The Spot: Where sports meet innovation
Interested in new technologies and businesses in the sports industry?
The following lines are for you.
The last 15th and 16th of May 2018, a heterogeneous crowd of people filled up the SwissTech Convention Center of the EPFL. During two days, one could successively meet technology entrepreneurs in hoodies, white collars from the biggest sports federations, investors, researchers and even politicians.
What do these people have in common?
An interest in bringing innovation and sports together and predict what the future holds.
Meet The Spot — 1st edition
If you missed it, let The Swiss Unicorn be your guide.
The Spot is an initiative launched by ThinkSport and its partners, the SwissTech Convention Center, the EPFL, the UNIL and the Canton de Vaud. ThinkSport is an organization that fosters the connections and collaborations between the different actors of the sports universe around the Olympic
Capital, Lausanne, across Switzerland and beyond.
ThinkSport’s aim is to facilitate new partnerships, knowledge sharing, creative thinking and innovative projects, and in doing so, drive progress in sport.
During two days, participants of this B2B event could discover fascinating new technologies and products in the field of sport, attend inspiring keynotes from world-class guest speakers and watch an exciting startup battle.
Oh, and did I mention the virtual F1 car?
The event started with a welcoming speech in which Philippe Leuba, Head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Innovation and Sport from the Canton de Vaud (DEIS) announced, in English (thank you for the effort Mr. Leuba), the launch of a new startup incubator specialized in sports in order to stimulate further the ecosystem of the region.
Following this good news, Grégoire Junod, Syndic of the City of Lausanne, took over the stage to share with the audience his vision for the future of the city:
Lausanne wants to become the capital of research, education, and innovation in sports — Grégoire Junod
After the introduction session, the stage hosted a series of talks with names as inspiring as Connecting The World, Information is Power, Future Athletes, and Future Sport. These conferences addressed diverse topics such as wearables, data analytics, smart venues, new technologies, machine learning and AI, nutrition and even e-Sports. The second day was also a good opportunity to hear a keynote speech from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, about the beneficial impacts that the sports industry can have.
But let’s focus on the most exciting part for a blog such as this one. I am not talking about the Very Happy Hour at Gotham coworking space at the end of the first day but about the Startup Contest.
A fierce battle between 40 promising startups
The startup battle consisted in 4 rounds of 10 startups pitching during 3 minutes to earn their spot in the final. During the qualifier step, the four winners who already secured 1000CHF of prize money were ForwardGame (Germany), Fanpictor (Switzerland), Resero Whistle (Germany) and SportDiet (France).
It is finally ForwardGame that won the final of the battle of the first edition of The Spot. The German company convinced the jury with its AR solution aimed at bridging the virtual and the physical worlds in a fun outdoor physical experience. ForwardGame received another 4kCHF for its victory in the final.
However, more than the show offered by the startup battle, what was really interesting for the visitors of the event was the possibility to meet and connect with these 40 startups directly at their booth.
The diversity in products and technologies present at the event created an enriching experience for the audience. Augmented Reality, Drones, Nutrition, Blockchain, Health and performance, Data Analytics, Sensors, Fan Engagement Solutions, Internet of Things — these are just a few examples of the topics covered at The Spot 2018.
A place to connect
These two days were a good opportunity to exchange with experts from different organizations, businesses but also cultures.
I was interested in seeing how different The Spot would be compared to traditional international sports conventions. We could feel a new vibe from this event thanks to the atmosphere created by the speakers and facilitators. It is interesting to see how the tech industries can connect with sports organizations in a new way.
Hiromi Kosaka, Japan Sport Council
Our incubator dedicated to innovation in sports exists since 5 years, has currently more than 60 startups incubated, out of which 10% are from foreign countries. We are here to see if we can find synergies with the Swiss and European startups.
Omar El Zayat, Director at Le Tremplin, Paris
Data privacy and cybersecurity are also topics that should be on the agenda of sports technology industries and sports federations. There is sensitive data related to health or the private sphere that should be carefully managed.
Sebastien Kulling, Digital Switzerland, Head of Suisse Romande, answering our question about the challenges related to innovation in sports.
All around the world, there is what I would call the sports startup paradox. On one side innovation and startups are all about experimentation. You should be allowed to fail. But on the other side sports are extremely conservative. You do not want to change the rules. In our research, we are still trying to figure out how one can take something innovative and combine it with one of the most conservative places on earth.
Martin Carlsson-Wall, Stockholm School of Economics, Center for Sports and Business, Director
When we tell people outside of Switzerland that we come from Lausanne, we already have a certain legitimacy in the sports world. However, it is important to create some content of quality such as events like The Spot. It helps us to bring people and companies from foreign countries to Switzerland. One-third of the people here today are from abroad.
François Cornu, Economic Development, Canton de Vaud, Project director
The Spot 2018 in numbers
700 delegates
350 organisations and companies
40 startups in the battle
25 countries
15 corporate stands
1 Virtual F1 car
Swiss wine and Belgian beer
The Swiss Unicorn is an online startup media which focuses on Swiss startups. We publish interviews of different actors of the Swiss startup ecosystem.
