The Madrid-Barcelona AVE high-speed train will be transformed into a hub of innovation, work, and creation on November 29th during the first Hackathon of TrenLab, Renfe's startup accelerator developed by Wayra Spain, Telefónica's open innovation hub. This event, held in collaboration with Talent Garden, a leading digital innovation platform, school, and coworking space in Europe, is designed to find customer communication solutions that improve the train travel experience.
The objective of this meeting is to attract talent and innovation to promote Virtual Travel Assistant, an intrapreneurial project of TrenLab that is in the development phase and aims to enrich the Renfe customer experience through digital solutions that improve communication between both parties and accompany the traveler before, during and after the journey; Specifically, from the beginning of the journey, during boarding, on board the train, and after disembarking at the destination station.
TrenLab and Talent Garden are looking for entrepreneurial teams with the potential to work on prototyping and testing solutions, with technical or STEM profiles. Candidates can apply from today until November 26th through the Trenlab website.
The hackathon will begin on Friday, November 29th in Madrid, with an initial session at the Talent Garden workspace where the challenge will be defined, teams will be formed, and a networking session will take place. On Saturday, March 30, the teams will take the AVE high-speed train to Barcelona, where they will refine their proposals and have the opportunity to conduct field research on the train itself. After a day of work at the Wayra hub in Barcelona, they will take the AVE back, where they will receive mentoring from the team developing Virtual Travel Assistant. On Sunday, December 1, after two workshops at the Wayra hub in Madrid, the final presentations will be given to a jury made up of representatives from Renfe, Talent Garden, and Wayra Spain. The teams will have to defend, in pitch format, the solutions they have worked on during the last three days. The winner will receive 3 months of workspace at TrenLab in Wayra Madrid with follow-up from the Renfe Virtual Travel Assistant team and/or the TrenLab team to further develop their project. Talent Garden will then award them six months of mentoring and access to their workspace in Madrid. “With the TrenLab hackathon, we want to develop new ideas that use digital technologies to improve communication with our customers, hand in hand with entrepreneurs and developers, experimenting and learning together,” says Bruno Espinar, Manager of Mobility 4.0 and Digital Innovation at Renfe. “Furthermore, in this hackathon, we combine the internal innovation of the Virtual Travel Assistant team with the external innovation of the hackathon participants in a truly open innovation event.” “This hackathon is tailor-made for the entrepreneur we're looking for. We present them with an innovative challenge, in an unexpected workspace, and with three days of workshops, mentoring, and networking ahead,” explains Inês Oliveira, director of TrenLab. “It's a journey in every sense, and the most effective way to find talent and generate opportunities for both parties.”
“For Talent Garden, it is a privilege to collaborate on this initiative with Renfe, in partnership with Wayra Spain. Opening the challenge to the public, so they can contribute disruptive solutions within the context of transportation itself, seems to us to be the best way to innovate,” said Isabel Salazar, Country Manager of Talent Garden Spain.
Simultaneously with this Hackathon, TrenLab is also accepting applications for its third acceleration program for mobility startups that address challenges related to digitalization, communication, and customer experience. The application period for the accelerator closes on December 3rd: interested startups can apply at www.trenlab.es.
About TrenLab
TrenLab is Renfe's global startup accelerator program in collaboration with Wayra Spain. TrenLab is the open innovation hub for the mobility, transport, and logistics sector. We work hand in hand with startups and Renfe's business units to accelerate the best projects and generate business opportunities together.
About Talent Garden
Talent Garden is the place where digital and technology professionals can work, connect, and learn together. Founded in Italy in 2011, it is Europe's leading digital innovation platform, school, and coworking space, with 26 campuses across 8 countries (Albania, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, and Spain), hosting thousands of talented individuals, including startups, freelancers, companies, and large corporations.