It’s once again time for the Barcelona International Community Day, the major annual gathering of the city’s international talent ecosystem. It is the leading event for professionals from around the world who live and work in Barcelona. It will take place at the Maritime Museum on Saturday 25 October, and registration is now open. 

The event will again include an extensive programme of activities, workshops and talks to facilitate connections among members of the community and help them integrate into the city. It will also feature a trade fair where companies, organisations and associations will showcase their services, products and initiatives for the international community.

Every year, Barcelona International Community Day chooses its hosts ambassadors: six professionals of different types and from different backgrounds who have settled in Barcelona and will share their experiences with participants with the goal of helping and inspiring others. Learn about their experiences through the interviews they granted us.

The 2025 hosts ambassadors

Christy White is a multidisciplinary artist, an immigration lawyer and a conference speaker. She is a U.S. national who moved to Barcelona in 2023 to find a new direction for both her career and her life based on creative expression and emotional fulfilment. She views art as memory, resistance and freedom, and the city gives her the space she needs to reconcile the rational and intuitive sides of her personality.

Fernanda Grace is an entrepreneur and event organiser with a strong commitment to fostering a sense of community and female empowerment. She is the creator of City Girls Barcelona, a safe and vibrant community whose core values are sisterhood, well-being and joy. She believes in the transformative power of shared experiences and in female empowerment as a driver of social change.

Pedro Patrón Galindo, Peruvian in nationality but Catalan in spirit, is a communicator, teacher and father. He has lived in Barcelona since 2000, a fact that he claims is his Catalan wife’s “fault”, although he did not put up much resistance. He is Director of Communications at Roche Diagnostics Spain, where he specialises in corporate communications, particularly in multinational settings. In his opinion, communication is all about listening and connecting people through stories that inspire transformation.

Shilpa Arora is an Indian data scientist and current Mapping and Product Lead at Giga Tech Centre, a global UNICEF-ITU initiative based in Barcelona that seeks to connect every school to the internet. Driven by her fascination with the intersection between technology and society, she has spent over a decade turning data into opportunities at various technology start-ups. She enjoys reading about nutrition and longevity, and views science as a tool for global well-being.

Yoshi Sislay is a Japanese national born in Osaka who has travelled in more than 30 countries. He finally decided to settle in Barcelona for good in 2004. He is a self-taught artist, with no formal qualifications. The imagery of his work draws from the most primal senses and his memories of Japan and his travels. His work, which is often monochromatic and rich in symbolism, is a celebration of creative freedom, memory and connection between cultures.

Ali Parsa, a British national born in Iran, is a digital health entrepreneur and innovator. As well as founding Babylon, Circle and Quadrivia, he has earned international recognition for his vision of affordable and efficient healthcare for everyone. He is currently working on developing comprehensive, customisable and controllable AI assistants to help address the chronic global shortage of qualified healthcare professionals.

They’ll all be part of the upcoming Barcelona International Community Day, as you can see in the programme that will be available in a few weeks. Keep up with the latest news on our social media and subscribe to our monthly newsletter for the international community so you don’t miss anything.