Sports Management Blog

This post contains my live notes on one of the topics covered during the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference. Apologies for any typo and/or misinterpretations which might have snuck in the text.
Feel free to comment below!

5 presentations around “IT in sports”, followed by a panel discussion.

1. IT trends for sports events (Mr. Carsten Florstedt, CEO DC GmbH)

A number of products and platforms are increasing their penetration in the general public – are they relevant for sports events’ organisers?

iPad: Showcases an excellent SKY iPad App developed for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Concludes that the iPad is definitely a product to be taken into account when managing sports events (and its marketing).

Media Tablets: Essentially competitors to iPads, and replacements for notebooks. Concludes that these are also (naturally) products to contend with when managing sports events (and its marketing).

Smartphones: Several platforms competing with each-other. Are they relevant for sports-events’ organisers? Definitely. Need to also include in events’ budget the cost of developing dedicated app.s for those different platforms.

“Social Web”: Several social networks could be relevant for sports events’ organisers – although country-specific (Facebook not necessarily predominant in every country). Some social utilities get a mention as well (e.g. Amiando). Clever use of social platforms can benefit ticket sales. Some social networks (e.g. LinkedIn) now also link directly into one of the most widespread email tool (Outlook), through social connectors. Relevant for sports events’ organisers – but cautions on potential security threats (need to manage carefully).

Cloud computing: Several advantages to leverage cloud computing as sports events’ organisers – but there are disadvantages (mostly around data safety).

2. How the Dutch Olympic Committee uses IT trends (Mr. Jean-Pierre Martens, Dutch Olympic Committee )

The goal for the Dutch NOC when creating & managing a “community” is to share knowledge between Dutch National Federations – thoughts have been given to whether or not the community was something that Dutch NFs wanted.

2 main components to the Dutch NOC community:

• WieSport.nl – a wiki-type platform (centralisation & “communitisation” of data on Dutch sports), which provides support to NFs in the field of knowledge- sharing between members of all Dutch NFs
• Olympisch.nl – a purely fan-oriented website, active during the last Winter Olympic Games; no more competition with other media outlets & sources, full use of social media (YouTube, Flickr and Twitter info’ streams), with extensive showcase of user-generated content with extremely little intervention from the NOC (low-cost solution)

The Dutch NOC realises that, although it’s already done a lot, it still needs to leverage social media even more to prepare for London 2012: e.g. more use of mobile & geolocation (Foursquare).

Key learnings:

• No need to build a new “networking platform” from scratch – they already exist: make sure you participate in them wholeheartedly
• Look outside of your on narrow field of specialisation
• Be open to future trends (e.g. mobile) and be ready to leverage them

3. FIBA Digital: Developing basketball through technology (Mr. Wolfram Klug, FIBA Head of Technology)

Exponential growth in capabilities offered by technology – applies to the sports world.

FIBA started implementing a platform for its constituents a few years ago. FIBA’s technology platform now has 3 main components.

a. Software

Caters for all of the regional federations’ core operational/business needs; was initially developed for FIBA, was then cascaded down to the FIBA Zones, and subsequently to those of the NFs which demonstrated a need for it (and even to clubs) – for free!

b. Online services

Live results & statistics to all of the basketball games which need it (even on mobile platforms). Also lending a hand (for free!) to any club which wants to create a website for their website.

c. Courtside services

Further developments: get closer to the fans’ needs, by allowing fans to customise their FIBA website experience (becomes an individual portal). However, contends that the usage of some social-media platforms is bound to decline – so Federations should not bet their house on it.

4. Defining data standards (Mr. Christian Michels, FIFA )

Definition and management of data is key in sports. In order to manage data properly, you need standards, and an interface (which, as far as sports-specific data is concerned, is software). That software needs to be understandable/interpretable for ay user of that data: there need to be globally-understood and -agreed data standards.

Without data, you simply cannot work. FIFA’ s approach is to leverage what already exists, and decide how it fits into the standards which have been defined at FIFA level.

5. Asociation Management meets Web 2.0 (Mr. Ingo Thomann, DFB-Medien )

DFB-Medien is the IT & software house of the German football association. It creates administration software for a sports – but unlike the institutions represented by other speakers on the panel, it has a significant commercialisation objective in its developments.

The company strives to build a common system to administer German football data, by bringing together all of the existing knowledge & resources, and establishing common standards.

This post contains my live notes on one of the topics covered during the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference. Apologies for any typo and/or misinterpretations which might have snuck in the text.
Feel free to comment below!

Topic: Managing athletes and bidding for the Games – Two tracks to peak performance

(Presentation starts with an overt self-promotion video for Ms. Witt – apparently the Munich bid is placing a hell of a lot of emphasis on her personality to woo decision-makers…)

(Presentation continues with a lengthy, apparently well-rehearsed description of Ms. Witt’s past and present career, motivation, achievements – the Munich 2018 bid is barely even mentioned.)

When the topic finally switches to the 2018 Munich bid, the standard, well-produced promotional video is shown – which is, interestingly, not available anywhere else than on the official bid team’s website.

“Technical” criteria are not the only elements which a bid city needs to master; the bid team also needs to highlight the motivation and commitment of the city’s inhabitants to host the Games. A clear, concise description of the plan needs to be delivered consistently. The passion of the fans & of the country’s sportspeople needs to be highlighted.

Interesting comment from the conference co-organiser: the bidding process for hosting any major event is probably one of the most complex and sophisticated processes you can find in sports – other industries often look to specialists in the sports industry to help them in their bidding process.

This post contains my live notes on one of the topics covered during the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference. Apologies for any typo and/or misinterpretations which might have snuck in the text.
Feel free to comment below!

Topic: Bridging Research and practice – the case of UEFA & European football

Cooperation with universities – 2 main areas:

1. Professional Development Programs (development of executives & knowledge, academic recognition);

2. Research (grant programs, research with students).

Main principles of cooperation with universities:

• At the service of football,
• Must be “the best of the best”,
• No global agreement with single academic institution (plurality of research centres).

Professional Development Program built on 3 stages/steps:

• Certificate in Football Management, reserved to members of European Football Associations – delivered by IDHEAP (Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration) in Lausanne,
• Diploma in Football Management, also reserved to members of European Football Associations,
• Executive Master in European Sports Governance (MESGO), in collaboration with other European sports’ associations, co-delivered/certified by 5 academic institutions.

Nearly 500 staff currently at UEFA, many of which have followed one form or another of academic education in the field of sports or related fields.

Some of the most recent concrete examples of the application of research in the field of European football:

• Analysis and re-definition of the international transfer system
• Legality and usefulness of central marketing system
• Development of the “Local Trained Player” rule
• Questions raised by the need to protect minors
• Rules & data behind the Financial Fair Play initiative

This post contains my live notes on one of the topics covered during the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference. Apologies for any typo and/or misinterpretations which might have snuck in the text.
Feel free to comment below!

Some learnings from research: loss of some of the younger audience as well as drop in sports participation, led to a number of new initiatives.

1. Youth Olympic Games (YOG)

Attempt to stimulate the younger generation (14-18) which would represent the pinnacle of a young person’s sports career – BUT need to combine sport with culture and education. Some were doubtful about combining these elements.

Result of the 1st edition: resounding success, to the point that some young sportspeople perform even better after the event than before. Further benefit: youngsters start to understand and live the Olympic values.

Not everything was perfect – but fundamentally, the YOG product has proved its usefulness.

2. Olympic Program

Ultimate challenge: remain relevant across all continents. Sports practice evolves every day, so Program needs to evolve with it. Need to take into account new trends into the Events.

Different approach to selection of sports/disciplines which are allowed to enter the Program: key notion of value-added (to the Olympic Games). Criteria was used for selection of golf & rugby-7 in Summer Program. 10-12 new sports/disciplines are planned to be added to the Sochi Program leveraging same key notion.

3. 360° Management

Based on learnings from observation of successful non-sports organisations. Want to start managing the IOC based on Community participation. Matrix structure, participative, much less hierarchical.

The wait is over – the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference is about to start !

Under the subheading “Bridging Research and Practice”, the 2-day conference (Nov. 5-6) brings together in Lausanne, Olympic Capital, a distinguished panel of speakers from both academia and major international sports organisations.

Participants can look forward to attending prestigious keynote presentations (from representatives of, among others, the IOC, FIFA, UEFA, FIBA), as well as hearing from leading academics about the latest developments in sports-management research. Panel discussions are also scheduled, as well as product demonstrations.

The Sports Management Blog will cover the event – I’ll share with you my main observations from the various presentations, lectures and panels, and will kick-start what I hope will be a lively discussion on some of the topics which are relevant to this blog, and to the management of sports in general. Stay tuned for more!

Are there any conference topics you’d be interested in hearing more about? Any speakers you’d like me to interview? Let me know in the comments !