tech4good (the one that I'm leading)

It's a spontaneous ecosystem response to an external threat!! It is an example of in 2020 it is possible to use technology to mobilise. It is an example of the Community and Crowd attribute in Action. I want to share this quick and simple post as it shows what is possible with the shared purpose of Forward-Thinking Spirit!

If you are interested in attending any of the events you can reach out to any of the OpenExO community members that are involved: Francesc Saldaña, Matthias Schneider, Oriol Ribera. Or you can check out the websites for the events

Check all the events at: http://techspirit.barcelona

And "my" event related to Tech4SDG: https://tech4sdg.org/

About Francesc Saldaña 

Francesc Saldaña is a leader in business management, growth and innovation. He is committed to CSR and the Social Impact Economy. He specialized in new business projects: Marketing & Sales, Human Resources, Financials, Strategy planning, partner seeking, new investors,...

Since 2003 Francesc has been mentoring for new ventures as well as advising VCs and accelerator/incubators in Barcelona. Francesc is an Ambassador for the OpenExO Community and his MTP is  "Connect science, technology and people to create a better future."