Barcelona International Community Day is celebrating its tenth anniversary
Next Saturday 28th of October, the Barcelona Maritime Museum, located in the former Royal Shipyards, will host the tenth edition of Barcelona International Community Day.
The event is the main welcome space for international professionals who have just arrived in the city and the benchmark event for all members of the international community who live and work in Barcelona. It is also open to anyone who wants to connect with this group, which brings diversity and wealth to the city. This initiative is promoted by Barcelona City Council via the Directorate of International Economic Promotion.
In collaboration with Barcelona International Welcome.
Barcelona International Community Day 2023
Summary Barcelona International Community Day 2023
On Saturday 28 October, Barcelona International Community Day 2023 will be held, the benchmark annual gathering of Barcelona's international talent ecosystem that brings together everyone who wants to connect.
The event promoted by Barcelona City Council is celebrating its tenth edition and has carved out a niche for itself as the main welcome and networking space for professionals from all over the world who have chosen to live and work in the city of Barcelona.
The Barcelona Maritime Museum will once again be the venue of the event, which welcomes more exhibitors, speakers and participants every year. The previous edition achieved a record figure of 5.416 people registered.
This edition will have almost 80 exhibitors, including companies, public entities, associations and clubs for foreign nationals, in addition to international schools. 21% of these exhibitors are participating in the event for the first time.
The programme for the gathering includes more than 60 activities throughout the day in a variety of formats: informative talks, workshops, round tables, networking activities, musical performances and children's activities. Most of the activities will be in English, and around 100 speakers and experts from different nationalities will be participating in them.
To commemorate the event’s tenth anniversary, the renowned US artist living in the city, Philip Stanton, has designed an exclusive anniversary t-shirt. The first 200 people who arrive at the Barcelona Maritime Museum on 28 October, as the fair opens, will receive the exclusive t-shirt as a gift.
Barcelona International Community Day is the culmination of a series of activities and programmes that Barcelona City Council offers throughout the year via the Barcelona International Welcome service, whose mission is to facilitate the arrival and integration of international talents in the city.
The slogan ‘10 years with you’ is a nod to the ten consecutive years that Barcelona International Community Day has been held. That includes the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the event was adapted to the circumstances and turned into Expat Week, a programme of online activities held throughout the course of a week.
Cities for Talent Meeting is another one of the new features this year. Twenty-five representatives from 17 leading cities and territories have been invited to get to know Barcelona International Community Day 2023. The day prior to the event will be packed with efforts to share best practice in services aimed at international talent.
Programme Barcelona International Community Day 2023
The event consists of a fair for businesses and organisations that offers products, services and initiatives aimed for international talent, as well as a programme of activities, workshops and lectures on topics of interest to the community. The premises are open from 10 am to 7 pm. Access is free of charge and tickets can be obtained by registering on the website.
Exhibitors Barcelona International Community Day 2023
The fair is welcoming almost 80 exhibitors, including:
- companies and public and private organisations
- associations, social clubs and non-profits
- international schools.
They will all be distributed around the different stands and information points. Participants will also find specialised resources and services that meet the needs of foreign nationals who have recently arrived in Barcelona.
The sectors represented includes:
- real estate
- relocation
- talent management
- legal and financial advices
- insurance
- medical services
The participants will also find cultural and social organisations, both public and private, which will offer them products, services and initiatives to help them enjoy and integrate into the city. The educational sector will also be represented with booths from different schools offering international curricula or qualifications. Plus, the exhibitors include business schools and other educational centres.
Activities Barcelona International Community Day 2023
More than 60 activities are scheduled in this year’s edition, revolved around three main themes.
Arriving in the city
Practical information on paperwork, looking for a flat, tax issues and how the education and healthcare systems works.
Companies and work
Tips on finding a job, developing a career or becoming an entrepreneur.
Enjoying and socialising in the city
Information on culture, entertainment and guided networking events to help create networks, both personal and professional.
In this year’s activity programme will be topics like Barcelona’s scientific potential, entrepreneurial talent, searching for a flat in the city, access to healthcare services, practising Catalan and promoting entrepreneurship among women.
Barcelona Activa and Barcelona International Welcome
The event will share the resources offered by Barcelona Activa to find work and support the creation of companies with mentoring services. There will be a detailed explanation of the permanent municipal service for supporting and welcoming newly arrived international talents, Barcelona International Welcome Desk, which provides personalised information and advice.
Therefore, Barcelona International Community Day 2023 will not only be a space where citizens from other countries are welcome and can meet each other, but also the largest concentration of talent, entrepreneurship, ideas and projects coming to the city from abroad.
Festive and family side
The day will also be festive and family friendly. This year, new and exciting activities are being offered for all the audience, like a performance by castellers (human tower builders) and a virtual reality experience about Barcelona. As usual, the garden of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona will host live concerts, performances, and inside the venue there will be a play centre for our younger visitors with children’s activities.
After the success of the previous edition, the large closing party will be held again from 6 to 7 pm. This time it will feature a ten-year anniversary cake, a toast and a Catalan rumba concert for the attendees and participants.
To commemorate the event’s tenth edition, an exclusive anniversary t-shirt has been created. It was designed by the artist Philip Stanton, a renowned US painter, illustrator and designer living in Barcelona. The city has been the leitmotif of much of his work, and he has several murals in public spaces. Two hundred t-shirts will be handed out to the first 200 people to enter the fair.
Host ambassadors Barcelona International Community Day 2023
Just like every year, host ambassadors will participate in the programme of activities. They are professionals from different nationalities who moved to Barcelona and developed their careers in the city. In addition to participating in the event on the 28th October, through Barcelona International Welcome’s social media, each one of them will explain in a video interview why they chose Barcelona and how the city has helped them bring their professional projects to fruition.
The Barcelona International Community Day 203 host ambassadors are:
- the Ukrainian Svetlana Velikanova, the founder of Harbour Space University;
- the Chinese entrepreneur and businesswoman Liling Qi, president of Puente China Holding;
- the German biologist Reimund Fickert, the head of communication and development at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB);
- Mirjam Maarleveld, the Dutch founder of the Barcelona Expat Life platform;
- Lázaro Campoalegre, a Cuban computer engineer specialising in the ICT industry;
- and Marion Sánchez, from France, who is currently involved in the impact investing foundation Ship2b.
This year, to celebrate the event’s tenth anniversary, the host ambassadors from previous editions have also been invited.
Organisation and support
Barcelona City Council organises Barcelona International Community Day 2023 with major participation by Barcelona Activa, the city’s economic development agency, and with the involvement of numerous organisations, entities and professionals, that make it possible to hold and publicise it.
The project is an example of a public-private partnership, given that it has significant support from Banco Sabadell as a premium sponsor, as well as the sponsorship of ERES Relocation Services (managing workers’ international mobility), MAPFRE (insurance and medical and health services) and Entre Trámites (tax and legal consulting for SMEs, freelancers and foreign companies that want to move to Barcelona).
This year, the Barcelona International Schools Association (BISA), Maremagnum shopping center, the Old Irish Pub and the childcare services company The Nanny Line are also supporting the event.
La Vanguardia will be the event’s media partner, along with the support of several media partners specialising in content for the city’s international community.
2022 Edition
The 2022 edition totalled 5,416 registrations, a record figure in the event’s nine years. Including 76.8% who were attending the event for the first time, the rest had previously attended the event. This large international gathering also brought together students, entrepreneurs, members of research teams, businesspeople, artists and families.
The diverse origins of the participants meant that 71.21% were abroad visitors, while 28.79% were from Spain. In total, visitors from 130 countries gathered the event; the five most popular countries were France, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom and Colombia. Around 67% of the attendees had been living in Barcelona for less than five years.
Sixty-one activities were held, with 81 speakers and experts and 71 exhibitors. The participants rated their satisfaction with the day on a 7.8 / 10. The report on the 2022 edition can be found through this link.
A 360-degree plan to attract, welcome, energise and gain the loyalty of international talent
Barcelona’s diverse, intercultural spirit comes evident by the fact that currently 31.3% of the people living in the city (519,066), were born abroad. People from 177 different nationalities live together in Barcelona; the largest groups are Italians, Colombians, Pakistanis and Chinese.
Regarding educational level, 43.2% of expats living in Barcelona have university degrees or a higher-level vocational training degree. Barcelona offers all foreign nationals who come to live and carve out their lives in the city countless opportunities to facilitate their personal and professional growth.
This large, dynamic, international community has the potential to enrich our society and economy. From the economic promotion perspective, the community is invaluable because:
- They generate wealth with their talent, work, investments, companies, professional projects and economic or commercial activity.
- They push improvements in competitiveness and productivity, given that they bring new ideas, techniques and innovations.
- They are the first to welcome new investors, entrepreneurs or professionals from their country: they help them take the decision to invest and help new talent to land in our city.
- They serve as economic ‘ambassadors’ of Barcelona in their home countries.
Bearing in mind this incredibly positive contribution, it is important to care for this international community, both recent arrivals and more veteran residents.
That is why, for some years, the International Economic Promotion area of Barcelona City Council has had a plan to attract, welcome, energise and earn the loyalty of international talent, which is reflected in the Barcelona International Welcome. It is the municipal portal aimed that foreign nationals who wants to come to live and work in Barcelona, and provides practical information on arriving to the city, along with detailed explanations of the important compulsory administrative formalities they must complete.
It also offers a calendar of activities throughout the year to help those people develop their full potential, learn about the city and connect with other members of the same community.
The Barcelona International Welcome Desk has been operating since November 2021. It is a pioneering service to welcome international talent to Spain, which facilitates the arrival of talents through personalised information, advice and procedural services in different languages. Users may be supported both in person and by video call.
Barcelona International Community Day - previous editions
Barcelona International Welcome
About Barcelona International Welcome
Barcelona International Welcome (BIW) is backed by the International Economic Promotion Department at Barcelona City Council and works in collaboration with Barcelona Activa, the city’s local development agency. Barcelona is open to the world and loves its diversity. That’s why this initiative is part of a solid strategy to attract, welcome and engage the city’s international talent including the organization of different activities throughout the year, services to make your arrival easier and information to establish yourself in Barcelona.
Here we provide you with advice and information on resources that may help you with your job hunting, news on Barcelona’s dynamic start-up and economic scenes, networking and informative activities aimed at the international community as well as tips to make the most of your new life in this city.
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