Big data versus Big Brother. Do we want Barcelona to be the smart city to lead all smart cities? Or should the Catalan capital simply save time and money by utilizing open source code to copy other pioneering cities? The 2014 Smart City Expo at Fira Barcelona definitely talked about success being found in a mix of the two. The Mobile World Capital saw 232 businesses and a … [Read more...]
Barcelona Teams Up With Adobe To Build The World’s First Digital Branding Lab For Cities
The Barcelona City Council and Adobe Systems, the multinational software company, have inked an agreement to build the City Branding Lab in Barcelona. The objective: Innovate and experiment with solutions that favor the city's competitiveness, while simultaneously improving the quality of life for its citizens. As we move ever closer towards a global society and the borders … [Read more...]
Fest-UP Barcelona Announces the 2014 Fall Edition Heroes
Fest-UP is Barcelona's startup community festival - an opportunity for the entire Barcelona Startup Ecosystem to share their knowledge, showcase their projects and make new connections within our vibrant entrepreneurial community. In May 2014, more than 3.000 people attended at least one of the 45 events held in 22 locations across Barcelona - all focused on one goal: … [Read more...]
Live From Dublin: Web Summit 2014 Day 1 Coverage
In case you weren't able to attend this year's Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland, here's the skinny on Day 1. In what's being dubbed, "The Greatest Tech Conference on Earth" the first thing we learned upon arrival was that there would be no WIFI. We had to ask if this was joke. It was not. Fear not! There was enough dial-up modems for all, well at least for the press. With more … [Read more...]
Barcelona is the Craft Beer Capital of Europe
If you didn’t know better – this title probably sounds like a joke. And OK, at the moment, it isn't exactly true. But it's not libel, either. Sure the plazas and Ramblas of Barcelona are a sea of Estrella-branded umbrellas shading shiny metal chairs and tables plastered with the same ubiquitous gold star. But beer lovers rejoice! Your options go far beyond Estrella Damm, San … [Read more...]
Boston Accelerator Dat Venture Is Recruiting Spanish Startups To The US
A new channel to accelerate Spanish startups overseas and enter the US market has emerged from my hometown of Boston. In collaboration with Harvard University and Efron Consulting, the Boston accelerator Dat Venture is designed to help Spanish entrepreneurs develop their business models and spur international innovation. The mission is to connect international talent … [Read more...]
Content Strategy For The Web: An Interview with Kristina Halvorson
I first picked up Content Strategy For The Web in the summer 2012 and immediately I was hooked right in. My eyes were suddenly opened to the tangled mess the internet had become and that, when it came to companies creating content online, common sense had left town a long time ago. Fast forward to early 2014, when I learned Confab Europe would be hosted in Barcelona, I jumped … [Read more...]
The Road To Impact: Using The Sun To Turn Wood Into Gas
It was at the Impact Hub Barcelona where I first met Manon Michelle Monhemius. She is on a mission to educate the unsuspecting European co-working crowds to the many benefits of smokeless cooking. From stuffing a giant zucchini in Paris, to innovating on the invariable Swiss fondue in Geneva, and surprising the Monday crowd with lunch at Impact Hub Barcelona, Manon and her … [Read more...]
Heard@ Next Bank Europe: Disrupting The Banking Industry
Recently Temenos, one of the sponsors of the Next Bank Europe Conference, released a white paper on industry disruption in the banking sector. Their introduction depicts clearly the urgency to come up with new business models and value propositions. “Digitization is changing the industry’s dynamics. Cloud computing is lowering the cost of doing business. Improvements in … [Read more...]
Barcelona Wins Bloomberg’s Innovation Challenge Award and The €5M Bounty That Comes With It
Another innovation prize? Just throw it over there with the others. Seriously though, Barcelona is starting to get a reputation as a world-leading innovative city, and we have the hardware to prove it. In March, Barcelona took home the iCapital Award, the first-ever European Commission prize that was awarded to Barcelona “for introducing the use of new technologies to bring the … [Read more...]