The second edition of the Sport, Business and Society conference got off to a fantastic start yesterday at IIM Indore. The tranquility of the lush green sprawling campus was in direct contrast to the intense deliberations of the speakers and panelists over the course of five hours. The day began with the traditional lighting of the lamp by Guest of Honour, Padmasree Pullela Gopichand.
Dr Boria Majumdar and Dr Vijay Pereira set the context for the day, recounting where it all began and the objectives of the conference. The theme of the day centered around India’s readiness to host the 2036 Summer Olympics and the challenges that a nation faces when it prepares for a large-scale event of this nature. Director of IIM Indore, Himanshu Rai welcomed the guests and over 100 delegates from India and abroad. He spoke passionately about how India has provenance in hosting and executing large events like the Maha Kumbh mela. The Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. He emphasised the need for all stakeholders to stand together in the shared belief of successfully hosting the Games.
Pullela Gopichand, arguably India’s foremost athlete and coach enthralled the audience recounting the story of how he started playing badminton instead of succumbing to cricket or other conventional careers. The highlight of his speech was a clarion call for India to ensure physical well-being on par with education and psychological well-being. India should play to her strengths and capitalise on the rich legacy of home-grown sporting disciplines and excel in them.
Nalin Mehta came on next and spoke about the historical context of sports in India and how non-cricket sports did have mainstay status in popular discourse prior to the eighties. He argued on the basis of carefully gleaned data points that sports performance is linked to infrastructure and government spending. The case of Odisha’s investments in hockey is now a case study; interestingly quite a few of the relatively backward states are now upping their investment in sports and this is bound to pay off handsome dividends. Ashok Namboodiri spoke about the sports viewers perspective and how broadcasters need to curate a narrative basis viewer and cultural insights. The future is not about globalisation but increasingly about getting to where the fans are through local market optimization.
Dr Majumdar delivered a passionate keynote address on the future of sports media. He argued that the responsibility of ensuring justice to sports reporting and sports news finding its rightful place amidst other news is on the journalist community themselves. He provided inspiring insights into the four-year journey of Revsportz Global and how the team has championed multi sports including paralympic sports with unparalleled on-ground coverage.
The day concluded with two enriching panel discussions hosted by former athlete Taruka Srivastava. The first one featured eminent commentator Sushil Doshi, former International Master Akshat Khamparia, Global Media and Sports Leader, Namboodiri and the Vice-Provost of the University of Denver, Uttiyo Raychoudhuri. This panel focused on the practitioners and sports and deliberated on the aspects that the nation must focus on as it prepares to host the Olympic games. The second panel comprised academics and sports and included Professor Julia Balogun, Dean of the Liverpool Management school, David Cockayne from the University of Liverpool, Professor Soudeep Deb from IIM Bangalore, Prof Shovan Chowhdury from IIM Kozhikode and Professor Sunny Jeong from the Wittenberg University. This panel focused on technology, data and analytics and the need to leverage these aspects in the build-up to the bid. Professor Jeong left the audience captivated with her insights into how South Korea focused on the image it wanted to portray as a nation and how this is an essential component of the planning process.
The conference was a power-packed feast of ideas, thoughts and networking and is clearly a disruptor when it comes to thought leadership in all matters around Sports.
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