The context: a conference that no longer fits the category of “conference”
The Valencia Digital Summit is not a standard technology event. Since its first edition in 2018, Startup Valencia has built something that aspires to be something else entirely: a platform that puts Valencia on the global innovation map, a meeting point where startups, investors, corporations and institutional leaders converge over two days with the density of connections that an entire year of networking would generate.
For the seventh edition in 2024, the figures had already reached a scale that demanded first-rate production. More than 12,000 attendees from over 100 countries were expected. More than 700 investors managing portfolios totalling over €250 billion. More than 2,500 startups. More than 600 international speakers. Seven stages running simultaneously, each with its own identity, different sponsors and specific technical requirements.
All of this at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia — an iconic venue, but not one designed from the outset to host technology conferences of this magnitude. What is needed in that context is not just a company that builds structures: you need someone capable of transforming a singular architectural environment into an operational, functional and emotionally coherent ecosystem, in under two weeks, and then dismantling everything within 48 hours.
That someone was us.
The brief: what we were asked for (and what we discovered along the way)
Startup Valencia’s initial brief was clear on objectives and open on solutions — which is exactly how a good commission should arrive. They wanted an event that reflected the speed and ambition of global innovation. One that would flow smoothly for 12,000 people without anyone getting lost or feeling lost. One with seven stages running in parallel, each with its own technical production. And one where the opening moment would mark a before and after.
There were prior plans for certain specific elements, such as the layout of the exhibition pods and registration zones. But the reality of an event at this scale is that the project evolves in parallel with the organisation itself: sponsors confirm, speakers adjust their technical requirements, audience flows shift with the programme. No brief survives intact its first contact with the City of Arts and Sciences and 30,000 square metres to manage.
The real constraints of the project were of three kinds. The first was pure scale: coordinating seven spaces each with their own logic, from the Main Stage to the Workshops Room, including the Green Stage, the Audiovisual Stage and the Pitch Stage, each with a different visual identity, technical production level and audience flow. The second was time: ten days to build everything from scratch in a space not designed for this purpose. The third was unpredictability: changing weather conditions in a venue with outdoor elements, last-minute technical adjustments from international speakers arriving with their own riders, and the logistics of hundreds of startups each needing their space ready at the exact right moment.
Above all of this, the client had an implicit need that was not written in any document: that the event should open in a way nobody would forget. That is where we proposed the laser mapping.
Design decisions: the reasoning behind each choice
An ecosystem, not a collection of spaces
The first principle that defined our approach was not to treat the seven stages as seven independent projects. Each space had to function autonomously, but all of them had to communicate that they belonged to the same event. This required a spatial identity design process that guaranteed visual and experiential consistency from the first badge scan to the final talk, regardless of which stage the attendee was in.
The ephemeral architecture was organised in flexible modules precisely to absorb the changes that inevitably arise during the build of an event of this complexity. Rigidity in a project like this means problems waiting to happen; modular flexibility means the capacity to resolve issues in real time without losing the overall image.
Technical production as language, not as support
At VDS 2024, the surround sound, dynamic lighting, large-format screens and digital signage were not supporting elements for the content. They were part of the content. The decision to integrate them from the design stage — rather than adding them onto an already defined structure — was what allowed the technical experience and the emotional experience of the event to be one and the same.
Laser mapping as the opening gesture
The proposal for the laser mapping opening show came from us, and it came from a specific question: how do you make 12,000 people, who have just arrived from 110 different countries, feel in the very first minute that what they are about to experience over two days is unlike any conference they have ever attended?
The answer could not be a longer speech. It had to be something visual, physical and shared. We designed a synchronised audiovisual show that projected the letters V-D-S into the air using high-precision laser beams, haze and surround sound, on a main stage 9 metres wide and 3 metres tall, flanked by three screen totems. The visual content, generated in real time through generative black-and-white video, explored a futuristic aesthetic in which abstract forms and geometric structures evolved to the rhythm of an original soundtrack composed specifically for the show. The result was an immersive experience where light functioned as living matter.
It was not decoration. It was the event’s statement of intent, expressed in light and sound.
The technical solution: the numbers behind the experience
Translating the conceptual design into operational reality within ten days of build required technical production at a scale worth documenting.
- Total screen surface deployed: [X] m² of LED screens and projection
- Structural cabling: [X] km of cable installed and managed
- Truss structure: [X] tonnes of truss erected
- Stages equipped: 7 running simultaneously
- Active lighting points: [X]
- Sound system: [setup description]
The TARS team deployed at the City of Arts and Sciences comprised 40 in-house professionals, directly coordinating more than 100 external specialists including sound technicians, lighting operators, screen operators, build crews and logistics teams. The whole operation functioned as a single operational unit with a single coordination point: TARS.
Execution: what was not in the plan (and how it was resolved)
A ten-day build across 30,000 square metres is, by definition, an exercise in resolving the unexpected. What distinguishes a technical supplier from an event production company is precisely what happens in those moments.
Weather conditions affected several stages of the build in areas with outdoor exposure. The response was to adjust the work sequences without compromising deadlines or finish quality. The specific technical requirements of certain international speakers — who at events of this level arrive with their own riders and last-minute demands — were absorbed within the flexibility margin we had built into the technical design of each stage.
The subsequent derig, completed within 48 hours, required the same level of coordination as the build, but compressed. At an installation of this scale, breaking down without control means generating the kind of chaos others will have to resolve. The derig was carried out in an orderly manner, respecting the commitments made to the City of Arts and Sciences and ensuring the space was returned to its original condition within the agreed timeframe.
The results: what remained when the lights went out
The seventh edition of VDS 2024 was, by every metric, the largest in its history.
Event impact:
- 12,000 attendees from 110 countries (65% more international participation than in 2023)
- 35% of attendees from outside Spain
- 52% of keynote speakers from international backgrounds
- More than 700 investors with portfolios exceeding €250 billion
- More than 2,500 participating startups
- Direct and indirect economic impact: €20.3 million (source: EY)
- Declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest
Recognition for TARS Design:
The Silver Award for Best Congress at the Eventoplus Awards 2024 was not awarded to the event. It was awarded to us. It is a recognition specifically of the technical production and the experience created — not simply of the scale of the event. In a year where the Spanish event production sector was competing with some of the most ambitious projects in the calendar, that award represents a clear positioning of TARS Design in the top tier of high-demand corporate events.
On the operational experience of the event, Diego Ferragud, COO of Startup Valencia, put it this way:
“It has been wonderful to have TARS Design on board for organising an event of this magnitude.” — Diego Ferragud, COO of Startup Valencia
Three lessons for anyone commissioning (or producing) a conference at this scale
Modular flexibility is not a luxury — it is an operating condition. In a project where the brief evolves during the build, a rigid ephemeral architecture is a problem waiting to happen. Modular design does not just allow you to adapt to changes: it allows you to do so without the final attendee ever perceiving that anything changed. That is what distinguishes professional production from conventional installation.
The opening moment defines the perception of everything that follows. Attendees at an international conference arrive with a very high expectation threshold. What happens in the first few minutes sets the emotional frame for the entire event. Investing in that moment — whether through an audiovisual show, an architectural gesture or any element that breaks the expected pattern — generates a disproportionate return in terms of event perception and memory.
Coordinating 140 people as if they were one is an organisational design problem, not just a management one. The size of the team deployed at VDS 2024 would have generated chaos without a clear coordination structure and a unified decision-making chain. TARS’s ability to act as a single point of contact for the client — regardless of how many external teams it was coordinating — was one of the elements that most contributed to the operational fluidity of the event.
Are you planning a large-scale congress or corporate event?
If you are facing a project with the complexity of VDS 2024, or even something more contained but with the same demands for precision and experience, we would like to hear from you.
At TARS Design we manage the complete project: from space design through to technical coordination, build, audiovisual production and derig. With a single point of contact for everything.
Tell us about your project and let’s start building together. See more cases like this in our corporate events portfolio.
Case study produced by TARS Design. Event data according to public sources from Startup Valencia and EY. Economic impact according to the EY report presented at VDS 2024.
