C ONFERENCES &
TR ADE SHO WS
UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino was another of the speakers at the Leaders* In Football 2011 event and his colleague, Daniel Marrion, who is Head of ICT at UEFA, signed up for the Digital Sport strand.
of high profile clubs to dis- cuss the challenges that they all face. Although names have yet to be confirmed, the overall strategy remains the same: Leaders* will
happen under the same roof and at the same time, but everyone intermingles.” Attendees at Leaders* in Football, for
example, can, and do attend all four of the other conferences, as goes for attendees of the other four strands. “Meet senior persons acting in the
same environment and facing the same opportunities and challenges,” was what Daniel Marrion, Head of ICT at UEFA, felt about the 2011 event after signing up for the strand on Digital Sport, where 95 of the 201 delegates were rights-holders. Of last year’s delegates in the Digital
Sport strand, 91% plan to return. The return-ratio is similarly high across all five streams and reached 95% for the perform- ance strand, which was attended by Billy Beane. “For me, this is an event to find a way to get over here for,” said the Oakland A’s General Manager. “I look forward to coming back in 2012,” added Beane. Mark Cavendish, the World Champion
cyclist also attended and spoke at the Per- formance strand at Leaders* 2011. “You can take so much away from this event,” said Cavendish, the favourite to be the first home winner for Team GB of a gold medal at this summer’s Olympic Games in London. Talking about the Racing strand at Lead- ers* in 2011, Andreas Tiedtke, CEO of the German Thoroughbred Racing Authority and the country’s Jockey Club, said: “It’s a good opportunity to meet almost everyone from the racing and related businesses.”
The 2012 Leaders* Event The 2012 Leaders* event will again be
staged at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge com- plex after agreement was reached with the Club in March 2012. Worrall said: “Simon Hunter and the team at Chelsea provide a
20 th AN N I V ER S AR Y P AR T II/ S U M M ER 1 2
LEADERS* 2012
first-class service to Leaders and an amaz- ing experience to delegates. All our research tells us that Stamford Bridge is the place to be; internationally recognised, conveniently located, superb facilities with extensive services surrounding the venue, all providing an exclusive feel to the event.” After the deal was announced, Simon
Hunter, Chelsea’s Head of Venue & Brand, said “We are thrilled to welcome back the Leaders* event which has established itself as the leading international platform for the business of sport. Over the last four years our respective teams have formed a fantastic working relationship and long may this continue in the future.” Worrall expects the Leaders* 2012
event to provide another bumper series of five inter-linked conferences, with speak- ers to be announced in the coming weeks. An advisory group works with Worrall and the Leaders* team. This group includes sponsors such as Npower, Coca Cola, Heineken, and the English Football Associ- ation. Worrall said: “The team are constantly
striving to improve the event and, after a comprehensive consultation process with over 300 delegates and commercial part- ners, we have identified a number of excit- ing changes to keep Leaders fresh, relevant and of value to our clients.”
Speakers will include: personnel run-
ning sports in Asia and the United States; a panel of European club presidents; debates over governance and UEFA’s contentious new Financial Fair Play rules; plus a series of interviews with the owners and players
P AN S T AD I A
continue to refuse to take money from prospective speakers — although some have certainly tried — as Worrall advised: “People offer us money to speak like sup- pliers but we always have to tell them ‘No’. This strategy avoids having speakers who simply want to sell a product or service. It also cuts out ambitious academics who want to advance a particular theory, as can often happen with mind-numbing effect at other conferences. “We don’t just say to people ‘come and
tell us what you think’,” explains Mr Worrall. “It’s far more interactive than that. People have lunch and network with their peers. It’s a way of ensuring that the content is relevant.”
Invitation-Only Event In 2012, Leaders* will once again be limit-
ed to a total number of attendees of around 1,000 invitation-only industry pro- fessionals. The rationale behind this idea is that there will be a ratio of at least one buyer to one service provider, who made up 38% of attendees in 2011. A quarter of the delegates in 2011 came from clubs across all sports, from Russian football giant Spartak Moscow to Somerset County Cricket Club to representatives of Boston’s ice hockey franchise, the Bruins, and the city’s basketball side, the Celtics. Worrall explained: “Everyone is person-
ally invited. We don’t just send out mass emails as that wouldn’t get the right peo- ple. It’s our flagship event and we get some good people, but it’s not a love-in. We do create headlines as we ask tough ques- tions.”
Last year’s Leaders* was attended by
130 accredited media, but for some ses- sions the media are excluded, as Worrall explained: “There are strands that are lim- ited to 25 people and behind closed doors.
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