Established broadcasting models in sports and entertainment see rights sold to the highest bidder and fans, more often than not, forced to pay a subscription to access the content they want to enjoy. At a time when consumers are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis, fans are faced with the equally unattractive options of paying multiple subscriptions, missing out, or streaming content illegally.

As a result, fans are increasingly finding other ways to consume content in cheaper and more accessible formats, leading to a change in consumption patterns with the rise of short form  content, particularly on social media, and an increase in consumption through pirated streams, putting pressure on an already fatigued subscription model.

In response, broadcasters have invested more heavily in top tier sports, where they believe they'll secure and retain larger audiences. However, this is creating a huge gap between the earning potential of top tier rights holders (e.g. the Premier League) and everyone else. In an attempt to bridge that gap, some rights holders have developed their own OTT subscription models, but this only exacerbates the problem of subscription saturation, leading to less access for fans rather than more.

The solution to this problem is to democratise content distribution and give fans affordable, flexible access to the content they want to see, which in turn will generate fair value for content creators and rights holders across the board.

As an example, a Premier League fan may place a value of £20 on watching a football match, but only £2 on watching a BMX competition, and a BMX fan may place a value of £20 on watching a BMX competition and £2 on a Premier League match. Democratising the distribution of content would enable fans of each sport to access the content they want to see, and lead to a better return for both the BMX rights holder and the Premier League.

In short, democratising the distribution of content can create a system where fans and rights holders win. This is the driving force behind Recast.

Andy Meikle is the Founder and CEO of Recast, a subscription-free live and on-demand streaming platform powered by microtransactions. Recast gives fans affordable access to the sports and entertainment they love, and pays content creators and rights holders for every view.

On the opening panel, Innovation, Technology and Sustainability in Major Events, the consensus was that technology is undoubtedly creating amazing opportunities – but humanity must come first.

Al Kidd, CEO & President, Sports Events & Tourism Association (Sports ETA) said : “You have a huge shift that tech has been able to impart. You’ve got chips in bats and balls. I’m amazed at how many dozens of tech companies are being formed every day. This shift is transformational at all levels.”

Abe Stein, Head of Innovation, Sports Innovation Lab said: "We need to think of AI and big data as a way to modernise our venues through infrastructure. But tech should be in service of our humanity. If it's not helping us, why do we have it in the first place? All data, starting at collecting, has perspective and position. We can get so excited about tech and data that we lose sight of ourselves.”

Cecilia J. Folz, Founder and CEO, CFC Collective said: “Sometimes you need to just do what you think is right – tech and data is important, but don’t lose sight of that gut instinct.”

The second panel discussion, also moderated by Katie Traxton, Board Director, European Sponsorship Association, explored Media Tech to Meet the Demands of Fans.

Andy Meikle, Founder and CEO, Recast said: “We need to think about the way in which we are able to give fans access to content. The ad model is lucrative for a few tech giants, but the subscription model limits reach.

“We are addressing the issue that many people cannot legally access content because they can’t afford to do that. We need to be able to give fans what they want when they want.”

Debra Gawrych, Secretary General, International Federation of Sport Climbing said: “There’s more to the sport than just the event. People are eager to know what’s going on behind the scenes. They want athlete profiles and interviews. They are hungry for detail – not just surface soundbites.”

Marcus Luer, CEO, Total Sports Asia challenged the topic of the panel, saying “I’m not sure media tech should be designed to meet the demands of fans, but the other way round. No one needed TikTok – we lived our lives without it, but someone designed it and it’s been hugely successful.”

In the panel on The Convergence of Sports and Esports, Gabriel Q. Chan, Director of Communications, Global Esports Federation highlighted the Commonwealth Esports Championships that will run concurrently with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in less than 40 days’ time.

“Players will have the opportunity to represent the country on the international stage; this opens up new opportunities,” he said.

Beng Choo Low, Secretary General of the World Baseball Softball Confederation said that Esports and traditional sports will not totally converge. “You will reach a stage where esports is another discipline, like softball or baseball, as part of all the other so-called traditional sports. Yes, you’re online, but there’s also a physical element to it. Athletes like to meet not just online; there must be some physical interaction.”

Yao Williams‎, VP, Global Brand Partnerships, ESL Gaming said the future is mobile. “At ESL we are very bullish on mobile. There are more people with smartphones than PCs or consoles. When with think about global growth we think about Indonesia, India and Africa.”

Ian Verchere, Co-founder and CEO, Session Games highlighted how esports can learn about commercial partnerships from the experience of sports events. “The presence of brands in sport is authentic in the way it might not be in Dota or one of those fantasy-based games. Working with a governing body gives you that legitimacy to go in and open doors that wouldn’t necessarily be open if you just went in as a gamer.”

“We are always innovating,” said Chan. “The key is to keep engaging with our community – publishers, gamers, fans and young people. There are so many opportunities – the metaverse is a new frontier; how can we tap into that to grow esports to a whole new level?”

The panel was moderated by Matt Traub, Managing Editor, SportsTravel.

World record-breaking gamer and content creator Callum Knight, also known as @seapeekay, said in a Q&A: “We are seeing a massive increase in people getting opportunities in the mainstream. Content creators have their own TV shows, or they are getting chosen for Strictly. We are seeing YouTubers turning into million-record selling artists. We are raw and unpolished, but if you want to take opportunities there’s a lot you can do."

Sustainability

The Association of Global Event Suppliers’ Board Member Dave Crump co-produced a panel, Can Innovations in Physical Technology Balance Sustainability with Cost? with Host City’s Official Sustainability Partner Aggreko.

The panel, featuring Karlan Jessen, Head of Sustainability, Lake Placid 2023 World University Games, David de Behr, Director of Sales Event Services, Aggreko, Steve Stum, VP Operations and Technical Production, NASCAR Productions and Greg Louw, Senior Technical Producer, ConCom revealed that new technology is far less power hungry, but there's also a lot more of it.

It was fascinating to hear from three very different events: a major one-off event; a fixed and recurrent event; and a major production company regularly touring with massive equipment, on the tension between the value of achieving sustainability goals versus the cost of the goal.

Audiences expect complex, large-scale productions instead of simple, spectator events and balancing sustainability goals with demand for bigger shows is difficult. Perfect solutions may not yet exist to all the challenges, but commitment to sustainability and energy transition means starting with something – exploring solutions, technologies and pilot schemes and sharing the results with other event organisers.

Speaking on the panel Fostering Impact, Legacy and DEI through Major Events, Cindy Medynski, Director of Edmonton Events said they are looking for event partners that have similar values and that align with their community goals. “It’s important that our stakeholders are buying local. It has to be a win-win for both sides of the coin.”

She also highlighted that Edmonton has the second highest indigenous population in Canada. ”It’s important for them to be at the table from the beginning and for us to be educated on how to incorporate them.”

Sarah Lewis OBE OLY said: “Sustainability, inclusion and DEI are part of the DNA of the event – that’s a win win win for everyone involved: for the value of the event, for the local community and the global community. We’ve got to be a diverse society, to respect and do things in a sustainable way - or the planet unfortunately won’t have the capacity to handle things anymore.”

Kathryn Schloessman, President & CEO, Los Angeles Sport & Entertainment Commission also highlighted the growing importance of community events for host cities. “If we’re not engaging our local community, our local businesses and our non-profits, and creating opportunities for our kids then we have failed.” She also stressed that these values are just as important for private and philanthropic funders of major events.

“Legacy is more than a buzzword, said Tania Braga, Head of Olympic Games Impact and Legacy, International Olympic Committee. “It’s part of why hosts have the Olympic Games; it’s about creating lasting benefits for the people of the host territory and the sports movement.

“Legacy is a living thing – it keeps evolving. We can still find educational programmes that exist many decades after the Games.”

She also highlighted the “very clear challenge” of climate change, and the Olympic movement’s “firm commitment” to be climate positive by 2030.

The panel was moderated by John Siner, Founder and Owner, Why Sport Matters.

On the panel The Role of Events in Promoting People and Places, Anita DeFrantz, Member, International Olympic Committee and Board Member, LA 28 Olympic & Paralympic Games, Jimena Saldaña, Vice President, Panam Sports Organization, Tim Briercliffe, Secretary General, AIPH – International Association of Horticultural Producers, Steven Mifsud MBE, CEO, Direct Access and Grant MacDonald, Chief Operating Officer, Sport Tourism Canada held up engagement, community, inclusivity and accessibility as areas particularly affected by the hosting of major events.

There are so many layers to event hosting and part of that is about learning how to live and work together and understanding different cultures and communities.

Event hosting can also offer tangible benefits. Tim Briercliffe of AIPH, the International Association of Horticultural Producers highlighted the benefits of hosting a horticultural expo, including the lasting legacy of a beautiful city park.

The final panel, Summing Up: Prove Your Value, explored how right holders are structuring their financial models, monetising their rights and using technology to demonstrate the value of their brands and the importance of data analytics and DEI criteria for hosts and events to show their impact with credibility.

Matt Pound, Managing Director, World Table Tennis stressed the importance of staying relevant for traditional sports. “We need to offer people a product that’s worth their hard-earned cash, as the cost of living is going up. Table tennis is now competing with Netflix, with Candy Crush, with a Taylor Swift concert, with so many things. Do we need dancers, singers, light shows and entertainment to entice people to watch your sport? We’ve shortened our sessions so people can be entertained in a short, sharp experience.”

Gauging the impact of events is of growing importance for all stakeholders. “We are seeing more scrutiny of engagement of audiences rather than just volume,” said Mihir Warty, Chief Strategy Officer, World Rugby. “The world has moved on, looking at value and not just number of tweets and Facebook likes. That’s something we’ve got better at interpreting”. One barrier to change is the number of federations all trying to do similar things in terms of the explosion of digital and data opportunities. “Accessing skills is a real challenge”.

Babacar Djileh Dieng, Member of the IOC’s Digital & Technology Commission, joined the conference from Senegal, where the 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will be hosted. “People say the YOG are the laboratory of the Olympic brand, but with every event you are trying to improve it. Every Games is the laboratory for the next one!”

The panel was moderated by Robert Livingstone, founder of GamesBids.com.

Keynotes: LA 28, FIFA, Santiago 2023 and Aser

John Harper, Chief Operating Officer, LA 28 Olympic & Paralympic Games gave an excellent presentation followed by a fireside chat, which gave a great sense of the excitement around the LA 28 programme. They set out to create an unparalleled Olympic and Paralympic experience for athletes, fans, partners, and the community. Harper outlined plans to celebrate the multi-faceted city of LA, a determination to fit the games around Los Angeles and a focus on creating a human legacy.

Host City’s Ben Avison also interviewed Colin Smith, Chief Tournaments & Events Officer, FIFA about the preparations for 2022 FIFA World Cup taking place later in the year in Qatar. He highlighted how the first World Cup taking place in the football-mad Arab world is important for the development of football, expanding its horizon and sharing the sport with the wider world.

The venues are available and ready well ahead of time and already in use for test matches, which allows for valuable early planning time. He also stressed the importance of the condensed match schedule, taking place over 28 days – and the celebrations that will happen in Qatar’s compact location.

Gianna Cunazza, CEO and Juan Carlos Chamy, CMO & CCO of the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games Organizing Committee gave a valuable update on preparations for the Games. The event is ready to gather more than 9,000 athletes in the biggest sports event of the Americas in the next year. "We believe in the social role of sports, so we are working hard to leave a sporting and social legacy for the whole country," they said.

Massimo Marinelli, Board Director of sports, media and tech investment company Aser Ventures also gave a fascinating interview. He said sports is a great industry to be in because it continues to be an industry of wins and performances, and that the sports industry will be more sustainable if it continues to create opportunities for investment. He also highlighted the importance of Leeds United’s partnership with San Francisco 49ers, and revealed that the expansion their Elland Road ground is back under discussion.

In his closing remarks with Adam Soroka, Avison highlighted the importance of diversity and diversification for major events in the years to come, which are likely to be characterized by financial, social and environmental considerations.

I was fortunate enough to produce several fantastic international conferences in 2021 with incredible speakers highlighting huge challenges and opportunities for the major events and technology regulation sectors.

The biggest challenges both sectors faced in 2021 will keep rolling through 2022. For the major events sector, recovery from the pandemic continues to be unpredictable and hugely variable from one country to another.

Big Tech continues to grow: Apple is now worth more than the GDP of all but four countries. Governments are taking different approaches to managing the size and influence of these companies and the technologies they own.

Both these challenges – the pandemic, and tech regulation – are being tackled on a national, or at best regional, level. And yet they are global challenges. Neither viruses nor technology can be fully controlled by national borders, and even if they could, would we want to live in a world where ideas and people cannot travel?

The rapid rollout of vaccines in 2021 was an incredible feat that has enabled many economies to get back on track. But many populations still have next to no immunity, and this gives Covid scope to mutate. If 2021 was the year of local recovery, 2022 must be the year of global recovery, with wealthier nations increasing their support for global vaccination programmes. The international major events sectors will be one of many to benefit from a world where Covid is managed globally.

Similarly, regulations to tackle technology came on apace throughout 2021. With various Acts moving through Washington, Brussels and Beijing, 2022 will no doubt be a big year for such legislation. But as technology transcends national borders, only a coordinated global approach to the Regulation of AI, the Internet and Data (RAID) will be truly effective in making it work best for humanity.

Perhaps the most significant event of last year was COP21 in Glasgow, tackling the biggest threat of all: climate change. Never has global alignment been more challenging and more critical. Climate change of course raises huge questions for the international events sector, and technology is playing a vital and fascinating role in the evolution of travel and the experience economy.

As overwhelming as the challenges to our industries and societies might seem, I am extremely optimistic. If there is one thing that makes humans unique, it is our ability to communicate and collaborate, and we have it in our power to apply this skill with the level of urgency required. International major events would be impossible without global governance structures – perhaps governments could learn from sports.

We look forward to more world-changing conversations at Host City and RAID events in 2022. Let’s make it a year of global recovery.

Host City: As you know from working on six Olympic Games, major events are extremely complex projects. What are the common pain points that you have seen appearing across the event planning process?

Paul Foster: Major events are complex operations to manage. With many stakeholders across different functional areas, partners, suppliers, broadcasters, government and more, it can be a real challenge to collaborate and co-ordinate the plan effectively. It’s easy to rely on legacy tools that don’t have the right functionality, or CAD solutions that require costly specialists to update. OnePlan answers these pain points and more – it combines the best characteristics of CAD and mapping in one easy-to-use solution that enables real-time collaboration across all stakeholders. 

In our hybrid world, stakeholders now expect more from event organisers and their technologies. A good example of this is the ability to visualise, at any moment, a hyper-realistic view of the stadiums, arenas, athlete villages and entire city. This is what our Venue Twin solution enables - a fully interactive 3D digital twin of your entire event. Virtual site visits 24/7 from any angle, meaning huge cost and sustainability benefits.

Host City: With so many different venues and items involved in events like these, a single planning tool sounds like the holy grail for organisers. How does OnePlan make it possible to plan and track all these variables on one platform?

Paul Foster: OnePlan and Venue Twin seamlessly integrate, so any change made is instantly reflected in the hyper-realistic 3D world, and vice versa. 

Our platform is built for real-time collaboration - we know how important that is for event planning. It’s easy to control the admin rights so any team member or stakeholder can make updates based on their access - including adding comments to be reviewed. The dashboard makes it easy to select from any map type, analyse your event data, procure from suppliers, and so much more. 

Ultimately, it’s all possible because that’s what our customers – including LA Clippers, Brooklyn Nets, World Triathlon and 2,000 events worldwide – are asking for! A good example is being able to plan independently on separate floor levels of a venue. We built that feature based on customer feedback.

Host City: The pandemic has forced us all to rely more on technology to communicate and monitor projects. How has OnePlan helped event planners over this period – for example, enabling virtual site visits?

Paul Foster: The pandemic has fast-tracked how venue owners and major event organisers realise the opportunities that innovative technology gives them. Venue Twin massively reduces the need for site visits – because you can now visit your venue 24/7 virtually, from any angle and any scenario. It means a huge cost and time saving – directly reducing travel expenses – as well as significant sustainability benefits. 

Our customers are telling us this is a fundamental shift in how they plan their events and venues. Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton have told us it’s a ‘game-changer’ for them – they’ve switched to OnePlan as an integrated solution, and can now use Venue Twin to improve fan experiences and sell better to sponsors and advertisers with the hyper-realistic brand visualisations. OnePlan’s technology enables centimeter-accurate planning and the instant ability to visualise exactly how your venues will look in real-life.

Host City: Your background is in crowd management – how is OnePlan helping venues to manage flow of people and capacity during this time of social distancing?

Paul Foster: That’s right, my background is in event security and operations, including crowd management. I’ve worked on six Olympic and Paralympic Games, and was responsible for last-mile operations at London 2012, for example. During the last year or so, this has been valuable in how we’ve created a Social Distancing Toolkit that any OnePlan user can easily incorporate into their event plans. It includes modelling crowd flow - inside and outside venues - as well as ensuring government regulations are adhered to. 

We’ve had a number of sports teams in the NBA and English Premier League - including Brooklyn Nets, Arsenal and Chelsea - use OnePlan to model crowd flow so their venues can stage safe events when fans have returned.

Host City: What impact do you think the pandemic will have on the events industry and your work in the longer term?

Paul Foster: As vaccinations help us come out of the pandemic, I believe the events industry will bounce back stronger than ever. People love live experiences – nothing beats being in a stadium enjoying the sport or music you idolise as a fan – and as a technology platform, we love helping our customers plan incredible events. 

We’re already seeing customers switch to Venue Twin as a way of reducing their site visits and improving sustainability of their events. Having a hyper-realistic – and fully interactive – version of your venues makes planning events simpler and better. It delivers long-term benefits today - Venue Twin is already being used to plan events and venues in 4-5 years’ time.  

Beyond this, the impact of the pandemic is making event organisers and venue owners race towards the commercial opportunities that now exist. The events industry is hybrid, and with Venue Twin major events can now engage international fans in incredible new ways. OnePlan connects together the operational and commercial opportunities that now exist.

Host City: We’re really looking forward to hearing you speak at Host City Americas – what are your expectation of the event and the opportunities for staging events in the Americas?

Paul Foster: We’re delighted to be the Preferred Event Technology Partner at Host City Americas this year! We’re expecting a great energy around the major events happening soon in the Americas, and the opportunities that new technology enables – both operationally and commercially. We’re at the start of an exciting few years for American sport and events on the international stage, and our US team is looking forward to helping your delegates unlock these huge operational and commercial opportunities.

Paul Foster is speaking at Host City Americas on day one, June 29. To find out more about OnePlan visit their website.

[Source: NEP Group] NEP Group, the world’s leading technical production partner for premier content producers of live sports and entertainment, is proud to support the Host City Americas Digital Conference, June 29^th through 30^th. This event will welcome 1000+ participants including, IOC Members, Sports Ministers, Mayors, International Federations and Organizing Committee leaders to showcase the opportunities ahead as we emerge from the pandemic to a landscape defined by digitalization and private investment.

As official Event Delivery Partner, NEP’s robust live virtual event and online conferencing platform, developed by the Creative Technology division of NEP, will power the event, providing two days of insightful sessions on the main stage, plus opportunities for delegates to ask questions and chat about main stage content. Networking opportunities will also be available for delegates to meet with each other throughout the event.

NEP CEO Brian Sullivan will be speaking along with other expert panelists in the June 29^th session
“The Changing Media Landscape”. Topics covered will include:

• What are the new opportunities for media and content rights?
• How is social media using its power to connect fans with content?
• How are TV production processes changing and what is enabling the shift and what is the impact of this transformation on LOC infrastructure and legacy?

For more information and to register for this free event, visit https://www.hostcity.com/events/host-city-americas/register.

# # #

About Host City

Host City is the largest meeting of sports, business and cultural events. Host City events are renowned for the highest level of speakers, content and networking with the owners, hosts and organisers of major events. Host City Americas follows the great success of previous Host City events held in Glasgow, Beijing, London and online. The first Host City Americas takes place online on 29-30 June 2021, followed by the global Host City 2021 in Glasgow on 7-8 December. For more information visit www.hostcity.com. 

About NEP

For over 30 years, NEP has been the leading worldwide outsourced technical production partner helping premier content producers bring live sports and entertainment to life. Our services include centralized and remote production, specialty capture, RF and wireless video/audio, virtual and in-studio production, audio visual solutions, host broadcast support, post production, connectivity and transmission, premium playout and innovative software-based media management solutions. NEP’s 4,000+ employees are driven by a passion for superior service and a focus on technical innovation. Together, we have supported productions in 88 countries on all seven continents.

NEP is headquartered in the United States and has operations in 25 countries. Learn more at nepgroup.com.

Host City: The major events industry has been slow to digitalise until recently. What’s changing and why?

Joe Cusdin: Something which surprised me coming into the industry is how each major event had to start from pretty much nothing – they don’t inherit tools or people from the last event.

They have to build a large team, and provide the systems they need, in a relatively short period. Major events don’t come to the same place often, and organisers often hire from the local area, so many staff might not have relevant experience and learn on the job. Once the event is over, it shuts down quickly so sharing lessons and transferring knowledge to future events has not been prioritised.

For these reasons, most of the technology used in major events focuses on the event operation itself – accreditation, ticketing, workforce management etc. Little focus is given to the planning phase, which can last many years.  By the time the team identifies the benefits to their planning processes of adopting digital tools, it can be too late to make the change.

These principles can now be shared via social media and at conferences like Host City, but also overseeing bodies (e.g. the IOC, or Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships) are starting to take more control, and a longer-term vision. This is great for innovation, knowledge sharing, driving efficiencies and reducing procurement cycles.

When we started Iventis, we were the only company offering this type of product in this space. Since then, we’ve seen other organisations have emerged which we think helps validate the use-case. Building a software product that is both easy-to-use and flexible/detailed enough to meet the wide range of needs in the events industry is incredibly challenging and has taken us several years, working closely with major events around the world to refine.

Host City: What kind of mapping and visualisation systems are typically used in major event planning and what challenges do you think event organisers face when using all these different tools?

Joe Cusdin: Almost all major events use some sort of specialist CAD software for their site plan/overlay drawings, but only skilled, technical staff can make changes or variations to those. Larger events might also use GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for wider mapping, especially in transport/logistics, but this is also a specialist tool and won’t be accessible by everyone who needs it.

Because CAD and GIS software is expensive and requires specialist staff to manage, it creates a bottleneck in the planning workflow and additional costs.  Almost everyone involved in event planning needs to create visual, spatial plans using the context of venues, facilities, and cities.

As a result, at every event I’ve been involved in, most of the planning happens informally using widely available apps like PowerPoint, Visio, Word or even drawn by hand. These are the tools everyone has access to and are comfortable with. The problem is that they are not designed for these purposes, so the plans end up in many different formats and locations making them hard to find, share, consolidate and analyse. Planners spend a lot of time making them too, manually collating data, imagery and taking screenshots of CAD PDFs or Google maps to draw on.

I observed individuals, or whole functional areas, working in this siloed way and it seemed inefficient. I saw problems arise where teams didn’t have access to each other’s plans or were using outdated information. It was hard to bring several plans together to see if they fit or overlap. What resulted were some costly mistakes, duplicated work, and the over-scoping of requirements. As the team grows and deadlines loom, the problems multiply, and managers have a hard time getting the information they need.

Host City: How does your approach bring these systems and data sets together – do you seek to replace them, or is it more about enabling them to be more compatible?

Joe Cusdin: We believe specialist tools like CAD and GIS have their place, and for technical specialists like engineers, analysts, or architects, they remain essential. Rather than replace them, our software pulls in data from both CAD and GIS – such as venue designs or city-wide map data. These two data sets are not easily integrated, and other tools such as ‘digital twins’ only add to the complexity.

What we want to do is bring the power of centralised, geospatial planning to a much wider audience – in the case of events, the hundreds or even thousands of operational planners along with their stakeholders and suppliers. Our software has a big emphasis on ease of use, accessibility, and flexibility so everyone can interact with it – not just technical specialists. If it isn’t intuitive and accessible, planners will revert to their old way of working.  It also reduces the burden on CAD and GIS specialists, who usually don’t have the bandwidth to create the volume of operational plans required for an event nor is it their job.

Host City: At what stage should event planners start thinking about using a system like this and why?

Ideally, it should be brought in as early as possible. Visual and spatial plans are created from day one, even during the bid stage. If a spatial information system like ours is not in place, people will find workarounds which leads to informal and disconnected plans being drafted.

It is easier (and cheaper) to embed in an organisation while it’s smaller and before people form habits and workarounds. The system works with just one user, or several thousand – and in the spirit of collaboration, we encourage as many users as possible to work on the system possible without expensive licensing models.

We also track changes, which lets us see how plans evolve. This can be invaluable for managers, overseeing bodies and even future event organisers. It can be brought in later, but it’s likely to be used for specific purposes which can still be powerful but won’t reach its full potential.

Host City: Looking beyond the immediate impact of the pandemic, what kind of major event landscape will we be inhabiting and what kind of technical solutions will be in demand?

Joe Cusdin: Even before the pandemic, overseeing bodies like the IOC were recognising their approach needed to be updated (hence the IOC had ‘ New Norm’ – before the term took on a mainstream meaning). Cost overruns were all too common, damaging the public’s trust and resulting in some high-profile retractions of bids from several cities.

Major events need to be leaner, more flexible and most importantly more efficient. Events spanning several countries (like United 26 and Euro 2020) can spread the financial burden and risk. Using existing facilities (like Birmingham 2022) could be more common to avoid expensive and sometimes unnecessary infrastructure projects. These approaches bring their own challenges, like ensuring consistency and coordination across countries and finding ways to make existing facilities work operationally. We believe Iventis can help teams work this way and be more efficient and agile.

Additionally, the remote working trend seems set to continue and can save money on travel, office space etc. Collaboration tools can enable teams to work remotely and draw upon experts who might not want to relocate. During the pandemic, Iventis became an essential tool for event organisers when remote working was compulsory, and we expect this to continue.

Joe Cusdin is speaking at Host City Americas on 29-30 June. To find out more about Iventis, visit their website

[Source: Global Esports Federation] The Global Esports Federation announces the appointment of Sports Innovation Lab as Global Supporter, aimed at further enhancing the GEF’s mission to promote the credibility, legitimacy and prestige of esports. Through this global partnership, Sports Innovation Lab will develop the GEF’s global events portfolio, including the landmark GEFcon – the Global Esports Federation’s convention, thought-leadership and dialogue platform.

“We are proud to welcome Sports Innovation Lab as our Global Supporter in an effort to deepen our involvement with the stakeholders in esports, including fans worldwide on one global, inclusive platform,” said Chris Chan, President, Global Esports Federation.

“As the world’s convening platform for the esports ecosystem, engagement with players and athletes, as well as fans is paramount,” said HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, Head of GEF’s Focus Group on Culture and Board Member, Global Esports Federation. “We continue to work towards elevating esports in the global arena, encouraging greater inclusion, interaction and participation within the world’s esports community,”

Sports Innovation Lab inspires brands to create breakthrough fan experiences through data-driven technology insights and industry-leading research – putting ground-breaking research into practice and ultimately providing exponential value to the end customer (the Fluid Fan).

“Sports Innovation Lab is honored to be named as a Global Supporter of the Global Esports Federation. We look forward to applying to the esports space and this partnership with the GEF the expertise and insights we’ve gained from our experiences in working with world-class organizations like the NFL and others,” said Angela Ruggiero, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sports Innovation Lab.

“Together, we will create and scale breakthrough fan experiences for esports globally to benefit the entire esports ecosystem.”

Sports Innovation Lab is co-founded by Angela Ruggiero, a global sports leader and Olympic Gold Medallist, advocate, entrepreneur, and advisor; and Josh Walker, former VP of Research at Forrester Research and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at General Catalyst. Learn more about Sports Innovation Lab at www.sportsilab.com.

As sponsorship professionals, we put relationships, be they brand-to-brand or with our audiences, at the heart of everything we do. Central to these relationships is humanity: knowing what people need, why they need it and how to fulfil that need in a genuine way. 

With mass sport and entertainment event cancellations and businesses across Europe moving to work from home, now more than ever, we need to find ways to stay connected and do what human beings do best: adapt. 

Over the last week, we’ve seen wholesale changes from automotive manufacturers working with the government to repurpose factories and tool up to produce ventilators to LVMH’s perfume arm using their skills to make hand sanitisers. 

We’ve seen sports brands changing to fit the new needs of their customers, as Peloton and the Nike Training Club extend free trials and add at-home workouts to their apps or Borussia Dortmund livestreamed ‘digital fan viewing party’ allowing them and their partners to keep in touch with fans.

We’ve also seen media tastemakers like The Drum, shifting with impressive agility, as their usual SXSW commentary from the Soho-based Drum Arms shifted to a web-based festival on the apposite topic of digital transformation. In true Drum style, they also managed to recreate their intimate, almost conspiratorial, heard-it-here-first vibe, despite only being connected to their audience through a screen: https://www.thedrum.com/digital-transformation-festival

In times like these, in work as in life, relationships come first, so influencers not brands are the likely first port of call for consumers (also known as people, including me) to seek advice, find solace and relatability, so to survive we, as organisations, more than ever need to humanise the way we communicate. 

My particular interest this week has been how small, medium and even large multinational organisations are changing the way they communicate with one another, starting with LinkedIn. There’s a big shift from me to we, which, to my mind, is good news exactly when we need it!

My bet is that those who cooperate with, support and talk to one another will thrive. Now is a time for community building and collaboration, not putting your arm round your homework or selling on toilet rolls to the elderly at a mind-blowing mark up (shame on you!)

Below are some examples I enjoyed over the course of last week.

1.         Make confident moves, your way. Independent Record label Defected Records, known for bringing people together through music in their own unique way, stayed true to form and didn’t wait for government mandates. They regrouped, worked out what was best for their long-term business, culture and staff and took positive action postponing all events and sending their team to work from home. Not only did they take this bold move, they proudly announced their decision and reasons to shut up shop in a public statement: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jameskirkham_defected-have-called-it-early-were-taking-activity-6644201765761888256-pM4x  

They even showed their team set up and ready for business as usual in their new settings (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jameskirkham_the-defected-records-insta-stories-right-activity-6644321106369097728-6yQe) before launching their Defected Virtual Festival: https://www.nme.com/news/music/defected-records-announces-virtual-music-festival-in-wake-of-coronavirus-outbreak-2627828

2.    Support and inspire through new communities. Start-up skincare brand By Sarah whose purpose is “to empower conscious living” were straight out of the starting blocks sharing a link to a WhatsApp community that anyone could join that would provide constant company, tips for your new home-based lifestyle and stability at this time of change: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lauren-murrell_covid19-community-helpeachother-activity-6645285039691182080-9UEY

3.    Embrace the blank slate. With no live football taking place, League Two football club Leyton Orient FC seized the chance to be on a level playing field with the largest clubs in the land and kicked off a global call to join an inter-club, inter-league FIFA tournament: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/josh-stephens-b940855a_leyton-orient-on-twitter-activity-6645294744324845568-qHMm  

With well over 100 teams signing up, 3.9k retweets and 17.7k likes on Twitter (when they regularly get only one or two) they even used the popularity to call for new partners on LinkedIn and in the last week have announced both a renewal and a new deal! Go the Os.

4.    Put a human face on it. Energy giant BP isn’t known for being the most accessible organisation and takes its share of flak (not always fairly), but their new CEO (who is also active on Instagram @bernardlooney_bp) has put his head above the parapet and not only to highlight the good deeds BP is doing.  

He’s been discussing the current situation in the first-person, showing his personal set up, casual work gear and even used an emoji! A shout-out to both the BP workers who can’t decamp home and the wider everyday heroes in society – doctors, nurses, police, teachers shows a human quality and awareness that we should all keep front of mind: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bernardlooneybp_last-week-i-explained-that-everyone-at-bp-activity-6645634611365982209-KgQc 

5.    Help us understand. A personal favourite when it comes to comms thought leadership for their Trust Barometer, Earned Brands report and crystal ball amongst others, is always global PR leader Edelman. Finger on the pulse, they started releasing easily digestible blogs week ago to handle crisis comms, specifically relating to the COVID-19 situation.  

However, they surpassed themselves in my eyes two days ago when they released their 10-country Trust Barometer Special Report, acknowledging that the annual thought leadership piece they release at the start of each calendar year and dine out on for the next twelve months may no longer be accurate in these unprecedented times, yet now more than ever we need to know how to build trust among uncertainty: 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/edelman_edelman-trust-barometer-special-report-on-activity-6646049798766108672-S04z

As the global situation continues to evolve, it’ll be interesting to see how they stay on top of the crisis, but I’ve no doubt that with their insight and experience they’ll help us all to make better informed choices as it unfolds.

Needless to say, WeAreFearless are doing everything we can to ensure business as (or better than) usual, as well as cultural and commercial continuity, all of which can be followed here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearefearless/. If you have other examples, share them in the comments section, or with katie@wearefearless.com

European Sponsorship Association is a Strategic Partner of Host City

The Olympic Games is a time of great excitement and opportunity – particularly if you are the Worldwide IT Partner of the Games.

“We are very excited as we are less than 200 days away from Tokyo 2020,” Sophie Proust, Group EVP and Group CTO, Atos told Host City at Global Sports Week Paris. “There is a lot to do around data in the world of sports.”

Driverless Games

One major benefit of the Olympic Games is the way that TOP Partners work together to deliver the event, each focusing in their own area of expertise.

Toyota is the relevant TOP Partner regarding vehicles, mobility support robots and mobility services. In Tokyo this summer, 100 driverless cars will move passengers around venues in the city’s waterfront area.

“Major cities are getting more and more crowded, so we need to think about that. Autonomous vehicles are not yet a mature technology, so it has to be used in a very constrained way.

“For future Games, we could well imagine TOP Partners working together with the IOC and Organising Committees to develop in specific domains such as driverless cars.”

I ask if the Olympic Games present possibilities as a test bed for autonomous vehicles because the organisers already close lanes for VIPs. “You could think of things like that. The magic of the Olympic Games and other major events is that we can collaborate between big enterprises in different sectors and build concrete cases as the event is a real accelerator for innovation and technology.”

Major events as smart cities

Transport is just one area of event management were technology can bring transformative applications. “Smart cities are about managing electricity, water, transport and energy,” Proust explains. “The ecosystem is so vast in the city.”

The scale of some major events is such that they can be considered as smart cities, with all the diverse attributes of the event generating huge amounts of data.

“We are involved in every aspect of major events from program management and integration of systems to applications for spectators, partners and sponsors. All of these areas generate data, which needs to be managed and structured efficiently.

"And with events involving multiple sports in multiple cities it is getting quite complex!”

The introduction of five new sports for Tokyo 2020 presents interesting opportunities, she says. “Tokyo 2020 will be the biggest Olympic Games to date, generating tremendous amounts of data. Our role is to collect, process and secure all of this data which is extremely valuable.”

Atos is also working on making applications more efficient. “All the IT applications have been migrated onto the cloud, and have now developed cloud native applications to facilitate deployment. We must ensure that our applications are available in all languages, so the fan experience is enhanced. So there are a lot of topics to handle, it’s very exciting.”

 “Thinking about the future of major events, one of our key strengths is to take the data and do something with it. We have more and more computations and analysis methods to measure success. This content is sent over to broadcast – but increasingly it’s also personalised to individual consumers.”

A stadium can also be considered to be a smart city. “There are different technology means for measurement and control to enhance the experience at an event. For instance, we are the lead integrator of the Advanced Access Control System for Tokyo 2020, reducing waiting time for athletes, coaching staff, volunteers and journalists at entry points of official venues - while being more secure.  

“In terms of fluidifying flows, you need to know what method of transport people are using to arrive – car, bus, metro or train – so you can have a predictive sense of how the flows are going to come, and then analyse it and adapt accordingly.

“Getting people to locations safely is quite complex.”

Sports: a digital driver or dawdler?

It was suggested at Global Sports Week that the sports industry been slow to respond to digital disruption as compared to other sectors. But Proust – who as CTO at Atos works across the entire range of industry sectors – turns this idea on its head.

“For me, sports is a real driver for innovation and for digital transformation because of the massive amounts of data we collect, and because sport is such a major part of everyone’s life. So sport is really a good driver, because of the impact on society.”

Angels Martin, General Manager Olympics at Atos told Host City why some sports organisations might be slow to adopt new technology.

“Usually sport organisations are very risk-averse. The bigger the event, the more risk-averse the organisation is, because they don’t want to create a mess in the middle of a major sports event in front of such a big audience.

“We need to manage the risk of new technologies, because the Olympic Games is highly visible.

“What helps us the most is that we know the business very well, supporting the Olympic Movement for 30 years; we are able to analyse what would be the impact of a new technology; and also to manage and assess the risks. We understand the impact of any change, of any new technology we want to implement.”

It stands to reason that events with lower visibility than the Olympic Games present a greater opportunity to showcase new technologies. “We try to have a more mature proof of concept that we can propose to the organising committees of smaller events. And then if they are happy to implement this, then we do it. It is not a testing field but to see what the response is and the reaction – and also to check the technology, if this is something to be used later on in the Olympic Games.”

Leave organising to the experts

I ask Martin what she sees as the biggest challenge facing the major events sector.

“There are so many challenges,” she says. “Talking generally, governing bodies want to take more control over what is being delivered. This is an area where I think that we will see some changes in the future – governing bodies being more willing to take more control over delivery. This is going to help governing bodies to get more synergies and reduce cost.”

Given the scale and scope of organising an Olympic Games, and the rapidly increased role of technology in event delivery, specialist companies like Atos bring invaluable expertise.

“The most important value is our experience”, she says. “We’ve been doing this since Barcelona 1992. We know a lot about how the Olympic Games are organised. In order to be fully prepared, we start collaborating with each Organizing Committee 7 years before the start of the event. Having done multiple Olympics in the past, Atos has a key role in the transfer of knowledge from edition to edition.

“If you have a solution that needs to be reinvented every time for every single organising committee it makes no sense. There are some services that are exactly the same Games after Games – why can’t you replicate them?

“I am sure you can find synergies between different events as well. These would allow the governing body to make savings for the organising committee and host cities, if they don’t have to do everything from the start again and again.”

In PyeongChang, Atos created a number of centralised services that in the past were provided locally. “The same people that provided services for the PyeongChang Games are now providing the same services for Tokyo and for Beijing. We are not only creating savings for the IOC and organising committees but also capitalising on knowledge, which is very important.”

[Source: Aggreko] The interactive tour harnesses the latest 3D technology to develop an immersive experience that demonstrates what it takes to power global events of scale. Viewers can experience the process from generation to transmission, demonstrating the complexity of solutions required so that spectators and competitors can enjoy their favourite events without interruption. 

Supporting a project of scale requires complex infrastructure and meticulous planning to ensure the delivery of reliable, flexible power. Aggreko’s decades of experience and strong track record means it has developed an operational playbook and the skills needed to provide power solutions for projects of any scale, whether it is the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan, a remote mine in West Africa or a construction site in central Manhattan. 

To give an idea of the complexity involved, at this year’s Rugby World Cup, Aggreko provided a total of 32.5 MVA of electricity to power the 12 match venues and international broadcast centre. More than 1.8 million tickets were sold for this year’s tournament, with a record 99.3% attendance and an estimated 400 million people tuning in worldwide, making this the most watched Rugby World Cup in history. Clearly, the need for a constant, reliable stream of power was paramount. 

To see exactly what’s involved in powering events of scale, the interactive tour can be viewed here https://www.aggreko.com/en/sectors-and-services/events 

Aggreko recommends using Google Chrome in order to get the most out of the experience.