The outlines of the conference on marketing and sponsorship in sports, which will take place in its 21st edition in Portorož in early December, are known. As an introduction, we briefly introduce the first speakers at SPORTO 2025.
With us will be the company Strive and its founder Malph Minns, who has extensive experience in developing sponsorship strategies for some well-known brands such as FIFA, The Premier League, O2, Barclays. He is one of the largest European experts in sports sponsorship, and he was with us at the conference in 2017, when he presented a highly advanced insight into the rapidly developing e-sports ecosystem in a high-profile lecture. He works on virtually all three sides of the spectrum, as he regularly represents the interests of the brand, the rights holder or the agency; all of which have been listed for more than 20 years. Even with us in Portorož, he will prefer to ask ‘why’ and ‘how’, rather than just ‘what’, which often satisfies the parties involved.
SportsPro is one of the leading organizers of sports business conferences worldwide, also dealing with technologies and innovations in sports. Their events annually attract up to 20 million views of content and more than four thousand participants from at least 50 countries. SportsPro will be represented in Portorož by CEO Nick Meacham, who is also a well-known speaker, podcast host and influencer in the field of digital media and content strategies in the sports environment and certainly one of those on this scene who perfectly “sees, hears and smells” the modern sports business.
W Conran Design Group CEO Anaïs Guillemané Mootoosamy led the strategies of some brands at the Olympic Games in her native Paris last year, and focuses on revitalizing brands in hospitality, mobility and services, and addressing both target and new audiences. For their work on the Paris Olympics, W Conran Design received numerous awards, including the Black Pencil for graphic design (“for breaking with the traditional aesthetic of sports marketing that is playful and adaptable, with a unified yet distinctive feel that unites heritage and sport”) and the Silver Cannes Lion 2025 for “creating graphic images for Paris 2024 that reflect the openness, inclusion and dynamic nature of the Games.”
WePlay, whose Chief Strategy Officer Michael Harvey will be our guest speaker at our conference on Monday, December 1, is focused on working with global rights holders such as UFC, PSG, Sail GP and Ironman. With experience in driving commercial growth through data-driven strategy and digital creativity, Harvey helps rights holders and brands achieve measurable results with audience-focused campaigns.
After 25 years working for some of the giants in the business and nearly a decade successfully leading global sponsorship teams at Visa and Coca-Cola, Ricardo Fort founded Sport by Fort Consulting to help sponsors, leagues, investors and athletes successfully invest in sports projects. His extensive experience working with major global sports organizations and his knowledge of negotiating sponsorship deals worth over $2 billion make Fort an expert with exceptional skills in helping investors evaluate, decide on and negotiate partnerships in sports.
Other interesting names from this year’s SPORTO will follow in the coming weeks, but we can already say that our and your conference will have a bunch of accompanying events this year, and the traditional SPORTO magazine is planned for the end of October this year. One of these will be dedicated exclusively to women, namely their work and influence in sport, which will be held as a “Road to SPORTO” event on October 22. Applications for the “SPORTO Awards 2025“, i.e. proposals for awards in various categories, are open.