(ATR) Sports marketing publication SportCal celebrates its 20th anniversary by looking ahead to the next two decades.
"As we went along, more and more information came to us," CEO Mike Laflin said Wednesday of what began as an event database distributed via floppy disk.
"Certainly in the late 1990s and early 2000s, we realized that we were getting lots of press releases and lots of announcements, and the obvious thing seemed to be to create a news service.
"Ironically enough, we’re probably known better for our news service than for our content," he added during an interviewwith supporting partner SportEvent Denmark.
Around the Rings was on the scene at Canary Wharf in London for the aptly titled "20 Years of Sport" conference, the magazine’s way of marking the milestone while also giving back to the industry on which its existence depends.
The five sessions focused on events bidding, branding, sports law, social media and the evolution of technology.
"The Olympic Games are not about sport but about values, as shown in the opening and closing ceremonies," Helios Partners president Terrence Burns said in the opening debate. "It is a celebration of humanity and modern ideals".
Burns was joined in the discussion on events bidding and hosting by fellow consultants Mike Lee of Vero Communications and Jon Tibbs of JTA.
"Volunteering did not exist in Russia before the Winter Olympic bid. Now it has become a major part of Russian plans in society for the future," Tibbs explained.
"For developing countries there are far more important priorities includingsocial welfare, education, health and housing which they reflect in their bidding for the games."
Lee added sustainability to Tibb's list of criteriaby which event plans are now being judged.
"The Olympic movement ensures bidding for events includes rules on legacy and green sustainability," Lee said. "Bidding and hosting sports events brings innovation in sustainability."
Other panelists included Havas CEO Lucien Boyer, U.S. Olympic Committee generalcounsel Rana Dershowitz, IOC legal affairs director Howard Stupp, former IOC marketing director Michael Payne and branding consultant Jeff Bullas, who insisted industry leaders best "embrace it or die" at the end of the social media session.
SportCal capped off Wednesday’s celebration by revealing that former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch topped its recent poll of the most influential sports leaders of the last 20 years.
For more from London, visit the YouTube pageof SportEvent Denmark for interviews with Tibbs, Payne, Burns, Boyer, Dershowitz, Stupp and International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid, who said "no amount of preparations or planning would have changed the circumstances" around Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt’s fatal crash Monday in Italy.
With reporting in London by Neil O’Shea.
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