• The new space will be available at the Wayra Academy in Madrid from next autumn and will consist of a production studio, an editing area and a zone dedicated to meetings and exchanging ideas.

• The space is also to host a pilot project, in which Tubecon and Movistar+ will work with new content creators to explore ways of communicating online.

Madrid, 13 September 2017. Wayra, the startup accelerator from Telefónica Open Future_, and Tubecon, a leading organiser of YouTuber events in Europe, will collaborate to create their first studio lab directed at creators of video content. This space will be located in Telefónica’s emblematic building on the Gran Vía and will become part of the Wayra facilities in Madrid as from next autumn.

Known as Creator Lab, it will contain a production studio, an editing area and a zone dedicated to meetings and exchanging ideas, and aims to become a benchmark meeting spot among the community consisting of YouTubers and online video creators, who will be able to collaborate and create content with professional quality equipment.

Risto Kuulasmaa, CEO and co-founder of Tubecon International, stated he was

“delighted to have Telefónica as a global partner. Tubecon Creator Lab will also become our headquarters in Spain. The studio will provide us with an interesting opportunity to continue our collaboration with the Spanish community of creators and with our local partners”.

Paloma Castellano Sanz, director of Wayra Madrid, said,

“Creator Lab is a much anticipated project which will permit exploration and shared creation with the next generation of video creators, who may become future professionals”.

This space will also host a pilot project, in which Tubecon and Movistar+ will work with new content creators to explore ways of communicating online.

“For Movistar+ the ultimate aim of this collaboration is to establish a long-term relationship among these young creators and ‘influencers’ to allow us to access new audiences and new consumption models”, said Iván Vidal, director of new market development at Movistar+.

Tubecon is a highly successful organiser of mass-audience YouTuber events in different European cities. The most recent event, held in Helsinki in August 2017, brought together 17,500 visitors. Tubecon is currently opening new markets in Europe and developing the brand into a multi-platform media property including production studios and the creation of digital television.

In February 2017, Tubecon organised a mass-audience event for YouTubers in Madrid in collaboration with Wayra. The current goal is to continue to involve the community of 200 Spanish YouTubers already associated with these events and to keep on organising new events targeting this community, together with creators of online videos, in Spain.

About Telefónica Open Future_

Telefónica Open Future is Telefonica´s global platform designed to connect her to entrepreneurs, startups, investors and public and private partners around the world to capture innovation and business opportunities. Its goal is to support talent at all stages of growth through a comprehensive model for acceleration that is designed to connect talent with organisations, investors and companies. The programme incorporates all of Telefónica Group's open innovation, entrepreneurship and investment initiatives (Think Big, Talentum, Crowdworking, Wayra, Amérigo and Telefónica Ventures) through a global network that is open to participation by external partners that wish to develop their own entrepreneurial and investment strategies, and connect to large corporates. To date, more than 51,000 proposals have been analysed, over 1,700 startups have been accelerated and 750, invested. Telefónica Open Future_ is present in 17 countries and has committed to investment, with its partners, a total of 455 million euros. More info: https://www.openfuture.org/en