The opening talk, "The Future of Work", was given by Jordi Serrano, the creator of Future4Work and the former Director of Human Resources at Everis, and Santi García, a nationally renowned expert on human resources and the director of the iOpener Institute for People and Performance. Both speakers affirmed that people are spending less and less time working for the same company. “The idea of a ‘job for life’ no longer exists. It has passed into history. Increasingly, people are looking for meaning, for something more from their jobs. The paternalist model is ineffective and doesn’t work in today’s fast-moving world”, García declared.
They were followed by Albert García Pujadas, the founder of Foxize, who spoke about recent trends in digital marketing. He took a particularly close look at the qualities a director of marketing needs in order to succeed in today’s world, before going on to give the students some advice. “Forget about the theory and just do things. What’s important on your CV is what you’re doing right now, here in the present”, he asserted. Pujadas then received a number of questions from the audience regarding personal branding, and gave the students a series of recommendations.
Next up was Àngel Mestres, the Director of Trànsit (a leading company in Spain's cultural industry), who spoke about entrepreneurship in his particular field. He encouraged the students to lay aside any prejudices they might have towards this industry and informed them of the multitude of possibilities it can offer them. “The cultural industry is an emerging industry that democratizes and empowers people. In one way or another, you’re constantly consuming its products”, Mestres argued.
The lecturers Ramón Bastida and Marta Mas then presented two new master’s degree programmes that are due to begin next academic year: namely, the Master's Degree in International Financial Management and Accounting and the Master's Degree in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology.
Also taking part in the event was Fabian Mohedano, who is responsible for promoting the initiative to reduce working hours in Spain. He outlined the reasons why people work so late in Spain and explained how this practice ultimately affects productivity and work-life balance.
Finally, this year’s edition of Business Day ended with a roundtable session, “UIC Barcelona Entrepreneurs”, in which former students from the faculty (Carlos Pascual, the creator of Murray Extreme Sports; Mariona Martínez and Marc Navarra, the creators of Bamboo Bikes; and Marc Ramon Hernández, the creator of Intuuchina) encouraged those present to take the plunge and set up their own businesses.
