Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 16/04/2024

Last week, EventScotland attended SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit 2024 in Birmingham in the West Midlands. It was an inspirational week that will shape the future of sport.

More than 1,700 attendees from 65 different countries travelled to the UK from across the globe. There was a packed agenda at the International Convention Centre of:

  • high-level meetings
  • conferences
  • exhibitions
  • networking
  • social events

In this article:

Partnering with SportAccord

EventScotland is a longstanding Silver Partner of SportAccord, working closely with the organisers before and during the event. The summit has played an pivotal role in establishing EventScotland as a respected global events organisation on the international stage.

It has provided an important platform to highlight our work in building Scotland’s reputation as world-leading events destination to the global audience of events rights-holders and international federations.

SportAccord is an important opportunity to meet and network with sport and industry colleagues from around the world to show Scotland’s reputation as a world-leading events destination and our capacity to deliver innovative and world-class major events.

It is a chance to continue to build and maintain our positive relationships with rights-holder and international federations, understand their ambitions for their event, and show how our experience and expertise in event delivery can help achieve those ambitions.

Alongside Scottish partners, we had a successful week in Birmingham-West Midlands.

This included hosting whisky tasting on day three of summit, welcoming around 200 delegates to our stand to share in a wee dram, and hear about Scotland’s reputation the perfect stage for events.

Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events

Leading figures in attendance

Many described this as the busiest SportAccord exhibition ever. High-calibre participants in the conference programme included Olympic champions and leading industry figures such as:

  • Epic Games Vice President and Co-Founder Mark Rein
  • UK Sport Chair Dame Katherine Grainger
  • Olympic Broadcasting Services CEO Yannis Exarchos
  • Rob Alberino, Vice-President of Content and Production, Kansas City Chiefs
  • Wayne Barnes, Former Rugby World Cup referee

 

Topics of discussion and debate included:

  • sustainability
  • innovative technology
  • fan engagement
  • new event models
  • governance
  • esports
  • athlete wellbeing

On behalf of SportAccord, I would like to express our sincere thanks to our hosts for delivering a superb event bringing the international sports family back together in the heart of their vibrant and diverse city.

An engaging agenda of networking events, supported by the passion of the local volunteers in a state-of-the-art venue in a region steeped in sporting heritage, provided a perfect platform for forging connections, strengthening relationships and exploring new ideas.

Birmingham and the West Midlands have given sport an ideal platform for gathering International Federations, the International Olympic Committee, rights holders, businesses, cities, and regions – the whole sporting family.

Prof Dr Uğur Erdener, SportAccord President

Related links

Supported events

Browse the list of events supported through EventScotland funding programmes.