View From the Editor: 'Sport and Technology: The Conference 2005, Live and Uncut' - March 2005  

During the week leading up to the inaugural Sport and Technology: The Conference, in association with the lovely BT Rich Media, S&T became an expert on global weather, such was our paranoia that the event would be snowed off. As it turned out, most of the snow had melted in the London region by the day ‘Conference Friday’ came around, but some parts of south-east England and mainland Europe were affected, so unfortunately we lost a small number of our delegates to the slushy stuff. Sorry guys. We hope you have thawed out by now.
However, we are delighted to report that we still had a thronging and information-hungry crowd right from registration through to the evening cocktail party at BT Centre in Central London, and all feedback from the day has been immensely positive. Our favourite bit of praise so far hails from a delegate who says: “Great conference. Stimulating speakers. Fun mystery celebrity. Gorgeous hostess. My cup runneth over.” Thanks Mum. Next Mothers’ Day you might get chocolates AND flowers. (If you are prepared to reinstate us in your will that is).
Once we have caught up on our sleep, we will start thinking about next year’s event, so if you missed out on the 4th March, fear not, we will be doing it all again in 2006. And if you can’t wait that long dear readers, video coverage of the event will shortly be available on www.sportandtechnologyconference.com, our official ™ conference ™ website ™. We’ll keep you up to date on that as well as about our post-event white paper™ which we faithfully promise to write as soon as we are back from SportelASIA in Hong Kong. Busy, busy. S&T had only just recovered from a week in Egypt prior to the conference, so the old laundry situation is looking a bit desperate at ArkSports Towers™. We may have to start wearing our Exeter City FC shirt inside out™.

Sumptuous array of prizes

Fortunately, the sumptuous array of prizes generously donated to our charity raffle at the post-conference cocktail party, included a range of ‘to-die-for’ t-shirts and fleeces, so we may be borrowing said items from the lucky winners. Other prizes, which were awarded to the somewhat hysterical recipients at times, included an Xbox donated by BT, toy WRC car, a signed ICC cricket bat, DVDs, general Super Bowl XXXIX tat, a ‘mystery Premier League’ prize, Conference Play-off Tickets, an Eastern European business card holder (we think) donated by toothache-afflicted John Barton, head of sport at the ABU, (we are still trying to figure that donation out) and tickets to watch Chelsea FC, which we must say, Andy Rice from SportBusiness International fairly dived onto the prize table to claim, almost killing several delegates on his way. We would like to say that his social skills may have been affected by his recent six months stay in Brazil (see below), but we have known him for far too long to fib.
The raffle was majestically drawn by a ‘fun, mystery celebrity’, (i.e. S&T was prepared to wear a wig and sunglasses if the celebrity got caught in snow), S&T’s darts idol Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, 12 times world darts champion, and included a signed shirt of his that S&T had been wearing in bed for several years and had to be wrestled out of. Rats. Said idol was distinctly struggling (or perhaps bored) by the end of the draw, such was the vast magnitude of desirable gifts up for grabs on the heaving BT table. His years of mental strength and precision training were called into play as the draw invoked an insatiable appetite from a cocktail party crowd that represented the crème de la crème of the sports technology marketplace. As well as the S&T team. And we raised £250 for Comic Relief. Not bad at all!
In terms of a ‘proper’ (i.e ‘serious’, yes we can do serious you know) review of the day, you’ll have to wait for the post-event white paper™. But we were proud to be the organisers of an event that mentioned Exeter City FC and darts about 12 times on stage (although not at the same time), got BSkyB to talk in public, had cult TV themes including Space 1999, The Champions and The Tomorrow People as interval music, had a stage set adorned by a pair of giant male legs™ and was a conference that was wrapped up fittingly by Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the ICC who was there to explain just why he thinks cricket is the most technologically advanced of all sports.

It’s all about the cress and mayonnaise

Not enough of a review for you so far? Well okay then you demanding lot, the egg sarnies had just the right amount of cress and mayonnaise, our hosts BT were fantastic, as was their lovely house complete with state-of-the art auditorium instead of a bedroom. All our speakers were stylish and knowledgeable, (apart from Sports Media Broadcasting’s Jonny Gould who was just knowledgeable), and our hangovers the next morning reflected BT Centre’s sign off on the old alcohol front. (It’s not normally the done thing to have wine with lunch at BT Centre apparently, but their thoughtful intervention meant that 200 stampeding delegates didn’t exit the building for the pub opposite. This is the sports industry after all).
Suffice to say, we would like to thank all our speakers, commercial partners and delegates for making Sport and Technology: The Conference 2005, in association with BT Rich Media, a huge success, even if we do say so ourselves. We miss you already. Every one of you. [Blinks away tears and clutches stylish silver S&T conference bag™ lovingly; definitely an eBay flyer in future years wethinks].
Finally for this month, S&T would like to thank one of our readers for the following missive: “May I nominate the editor for two specials awards. Firstly, (reader holds high trophy in the form of a bronzed airline boarding pass): sports technology jetsetter of the moment… if it’s not south-east Asia, then it’s Africa, and if not so, what the hell, the Super Bowl! Nothing mixes like technology and testosterone, after all. Secondly, for coining (I think) the coolest phrase of the new sports era: 'The venue as a studio'. May it live alongside all those Marshall Mcluhan [Note from the editor: "Eh?"] favourites us virtual-space info-junkies love so much. Much food for thought in the newsletter around the philosophical nature of this process of sport being totally immersed in media, but that probably requires a few bottles of red round about midnight.”
Always being ones to encourage the consumption of cerebral-lubricating fluid around the witching hour, S&T says thanks very much, and please can Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor present us with the aforementioned awards. Bring on the testosterone.
Now where did we put our passports? We have a flight to catch to Hong Kong...

Rachael Church – Editor

Did you survive the post-conference cocktail party? Or were you traumatised by not winning Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor’s signed shirt? If you have any comments or feedback on this article or any of the features in S&T, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to editor@sportandtechnology.com.

ArkSports is proud to be supporting Andy Rice of SportBusiness in his sports therapy work with the abused and abandoned children of Belo Horizonte, Brazil .
On the 18 June, his Rainbow Farm charity is holding a fund raising event.
You are invited to contact Andy on andyr@sportbusiness.com if your company would be in a position to contribute a prize for the draw or help out in any other way.

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