Organised by Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona International Community Day (BICD) is back to its face-to-face format again this year, under the slogan ‘Back to (net)work!’. It aims to strengthen relations between the city and the international community via its involvement in the recovery and reactivation of Barcelona, following the pandemic.
We are happy to be media collaborators of this event, with our new section of Barcelona in English. See further details below on how you can get more involved with Barcelona in English – and how we can also help to promote your business or services across our entire network.
The 7th Barcelona International Community Day takes place on 23 October at the Maritime Museum and will include 50 activities and 70 exhibitors, consolidating its position as the main welcoming and networking space for everybody that has come to live and work in the city. A Covid-19 vaccination point will also be set up to provide visitors to the event with this service.
At the last face-to-face event, in 2019, 4,023 people from 133 countries enrolled at the BICD. Of these, 69% were attending for the first time. The event in 2020 saw a combination of face-to-face and virtual activities.
This year’s event provides international residents and visitors with the opportunity to participate in activities, conferences, round tables and guided workshops, in addition to an exhibition space for specialist services and companies. BICD will therefore offer not only a space for newcomers to feel welcomed and meet up with others, but will also help to bring together the biggest concentration of talent, entrepreneurship, ideas and projects arriving in the city from abroad.
Economic recovery: Back to (net)work!
Having to learn to live with the Covid pandemic has been particularly hard for foreign nationals who live and work in Barcelona. The health restrictions, the state of emergency in Spain and other countries have made the mobility of foreign residents in the city much more difficult. Therefore, now more than ever, Barcelona has served as a home for them: an economic, business and networking space in addition to becoming their home. Now has also been the time to discover a different side to Barcelona, to feel more like a local than ever.
The face-to-face event at the Maritime Museum in Barcelona on 23 October will offer all the necessary tools, knowledge, experiences and contacts to help the international community to continue to grow. The initiative is being held under the slogan Back to (net)work! and aims to bring everybody back together and strengthen the relations of the international community in the city.
The international talent in Barcelona – culturally, socially and economically – enriches the city through ideas and businesses, helping it to grow and become recognised as an attractive, welcoming, open and tolerant city.
What’s more, in the coming years, the international talent in Barcelona will once again play a key role in reactivating the city, which has shown its resilience in overcoming the setbacks it has faced throughout history. A city that recovers time and time again, has a clear vision about where it is headed and that can bank on its international talent, which is getting progressively bigger, as an important asset in its economic recovery.
2021 edition
The BICD 2021 will open its doors at 10am on 23 October, following all the health protocols designed to protect the safety of participants,and all activities will be held between 10.30am and 7 pm. Access is free of charge and you can get your ticket by registering online at: internationalcommunityday.barcelona.cat
More than 50 activities will be held, divided into different categories: Personal Landing, offering useful information and services for those recently arriving and setting up in Barcelona, whether alone or with their families; Working and Doing Business, for developing a professional career or investing and doing business; Enjoying the City and Making Contacts, to help find out about the city’s attractions, discovering the culture and leisure on offer and connecting with locals; Entertainment, focusing on cultural, children’s and recreational activities for all ages; and Networking, with practical workshops for expanding your professional network and establishing new contacts between expats and locals. They will look at useful, current topics, such as self-employment, the professions of the future, public transport and completing procedures, to name just a few.
More than 70 exhibitors will be present at the fair, including companies, public authorities and associations, distributed across different stands and information points. They will represent a variety of sectors, such as professional and business relations, cultural and educational services, social and cultural relations, sporting and leisure activities, property and relocation services, recruitment and talent management services, financial, legal and corporate services, language services, communication and the media, insurance, and medical and health services.
A mobile Covid vaccination point will be set up outside the fair to provide international residents with access to vaccinations, whether because they have experienced difficulties accessing the health system or because of a lack of information, or because they believed they would be vaccinated at a later date in their home countries.
Other new developments this year are also related to the new backdrop created by the pandemic, and include activities offered in an online and hybrid format: the week prior, a daily activity will be held online and on the same day as the fair, the entire schedule of one of the activity rooms will be streamed live on the event’s website.
Barcelona’s diverse, intercultural spirit is reflected in the fact that currently, 27.8% of the city’s residents, or 463,857 people, were born abroad. They come from 179 different countries and with the main nationalities represented being Italian, Chinese and Pakistani.
We look forward to seeing you at the Barcelona International Community Day on 23 October – and you can click here to find out full details of all the activities that will be taking place: internationalcommunityday.barcelona.cat
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