Barcelona International Community Day will hold its 13th edition on Saturday 24 October at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, located in the former Royal Shipyards.
This big annual gathering continues to gain ground as the main venue to welcome professionals who have recently arrived in Barcelona. It is also the benchmark event for all members of the international community living and working in Barcelona.
This year’s edition is growing in both participation and programming and is particularly spotlighting its commitment to linguistic integration, community participation, access to municipal services and connection with the job market.
The event is open to everyone, including people interested in connecting with this group that brings the city diversity and richness. It is an initiative organised by Barcelona City Council through its Directorate for International Economic Promotion.
Like previous editions, there will be a fair featuring companies and organisations offering goods, services and initiatives for international talent, and a programme of activities, workshops and lectures on topics of interest to the community. The venue will be open from 10 am to 7 pm, and the event is free of charge with registration on the website: barcelona.cat/internationalcommunityday.
Exhibitors’ fair
This year the fair will have a record 84 exhibitors, the highest number in the 13 years of the Barcelona International Community Day. Public organisations and associations continue to predominate and will account for 45% of the total exhibitors, compared to 39% the previous edition. There will be 19 public organisations, 35 companies, 19 associations and 11 educational organisations.
This evolution reinforces the event’s role as a space of guidance not only to facilitate the international community’s arrival in Barcelona but also to promote their active engagement in city life. Furthermore, 26% of exhibitors are participating for the first time.
Visitors will find services related to legal matters, real estate, healthcare, education, business and language learning, as well as relocation companies, international schools, business schools, sports activities and other useful resources for settling in Barcelona.
Support for the integration process will be one of the main focuses on this year’s edition. Barcelona International Community Day is particularly highlighting language, with twice as many organisations devoted to promoting Catalan learning and use. The Consortium for Linguistic Normalisation (CPNL), the Ateneu Barcelonès, the Coordinator of Associations for the Catalan Language and the Speak Catalan initiative will all be there.
Likewise, the resources focused on volunteering and social participation have been increased with the presence of Plataforma de Festes Majors de Barcelona and the Catalan Federation for Social Volunteering, which will share information about different social organisations that offer the international community opportunities to get involved in community and associative projects.
Barcelona City Council is also bolstering its presence with an expanded institutional space that will bring together a range of municipal services in a single information point. Barcelona International Welcome, Barcelona Activa, Markets and Retail, Libraries of Barcelona, Torre Jussana, Barcelona Books, the Guàrdia Urbana city police force, the Firefighters of Barcelona, BSM and Barcelona Esports will all offer resources and advice to facilitate international people’s integration and everyday life.
In addition to the Barcelona Education Consortium, the education sector will also be represented by stands from different schools offering international curricula or degrees, in addition to business schools and other international schools.
Activity programme
The programme continues to grow, and this year it features 68 activities that address practical issues related to settling in Barcelona, access to the job market, entrepreneurship and networking. There will also be popular culture shows and family activities.
One of the most prominent activities will be debates on the tech hubs and professional opportunities that Barcelona offers, job market trends and international entrepreneurship, as well as practical sessions on taxation, immigration, housing, education, health and volunteerism.
The programme also includes sectoral and community networking spaces, activities to foster Catalan learning and use (twice as many as in last year’s edition), a guided tour of the Maritime Museum, and cultural and family activities. Throughout the day, visitors can enjoy music, a stand-up comedy show, havanera singing with burnt rum and a passacaglia of Chinese dragons and lions.
Employment will continue to be one of the key topics of Barcelona International Community Day. Throughout the entire event, Barcelona Activa will provide services geared at facilitating job placement, like the Empresa-Ocupació (Business-Employment) platform, a professional photography service for CVs, virtual reality tools to prepare for job interviews and four practical workshops on improving job searches.
Outside this area, the partnership with Mobile World Capital Barcelona will take it beyond just being an exhibitor. This year, the organisation is promoting the presence of multinationals and tech hubs searching for international talent. They will be able to present their professional opportunities and make contact with participants interested in developing their career in Barcelona.
Innovation is also playing a prominent role in the organisation of the event. One of the improvements this year is new headphones. There will also be simultaneous translation using artificial intelligence in the Auditorium, a tool that will even further facilitate the accessibility of the contents for a diverse international audience.
Host ambassadors
Just like every year, the event’s host ambassadors will take part in the programme of activities. They are six professionals from different countries who have settled in Barcelona, launched their professional projects and personal lives here, and are keen to share their experiences of the city with people attending the gathering.
The hosts in this year’s edition are Amber Jackson, a US American entrepreneur specialised in communication, technology and videogames; Chilean professor and researcher Patricio Reyes, who is currently the coordinator of the Department of Urban Sciences at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC); Suzan Beers, a Dutch woman who founded the inclusive sports initiative Equipo Sin Barreras; the Chinese journalist Ziliang Zhan, who has three million followers on the Chinese social media; Mariam Sargsyan, a doctoral student in Business and Data Science from Armenia; and the French audiovisual producer Clément Esso, co-founder of In The Mirror Films.
Collaboration and support
Companies and institutions that contribute to enriching participants’ experiences and boosting the quality of the event are partnering with Barcelona International Community Day yet another year. Thanks to their support, the event is offering technical improvements, new activities and complementary experiences.
This year’s partner organisations include Banc Sabadell, CaixaBank, Allianz, Eres Relocation, the Palau de la Música – Orfeó Català, The Old Irish Pub, Grup Arenal and La Granja.
La Vanguardia will again be the event’s media partner, with additional support from other media specialising in content for Barcelona’s international community. Spain in English is again proud to be a media collaborator, as in previous years.
With this new edition, Barcelona International Community Day is enhancing its role as a benchmark space in welcoming, connecting and encouraging the participation of the international community while also stressing key aspects like linguistic integration, volunteerism, employment and access to city services.
2025 edition
Barcelona International Community Day 2025 had 5,432 people registered from 131 home countries, with 77.7% from abroad and 22.3% local. The overall rating of the event was 8.2 out of 10 points. Of the total participants, 65% were first-time attendees, while the remainder had already attended one before. Regarding the amount of time they had been living in Barcelona, 25% of participants had been here from one to three years, 24% from three to ten years, and 21% more than ten years.
A 360º plan to care for international talent
The international community now accounts for more than 26.6% of Barcelona’s population. One out of every four residents is a foreigner, which fuels Barcelona’s diverse, intercultural spirit. The city is home to 182 nationalities other than Spanish, with the largest groups coming from Italy, Colombia, Pakistan, China and Peru.
These new arrivals make a positive contribution to the city’s development through their talent and work, their investments and companies, their professional projects and their economic activities. They enhance Barcelona’s competitiveness and productivity by bringing new ideas, knowledge and innovation, and they participate in an open, diverse, welcoming city.
Their integration is a priority for Barcelona City Council. For this reason, the 360º plan aimed at retaining, welcoming, energising, engaging and gaining the loyalty of international talent supports professionals, researchers, university students, entrepreneurs, institutional representatives and other qualified professionals during the different stages of their link with the city.
This plan includes Barcelona International Community Day and the talent resources of Barcelona International Welcome, the municipal initiative spearheaded by the Directorate of International Economic Promotion which offers practical information, useful resources and activities to facilitate the arrival, integration, and personal and professional development of Barcelona’s international community.
Barcelona International Welcome Desk has also been operating since November 2021, a pioneering service in Spain that provides international talent with personalised service by providing information, advice and support in different languages, both in person and by video conference.
Click here to register on the Barcelona International Community Day website. Instagram: @welcome_barcelona – LinkedIn: Barcelona International Welcome.
