The conference Barcelona reAct has come to a close after almost a week of debates and talks which reflected on the new post Covid-19 economic agenda with a 2030 horizon.  Organised by Barcelona City Council, with the support of other entities and organisations, the conference was held in a hybrid format, onsite and online, and was complemented by parallel open-air activities carried out in different points of the city.

As the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, pointed out in the opening of the event, the conference was based around three viewpoints: economy, urban planning and ecology, in relation to the city of the future. In turn, the First Deputy Mayor, Jaume Collboni, explained that the City Council is working on 20 future projects, within the framework of the strategy of the Barcelona Green Deal, linked to urban mobility, the blue economy, creative industries and innovation policies, among others. "We want to reactivate and transform the city through a competitive, sustainable and equitable model," he said.

From among these projects, it is worth highlighting the ‘Barcelona Innovation Coast’ (BIC), a new space for boosting and coordinating innovation that foresees the creation of 40,000 jobs over the next 10 years. The BIC is a new public-private platform that aims to promote the urban innovation zone concentrated in the axis of the coast of Barcelona and that was created with the aim of helping to diversify the economy of the city, with more added value, and by generating quality jobs.

Barcelona City Council will also promote a sports technology and innovation hub, the Barcelona Sports Tech Hub, with its epicentre on the hill of Montjuïc, to make the city an international benchmark in the 'Sports Tech' sector. The aim is to improve the economic competitiveness of companies, organisations and institutions in this sector. The new hub will be made up of companies, large corporations, institutions, start-ups and other technological stakeholders that develop projects to transform and improve the management and practice of sport, including projects related to eSports. Among the projects to be carried out, the first Sports Tech start-up incubator in Barcelona stands out, located in the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, which will have 1,167 m2 and will be promoted by Barcelona Activa and the municipal company, B:SM.

In the closing ceremony, Mayor Colau stated that "Barcelona is prepared to lead a model of prosperous and cooperative economic growth, which does not repeat mistakes. A project that generates a fairer and more sustainable model of society where we assume the preservation of the planet." For his part, Deputy Mayor Collboni highlighted the fact that the Barcelona reAct conference "has served to make a call for the reactivation of the economic activity of the city. Calling out for the conviction of our potential, because Barcelona has everything required to get out of this crisis"