The new innovation centre is housed in office space on the southern façade of the stadium. It has 1,100 square metres of floor space in all, distributed into 14 interconnected work modules, a large co-working area and other spaces to facilitate collaboration between the companies that move in. A further 400 square metres of outside space has been conditioned so that outdoor sessions can be organised there. The work involved a budget of 2.8 million euros and was funded by BSM.

The Venue Barcelona will help strengthen the local and international position of the Olympic Ring in the spheres of music, sport and events, with projects relating to other associated sectors planned in the medium term, such as mobility, restaurants, energy, security and others. Based on the launch of the new innovation space, the Palau Sant Jordi and the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys will act as testing grounds for disruptive projects and provide the best setting for sectoral events, meetings other gatherings.

The project is conceived to integrate companies based at The Venue Barcelona with the Olympic Ring and the entire ecosystem of institutions in the Parc de Montjuïc. As a prelude to the launch of the centre, an initial call for start-ups has been launched to facilitate the landing of the first entrepreneurs.

The project has been designed with the collaboration of Barcelona Activa and the Barcelona Institute of Sports.

Strategic union

The four companies managing The Venue Barcelona will provide support for start-ups and resident companies as they develop their projects, from conceptualisation to launch and the start of business. The four companies are:

• The MotherTrees will lead the application of the open and collaborative innovation concept to help resolve complex challenges swiftly and sustainably, giving shape to innovation that has a positive impact for the relevant sectors and for the planet.
• B-Bruce will drive the brand development of the projects, the aim being to work on the event spectator experience and innovate in a way that they engage with firms and products.
• Ongoing is a leader in the use of data to multiply the impact of projects and scale them up. From the heart of the Olympic Ring, Ongoing will introduce results-driven marketing to optimise concepts and experiences arising from start-ups and projects.
• U-Skale is a company specialising in the acceleration of start-ups, bringing the methodology, tools, resources and mentoring needed to create innovative and sustainable business models that have an impact in their sectors.