Innovation Festival Barcelona

September 10, 2009: Barcelona will kick off the European Innovation Festivals, an initiative led by European Design Centre and launched by the European Commission as part of the PRO INNO Europe programme. The objective is to promote and encourage excellence and innovation in different European regions. Barcelona will start things off from October 22 to November 22. This is the first of six such events that will take place in various European cities up to 2011. As the project continues, Milan (Italy), Lisbon (Portugal), Tallinn (Estonia), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Kortrijk (Belgium) will take over from Barcelona, promoting their own international profiles as creative and innovative cities. Organised with the goal of fostering creativity and innovation and attracting new talent, IF Barcelona includes a programme of activities aimed at demonstrating that creativity and innovation can respond to present needs and to challenges facing society today, highlighting the key role played by design in driving innovation. To this end, over a whole month, Barcelona will host a wide range of activities, exhibitions, lectures, workshops, congresses, prizes, routes, etc., aimed at bringing creativity and innovation to the widest possible audiences. The goal is to involve the public in general, as well as companies, entrepreneurs and public corporations, raising their awareness about the crucial role that creativity, design and innovation can play in the progress and development of society and in enhancing competitiveness in business and in the economy as a whole.