Sportel CEO Bullish on Miami -- Conferences & Conventions

(ATR) Next week'sspring 2020 edition of Sportel in Miami is the first under a new format.

A high-end one-day conference will be held on March 3 ahead of the three-day deal-making convention on March 4-6. Among the many panels scheduled for the conference is one on boxing in the digital era.

Among those discussing this will be Oscar De La Hoya, CEO of Golden Boy and former world boxing champion. Also on the panel are Eddie Hearn, boxing promoter and group managing director of Matchroom Sport, and DAZN executive chairman John Skipper.

Ray Warren, President of Telemundo Deportes, will open the conference with a discussionaround the current sports medialandscape, the impact that Latinos have in sports, howinnovation and digital are shaping the industry and thegrowing opportunities in the marketplace.

Companies who have already confirmed their participation in Miami include ESPN, Eurosport, FIFA, Infront, ITF, NBA, Premier League, LaLiga, Turner and BeIn Media Group.

In a written interview with Around the Rings, Sportel CEO Laurent Puons explained the reasoning behind the format change and how it is being received.

Around the Rings: Sportel has a new look this time around. What was the impetus for the Conference Day?

Laurent Puons:The industry is changing and so is SPORTEL so that we ensure that our events keep evolvingto meet the needs of our community. We want to make a clear distinction between SPORTEL Monaco as the global convention for the sports media and technology industry, which is much larger with tighter meeting schedules and SPORTEL Miami, our spring convention, which provides more intimate gatherings, and thought leadership opportunities. The conference day in Miami was the perfect channel to showcase this, with content tailor-made for the SPORTEL community, including structured networking events throughout the day.

ATR: What will attendees get from this event that they might not have gotten before?

LP:The conference day in this new format of back-to-back sessions with no trade floor in parallel on the same day, is a completely new concept for a SPORTEL convention, allowing delegates, sponsors and exhibitors who have signed up for the conference day to completely focus on the discussions and take advantage of the pre-networking, before they move on to the convention and deal making the next day.

Secondly, buyers of sports media content are a high priority, so to amplify the presence of buyers during the convention, we have scheduled a two-day series of invitation only ‘Buyers Breakfasts’ where we have invited a number of the world's leading sports media rights acquisitions executives to meet with our community for targeted networking.

ATR: What has been the response?

LP:We are delighted that both of our new initiatives have received an excellent response fromthe SPORTEL community. The conference day has been widely embraced by both the impressive international speaker line-up and participants who have signed up to attend or sponsor. We even had to expand the venue to accommodate the demand, which is very encouraging. Additionally, the ‘Buyers Breakfasts’ have also been a huge success and are at full capacity, so all of this is very positive and affirms we are in sync with the needs of our community.

ATR: The Olympics are just a few months away. How does the program reflect the biggest sporting event of the year?

LP: The Olympics represent multiple formats of sports and many of the SPORTEL community are substantially involved in the up and coming summer games in Tokyo and our conference program is of course reflecting this major sporting event. Notably, the opening keynote fireside chat with Telemundo Deportes President Ray Warren, will discuss their important role as a broadcaster preparing to present the Summer Olympic Games, the planning going in to big, global events such as the Olympics and the importance of delivering an authentic,

high-quality experience for the viewers. Also a panel focusing on sports media content will address the aspect of fans sharing video images on social media at live sports events and specifically how the Olympics will view and address this.

ATR: Interesting that there is a panel on piracy as well as one that includes rights-holders embracing direct to consumer distribution. These would sound almost contradictory, yet it sounds like there is room for both.

LP:We absolutely believe that there is room for both topics of discussion within our program.

Piracy is a major issue for the stakeholders including content owners and broadcasters, both traditional and digital who are all part of the SPORTEL community and we’ll be addressing how the industry is working together to combat the on-going threats. The direct to consumer distribution model is a significant part of the shift in paradigms which fans are rapidly signing up for and is offering new revenue models for many of the same stakeholders who are keeping ahead of the game, so both topics are highly relevant as part of the discussions of the day.

For general comments or questions,click here.

Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.