“We entered the factory of dreams”, says Gerard Vélez, general director of the consultancy specialized in digital transformation RocaSalvatella when accessing the 4YFN, the space in which more than 700 emerging companies offer innovative solutions.
Vélez is the guide of a pioneering experience promoted by CaixaBank in collaboration with Mobile World Capital: a dozen users of the Prevent Foundation -promotes the labor inclusion of people with disabilities- take a tour of different stands to find out how the technological advances presented in this year’s edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) can help you in your day to day.
“Taking advantage of the fact that we have the MWC in Barcelona, ??we have organized this tour to bring people with special needs closer to emerging companies and, at the same time, show entrepreneurs the importance of developing tools to improve the lives of people with some kind of of disability”, explains Maria Alsina, territorial director of CaixaBank in Barcelona. And she adds: “The tour is a very enriching experience for both parties, and it has been possible thanks to the Mobile World Capital Foundation, of which we are patrons, and which has helped us organize it.”
The first obligatory stop is at the stand of the Barcelona Health Hub (BHH), a technological association based in the modernist Sant Pau venue that promotes innovation projects in the field of digital health. “We started 2018 with three start-ups,” says Eva Rosell, the entity’s general director. Now we have sixty-five hundred people working in a privileged environment with a hospital, research centers and universities, among other entities and healthcare facilities”.
Rosell is satisfied with the interest generated by the BHH stand: “We have managed to bring the white coats to Mobile, and that is a complete success,” she insists. The visit advances through different spaces of the 4YFN. The curiosity of the participants is manifested in the questions they ask the entrepreneurs, to know if a service or an application can be useful to them, or what advantages it brings them. Ernesto, blind since he was 16 years old due to medical negligence, stresses the need to keep in mind the auditory and olfactory part. “Today the image is very important, but the information that comes to us through other senses must be strengthened. And here are a few experiences that keep it in mind, ”he says.
An example is the association between Mobile World Capital and Air Parfum, from the Puig company, which have come together during the mobile telephony congress to recreate a tour of the city through smell. The Barcelona Odor Map is one of the five sections of the Feel the Technology immersive sensory route, a personalized and gamified experience that shows services based on disruptive technologies such as immersive reality, the metaverse or artificial intelligence, and that the Mobile World Capital –which promotes the digital development of society through the humanistic use of technology– has led to MWC 2023. The members of the Prevent Foundation are now coming to the space of the Catalan company Broomx Technology, where they can enjoy an immersive experience in which, from a touch of creativity and magic, the user is stimulated so that his activity has a therapeutic value.
In another space –Feel the Technology– the participants put on augmented reality glasses to experience a live concert. Further on, at the MWCapital stand, they see how the exoskeleton of the Catalan start-up Able Human Motion works, allowing people who cannot get up or walk due to illness or accident to recover mobility and advance in recovery processes. rehabilitation.
The experience of the different members of the Prevent Foundation at this year’s Mobile World Congress is part of CaixaBank’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. The entity works continuously to eliminate physical and sensory barriers in all customer service channels, whether face-to-face or digital.
In addition, it also collaborates with different entities of the third sector to promote social and financial inclusion, and seeks, with them, tools or reaches collaboration agreements to facilitate the improvement of the quality of life of vulnerable people and their families.
