September in Europe means the end of summer and the beginning, in the sports business, of conference season.
Figures from across the industry will be stocking up on business cards and polishing up their talking points as their diaries fill with speaking engagements and must-attend networking sessions. One event looking to make its mark on the calendar is the One-Zero Conference, which is relaunching this year as a multi-sector exploration of the effects of technology and disruption across sport.
One-Zero will bring together around 500 delegates at the Aviva Stadium in the Irish capital of Dublin on 17th September, with over 40 speakers discussing themes ranging from VC investment to OTT, esports, and the role of digital content in sponsorship and fan engagement. Appearing across the four stages are the likes of NHL chief marketing officer Heidi Browning, StatSports founder Sean O’Connell, Microsoft director of sports technology Mike Downey and a host of other representatives of teams, rights holders, broadcasters and agencies of different stripes.
SportsPro is a media partner of the event, lending its support to the Broadcast & Media Stage at the Aviva Stadium, and caught up with One-Zero chief executive Patrick Haslett to discuss his expectations for the 2019 edition and how he thinks conference organisers can take lessons from the wider industry to offer greater value to those attending.
What was the thinking behind One-Zero and what’s the point of difference for the event?
The thinking was that the sports conference offering in Ireland was quite disparate. You had the Irish Sponsorship Summit, the Fan Engagement Conference, and One-Zero. In some respects, the audience was a bit mixed. So it’s essentially a merger of those three sports business conferences.
We saw the benefits of working collectively and creating an international-class product that services not only the Irish market but also a UK and European audience.
What need do you feel the conference is addressing? What are the broader industry changes you needed to reflect?
We spent a lot of time on our product. In merging the three conferences, we achieved closer alignment as to what we want to do. We want to build an international-class conference with leading international speakers addressing the key challenges facing the sports industry.
The very heart for us is that how we experience sport has changed dramatically over the last ten to 15 years. In many ways, the change off the pitch has started happening at a far greater pace than on the pitch. When we tie it down to how the sports experience is changing, whether you’re attending, watching or even playing, the knock-on effects are then the streams that come out of that – whether that’s sponsorship, media rights merchandise. That’s the common thread there as to what’s happening, you can see all the convergence across the ways that people experience sport.
So it’s really trying to help the industry understand those shifts and prepare themselves to achieve commercial success, and there’s obviously a number of elements to that. And that’s where we saw the opportunity.
You’ve talked about building an international-class industry event in Ireland. How would you describe the current state and character of the Irish sports market? Where does it sit internationally?
When you look at Dublin, that’s the tech capital of Europe. And that’s true as well if you look at sports tech – you’ve got companies like StatSports and Kitman, some of the leading brands. So we feel we have the opportunity to make Dublin a real epicentre, and that is supported by our partners who want to promote Dublin as a centre for sports tech. That’s one level.
Also, if you look at the types of brands around sponsorship, certainly there are a number of Irish brands who have been applauded and celebrated for their campaigns for the last two or three years. There’s an opportunity for us to promote best practice and bring in international speakers like Kim Skildum Reid to share those insights with both an Irish and an international audience.
So I think those two things bring a huge amount of viability for an international event. And I think Irish people are sports-crazy. They’re a nation of sports fans and, by extension, fans who spend heavily on sports.
We see Dublin as a place that’s ready to host that, quite apart from the fact that it’s one of the most hospitable cities in Europe as well.
What are some of the other opportunities that exist in Ireland as a sports market? And, similarly, what are some of the opportunities that Irish sport has as an export?
We know, for example, from our global sports survey that the market wants to know more about esports, and that’s not a mature market by any means in Ireland. So by extension, Irish fans want to know more about esports and the opportunities and the applications there. That’s an area where we can go about getting insights and knowledge in terms of what’s coming down the track. Esports and the significance of that part of the industry to sport is well-documented in other markets.
From our perspective, we see esports as a very strong horizontal pillar in our offering for One-Zero 2019.
What else can we expect to see from a content perspective that reflects where the industry is at this point in time?
Another theme that went right across when we were putting together the content streams was the connected experience. Where does best practice for sponsors lie? Obviously, the industry has moved far beyond logo-slapping – it’s now about delivering superb experience and value. The fan is seen as central; the brand is improving customer perception of behaviour. We want to reflect that in the content that we’re showcasing.
We want to show in fan engagement, how rights holders can use tech to develop innovative ways to engage with their fans. And by extension, how are media organisations using technology to provide what fans expect and distribute that content across their network.
Essentially, we want to showcase how today’s technology is supporting what the fan expects and needs across sponsorship and across media.
We’re coming into what a lot of industry people in Europe will understand to be ‘conference season’. How do these events in general serve people who are working in the sports industry and how do they need to change for that experience to become more useful and more valuable?
You can use the analogy of, if today’s fan expects media companies to provide them with experiences – whether that’s at home where they expect a more ‘in-stadium’ like experience, or whether they’re at stadium events that take on at-home elements – then we’ve got to challenge ourselves to do the same.
At One-Zero 2019, we’re very serious about this and we’re working with our partners to add to all the events bits of the conference and to make it all more accessible for them and more enjoyable. We’re looking at how we can develop that and certainly there’s an opportunity now. Conferences have a reputation for being quite passive, with a one-way direction of communication. I think what we’re trying to do is engage a lot more audience interaction, whether that’s through media or the very panel sessions and presentations.
We want this to be a very vibrant experience for our attendees – and fresh. We’ve chosen panellists and speakers that we feel can give the best insights on each topic, so we’re very much topic-led. We didn’t take speakers just because of who they are, we’ve taken panellists and speakers on the basis of what insight and value they can offer to our audience. We really want our audience to have learned, to have shared a lot of information and networked with our peers, and to come away with everything that is good around the business of sport.
September in Europe means the end of summer and the beginning, in the sports business, of conference season.
Figures from across the industry will be stocking up on business cards and polishing up their talking points as their diaries fill with speaking engagements and must-attend networking sessions. One event looking to make its mark on the calendar is the One-Zero Conference, which is relaunching this year as a multi-sector exploration of the effects of technology and disruption across sport.
One-Zero will bring together around 500 delegates at the Aviva Stadium in the Irish capital of Dublin on 17th September, with over 40 speakers discussing themes ranging from VC investment to OTT, esports, and the role of digital content in sponsorship and fan engagement. Appearing across the four stages are the likes of NHL chief marketing officer Heidi Browning, StatSports founder Sean O’Connell, Microsoft director of sports technology Mike Downey and a host of other representatives of teams, rights holders, broadcasters and agencies of different stripes.
SportsPro is a media partner of the event, lending its support to the Broadcast & Media Stage at the Aviva Stadium, and caught up with One-Zero chief executive Patrick Haslett to discuss his expectations for the 2019 edition and how he thinks conference organisers can take lessons from the wider industry to offer greater value to those attending.
What was the thinking behind One-Zero and what’s the point of difference for the event?
The thinking was that the sports conference offering in Ireland was quite disparate. You had the Irish Sponsorship Summit, the Fan Engagement Conference, and One-Zero. In some respects, the audience was a bit mixed. So it’s essentially a merger of those three sports business conferences.
We saw the benefits of working collectively and creating an international-class product that services not only the Irish market but also a UK and European audience.
What need do you feel the conference is addressing? What are the broader industry changes you needed to reflect?
We spent a lot of time on our product. In merging the three conferences, we achieved closer alignment as to what we want to do. We want to build an international-class conference with leading international speakers addressing the key challenges facing the sports industry.
The very heart for us is that how we experience sport has changed dramatically over the last ten to 15 years. In many ways, the change off the pitch has started happening at a far greater pace than on the pitch. When we tie it down to how the sports experience is changing, whether you’re attending, watching or even playing, the knock-on effects are then the streams that come out of that – whether that’s sponsorship, media rights merchandise. That’s the common thread there as to what’s happening, you can see all the convergence across the ways that people experience sport.
So it’s really trying to help the industry understand those shifts and prepare themselves to achieve commercial success, and there’s obviously a number of elements to that. And that’s where we saw the opportunity.
You’ve talked about building an international-class industry event in Ireland. How would you describe the current state and character of the Irish sports market? Where does it sit internationally?
When you look at Dublin, that’s the tech capital of Europe. And that’s true as well if you look at sports tech – you’ve got companies like StatSports and Kitman, some of the leading brands. So we feel we have the opportunity to make Dublin a real epicentre, and that is supported by our partners who want to promote Dublin as a centre for sports tech. That’s one level.
Also, if you look at the types of brands around sponsorship, certainly there are a number of Irish brands who have been applauded and celebrated for their campaigns for the last two or three years. There’s an opportunity for us to promote best practice and bring in international speakers like Kim Skildum Reid to share those insights with both an Irish and an international audience.
So I think those two things bring a huge amount of viability for an international event. And I think Irish people are sports-crazy. They’re a nation of sports fans and, by extension, fans who spend heavily on sports.
We see Dublin as a place that’s ready to host that, quite apart from the fact that it’s one of the most hospitable cities in Europe as well.
What are some of the other opportunities that exist in Ireland as a sports market? And, similarly, what are some of the opportunities that Irish sport has as an export?
We know, for example, from our global sports survey that the market wants to know more about esports, and that’s not a mature market by any means in Ireland. So by extension, Irish fans want to know more about esports and the opportunities and the applications there. That’s an area where we can go about getting insights and knowledge in terms of what’s coming down the track. Esports and the significance of that part of the industry to sport is well-documented in other markets.
From our perspective, we see esports as a very strong horizontal pillar in our offering for One-Zero 2019.
What else can we expect to see from a content perspective that reflects where the industry is at this point in time?
Another theme that went right across when we were putting together the content streams was the connected experience. Where does best practice for sponsors lie? Obviously, the industry has moved far beyond logo-slapping – it’s now about delivering superb experience and value. The fan is seen as central; the brand is improving customer perception of behaviour. We want to reflect that in the content that we’re showcasing.
We want to show in fan engagement, how rights holders can use tech to develop innovative ways to engage with their fans. And by extension, how are media organisations using technology to provide what fans expect and distribute that content across their network.
Essentially, we want to showcase how today’s technology is supporting what the fan expects and needs across sponsorship and across media.
We’re coming into what a lot of industry people in Europe will understand to be ‘conference season’. How do these events in general serve people who are working in the sports industry and how do they need to change for that experience to become more useful and more valuable?
You can use the analogy of, if today’s fan expects media companies to provide them with experiences – whether that’s at home where they expect a more ‘in-stadium’ like experience, or whether they’re at stadium events that take on at-home elements – then we’ve got to challenge ourselves to do the same.
At One-Zero 2019, we’re very serious about this and we’re working with our partners to add to all the events bits of the conference and to make it all more accessible for them and more enjoyable. We’re looking at how we can develop that and certainly there’s an opportunity now. Conferences have a reputation for being quite passive, with a one-way direction of communication. I think what we’re trying to do is engage a lot more audience interaction, whether that’s through media or the very panel sessions and presentations.
We want this to be a very vibrant experience for our attendees – and fresh. We’ve chosen panellists and speakers that we feel can give the best insights on each topic, so we’re very much topic-led. We didn’t take speakers just because of who they are, we’ve taken panellists and speakers on the basis of what insight and value they can offer to our audience. We really want our audience to have learned, to have shared a lot of information and networked with our peers, and to come away with everything that is good around the business of sport.
