iSportconnect Host Very Impressive Developing Rugby Business Event

October 23, 2015

iSportconnect staged an intriguing and thought-provoking Developing Rugby Business event on Thursday evening at the 5-star Grange City Hotel in London.

The event attracted an impressive audience which included representatives from major sports teams/clubs, ed governing bodies, federations and brands.

This included Adidas, Arsenal FC, Commonwealth Games England, ECB, England 2015, Eurosport, Everton FC, EY, LTA, PGA European Tour, QBE, RFL, Samsung, Sport England, Team GB, The O2, Wasps and many more.

The event consisted of two panels; Global Sponsorship and The Future of Rugby.

The Global Sponsorship panel featured sponsors of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which included Michael Goldstein, Vice President of Global Sponsorships at Mastercard, Tom Kingsley, Director of Sport and Sponsorship at EY and Fiona Taag, Global Sponsorship Manager at DHL.

The panel was moderated by Henry Chappell, CEO of leading international communications agency Pitch.

The trio created interesting discussions by giving an insight into their individual sponsorships of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, how they activated it, the success of it, the challenges they faced and what future involvement they will be looking to have with rugby.

The Future of Rugby panel, which was moderated by David Slemen, Managing Director of Elite Performance Partners, included Simon Halliday, Chairman of the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), Steve Grainger MBE, Rugby Development Director at the RFU and Ex-France Rugby International Serge Betsen.

They spoke in-depth about how successful the tournament has been and the impact this will have on the future of the sport.

The panellists also gave their expert opinions of the legacy the Rugby World Cup will leave behind and how it will help grassroots rugby and participation.

Speaking after the event, Tom Kingsley of EY said: “It was a great event, to bring people from sport, from agencies, from brands together to discuss issues is always a good thing.”

Michael Goldstein of Mastercard added: “I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s been good it’s my first one and its been good to be here and meet some interesting people in the industry.”