What can the events industry learn from the world of sports?

Cross-industry innovation isn’t a new phenomenon – it’s par for the course.

The old business adage tells us to not just think outside the box but LOOK outside the box, in a world where too many organizations retain a silo mindset and fail to look beyond their business unit for answers and inspiration.?

Adapting what industries outside of the events world have already done is an effective way to drive real, positive change… with less risk.?

And you don’t have to look much further than the sports industry to find this glow of inspiration.?

With an expected growth from $354.96 billion in 2021 to $501.43 billion this year [Deloitte], the global sports market clearly understands how to appeal to its audiences, develop communities and leverage a product. Yet, it’s an industry not too far removed from our own. Experiencing huge waves of turbulence over the course of the pandemic, le monde sportif also saw an accelerated merging of the physical and virtual. With people front and centre, safety measures increased in tandem in both the sporting and events worlds, and the two can often be found side-by-side in the media spotlight. We are alike in our future roadmaps too - as sustainability, diversity and inclusion become priorities for both industries, with a need to make changes quickly for the benefit of society.

So, it makes sense for us to look at what the sports industry has done right, and use it to influence our own development. There are many simple, practical things that we can learn, and deliver, to improve the events industry and drive strategic change.

This article will highlight four things that corporate meetings and events leaders can learn from the sports industry.

3, 2, 1… Go!

1. Growing communities through listening to audiences

Aside from perhaps gaming and movie franchises (Comic Con - I’m looking at you!), sports fans are often the most committed in the world. The communities built around sports teams are loyal, vocal and supportive.

I was still going to watch Sheffield Wednesday play terribly in League One back in 2010, and was more than happy to pay for the privilege. So how can we find that same dedication within our event audiences? It’s simple - listen to what they want. Take feedback and truly action it. Give them a cause to believe in. See our attendees as shareholders that our events couldn’t function without, and don’t take their attendance for granted. Not listening to our audiences is an easy way to take our eye off the ball, and the industry will suffer longer-term as a consequence.

2. Creating industry role models

Just like superhero movies, the sports industry wouldn’t be as successful without its inspirational players. Those at the very top of their game, that many of us would look up to and aspire to be.

“How can we really have a Venus Williams of events?!”, I hear you cry. “How can we truly bring over this idea of role models into the events industry?” Representation. Diversity. Celebration. In an era where the event talent pool appears to be smaller than ever, we need to show those stepping onto the first rung of their career ladder that… there are people just like you who have made it to the top of the industry, so you can too. This means that we need to do more to elevate those from less represented communities into leadership roles. We need to want to inspire the next generation of event industry MVPs through the creation of real industry role models.

3. Digitization

According to Deloitte, technology is playing a larger role than ever in the lives of fans, opening the way for sports organizations to create new, innovative customer experiences. Partnering with broadcasters and new distribution platforms has given fans the experiences they want, and captured viewership across multiple devices, including mobile.

Over the last ten years, the sporting industry has seen that fans are interacting with media more than ever before - between 2014 and 2016, audio consumption, TV viewership, and application usage increased across the board. As many of us agree that some sort of digital component is critical for events (check out Explori blog on the future of virtual here ), to avoid scoring an own goal we should take the digital broadcasting model and apply it to our own events. After all, it hasn’t stopped the growth of the sports market, so why shouldn’t we invest more in event industry technology.

4. Using tangible data to measure, compare and benchmark results

What if someone were to tell you that they’ve spent the last year training for the Olympic 100m sprint. They add that they’ve never actually timed themselves, but when they run, it *feels* really fast. You would probably spit out your coffee.

In reality, you wouldn’t train for a race without knowing where you started and comparing that to where you finished. Olympic athletes measure their progress, they benchmark themselves against their prior performances and the rest of the world. So why don’t we do that properly in the events industry? We know that creating great events in an art, but measuring them is a science. The latest sports science data drives athletic performance, as passion and belief are not enough anymore. The meetings and events industry needs to view data in the same way to truly define success. Tangible metrics that look at event performance strategically, support data-driven decision-making and enable you to intelligently consolidate events programs, redistribute budgets, or to invest in those portfolios that really need the lift.?Just like sports, consistent and contextualised data measurement is critical to the events industry.

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It’s true, cross-industry innovation isn’t a new phenomenon. But it’s still important.

Taking key learnings from the sports world and applying it to our meeting and events industry will enable us to drive the right changes to grow our audiences, create role models, digitize effectively and use the best data to measure success. Let's take what the sports industry has done right, and use it to influence our own development.

Now… it's time to get that event industry ball rolling.