Pau Gasol to open Sports Tomorrow, the BUHUB congress on sports innovation

Barça Innovation Hub, FC Barcelona’s scientific research, innovation and dissemination of sports knowledge platform, is once again holding its annual event in the form of a series of conferences grouped this year under the heading of Sports Tomorrow. For two weeks from November 9 to 20, the event brings together some of the most prominent names from different sports around the world. NBA player Pau Gasol will be opening the event, which will feature many other well-known figures like Arsène Wenger, current head of FIFA Global Football Development and coaches Diego Martínez, currently at Granada, Eusebio Sacristán, Paco Jémez and Javier Calleja, among others. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a change of plan and the BIHUB organizers have had to make the thematic conferences, which have brought together up to 2,500 people in recent years, into a new two-week virtual experience that will include eight different disciplines on the shared theme of innovation in the world of the sport.

Specifically, these conferences will deal with: Medicine, Physiotherapy, Sports Performance and Nutrition, which in recent years have been held under the umbrella of Sport Science Week; Training Methodology, Data Analysis and Technology, which were part of Sports Tech Week, and a new area that is being included this year, namely Sports Business Management.

There will be a presentation of each of these specialties on each day, so audiences interested in a specific topic will have a day of content for each day of the two weeks of the Congress. 

These meetings will be attended by more than a hundred experts and professionals from different fields, including doctors specializing in sports medicine, university professors, researchers, managers and technology and innovation companies and start-ups, and coaching staff working in the field of sports performance. The speakers include several FC Barcelona professionals who specialize in different subjects. 

Sports Tomorrow will get started on November 9 at 3pm with an opening session featuring a very special guest, NBA and former Barça basketball player Pau Gasol, who is also currently serving as FC Barcelona Global Ambassador to the United States. In his speech, Gasol will offer his views, among other topics, of the role that innovation plays in the world of sport today and of its importance for individuals and for society in general. 

From November 10, the different panels corresponding to the eight itineraries or themes of the congress will be held. In most cases, these will have a common thread that the different speakers will be developing over the course of the fortnight. 

The Medicine in Sports Tomorrow conference will focus on tendon injuries, which are among the most widespread in football, while Physiotherapy in Sports Tomorrow will be looking at the latest research on the treatment of sports patients, also especially with regard to tendon injuries.  

The Performance in Sports Tomorrow session revolves around team sports and how a team can perform to its best level, while Nutrition in Sports Tomorrow will discuss how the different phases of an athlete’s career can be enhanced by proper nutrition. 

Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality, stadiums of the future and the role that biotechnology plays in the world of sport will be some of the topics discussed at the conference on Technology in Sports Tomorrow, at which Arsène Wenger will play a central role by discussing the future of football in a context of constant technological change. 

In Coach in Sports Tomorrow, coaches such as Diego Martínez, manager of Granada, Eusebio Sacristan, former manager of Girona and Real Sociedad, Javier Calleja, former manager of Villarreal and Paco Jémez, former manager del Rayo Vallecano, among others, will give their views on leadership and communication with players and training dynamics in elite teams. 

Finally, Analytics in Sports Tomorrow will look in depth at how data analysis is revolutionizing the world of sports while Business in Sports Tomorrow will analyze how technology is changing and how athletes and teams use it to relate with fans.