accadis Graduate student Surya N. Rajendhiran attended the SPOBIS Event 2020
Graduate student Surya Nandhan Rajendhiran (Global Sports Management
M.A.) was the only accadis representative at SPOBIS this year. The event was
held at the CCD Congress Center Düsseldorf from January 29 to 30. This year’s theme,
which made a great impact, was Digitalization and Technology in Sports (E-Sports).
Road to Wimbledon
Kicking off day one, the first graduate student group session with the E-Motion
Group on their new project “WTA Grasscourt
Championship Berlin” was highly informative. The developer and important
contributor of the website “Indian Tennis Daily” (ITD), which has nearly 25,000
combined followers in social media, gave Surya Nandhan Rajendhiran a great
opportunity to interact with the organizers of the tournament. This gave him
the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge on the project and about the
stakeholders involved in the process of creating a premier tournament in the WTA
world tour calendar. Marco Grund, another accadis Hochschule graduate student and
VSD Vice President, provided him with the special opportunity to take part in
this event this year.
A mix of both English and German experts and a top speakers panel
discussion drew `many attendees from differ sports organizations. In addition,
many tech companies marked their presence in order to show how e-sports and
digitalization may attract the current generation to take it to the next level.
One of these was ‘Drone Champions League’, presenting the concept of competing
with drones which could become more popular within the next years.
Establishing contacts
A tremendous amount of networking took place at the CCD during the 3
days, thanks to the concept of Speed Networking and Get-Together sessions. There
was an astonishing number of industry giants from
all over Europe which particularly targeted the sports industry in Germany with
Bundesliga being the main focus. The main challenges of these German clubs are to
create a strong fan base in Asian and American markets by surpassing the other enormous
teams from La Liga and the English Premier League.Surya had a chance to interact with a few
industry experts, exchanged views and attended most of the panel discussions.
In the meantime, there were business stalls available with the stand
staff along with their staged products inviting anyone to negotiate and explore
the use for their project organization. In addition, a Career Day took place in
parallel. This was meant to increase the chances of individuals to break into
the sports industry. This was especially valuable for attendees with Economy
ticket. Also students from Real Madrid Sport School and the German Sports
University attended and explored the numerous opportunities during the 2-day
business event.
Networking and Technology
Overall, the event gave a remarkable insight into the world of the
global sport business and was an excellent platform for networking from top
decision makers to young professionals together with various organizing bodies
and exhibitors. It also provided an opportunity to select topics for the
upcoming Master thesis or for job seeking. Digitalization and Technology
was a key factor at the sports business event in Düsseldorf, and the speakers
from numerous organizations also demonstrated their creative discussion through
the trends in today’s sports world. Many thanks to SPONSORs (leading
provider of information and conference organizer in sport business) for acting
as a host and organizing such a well-run three-day event.
Many thanks to Professor Dr. Gerhard Trosien for consistently motivating
students to attend SPOBIS and special thanks to the editors and Managing Partners
of Indian Tennis Daily for enabling Surya to represent at Europe’s largest
sports business event. Surya highly recommends all the Global Sports Management
and International Football Management graduate students to attend the SPOBIS in
future in order to gain firsthand knowledge of sports businesses.
Surya Nandhan Rajendhiran, Global Sports Management 2021