A Summit or a Cabinet Meeting?

When I prep for any speaking engagement or emcee role, my starting place is always the people filling the seats.

Why are they attending? What are their motivations? When will they attend? Who do they know? Who do they want to know? Where do they come from? Whom do they represent?

The audience is my primary reason for being on stage regardless of my role as panel moderator, keynote speaker, or event host.

Next week, the team at SponsorshipX is hosting our first-ever conference in the United Kingdom, the Purpose League Summit, powered by our partners at 17 Sport, and I have a dual role as host and closing keynote speaker. Which, to be candid, is testing me a little, as I usually open our events with a keynote; however, when you have the opportunity to have an international expert such as Sebastian Buck kick things off, you’re willing to pass the baton.

In preparation for the event, I have been studying our attendee list, which is proving challenging. Being on visitors’ soil, I am facing a second major test, as I have rarely had so few attendees whom I know on the roster. That poses both a challenge - making me question if people will laugh at my Dad jokes and an opportunity - to challenge myself to connect with the audience.

Wandering through the names, affiliations, titles, and residency of the attendees has me tingling. It is not the number of people; this will be an intimate retreat-style event with a hundred or so attendees.

It is the diversity that has me revelling.

We have attendees from Mexico, South Africa, France, Lithuania, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, the United States, and oh, one fellow Canadian! They represent organizations such as Pinterest, MSM Sport & Entertainment, UEFA, Volleyball World, Superlative Group, Deloitte, Amazon, Formula E, Jaguar Land Rover, Sky Sports News, and the Rugby Football Union. Usually, I am not a fan of waving the flag of people’s titles; my team suffers from my routine requests to stop saying “senior leaders in the room.” However, the attendees’ roles excite me because of their ability to influence organizational decisions.

The “power” in the room is akin to a Cabinet meeting, or a Board of Directors if you don’t like politicians. However, this assembly of attendees will be representing their sectors, brands, and countries in a global setting.

This event is about making the business case for purpose in sponsorship and sports marketing. We are fortunate to have attendees who can both state that case and approve that case. The event will be genuinely interactive, with visits to community charities, a team structure for attending, and socials that are more kitchen-party than traditional name-badge-surfing networking. Together we will share strategies on embedding purpose into sponsorship marketing.

Second only to holding a microphone in my hand and helping someone share their story, my favourite professional activity is meeting new people. I can’t wait to meet people from around the globe next week who will be joining us in London. If you can’t make this one, don’t despair. We have a full team of camera people to film the key sessions, interview the attendees, and share learnings after.

If you will be in London next week, hit me up with any pre-summit motions and I will make sure they are on the docket!