Leaders Touch Down in New York for 2017

Does anyone know anyone with a budget of $800 million to spend right now?

There aren’t many whales that size out there, but Raja Rajamannar is one of them. Mastercard’s Global CMO brought his chequebook and his wisdom to the Leaders Sport Business Summit in New York this year to explain to a packed house that money isn’t everything, it’s how you use it to weave stories that’s crucial.

And while we don’t have a budget of $800 million at Leaders, we know the power – and the value – of a good story. That’s why we go out of our way to find the very best of them, from the top-line influencers making seismic waves across the industry, to the cutting-edge practitioners you might never have heard of. Yet.

Touching down for a fourth edition on 21 and 22 March, 2017, Leaders is hitting the Big Apple, the most international city in the world, with the most international sports business summit on the circuit once again. Don’t believe us? Ask any of the 700 senior-level execs from around the world who made the trip last year. That includes Big Guns from Aon, Real Madrid, Inter and Pepsi as well as the Top Dogs from the Eagles, the 76ers, the Cavs and the Cowboys.

Raja Rajamannar speaking on stage during The Leaders Sports Business Summit at The TimesCenter on March 1, 2016 in New York City.

All the feedback this year suggested Robert Elstone, CEO of Everton – are they the Green Bay Packers of the Premier League? – took the plaudits for most popular session. Why? Most clubs aren’t Real Madrid, the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Yankees and so working out how to compete with the big boys on and off the pitch when the odds are stacked against you is business-critical. Everton don’t have an $800 million budget either, but they’re world-beaters at thinking smart and acting smarter.

We’ll be bringing more of that smarter thinking to the stage and the floor of the TimesCenter in 2017.

Leaders: it’s truly global, it’s unashamedly different, it’s quality on the stage in the stories it spotlights and quality on the floor in the audience it handpicks; and it’s back.