[Source: ESA] Antony Douglass (Specsavers), James Goode (IMG), Heli Kemppainen (Neste) and Martin Prendergast (Martin Prendergast Communications) were elected by their fellow ESA Members, while existing Board Director Stuart Wareman (Accor) was re-elected. 

The election of Heli Kemppainen as a second representative from Finland on the ESA Board increases the female contingent to six, including ESA General Manager Karen Fan. Martin Prendergast and James Goode strengthen arts & culture representation on the Board and Antony Douglass provides legal expertise following the retirement of Bob Mitchell (Harbottle & Lewis). 

Besides the elections, ESA also presented information to members from all existing workstreams and the new Sustainability Working Group, as well as information about the not-for-profit association’s performance. 

ESA Chairman Andy Westlake said: “I’m extremely proud of how our community continues to adapt to challenging international conditions to keep the sponsorship industry buoyant, and yesterday’s AGM gave us the chance to reflect on this success. 

“I’m delighted to welcome Anthony, James, Heli and Martin to the Board of Directors and it’s wonderful to see Stuart continue his tenure. We look forward to working with all five of them and it’s super that we have such a representative Board as we seek to deliver on our mission to inspire, unite and grow a welcoming and diverse sponsorship industry. 

“As we continue to bring new members into our international community we will remain focused on giving members the best possible value and a rewarding experience in all aspects of their engagement with ESA. 

“The only regrettable aspect of the ESA 2023 AGM was saying a formal goodbye to those Board Directors who have stepped down, and I thank William Fenton and Bob Mitchell for their terrific contribution.” 

Visit the Leadership page of the ESA website to see the new Board in full. 

[Source: EventScotland] VisitScotland Events Directorate has today announced the appointment of Rebecca Edser as Head of EventScotland.  

Edser, who will start in September, joins Scotland’s national event organisation from her current role as Senior Major Events Consultant at UK Sport, the national high-performance sport agency which supports Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes and the staging of major sporting events.

With over 13 years’ experience at UK Sport, Edser brings with her a wealth of event experience both at national and international level, including bidding and supporting the staging of major events, as well as managing strategic partnerships across a range of organisations.  

Highlights across her career include the governments Event Research Programme in 2021.  As Head of Delivery, Edser was responsible for teams working with Wembley Stadium, the Brit Awards, Royal Ascot and the Silverstone F1 Grand Prix, the programme not only provided scientific evidence on the transmission of Covid-19 but enabled testing of the covid certification to support the restart and recovery of the sector. 

More recently, Edser has fulfilled a secondment to the Greater London Authority, leading London’s major sports events team, including the management of existing commitments, and the identification and securing of new events and properties.  This has included key strategic work on the submission for UK and Ireland UEFA EURO 2028 bid, and UEFA Champions League Final 2024. 

Prior to her role at UK Sport, Rebecca held roles at London 2012, Scottish Rugby Union and EventScotland as an Event Manager working on a wide-ranging portfolio of sport and cultural events including Piping Live and Glasgow International.

In her new role as Head of EventScotland, Rebecca will be responsible for leading Scotland’s national major event organisation to attract and secure major sporting and cultural events, continue to raise Scotland’s reputation as the perfect stage and support the recovery and growth of a flourishing and competitive events industry.

Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events said:

“I would like to congratulate Rebecca Edser on her appointment as the new Head of EventScotland. Rebecca brings a passion for both sporting and cultural events, along with a wealth of experience across a range of areas including working with national governing bodies and international federations on the feasibility, bidding and staging of events to ensure they are delivered to a world leading level.

Having worked with Rebecca in the lead up to 2023 UCI World Cycling Championships, I know she will be a valuable addition not only to EventScotland, but to the wider events sector, and our key strategic relationships. Having started her career at EventScotland, we are excited to welcome Rebecca back to the fold in this senior role and I look forward to working with her as we continue to lead, shape and secure events for Scotland, as well as move forward with the refresh of Scotland’s National Events Strategy.”

Rebecca Edser said:

"I am thrilled to have been appointed as the Head of EventScotland. Scotland has an international reputation as an ambitious and innovative host of sporting and cultural events and while the last few years have been challenging for the sector, I believe that there is much to look forward to demonstrated by this summer’s exciting programme of events that includes, the Tall Ships in Lerwick and the inaugural staging of the UCI Cycling World Championships that will take place across Scotland. 

It is an exciting time to re-join the organisation as we look to review and refresh Scotland’s National Events Strategy ‘Scotland the Perfect Stage’, and I very much look forward to establishing partnerships and relationships across Scotland, not only to deliver the new strategy but to ensure that this is a sector that continues to thrive."

Rebecca succeeds current post holder Robbie Clyde who will take up a new role as Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Golf.

I am very proud to see the achievements of Super League over the last three years.

In 2019 we decided to grow the organisation, build out a team in London and, in arguably one of the hardest times for the event industry, we have truly established ourselves as an organisation that has substance.

We have extended our content offering, added a second series with the Arena Games and put together our best ever Championship Series in iconic venues featuring a new team concept.

Looking back and reflecting on 2021 as I am, I feel I also really need to take into account 2020 given the way the world has gone.

When you look at the triathlon landscape it makes me very proud. To deliver three Arena Games events – an entirely new concept – during COVID times was exceptional, as well as delivering our most exciting Championship Series since we launched in 2017.

To put it into context within our sport, the PTO has done many great things but in terms of events it also has a new concept and in three years have partnered on one event with Challenge and delivered one themselves. Many Ironman races have been cancelled including Kona and even World Triathlon’s schedule has been impacted.

Iconic locations

We brought the Championship Series back in iconic venues: London, Munich, Jersey, Malibu. We had the best in the world racing for four weeks back-to-back and the Series for both male and females was won on the last run of four weeks of racing!

Over the last two years SLT has grown from a great concept to a brand, and a league that has substance, a solid fan base, broadcasters invested in it and athletes committing to it.

Any organisation, even if the idea is the greatest and the team is strong, needs maturity to show substance, and without substance even a great idea and a strong team can fail.

Big things to come

For the Arena Games we are now partnering with World Triathlon to drive this into the next Olympics.

What does that mean? That a young, dynamic organisation can deliver a concept that is considered even by a traditional organisation such as a governing body as part of the future of the sport. Also that the Super League as an organisation has enough substance for World Triathlon to jump on to the boat with us.

It adds kudos and credibility and enhances the offering for sponsors, partners, hosts and investors that want to come on board.

Behind all of this sits an organisation that not only delivered these events, but has never failed to deliver.

From a media perspective the Championship Series was deemed thrilling to the last. The broadcast feedback was unanimously positive and in terms of PR and digital we have continued to grow substantially and can now claim to be the most engaged triathlon property.

It’s been a challenging couple of years for everybody, but Super League has emerged from it far stronger and ready for a very bright future, which is an incredible achievement.

Host City: Thank you Paul for your support of Host City 2021, we are really looking forward to hearing you speak again as the host of this important conference. The opening panel, which you are chairing, is called “The impact of, and lessons from, the pandemic”. Obviously, the impact has been devastating on the events industry, but are there any positives to be drawn from the last 19 months?

Paul Bush: The last 19 months have been difficult especially as 2021 did not unfold the way many of us were hoping for with restrictions in place for longer than we’d anticipated, economic uncertainty, and travel adaptations. However, amongst this climate of consistent uncertainty, the events industry continued to adapt and innovate, developing a range of resilient responses that allowed sporting, cultural and business events to take place. Here is Scotland that has included the continuation of online and hybrid events; proof of negative tests and the introduction of the COVID vaccine verification scheme for entry into events; and adapting performances so audiences have the choice between social distanced and non-socially distanced shows.

Host City: Event hosts have for obvious reasons had to focus much more on supporting domestic events and become more localised in their activities. Do you think this will be a lasting effect of the pandemic, or as travel restrictions continue to ease will you become just as focused on international events as before?

Paul Bush: Domestic events have always been an important part of our events portfolio alongside international events. Through our National Events Strategy, Scotland the Perfect Stage, we have always carefully selected a mix of events of various types and categories that are staged throughout the country and throughout the year in order to bring social and economic impact.

For the last 19 months, our main focus has been on supporting the events industry, particularly the events supply chain, to survive the pandemic. Through Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund, which we established in conjunction with the Scottish Government, we have been helping Scotland’s events sector plan and deliver events and supported them to adapt to the effects of COVID-19. This has included supporting community events as well as events that drive domestic tourism.

As we move forward, domestic events will play an important part of in Scotland’s recovery from the pandemic alongside international events, however, what I do see coming into the mix more will be community events as they will help us to rebuild the industry as well has creating opportunities for communities to come together, which is especially important given the opportunity to interact with those close to us has been limited over the last 19 months.

Host City: Scotland has just hosted a huge international event, COP26. What impact has hosting this had on the nation, and what impact do you think the outcomes might have on the events industry?

Paul Bush: COP26 was another opportunity to show why Scotland is the perfect stage of events to both a domestic and global audience. Welcoming world leaders, climate experts and activists to Glasgow and Scotland for two weeks whilst still dealing with a pandemic took great coordination and cooperate across multiple agencies at a local, national and international level.

In October we published The Contribution of Events to Scotland’s Wellbeing, a piece of research commissioned alongside the Event Industry Advisory Group to further understand and examine how events contribute to Scotland’s wellbeing.

One of the key findings showed that major events have the potential to enhance the reputation of our cities and communities internationally as well as help build civic pride. So, like other major events that have been held in Scotland, including the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 FIG World Artistic Gymnastics and the 2019 Solheim Cup, I believe COP26 has helped further build a sense of pride and confidence both within the community and within the events industry.

Host City: The biggest international event Scotland is hosting in the future is the UCI 2023 World Cycling Championships – a new event that was very much created in partnership between host, rights owner and broadcaster. What are your expectations of this innovative event?

Paul Bush: Simply put, it will be like nothing Scotland and the world has ever seen before. By combining 13 UCI World Championships together in one mega event we are doing something that has never been done before and something that will deliver lasting benefits not just for cycling as a sport but for its impact across society in Scotland.

As well as a world-class sporting spectacle featuring more than 8,000 elite and amateur athletes from more than 120 countries, the Championships are being delivered as a purpose-led event with key policy objectives at the core. There is no doubt the Championships gives us a unique opportunity to encourage more people to cycle for sport, transport and for tourism as well as helping combat key issues such as climate change. The timing of the Championships could not be better.

It is hugely exciting that the UCI has entrusted us with the opportunity of delivering the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships and we are looking forward to cementing our reputation as an innovative and forward-thinking event host with a Championships that exceeds all expectations.

Host City: Similarly you have teamed up with European Athletics to deliver the Dynamic New Athletics Indoor (DNA) in Glasgow in February 2022. This sounds like a format that’s just right for the times we live in – can you tell us a bit about what we can expect?

Paul Bush: We’re delighted Glasgow and Scotland have been chosen to host the very first DNA indoors. The event concept is aimed at engaging new audiences with an exciting, easy to follow, short format whilst creating a lively atmosphere with music and fun event presentation.

The innovative, team-based competition will see mixed teams of 18 athletes from Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, Spain and Turkey compete in 11 events across both track and field over two hours at Emirates Arena in Glasgow on 5 February. Everything counts with two to 12 points awarded each event, with the last event – the Hunt – deciding the winning team.

Securing this event for one of Scotland’s flagship venues reinforces Scotland’s reputation as the perfect stage for events and as a world leader in the delivery of innovative new events.

Host City: The good news keeps coming for Scotland, with Glasgow having just been awarded the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. Why – and how – was Scotland selected to host this event?

Paul Bush: We are absolutely delighted Glasgow and Scotland has been chosen to host the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. Our success is routed in our partnership approach and we worked with Glasgow Life, UK Sport and UK Athletics to complete World Athletics bid process to secure this major event.  

In our bid we set out our vision to work with them to set a new benchmark in event hosting and demonstrated our experience in achieving this for other events, including the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 European Championships. We also demonstrated our policy-led approach to delivering events, ensuring we deliver positive impacts that are sustainable and last well beyond the event.

The Championships joins a portfolio of major events to be taking place in Scotland over the coming years and reinforces our reputation as a global leader in the delivery of innovative and world class events.

Host City: Thank you very much for your time Paul. One last question: what are your expectations of Host City 2021?

Paul Bush: My expectations for Host City 2021 are for another great two days filled with lively debate, discussion and knowledge sharing as we all look to refresh, regenerate and reconnect across a number of topics, including the pandemic and the climate emergency, impacting events now and into the future. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Register for Host City here now