Liverpool FC, Havas S&E, P&G and HypoVereinsbank added to the programme

Matt Owen (Liverpool FC), Jez Jowett (Havas Sport & Entertainment), Srdjan Lisac (Procter & Gamble) and Dirk Huefnagels (Hypo VereinsBank) are the latest names to be added to the SPORTO Conference programme. SPORTO Conference is the annual sports marketing and sponsorship event in the Adriatic region (organized for the 9th year in the row) that brings together people involved in the sports communication and business. Welcome to SPORTO 2012, hosted in the beautiful Mediterranean resort Portorož in Slovenia on November 26th & 27th!

Owen, Liverpool FC’s community manager, will explain how the biggest football clubs in the world use social media to engage with fans, while Jowett, a digital & social media pioneer, will point out some of the recent wins, fails and learnings from the fast developing digital communication platform that offers exciting ways for successful marketing campaigns and sponsorship activation. Huefnagels, HypoVereinsbank’s corporate marketing director, will present one of the great examples: their cooperation with football giant FC Bayern München. Why is large fan community worth its weight in gold for sponsors?

In the Olympic year, it is impossible to avoid London 2012, the most activated games so far. Besides some of the National Olympic Committee’s (NOC) activation experience, Procter & Gamble (P&G) Central Europe representative Lisac will put spotlight on their International Olympics Committee’s (IOC) global sponsorship campaign Proud Sponsor of Mums and its local activation. Beginning in Vancouver and continuing in London (and further) P&G’s concept has been one of the most influential sponsorship programmes in recent years.
The mentioned experts join worldwide recognized names like Shaun Whatling (Redmandarin), Toby Hester (ESA), Lars Lundov (Sport Event Denmark) and a number of well established individuals from Slovenia and the Adriatic region (such us the Ice Hockey club Medveščak, UNICEF partner) sharing ideas, insights and experiences with over 300 delegates that will be attending the conference in Slovenia’s Mediterranean sea resort.

Stanley’s Cup winner helps with charity auction

The conference – apart from lectures and discussions – offers a great chance for networking with representatives from all relevant business fields: sponsors, clubs and federations, sports events organizers and professional athletes. Slovenia’s Olympic and Paralympic medal holders from London 2012 will be present at SPORTO and a former basketball star player will be joining the discussion ahead of Slovenia’s major sport event coming up next September: the European basketball championship EuroBasket 2013. The first day of the conference will close with a relaxing evening. The SPORTO dinner includes the SPORTO awards ceremony – this year with a special SPORTO International award for all the campaigns from the Adriatic region – and is followed by the SPORTO party.

Like every year, the conference will also feature a charity auction: Anže Kopitar, the Slovenian National hockey league (NHL) superstar and Stanley Cup winner with the Los Angeles Kings has contributed his hockey stick for a good cause. Previous charity auction items include Leo Messi’s shirt, Lance Armstrong’s jersey, Roger Federer’s apparel, Ronaldinho’s boot …

We hope to see you in Slovenia

You can find more about the conference (guests, programme, awards, charity auction, location, other activities …) and “Early Bird” admissions (100 EUR discount until October 25th) at www.sporto.si. Welcome!