The New Barcelona – Moments Estel·lars, the series of conversations to highlight and promote the main assets of Barcelona, will start a new season next September 4, in the auditorium of CASA SEAT. The audiovisual sector will be the protagonist of this rentrée, which will feature two distinguished guests: the executive director of the audiovisual technology fair Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), Mike Blackman, and the president of the Clúster Audiovisual de Catalunya, Miquel Rutllant.
As usual, the journalist and professor at UPF-BSM Toni Aira will moderate the session, which will take place at 6:30 p.m. and can also be later accessed in podcast format on Spotify or watch the video on Youtube. Under the motto, Barcelona, audiovisual capital, the event will be sponsored by CASA SEAT, Must Media Group, Barcelona Global and Clúster Audiovisual de Catalunya. To attend as an audience member and also be able to ask questions to the speakers, it is necessary to reserve a spot in advance. To get a free ticket, click here.
With Blackman and Rutllant we will discuss the role that the Catalan capital plays in the audiovisual sector, focusing on the future potential that this industry has for the Catalan economy. We will analyze the important opportunity that having managed to attract the ISE fair to Barcelona represents, which was held for the first time in the city in June 2021 coming from Amsterdam. In its third Catalan edition, held last February, the fair managed to exceed all expectations by recording an attendance of 58,107 attendees from 155 countries, a record figure that already makes it a prominent engine of Fira de Barcelona, which consolidates its leadership position in the professional fairs sector with this type of events.
Blackman will take stock of these first years in Barcelona and will advance the keys to the 2024 edition, which will take place at the Gran Via venue from January 30 to February 2. The executive, who is already fully integrated into the city, will also tell us details of his new project: the AV Latin American Summit, an event that aims to strengthen ties between Europe and Latin America in the audiovisual field. This summit will take place on January 30 and 31, 2024, and it is expected that presidents and ministers from the main Latin American countries will participate. "In Barcelona, ministerial and business delegations will meet so that the city can once again be a bridge between Europe and Latin America, resuming its key role as a global capital and, in this case, a benchmark for all of Latin America," Blackman explained a few weeks ago. The executive is finalizing "a top-level agenda" to achieve "an event of great transcendence" in which governments and companies from both continents "will have the opportunity to share challenges, good practices, study investments and work together on key aspects for the sector such as Artificial Intelligence, the green transition, or productivity and talent."
According to the Audiovisual Cluster of Catalonia, the audiovisual sector employs more than 32,500 people and represents 2.9% of Catalan GDP, with a turnover of more than 7,000 million euros. It is estimated that the sector is made up of some 3,700 companies, of which 99% are SMEs and 42% are less than ten years old. Of these companies, 87% are located in the Barcelona area, especially in the regions of Barcelonès, Baix Llobregat, Maresme, and Vallès Occidental.
With the president of the Cluster, Miquel Rutllant, we will evaluate the growth potential of this sector in Catalunya and we will also ask ourselves about the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) and other global trends such as augmented and immersive reality will have on this industry. What does Barcelona need to stand out in this sector? What are the pending tasks we have? What steps should the administrations take to accelerate the growth of the audiovisual sector? Do we have enough talent to accompany the growth of the sector? Is it necessary to have larger companies? How should Catalunya position itself to be competitive and achieve differentiation in audiovisual production? In which segments do we have the greatest potential? Do we have international appeal to attract the arrival of global companies? These are other questions with which we will address our speakers, who will also have the opportunity to interact with the readers of The New Barcelona Post who come to CASA SEAT.
More infrastructure to be a global benchmark
Another of the major issues that we will address with Miquel Rutllant is the project for the creation of a large audiovisual hub in les Tres Xemeneies of Sant Adrià de Besòs, an initiative that has been defined as strategic for the Catalan economy, although wrapped in great complexity due to the enormous dimensions of the urban transformation plan of the old thermal power station, which affects an area of 32 hectares. At what point is this project? Are there interested investors? Which audiovisual sector companies could move to les Tres Xemeneies? The so-called Catalunya Media City wants to be a public-private facility that has state-of-the-art sets, spaces for the creation of interactive content (VR/XR), artificial intelligence project laboratories, 5G and robotics, sound and podcast recording studios, or Data Center with high connectivity for remote production and editing, among others. "Currently, in Catalunya we have a very complete ecosystem of the audiovisual industry, with a lot of talent and innovation, but we lacked this infrastructure to position ourselves as a world benchmark in facilities," explained Rutllant during the presentation of the initiative.
Born in Guyana (South America), Mike Blackman grew up in the United Kingdom and the beginnings of his professional career were at the publishing company of the Financial Times, from where he jumped to the sector of publications linked to consumer computing and, later, to the consulting sector. In 2002 he created the ISE show, which started timidly in Geneva, until its move to Amsterdam in 2018. Under his leadership, this show has become a global benchmark, which led to Blackman being chosen in 2020 by the magazine Installation as the most influential person in the audiovisual sector. His commitment to Barcelona is clear and his goal, in addition to continuing to grow ISE, is to work so that audiovisual companies from all over the world choose Barcelona as their headquarters. "Before I used to like this city. Now I love it," Blackman told Mar Galtés in an interview published in the municipal magazine Barcelona Metrópolis.
Telecommunications Engineer from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and MBA from IESE, Miquel Rutllant is the general director of Grupo Lavinia and, previously, worked in other companies in the audiovisual sector such as Vitelsa and Vértice 360. Since 2017 he has been president of the Clúster Audiovisual de Catalunya, an entity that brings together more than 170 companies dedicated to production, production services, postproduction, studios and audiovisual and technological parks, distribution and exhibition, television, radio and podcast, immersive experiences, technology, communication and advertising, video games, training, and integrated events and services.