FC Barcelona presents Sports Tomorrow Congress 2021 with special focus on women

Today Wednesday, FC Barcelona has presented a new edition of Sports Tomorrow, the sports innovation congress organised by Barça Innovation Hub. The event was held at the Old Estrella Damm Factory, where the club was represented by Elena Fort, vice-president for the Institutional Area, and Ferran Reverter, CEO, together with Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni.

FC Barcelona was also represented by Eduard Romeu, vice-president of the Economic Area, Juli Guiu, vice-president of the Marketing Area and Board Members Xavier Barbany and Miquel Camps.

The main part of the event was a panel of five professional women from different areas of the club, who discussed the role of women at FC Barcelona and in sport in general. The speakers were Gemma Font and Eva Ferrer, player and doctor for the women’s football team, Toña Lizarraga, head of the Nutrition Area, Lidia Sánchez, head of Digital Analytics, and Dr Rocío Pomares, director of the High Performance in Sport Department.

Today was a taster from the Sports Tomorrow Congress (WOM+N) 2021, to be held from November 8 to 12 in in a hybrid face-to-face and online manner in which women and their role in sport will be the core topic around which the seven tracks or thematic conferences on sports science, technology and business will be based. The goal is to foster equal representation and opportunities for women in all sectors.

During the panel, topics such as food and the importance of nutrition in sport were discussed, focusing on the particularities of the diet of women athletes, and the importance of working on athletes' emotional side in ordert to boost performance. There was also a discussion on the impact that different stages of a woman's life have on sports. The panel ended with an anlysis of the latest technological trends with the greatest future potential

Online and face-to-face with 150 speakers

The seven tracks that make up the programme include a wide range of specialties: Medicine and Physiotherapy, Business, Technology, Nutrition and Performance, Data Analysis, Methodology and Gastrosport, a new speciality that combines sports nutrition and cuisine. All of these will be explored in terms of innovation and with women's sport as one of the main topics, especially in the disciplines of medicine, physiotherapy, nutrition and performance with reports on the latest research and studies on the characteristics of the female anatomy and how they respond to sports practice.

The format of the Congress will be hybrid. The more than 75 hours of content can be followed both in person at the various purpose-equipped venues at the Camp Nou and virtually via the BIHUB online platform. The congress is thus consolidating the trend started in the 2020 edition in which, due to the pandemic, it was held purely online and attracted more than 2,000 attendees from different parts of the world.

There will be plenty of female representation among the participants. Of the more than 150 specialists from 47 countries who will be speaking at the Congress, 55 percent are women. These include Milena Bertolini, coach of the Italian women's football team, Rita Guarino, coach of Inter Milan Women, and Iraia Iturregi, coach of the Athletic Club women, who will take part in the Methodology track, Caroline Graham Hansen, who plays for the Barça women's team, Kirsty Elliot Sale, professor at the University of Nottingham, Nicky Keay, endocrinologist of Sport and Dance, and Clara Prats, professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, who will be among the speakers in the Medicine and Physiotherapy track.

Elena Fort, Vice-president of FC Barcelona Institutional Area

“I am especially excited that this year we have a congress dedicated to women. The aim of Sports Tomorrow is to be more than a congress by offering content as a meeting point for different sports professionals. Barça has always been a forward-thinking club, with a clear international vocation and a firm will to open up to society with sport as a universal language. It is one of the distinguishing features of being "More than a Club". And from its leading position, Barça shall continue to be committed to female talent and the visibility of women, in order to achieve equality”.

Ferran Reverter, CEO of FC Barcelona

“The Sports Tomorrow Congress is the result of a major transversal effort by our club, led by the Barça Innovation Hub, to bring to Barcelona internationally renowned experts and representatives of the best sports clubs, organisations and companies, with the aim to reveal the trends that will mark the future of the sports industry. Being leaders means being at the forefront of the sports industry, prioritising our relationship with the millions of Barça fans around the world, and bringing them closer to the club, but it also means getting our athletes to receive the best possible training to be pepared for the future”.

Jaume Collboni, Deputy Mayor of Finance, Labour, Competitivity and Taxation on Barcelona City Council

“Barcelona is committed to technology applied to the world of sport, consolidating our position as a benchmark city in this industry around the world. We are doing this together with FC Barcelona, ​​as our city's great ambassador, with whom we are joining forces to multiply results and with whom we are already working closely on sports innovation projects and joint international promotion of the Barcelona name”.