Don’t Fight the FOMO

A message from James Worrall, CEO and Founder, Leaders.

It’s Squeaky Bum Time  

The great Sir Alex Ferguson – Mr Squeaky Bum himself – used to get like this towards the end of a tight season, and I get that feeling every year when we get close to Leaders in London. 3,000 people flying in from around the world to listen to the big guns and network with the top dogs. Established names like Sorrell, Beane, Glenn, Coe, McMahon, and Bartomeu and new players like Amazon, Intel, Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Rakuten. It’s our 10-year anniversary and I’m really looking forward to the new Main Stage, more content, more networking and the highlight of the event, the food – a world buffet to cater for every taste. Worth the entrance alone.

Consumer Choice

Ever been paralysed by choice? You know, everything is in the same place but you can’t decide what to do. My kids get it when they go to a playground and the sports business movers and shakers get it when they look at the Leaders line-up. Especially this year. Did you know there are no fewer than five separate summits running all over London on the Monday and Tuesday before the Sport Business Summit itself on the Wednesday and Thursday? Did you know we researched over 700 people worldwide to find out precisely what the industry wanted for these summits? Did you know they’re a deep-dive on the fastest growing areas in sport? “Just tell me what’s happening,” I hear you say. OK, here goes:

Monday 2 October:  

• Broadcast Disruptors (about, yes you’ve guessed it, those media players who are disrupting the traditional broadcast landscape – I’m looking forward to the new Man Utd Media CEO, Phil Lynch) at BT Tower.
• Social Fanalytics (about the data and commercial opportunities underpinning social platforms) at the new swanky CAKE office – do you want a slice of the action!?
• Generation XX (for those invested in the growth of women’s sport) at Under the Bridge.

Tuesday 3 October

• Ultimate Fan Experience (for those focussed on better engaging fans, wherever they are on the planet) at Stamford Bridge.
• Esports Live (about the hottest topic in sport right now: understand the ecosystem, owners, teams, players, money and market) at Under the Bridge.
• Leaders Under 40 Awards (a celebration of the best sport business talent across the globe) at The Natural History Museum.

Click here to see the schedule for the week and, as for the speakers, well, they are completely off the chart (click here).

Lastminute.com

Psychologists call it the domino or sheep effect. I call it FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Whatever it is, we’ve seen this phenomena for 10 years. On the 1st September, just after the final price increase, the phones never stop buzzing for 6 solid weeks. The industry must wake up one day, look at the calendar, find out who’s going and whats happening and think “I have to go” and do whatever it takes to book a place before we sell out. Even though it means paying top dollar. So please don’t book before September! If you do we will lose lots of money and you will save a fortune. Not great for my squeaky bum but I’m happy with that trade off as we always sell out 🙂

So there we have it. 3,000 people in London. Nearly 100 speakers. A tonne of new business opportunities. FOMO. And at least one squeaky bum.

[button link=’https://leadersinsport.com/leaders-week/enquire/#free-text-area-2′]I want to be there[/button]

See you there!

James Worrall,

CEO & Founder