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Thursday 19 January, Sheffield
I was honoured to be asked to be a guest speaker at a key UK Trade and Industry conference – ‘The Biggest Sporting Events of Our Time – Are you fit to compete’? A very appropriate title in this special year!
I was joined by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Regional Director Mark Robson, Yorkshire Gold Business Club (YGBC) Manager Lauren Pigg as well as Andrew Bacchus, Jon Tibbs, Chris Wall and Simon Bedford all from the UKTI team. The audience was around 200 business delegates.
Delegates heard from Sheffield event management company ‘Sportworks’ about how they have won work on a global sporting event. Sportworks won the contract to provide event management services for the ISSF World Cup, part of the London Prepares series of events which is being used as the official sports testing programme in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Presentations were delivered to business people interested in developing business specifically in Russia and Brazil. UKTI discussed the sporting opportunities available and to advise companies on partnering, joint ventures and how to have a local presence. “Businesses should look at international markets to develop and expand their business. A wealth of opportunities are there and UKTI can help them access them”.
UK companies deliver a range of specialist services for global sports events, from planning and designing, through to construction and event management. The market in sports projects is becoming increasingly competitive but there is a constant stream of business opportunities from feasibility and planning stages, to fitting out stadia and transport links, to VIP management, security and ticketing.
UKTI can help put businesses in front of key decision makers of future sports events worldwide.
Later there was a press conference and I took part in an interview with Radio Sheffield. I focused on the fact that business should be capitalising on opportunities. I competed in Sheffield many times and there has always been inspiration around sport. 2012 will come to every region. LOCOG are in contact with all the local authorities. There will be new infrastructure and upgrade of facilities.
I talked about my global BT ambassadorial role for London 2012 where I made a visit to South America recently. They are already planning ahead for Rio 2016 and to maximise business opportunities.