Partnership debuts at iconic Yas Marina Circuit

This past week, over 450 of the industry’s sharpest and most influential minds descended on the UAE for the Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi, hosted at the iconic Yas Marina Circuit. As a main partner of the event, we played an important role in the event’s successful delivery.

With inspiration from the Abu Dhabi Government’s long-term plan for the transformation of the Emirate’s economy, this summit focused on “Mission 2030: Navigating the Future of Sport”. The four key areas discussed by our sporting leaders were as follows:

  • Big Venues, Big Events: Developing first-class physical offerings to remain appealing in a digital world and the process of creating a sporting landmark.
  • For the Fans: Deeper ways to engage and interact with their favourite sports the application of gamification to increase fans’ involvement matches.
  • Invention, Innovation & Investment: Navigating the transition from Web2 to Web3 and how technology can be used to remove barriers to entry.
  • From Global to Grassroots: Unlocking regions and knocking down borders to take your sport to every community, alongside finessing the funnel from participation to elite.

Regional Director, Mike Davis was also a moderator on the Main Stage for a session on ‘Innovation in Sports Sponsorship’. Joined on stage by representatives from Mubadala, G42, and ALTRAD, the session touched on key incentives such as ways they each plan to innovate their partnership portfolio to better engage with their target audience, enabling them to tell their story in a credible and authentic way in the year ahead.

Conversations also centred around Mubadala’s commitment to partnerships that align to their values and vision, ALTRAD’s latest rugby shirt sponsorship, and the announcement of G42’s partnership with Mercedes, ensuring it was a truly insightful session. Towards the end of the session, they also touched on UAE’s ‘Year of Sustainability’ and the imperative for businesses to develop partnership narratives with a sustainable lens in 2023. You can watch the full session below.

Across the two-day summit, several other influential minds and figures from across the sporting landscape presented on the Main Stage and gave talks to an engaged audience throughout. Speakers included Frank Smith – Matchroom Boxing, Alastair Dobson – Big Bash League, Dylan Hartley – Dubai Sharks, Roy Hodgson – ex-Premier League & England Manager, and Nasser Al Khori, Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Qatar World Cup 2022