“Women’s sport in Ireland presents a green field site for commercial partners where they have great opportunity to shape the kind of programmes that will deliver for them in terms of consumer marketing, business to business development and staff motivation.”
That was one of a number of clear messages to emerge from yesterday’s inaugural “The Business of Women’s Sport Conference” according to organiser, Rob Hartnett from Sport for Business (that includes UCD Smurfit as a founding member). The attendance of 100 leaders in sport and business participated in panel discussions and innovative round table sessions that included current MBA participants, UCD Ad Astra athletes and UCD’s own Dr. Ann Bourke who counts sport management as one of her fields of research.
The conference, kindly hosted by UCD Smurfit, heard from Annette Ní Dhathlaoi, Head of Marketing with Liberty Insurance on the ground breaking sponsorship of both the All Ireland Hurling and Camogie Championships; from Simon McBeth of eFlow and from Liz Ferris of the Women in Business Alliance. They also heard from panels including Malachy Logan, Sports Editor of the Irish Times, as well as from Sue Ronan and Gemma Crowley, managers of the Irish national soccer and rugby teams, 200 Cap Hockey international Nikki Symmons, 12 time All Ireland Camogie Medal winner Mary O’Connor.
More information available in the media – Irish Times, The Irish Examiner and Wednesday’s The Last Word(min 39).
– Michael McDonnell, MBA Programme Manager
Original source and photos courtesy of Sport for Business