NEWS
The Barcelona City Council and BCD organised the second BCN Design Day within the Shanghai World Expo
16/07/2010
The roundtable "Barcelona's Urban Model" and the session "Do it in Barcelona. Invest in Barcelona” gathered up to 120 designers, architects, institutions and Chinese entrepreneurs from different sectors, with the objective to promote the brand "Designed in Barcelona", to position the city as international capital of creativity and design and to create business opportunities.
The Barcelona City Council and BCD Barcelona Design Centre organised the second BCN Design Day, a promotional and networking action included in the Economic Promotion Week organized by the Barcelona City Council within the Universal Shanghai Expo, which aims to position the Barcelona brand in China as a strategic market, and to create synergies and business opportunities between the design sector of Barcelona and the local businesses and institutional networks.
The first activity was a roundtable under the title "Barcelona's Urban Model", an excellent opportunity to explain to Chinese designers and architects as well as to planners and builders, how Barcelona become a benchmark in this area and one of the most attractive and creative cities in the world.
The debate featured renowned designers, architects and professionals such as Viviana Narotzky, Vicente Guallart, Horge Pérez or Juan Eusebio Pujol, who could discuss how the Barcelona model positioned itself as a new paradigm of XXI century city. After the meeting, attendees took part in a networking event where they could explore potential business opportunities.
The BCN Design Day also included the session "Do it in Barcelona. Invest in Barcelona", an activity opened by Sonia Monclús, manager of the Barcelona Design Innovation Cluster (BDIC), who presented several projects run by BCD such as the Corporate Design Centres program or the BDIC. This activity, addressed to multisectorial Chinese industrial companies interested in investing in Barcelona, counted with the participation of Jordi William Carnes, First Deputy Mayor of the Barcelona City Council, Pedro Nueno, professor at the IESE business school, and the Catalan company Roca, joined member of BDIC and an exemplary case in terms of design management.
This kind of activities becomes crucial to enhance the internationalization of the Barcelona brand and the Barcelona design sector, as well as their professionals and companies. According to Isabel Roig, general manager of BCD, "we have one of the best brands in the world, the Barcelona brand, and thus, it is vital to foster their attributes in order to turn them into key assets of our offer as a country, as well as to enhance the exportation power of our businesses and professionals.”
The Mayor Deputy, Jordi William Carnes, highlighted the strategic importance of Barcelona as a gateway to Europe for Chinese investment, as well as the expansion opportunities for Catalan companies within the Chinese market. Mr. Carnes also pointed out that the Barcelona brand "must involve not only tourism, but also the prestige and quality of our products and our companies".