Sónar+D to host 4,000 experts and 2,000 companies from global creative and digital tech industries

Barcelona (ACN).- Sónar+D is an international professional conference for creativity and technological innovation, which coincides with Barcelona's Sónar Festival of electronic and advanced music. The 3^rd edition of the professional event will take place in pavilion number 4 at the Fira de Barcelona's Montjuïc venue on the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th of June 2015, at the same time as the popular and prestigious music festival. Its main aim is to bring together international experts presenting initiatives and tools that will shape future creative experiences in the fields of music, visuals, and interactive content and transmedia platforms. This year, 4,000 professionals and 2,000 companies from all over the world will take part in the event, a remarkable leap forward on last year's figures. "It is not just a fair or a conference", Sonar co-Director Ricard Robles said on Thursday. "It is a 360-degree, all encompassing event, a point of interaction between the creative and technological communities".

The third edition of Sónar+D (formerly known as SonarPro) will be divided into four official areas: Congress, Exhibitions, Live Performance and Networking. Each one of them will host a range of different activities such as talks and workshops, a MarketLab on new generation technologies, installations and various MeetUp events. This year's focus will be on: emerging tools and platforms, personalities and stories behind creative processes, experimental technologies, and languages. First-hand information on funding platforms like Kickstarter, digital content distribution channels such as Vimeo and open source technologies like Arduino will be presented, while helping participants to apply them to their own initiatives. Moreover, the Congress section will host renowned record producers, game designers, musicians, technologists and programmers.

2015 Sónar+D will also make a qualitative leap forward in terms of participation, square metres used and programme. With 4,000 registered professionals and 2,000 companies from 60 different countries, it has officially acquired a pivotal role in Barcelona's digital strategy, according to the festival's organisers. Given the increased number of international guests, the coming edition will be held in a new location, the 4^th pavilion of the Montjuïc venue of the Barcelona trade fair, with a total surface of 6,000 square metres. Finally, the opening hours have been extended and activities will start at 10.00am, rather than at 12.00pm as usual.

This year, the festival organisers have signed partnership agreements both with the Catalan capital's Town Hall and the Catalan Institute for Cultural Industries (ICEC), a public institution attached to the Catalan Government’s Ministry of Culture. The first agreement entails short- and medium-term international actions in the field of culture and knowledge, identifying Sónar+D as "a strategic event promoting high quality emerging industries".

With a 4-year duration, the partnership agreement also involves the Sónar festival, SónarKids and other festivals worldwide. The agreement with the ICEC aims to develop the Catalan Ministry of Culture's Digital Culture Plan, bringing together initiatives on training and knowledge sharing among artists, companies, universities and technologists.

"2015 Sónar+D's budget stands at €1.5 million, while the total one for the Barcelona Sónar Festival amounts to €7 million. However, it reaches €15 million, if all the events that Sonar organises worldwide are taken into account", the festival's team explained on Thursday.