Barcelona | For the first time, ISE organized an innovation hackathon together with six universities from Barcelona. Over 120 business management and industrial engineering students applied for 50 seats. Combined teams competed for the ISE Hackathon Trophies 2025 in three categories – innovation, cybersecurity and sustainability.
Attracting new talent for the ProAV and digital signage industry is not an easy task – despite various career days, open houses, and multiple HR initiatives. ISE has set itself the task of leveraging its status as the world’s largest industry trade show to spark interest for ProAV and digital signage among students.
This year, an innovation hackathon was held for the first time together with Esade and five other private universities and business schools from Barcelona. From 8 a.m. on Thursday morning until the end of the trade fair on Friday, the teams (3-5 students each) from 50 countries had to develop innovations related to ProAV and digital signage. The tracks were sponsored by the EIT Culture & Creativity (European Union Innovation Programme), Philips, and Hikvision.
invidis supported the event as market expert in the innovation jury. The task was to develop an innovative concept that increases the visibility and impact of circularity in fashion retail, supported by AV technology.
A dedicated ISE Hackathon Lounge was set up in Hall 8 where teams worked almost the entire night, only interrupted by 2-3 hours of sleep on the couches provided. On Friday afternoon, it was “Time to Shine” for the teams on the big stage in the ISE Congress Square. Each team was given eight minutes to present their innovations, including a detailed description/understanding of the problem to be solved, business ideas that local Spanish retail chains can implement and, a business/sales model.
The range of concepts presented – Circularity Hub, Retail Accessibility for people with reduced mobility, recycling robots, and digital rolling storefront – was large and the presentations were excellent given the short time available. It was particularly impressive how the ideas were visualized using GenAI.
The winning team – four female students from Norway – impressed with a digital signage-based circularity hub. The team received a trophy, certificates, and 500 euros.
The innovation track hackathon had more than one winner – sponsor EIT Culture & Creativity liked the retail accessibility innovation so much that they spontaneously offered funding for a start-up concept, while the winners of the sustainable track were even invited to Amsterdam by sponsor Philips.
The first ISE hackathon was a great success, and plans are already underway to bring the competition back next year.
