Leaders Sport Business Podcast

Snap reflections on our Leaders Meet: Innovation event this week in London, with Craig Hepburn, Art Basel's Chief Digital Officer, and former Virgin Atlantic, McLaren and Chelsea FC Chief Marketing Officer, Claire Cronin.

Leaders Editorial Director James Emmett and Content Director David Cushnan are on location at 180 Studios on The Strand to reflect on two days spent with C-suite leaders from across sport, discussing the biggest global trends - artificial intelligence, the global economy and climate change - with the help of outside of sport perspectives, from the worlds of music, retail, media and technology.

They're joined by a couple of experts fresh off the stage - Craig Hepburn assesses how the sports industry is tackling artificial intelligence, while Claire Cronin offers her reflections on the two days and her conversation with Waitrose Executive Director, James Bailey.

Lancashire County Cricket CEO Daniel Gidney takes us inside the Hundred auction, as Leaders’ Editorial Director James Emmett and Content Director David Cushnan reflect on the beginning of a new era for English cricket.

Gidney has been instrumental in the sale of a 70% stake in the Manchester Originals, part of the England & Wales Cricket Board’s process to sell shares in The Hundred franchises.

He explains what it was like to be in the thick of February’s auction action; the preparatory work that went into establishing a relationship with new partner RPSG Group, owner of the IPL’s Lucknow Giants long before that; the impact on his own role as CEO; how the club intends to use the injection of funds - and what happens now, as The Hundred enters its next phase of development.

And there's a preview of this week's Leaders Meet: Innovation event, in central London - on Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th April. https://leadersinsport.com/sport-business/leaders-events/leaders-meet-innovation/

Philippe Moggio, Kathy Carter and Mark Bullingham are on the show this week, as Leaders duo James Emmett and David Cushnan reflect on a week of soccer activity on and off the pitch in LA last month.

CONCACAF General Secretary Philippe Moggio, former LA28 CEO and Soccer United Marketing President Kathy Carter, and FA CEO Mark Bullingham joined James for a series of conversations in the corridors at the inaugural Business of Soccer event in LA a few days ago.

The event - put on by Leaders and SBJ in collaboration with CONCACAF and Major League Soccer - brought together all the major powerbrokers in North American soccer ahead of a pivotal 15 months as the continent prepares to host the biggest ever Fifa World Cup.

On the agenda: capitalizing on the momentum the tournament will bring; building women's soccer into a commercial behemoth; oversaturation in the market; and an MLS calendar switch that could prove transformative.

India's ambitions to stage the Olympic Games and become a sport-forward nation dominated conversation at last week's RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit, and Leaders' Content Director David Cushnan is joined by Portas Consulting's Nic Coward to reflect on a fantastic few days in Bangalore.

They consider how India's plan to host the Games in 2036 are progressing, the ways in which the plan is galvanising national and state governments, corporate brands and influential and wealthy figures across the country, and how Thursday's election of Kirsty Coventry as the next IOC President might alter the bidding landscape.

There's also a review of who said what on-stage at Bangalore's Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence, including Virat Kohli's rare sit-down interview; husband and wife duo Vita and Jalaj Dani, who are transforming table tennis in India; Fifa's SVP, Director of Commercial Partnerships; and SURJ's new Chief Commercialization Officer, Chloe Targett-Adams.

With horse racing's annual Cheltenham Festival playing out in the background, Jockey Club Partnerships Director Carey Weeks takes Leaders Editorial Director James Emmett on a tour of the Orchard, the racecourse's buzzing sponsor village.

The episode features on-the-ground conversations with sponsorship leaders from the likes of Brooklands Watch Company and Debenhams.

Later on, we hear from Leaders Managing Director Laura McQueen as she helps to launch the new 'Be the lead' initiative at an International Women's Day event in the plush surrounds of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park.

Liesel Jolly, women's football lead for Visa, also joins the show to talk about sustainable investment into women's sport, and to shed some light on some new thinking behind women's football as a sponsorship proposition.