European Tour CEO George O’Grady to Present at Rugby Expo

Rugby Ventures, for sale the management team behind the world leading B2B conference and exhibition, medic Rugby Expo, arthritis have today announced a major coup in securing the services of George O’Grady, CEO of the PGA European Tour to present at this year’s event. 

George has been a central figure in the development and ongoing success of the Tour’s commercial strategy, which today oversees the participation of 47 tournaments in 22 countries making the Tour the leading global brand in golf. Recent innovations have included the end of season ‘Race to Dubai’ as well as the expansion into new territories including the Far East and in particular China. 

The announcement of George O’Grady is the first in a series of high profile specialist sports marketers as the event looks to build on its conference and workshop programme in 2012 by providing a showcase for the sport to learn from other sports prepared to offer a detailed insight into their own commercial and marketing successes.

This year’s conference programme will again focus on the professional game on day one before switching to more grass roots inspired content on day two. Day one will feature a series of challenging plenary debates as well as a series of master class workshops covering sponsorship strategies, converting interest in social media into new revenue, creative marketing for clubs and managing stadia for maximum return. 

On confirming his attendance, George O’Grady said, “I am really looking forward to attending Rugby Expo, engaging and debating about how best to maximise commercial benefits for the sport and its clubs based on some of the strategies we have used at the European PGA Tour. All sports face challenging economic times and sharing best practice between each other will only aid our ability to think creatively as we continue to grow and develop all aspects of whichever game we are responsible for.” 

John Hockey, Chairman of Rugby Ventures said, “to get someone of George’s calibre to speak at Rugby Expo provides a clear intention of the quality of this year’s speaking line up, with many more names to be announced over the next few weeks. We have worked hard to widen our net beyond simply rugby union and league speakers and to bring the very best in their respective fields to Expo. George’s work in developing the global reach of the PGA European Tour will provide a fascinating insight into how developing successful long term marketing and commercial strategies can be transferred across for rugby.” 

Rugby Expo 2012, the fourth instalment of the event takes place at Twickenham during the Investec Autumn International series, with the event scheduled just 48 hours before the much anticipated England vs. Australia match. The event expects to attract more than 1,000 attendees across the two days, with more than 500 delegates from grass roots clubs attending day two which is focused on supporting grass roots rugby clubs. Complimentary tickets to attend day two of the event will be made available through partnerships with a number of home unions and professional club’s community programmes.