ESA Sponsorship Summit To Debate State Of The Industry

The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) have secured senior marketers Keith Moor, Santander; Gary Carey, Diageo; Richard Larcombe, Virgin and Paul Dwan, Coca-Cola, to join the line-up of speakers and panellists at the one-day conference on the 25th April.

The event, being held at the BFI Southbank, London promises to be an essential day for top executives working in sponsorship. The future of sponsorship within the marketing mix will be explored, within the context of the fast-moving technology sector.

Kim Skildum-Reid of Power Sponsorship, a leading consultant, author and presenter, will open the day with a thought-provoking and insightful 'State of the Industry' address. She will be followed by Derek Scobie, YouTube Solutions Lead, Northern & Central Europe at Google, addressing ‘How Technology is Blurring the Traditional Sponsorship Model’. Derek will look at connectivity, creation and changing consumer behaviour.

Karen Earl, ESA Chairman said that the day’s programme had been developed specifically to enable a debate about the industry’s future, the changes it is encountering and how all sponsorship stakeholders will need to equip themselves to maximise the resulting opportunities and complexities.

“We all appreciate the sponsorship model is changing and that to be fit as an industry for the coming years we must evolve and adapt. We must also be better at communicating the success that sponsorship offers brands”.

The morning sessions will focus on what the future has in store and the technological implications, while the afternoon sessions will specifically explore ‘The Sponsors' View’ of the future as well as debate ‘The Future of the Agency Model’. 

Havas Sport and Entertainment’s Lucian Boyer, Mindshare’s Sean Jefferson, Slingshot Sponsorship’s Jackie Fast and Amp’s Ben McCormack will share their insights into the demands facing agencies. 

Other speakers and panellists include David Stubley, Kameleon; Dave Gibbs of Sky Sports; Sally Hancock, former Director of Olympic Marketing at Lloyds Banking Group; Tom Fox, Arsenal FC; Richard Ayers, a leading digital and social media consultant; Tom Bowman, BBC Worldwide; and Dan’l Hewitt, AdVICE Europe.

To find out more about the event, priced at £500 / €500, visit http://www.sponsorship.org/content/sponsorship-summit/index.asp and follow the debate on Twitter #ESASummit. ESA members receive priority bookings. 

The event will be preceded by an ESA morning sponsorship Workshop in London on April 23rd, tailored towards junior to middle management. Entitled ‘Making the most of Sponsorship’s Cutting Edge’, the three-hour session led by Kim Skildum-Reid will feature a combination of theory, case studies and exercises. It will be held at Sport England’s offices, London WC2.

For further details about the workshop’s content, please visit http://www.sponsorship.org/content/workshop/index.asp. The workshop is priced from £100 / €100 and a limited number of places are available.

For further information, contact the ESA Office via esaoffice@sponsorship.org on call +44 (0)20 8390 3311.