Less than three months before the start of the FIS Nordic World Ski World Championships Planica 2023 is also the timeline for the new edition of the SPORTO conference! This year, the conference will be held in a completely winter edition, namely, at the venue of the Nordic World Championships – in the valley under the Ponce Mountains – on Wednesday, 22 February, 2023, just one day after the championship’s grand opening.
In the idyllic environment of the winter paradise, we will once again bring high-profile guests from the field of sports marketing, sponsorship strategies and activations, digital and other media approaches and technological innovations, and we are already revealing some interesting names to you.
We are pleased to announce Michael Payne, one of the leading figures in the world of sports marketing. He has been at the forefront of the sports marketing industry for over thirty years – having led the global marketing effort for the Olympic Movement for more than two decades, from 1983 to 2004 as the IOC’s first ever Marketing and Broadcast Rights Director. During his tenure at the IOC, he led a group that generated more than $15 billion in media rights and marketing revenues for over 20 years. When he left the IOC after the 2004 Athens Olympics, he founded his own consulting firm, Payne Sports Media Strategies.
Michael advised on the successful bids for the London 2012, Rio 2016 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, and was for twelve years an advisor to former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.
He is also the author of the bestselling book ‘Olympic Turnaround’, translated into fifteen languages, about the transformation of the Olympic movement from bankruptcy to a multi-billion dollar brand. His new book ‘Toon In!’, the epic story of the Olympic Games in cartoon form, has been named Best Illustrated Sports Book of the Year in the Sunday Times Book Awards.
Amar Singh is an experienced media professional specializing in content strategy and digital marketing in sports. After working as a journalist, he moved to Goal.com, later the London Evening Standard newspaper, and as chief content officer at Squawka, a football data platform. Amar then joined English Premier League club West Ham United as head of content, where he helped the club increase its visibility and achieve a record number of followers on various platforms. After two years at West Ham, he joined AB-InBev, the world’s largest brewer. As head of global football content for Budweiser, he led the strategy for the Premier League, LaLiga, the England national team and the FA Cup, working on campaigns with top footballers, including Lionel Messi. After joining MKTG Sport + Entertainment as Executive Vice President in 2022, where his position is Head of Content and Communications, Amar advises some of the biggest brands on sponsorships, marketing and content strategies.
Born in Brazil and raised in the US and Spain, Arthur Guisasola has worked in the sports industry in the US, Spain, Brazil and the UK. Guisasola came to the TikTok giant with experience as a sports editor for the North American edition of As.com and later as head of social media at Atletico Madrid. He has been with TikTok since January 2019. He is currently the Head of Global Partnerships for Sports Content, also leading the strategic relationships that TikTok has with global sports partners in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. This year Forbes selected him in the group of young and influential “Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe: Sport & Games” as the next generation leader in the sports industry.
Joe Weston is Head of Sports Content at We Are Social, leading a team of over forty strategists, creatives, writers, producers, project managers, designers and researchers in producing top creative sports campaigns. Weston has over a decade of sports marketing experience and has co-created award-winning campaigns for Adidas, Real Madrid, IOC, ATP, Playstation, Mastercard, Guinness and many more. We Are Social Sport is modernizing sports marketing, changing parts of the traditional game and helping brands, sponsors and rights holders get really close to the action. Companies under their stewardship embrace a different culture and participate in the ever-evolving sports marketing environment.
Early-bird registrations for the conference are already available at sporto.si/en. Participation will be limited to 300 participants. The registration fee includes participation in all lectures and discussions, VIP access to the championship’s competitions on that day, lunch, evening snack and SPORTO Get-together.
Follow us and experience the winter edition of the SPORTO conference in the epicentre of the sports world this winter!
