Catalonia Trade & Investment organized 180 business meetings during the FISITA World Congress, the international mobility sector event

ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment and Òptima - the Public Office for the Transformation of the Mobility and Automotive Industries- have organized around 180 business meetings in the framework of the FISITA World Congress, held this past week in Barcelona.

It is one of the most important congresses that brings together companies and engineers worldwide from the automotive, mobility, and transportation sectors. Founded in 1950, FISITA is an international network of automotive engineers, bringing together 200,000 people from more than 35 countries.

Chris Mason, Chief Executive Officer of FISITA, stated that “Catalonia is a key player and colleague in the FISITA community.” He recalled that STA (Sociedad de Técnicos de Automoción) was a founding member of FISITA more than 70 years ago. “This is one of the reasons why we decided to establish the Technology of Mobility Conference & Exhibition here in Barcelona. We really like the location of Barcelona, its key automotive strengths, and its engineering community”, he said.

“Catalonia is a key player and colleague in the FISITA community. We really like the location of Barcelona, its key automotive strengths, and its engineering community”

Chris Mason, Chief Executive Officer of FISITA

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Specifically, ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment, as the node in Catalonia of the Europe Enterprise Network (EEN) of the European Commission, has organized a Brokerage Event consisting of pre-scheduled meetings of 20 minutes between about 90 companies, engineers, and technology centers from a dozen countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden or China.

These meetings aim to link the Catalan automotive and mobility ecosystem with companies and organizations worldwide so that they can access international contacts, find partners to develop research and innovation projects, and conclude cooperation agreements. In this sense, ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment has also organized a pitch session for 5 Catalan start-ups to present their projects to 7 large international companies and venture capitals to find partners to promote them.

During the congress, Catalan companies, together with ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment and Òptima, could also attend the presentations of new international entities looking for partners to promote European projects in the automotive and mobility sector. These projects are funded by programs such as Horizon Europe, the European Space Agency (ESA), or the European Union Space Program Agency (EUSPA). ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment also organized a workshop on industrial property for the automotive sector, bringing together a hundred Catalan companies and international experts.

On the other hand, parallel to the exhibition, Òptima organized conferences and meetings with about fifty European experts in electromobility and representatives of institutions. These events were also followed almost all over Europe. These conferences, supported by CDTI and IDIADA, are part of the activities of 2ZERO and CCAM, two European associations that define the strategic lines of innovation at a community level for the electric and autonomous vehicle sector.

The meetings focused on analyzing the trends and challenges facing the automotive and mobility industry in areas such as batteries, electric motors and power electronics, connectivity, and software for the automobile. The aim is to define priorities for supporting European projects in this field. There were also two visits to the Catalan companies Ficosa and Circontrol.

Finally, as part of the Catalunya Meetings & Mobility program, promoted by ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment and the Catalonia Convention Bureau of the Catalan Tourism Agency, a workshop was organized with around twenty business event agencies for the global automotive sector.