Landing visits Korean Pavilion at Mobile World Congress 2008

20th of February, 2008

On 13th of February, Landing Program visited the Korean Pavilion and the 8 Korean companies (BND, Contela, Digital Image System, Fusionsoft, INKA Entworks, PIXTREE, SHELL-LINE and SOLiD Technologies) that were presented at the Mobile World Congress 2008, held in Barcelona. There, 22@Barcelona CEO Mr. Josep M. Piquet met Mr. Lee Yun- Seo, Global Business Division Executive Vice President of the Korea IT International Agency (KIICA) and they reinforced the cooperation framework that was established in 2007.

KIICA is an affiliated organization of Ministry of Information and Communication in Korea. The organization was set up with a vision of promoting ICT industry and introducing new technologies into the overseas market. KIICA is seeking competitive products to be introduced to the world’s market by providing various in-depth information and service related to the global market. The Korean Agency is also hosting seminars, business forums, roadshows, and exhibitions for promotion of business cooperation with foreign IT industries.

KIICA represents a strategic partner for 22@Barcelona and the Landing Program and this is why Landing has ambitions to further the partnership between South Korea and Barcelona.

CNBC Magazine calls 22@Barcelona one of Europe’s top regeneration projects

15th of February, 2008

One of the leading American business magazines, CNBC, considers that the projects underway in the 22@Barcelona Innovation District represent one of the top European regeneration projects.

The article focuses on Barcelona’s metamorphosis into an international metropolis, which began with the “Romans and culminated by the end of the 19th century with Spain’s greatest concentration of factories in its Poblenou district, which has become an elaborate tech hub with ultramodern architecture”. The author of the article, Rupert Eden, reminds to the readers that this area, once called Catalonia’s Manchester, at the begging of the 21st century has become to an innovative district which is housing companies from different “tech” sectors like: research and development, media and marketing.

CNBC also explains that the 22@Barcelona district “exemplifies Barcelona’s current investment potential”, taking into account the large number of companies already attracted. The article also expounds the benefits that this regeneration project has brought to the Poblenou neighborhood, which include 30,000 new jobs, 3.2 million m2 of new offices and housing and 114,000 m2 of parks and green areas.

Rupert Eden emphasizes the importance of the Agbar Tower, which “closely resembles London’s Gherkin”; as well he praises the innovation district’s location, its connections with the rest of the city and its proximity to the Diagonal Mar area (e.g. the sea area).

If you would like to read the whole CNBC magazine article (PDF file), please click the fallowing link:

http://www.22barcelona.com/documentacio/cnbc_magazine_eng.pdf

22@Update Breakfast, January 2008

15th of February, 2008

At the 22@ Update Breakfast on January 2008, Mr. Francesc Santacana, General Coordinator of the Barcelona Strategic Metropolitan Plan, made a presentation and talked about the actual situation of the telecommunications in the city of Barcelona, which is an essential part of the strategic plan.

The Barcelona Strategic Metropolitan Plan was created with the objective to transform the city and metropolitan area of Barcelona both socially and economically. The plan aims to face the challenges of the 21st century through public and private consensus, shared leadership and cooperation among the different agencies that participate in the project. In 1999, the third Strategic Plan was approved in order to create a knowledge-based city: the 22@Barcelona model of innovation.

The 22@ Update Breakfast discussed that the planning of the city of Barcelona represents a really important issue in order to create a modern society and competitive environment. The process of economic and technological development based on the internationalization of the business depends mainly on the existence of a good telecommunications project. Such project allows these areas to overcome isolation and to attract companies and talent from all over the world, and thus the economic and the social development of the city will be stimulated.

Mr. Santacana affirms that “globalization wouldn’t be possible without communication technologies”. It should be mentioned also that the telecommunications’ quality is the third most important factor that the companies are looking for when they are establishing offices and headquarters abroad. Thus Barcelona must improve the competitiveness of the city in this aspect. For that reason were accepted some steps that are directed to the improvement of the telecommunications’ quality.

22@Barcelona Board of Directors Meeting

15th of February 2008

On 20th of November 2007, during a Meeting of the Board of Directors that took place at the Barcelona City Hall, Mr. Josep Miquel Piqué was named CEO of 22@Barcelona.

With this newest appointment, the current members of the 22@Barcelona Board of Directors are: Jordi William Carnes (third deputy mayor and president of 22@Barcelona); Ramon Garcia-Bragado (fourth deputy mayor of Barcelona); Francesc Narváez (city councilor for the Sant Martí district); Maravillas Rojo (vice president of Barcelona Activa); Jaume Ciurana, Eduard Garcia, Joan Puigdollers and Francesc de Paula Gambús (CiU city councilors); Emma Balseiro (PP city councilor); Elsa Blasco (ICV-EUA city councilor); Antoni Sorolla (minister of housing); Manuel Gallardo (PP district councilor in the district of Sant Martí); Núria Sancho (ERC municipal coordinator); Miquel Barceló (the vice president of b_TEC) and Josep Miquel Piqué (the new executive director of 22@Barcelona).

Professional Career of Mr. J.M. Piqué:
Josep Miquel Piqué (Barcelona, 1967) holds a degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Business Engineering School La Salle and UPC (Technical University of Catalonia), an MBA from ESADE and degrees from UC Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Previously, he worked as the director of the La Salle-Universitat Ramon Llull Innovation Park.

A Meeting with the IT and Audiovisual Clusters of Monterrey

Barcelona, 12th of February 2008

From one year ago Landing Program has established stable connections with the platforms in Monterrey (Nuevo León, Mexico), a program that is also directed to attract technology based companies. The partnership between these two programs aims to provide support for companies from both territories.

Landing Barcelona would like to inform that on 8^th of February took place at “Sala Barcelona” (in the Barcelona City Council) a Meeting with the clusters IT and Audiovisual of Monterrey.

This meeting aimed to be more like a presentation about the services of support that the Landing Barcelona Program, together with the other partner organizations are offering to the Catalan companies that want to take advantage of the process of internationalization and thus use Monterrey as a gateway or platform to the Americas. Also during the meeting an interesting presentation of IT and Multimedia cluster of Monterrey had been made.

The Partner organizations of Landing Barcelona Program that participate in the Meeting were: COPCA (Consortium for Commercial Promotion of Catalonia), Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Secartys, La Salle Innovation Park, Innova Program- Technical University of Catalonia, 22@Barcelona, Economic Promotion from Barcelona City Council, Secretary of the Economy of the State of Nueva León (México), UDEM (University of Monterrey), CANIETI (Mexican Electronics Telecommunications and Information Technologies Industries Chamber), ITESM (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education).

2nd Symposium on Urban Clusters, BCN, February 7th 2008

Barcelona, 05th of February 2008

On February 8th, 2007 22@Barcelona, CIDEM and the Barcelona City Council’s Economic Promotion area held the 1st Symposium of Urban Clusters, which aimed to create an ideal environment to reflect on and further analyze the cluster model supported by 22@Barcelona in the ICT, Media, Energy and Biotech sectors, and foster participation of the stakeholders who want to get involved in turning 22@Barcelona into the Innovation District. Over 300 people participated in the Symposium of 2007, which took place at the Agbar Tower.

Thanks to last year’s success, a 2nd Symposium on Urban Clusters was organized. This time it took place at the AC Barcelona Hotel, on Thursday February 7th, 2008.

The Symposium´s 2008 main purposes were:
- to reconsider the ideas of the last year’s symposium;
- to discuss about the new global tendencies in technology and cluster strategies;
- to learn from the experience of others and implement this knowledge in order to develop the cluster model and accelerate enterprises’ growth.

The Symposium was divided into four parts: Inauguration, Plenary Session, Parallel Sessions Clusters 22@ Barcelona and a Closing Session. Each of the four clusters (Media, ICT, TecMed, and Energy) within the Innovation District 22@Barcelona was presented during the day and each has its own cluster session where interesting presentations and discussions had been made.

The Symposium was officially close by Mr. Josep M. Piqué, CEO 22@ Barcelona and Mr. Jordi Williams Carnes, President of 22@ Barcelona and Third Deputy Mayor of Barcelona.

For more information you can look at the following link:

http://www.22barcelona.com/content/view/398/754/lang,es/

Landing Barcelona Team

XIV Investment Forum, organized by CIDEM

Barcelona, 05th of February 2008

Landing Barcelona Team would like to inform you about the beginning of the process directed to the finding of projects for the XIV Investment Forum that is organized by CIDEM and will take place on 22 of April 2008.

The Forum intends to attract innovative companies with high potential.

If your company:

- has a solid and competent team;

- is looking for a professional financing or it is in a process of sale;

- has headquarters in Catalonia.

This represents a great opportunity to let your company be known and to find the right partner.

You can inscribe to the XIV Investment Forum through the following link:

http://boletines.nexica.net/u.ashx?b=2220&s=0&u=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cidem.com%2fcidem%2fcat%2fformularis%2fcaptacio_XIV.jsp

After that CIDEM will contact you and will communicate you if you was selected for the Forum and for the Book that will be distributed to more than 1.000 attendees.

You can also find more information in the web:

http://boletines.nexica.net/u.ashx?b=2220&s=0&u=http%3a%2f%2fwww.cidem.com%2fcidem%2fcat%2ffinals%2fcaptacio.jsp

Landing Barcelona Team