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The agreement was signed by the Second Deputy Mayor of Barcelona’s City Council and the president of the show’s Organizing Committee, Sònia Recasens, the president of PIMEC, Josep González, and the Managing Director of Fira de Barcelona, Agustín Cordón.

This year, Bizbarcelona will structure the show around two main themed areas: Bizempren, offering solutions to help entrepreneurs to steer their projects along the right lines for success, and Bizpimes, an area designed for small and medium-sized companies to accelerate their growth. It is in this second area that the collaboration agreement signed at Fira de Barcelona will take effect.

Sònia Recasens puts a very high rating on the incorporation of PIMEC to enrich the prospects offered by Bizbarcelona to SMEs and self-employed professionals. “Bringing in PIMEC’s experience represents a leap forward in quality and consolidates our commitment to opening up the show to SMEs and the self-employed, making it their best launch-pad for growth. With this public-private collaboration, we are able to offer more specialized services which will help them to improve their competitiveness”, she stressed.

Meanwhile, PIMEC’s president, Josep González, appeared very satisfied with the level of commitment and the active role played by the association in Bizbarcelona. “It’s one more step forward in our determination to help businesspeople and entrepreneurs start businesses and drive them forward,” he confirmed.

According to the agreement, PIMEC will hold a new edition of their SME Financing Market at Bizbarcelona, a meeting place where pre-selected companies are put in contact with Spanish and international public and private bodies that provide financing services. In this forum, companies can present their business projects face-to-face, improving their prospects of access to loans. At the same time, the association will offer a personalized consultancy service during the show as well as information on the alternatives and financial products applicable to each case.

Barcelona Activa, one of the main driving forces behind the show, is collaborating with PIMEC to provide the Contact-Talent area in which to find personnel with professional profiles that match specific employment opportunities. This area will host speed meetings, group dynamics and in-depth interviews between the selected candidates and the companies with job vacancies. At the same time, visiting SMEs will be able to seek advice about recruiting and retaining talent, salary structures, the working environment and questions relating to contracts, bonuses, internship agreements, etc.

To complement other areas of the show, PIMEC will offer information and specialized advice to self-employed professionals and micro, small and medium-sized companies. On the subject of 2.0 business, BIZe-solutions has been created to concentrate on smart communications, management systems, CRM, e-invoicing, security and business intelligence. Activities aimed at responding to queries on buying and selling companies will also be intensified to help with the professional reinsertion of businesspeople, self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs who have been left jobless and to encourage networking between SMEs who want to expand their contact network, attract potential clients or generate synergies and collaborations between businesses.

In addition, any SMEs at Bizbarcelona whose intention is to expand their international scope or venture abroad for the first time will find tailor-made programmes and subsidies in the Bizexporta area, coordinated by “la Caixa” and Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce. They can also attend talks and hear ideas about company management, marketing, sales and e-commerce, amongst other topics.

Also, as part of Bizbarcelona, PIMEC will celebrate its traditional annual dinner which attracts nearly a thousand entrepreneurs from SMEs as well as political and institutional figures. As part of this event, the PIMES Awards 2015 will be presented which recognize the best business initiatives undertaken in Catalonia in different sectors during the previous year.

The other main themed area of Bizbarcelona is Bizempren, which brings together all the tools, services, workshops, conferences and activities for those looking to turn their business ideas into a reality or who investigating methods for becoming self-employed. Topics are ordered according to the phase the project has reached, as defined by the organizing committee: Vision, Passion or Execution. Additionally there will be cross-cutting content such as networking, consultancy and the Financing Market which brings together companies and entrepreneurs to present their projects to a pool of investors comprising Business Angels and crowdfunders, amongst other activities.

Through the agreement signed today, PIMEC joins Barcelona Activa, the Barcelona City Council, the Catalan government, “la Caixa”, the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, all of which, through this show and the programmes they roll out during the whole year, stimulate business growth and entrepreneurship with the priority of creating employment.