The customer experience of the Club’s supporters is seen internally as a key pillar of Manchester City’s commercial growth strategy. At Fan Experience Forum 2012, delegates will be given a first-hand look at precisely how the club is enhancing the entire stadium visitor journey – before, during and after the game – with Nick Becker the latest addition to the international speaking line-up.

As the club’s Head of Event Production, Becker is responsible for the delivery of all live matchday content. In Turin, Nick will detail how the club is integrating its online content into the live experience, to help increase engagement with fans.

“We plan our content to go on a journey from ‘online’ to ‘live’ and back to ‘online’,” explains Nick.

“In essence, that means we look ahead at upcoming matches and create some momentum through our award winning digital channels; on mcfc.co.uk and across social media.”

“We try to empower fans to create their own user-generated content, and give them the tools to do it. We then use this content on a matchday as part of our live experience and programming in and around the stadium.”

“The content generated by the Club and its fans is not just lost and gone – we complete the cycle and use our live matchday content online, post-event.”

Recent examples include the club’s #Together campaign; built around digital with the objective of driving in-stadium atmosphere. In addition, the club has recently launched live Q+A’s on Twitter with the likes of Joe Hart and Vinny Kompany.

“We base all content around a specific theme – be it an important match, or a campaign that we’re running at the club. This gives consistency across all of our channels and formats, and ensures that we communicate a strong single message.”

“But, as I’ll be discussing in Turin, it’s also about going deeper than that. One of our main objectives is to bring fans closer to the players, and to help unify the fans, the club and the players.

“We’re going on a great ride, as a club, and we want to make sure that we take our fans with us on the journey!”

Fan Experience Forum 2012 explores the latest trends, winning strategies and business ideas to enhance the sporting experience. Join us in Turin for a day of discussions and peer-to-peer networking that will enhance your fan experience forever!

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About the speaker:

Nick Becker has worked in live events for over fifteen years, hailing from a country best known for rugby players and sheep, his career began in the music industry in New Zealand and then in 2003 migrated into consumer brands, music venues and football clubs in the UK.

Before starting his current job as Head of Event Production at Manchester City Football Club, Nick worked for the mobile operator O2 in their event and sponsorship teams, with Arsenal FC, England Rugby, The O2 and the O2 Academy venues.

He also worked on live event projects at London-based music marketing agency FRUKT with brands such as Nokia, Heineken and Glenfiddich.

With almost 7,000 installations worldwide, SKIDATA provides sports stadiums, ski resorts, shopping malls, major airports, municipalities, trade shows and amusement parks with secure and reliable access solutions for people and vehicles.

In Turin, SKIDATA will become official registration sponsor for TheStadiumBusiness Summit, Premium Seat Seminar and Fan Experience Forum.

It has been a busy 12 months for the Salzburg-based company – one of six shortlisted finalists for the Industry Supplier Award at the TheStadiumBusiness Awards 2012.

In the area of major events, SKIDATA once again made a convincing case and won stadiums for EURO2012 in Poland and Ukraine, including the National Stadium Warsaw (pictured above left), Wroclaw Stadion in Wroclaw, Donbass Arena and Metalist Stadium.

In Formula 1, SKIDATA held the pole position in the Indian Grand Prix and provided race fans seamless access to the event.

You’ll also find high-tech SKIDATA solutions in stadiums in US cities. The MLS soccer club Philadelphia Union in Chester on the Delaware River, for instance, uses SKIDATA systems. Some 18,500 fans attending the Union’s matches use Smart Card RFID technology from SKIDATA. For sales, stadium operators rely on SKIDATA Print@Home and SKIDATA Business Services for intelligent solutions that build customer loyalty and facilitate member support.

For more, visit www.skidata.com

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The move, the result of close cooperation between European football’s governing body and Supporters Direct – the body that provides guidance on supporter involvement and community ownership to fan groups in more than 20 countries throughout Europe – is aimed at improving clubs’ relationships with fans, and other key stakeholders, by encouraging two-way dialogue.

• See Club-fan links added to UEFA licensing criteria (UEFA.com)

At Fan Experience Forum 2012, UEFA’s Head of SLO Project Sefton Perry and Stuart Dykes, SLO Consultant at Supporters Direct will join the international speaking programme as guest speakers to explore the challenges, successes and early benefits of the scheme.

“Before we started, SLOs were established in only two or three countries in Europe,” explains Stuart. “But we’re now rolling the concept out across 53 different national associations – each of whom has a different footballing culture.”

“As we’ll discuss in Turin, one of the biggest challenges for us has been explaining what supporter liaison officers are, what they do and what the benefits of introducing SLOs are.”

“That’s why we are delighted to be a part of the Fan Experience Forum,” continued Stuart. “The Forum is a great platform to engage with clubs and associations from around Europe, and further afield.

“We’re also very excited to learn about how enlightened clubs are engaging with fans, and creating stronger relationships.

“It really is such a vital time to be encouraging dialogue and debate about fan engagement and experience – and we look forward to doing just that in Turin.”

Fan Experience Forum 2012 explores the latest trends, winning strategies and business ideas to enhance the sports fan visitor experience.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Before joining Supporters Direct to help implement Article 35 of UEFA’s licensing regulations (Supporter Liaison Officer) on behalf of UEFA, Stuart Dykes worked professionally as a translator and interpreter, with clients throughout the football world, including FIFA, for whom he translated the Technical Report for the 2006 World Cup. He has been involved supporter-related issues at club and national level in Germany since 1992. Stuart bought his first season ticket at FC Schalke 04 in 1989 and is also a founder member of FC United of Manchester.

Stuart served as a member of the admin group of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) from 2004 to 2009, during which time he helped to coordinate the anti-racism activities at the 2006 World Cup in Germany on behalf of FIFA. The expertise gained in this area led to him being appointed as a consultant on social responsibility issues to Schalke.

Sefton Perry joined UEFA full-time after completing his MBA in Football Industries and after a successful business career in the UK and Switzerland working latterly on cross border M&A projects in Zurich. He is an economics graduate and UK chartered accountant and has years of experience visiting over 200 stadiums in various parts of Europe and further afield as a football supporter. For the last six years Sefton has been based in Nyon Switzerland, working within the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play unit. He focuses primarily on strategy and development, creating and authoring the first Europe-wide benchmarking analyses of club football “The European footballing landscape.” Now in its fourth year, the publication is printed and distributed in four languages and has become the principal authority on football club finances as well as covering areas such as stadium attendances and utilisation, league structures, club ownership and youth and head coach investment.

Despite having a Dutch mother, English father and Brazilian wife he has unfortunately not been blessed with much skill on the pitch! Nonetheless he is happy and proud with the next best thing, to be working on important projects at the heart of European football. Club licensing is constantly evolving with the introduction and phasing in of Financial Fair Play measures as well as expanding to include the concept of Supporter Liaison Officers, a project under Sefton’s leadership that is aimed at increasing communication between supporters and their clubs.

Join us in Turin for a day of discussions, site visits and peer-to-peer networking that will enhance your fan experience forever!

At Fan Experience Forum 2012, Pat Coyle – President of Coyle Media, Inc, and founder of Sports 2.0 – will discuss how sports teams and venues can use social media to enhance the fan experience… and drive attendance for future matches.

“Every photo, every tweet and every Facebook post shared from the stadium can enhance the real time experience for fans at a sports event,” explains Pat.

“And, crucially, each can be stored and re-presented later to promote your next match. The venue provides the platform, and a unique ‘digital playground’, while the fans create content.”

According to Coyle, enlightened sports business can then utilise this user generated content as advertising for future events.

“Making the fan experience more visible is compelling more fans to buy tickets to next event,” continues Pat.

In Turin, Coyle will detail how clubs can utilise social media tools to make the fan experience more valuable, more visible and more shareable – with the ultimate goal of enlisting ‘tribes’ of engaged fans who to help market your sports product.

“And remember,” continues Pat, “the fan experience is impacted as much by logistics as play on the pitch.”

“As we think about gathering fan content to improve fan experiences, we should be sure to think about practical information that every fan can use – things like traffic and parking information, places to eat nearby – maybe even help them remember where they parked their cars. Anything that will help remove the stress of a trip to the stadium.”

Pat, (who will also present within the programme of TheStadiumBusiness Summit), will draw on his experience as director of marketing for the Indianapolis Colts, his work as a digital consultant to dozens of sports properties across USA, and case studies from some of the world’s most successful sports marketing brands during his presentation.

“We are in the very early stages of the digital age of stadiums. At this point nobody has all the answers, which is why it’s imperative that those of us in the business gather together and share ideas and experiences,” continues Coyle.

“That’s why the Fan Experience Forum is so crucial. Working together before, during and after the Forum will help each of us, and the industry itself, grow more quickly.”

JOIN US IN TURIN for a day of discussions, site visits and peer-to-peer networking that will enhance your fan experience forever.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Pat Coyle is among a new breed of visionaries who are inventing new products and fan engagement strategies in digital media channels around sports & entertainment. Coyle is Founder of Sports 2.0, an online community of sports marketers. He is the creator of the Sports Fan Graph, a Website that tracks he social media growth of over 1,000 sports teams globally; and curator of the Social Sports Poll, a world-wide research initiative in sports and social media.

Before founding his own firm, Coyle was the Executive Director of Digital Business at the Indianapolis Colts, where he led an interactive staff responsible for the Colts digital businesses. Coyle Media’s consulting clients come mainly from U.S. based sports like NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA and NASCAR. In addition to consulting sports properties, Coyle also advises several technology-based start-up companies in sports & entertainment; and he facilitates the “Fanographie” summit series, with 2012 events in the U.K. and U.S. Pat and his wife, Amy, and their five children reside in Indianapolis.

Paul Hawkins, Director of Sports Innovation at Sony Professional Europe will join the speaking line up at Fan Experience Forum 2012 to discuss just that.

Sony offers a range of pioneering solutions that help to enrich both the in-stadia and at-home sporting experience. The one constant through all of the firm’s applications? Making fans feel part of the action.

“The real entertainment aspect of sport resides in the emotional rollercoaster that it generates,” explains Hawkins. “Like no other form of leisure, sport can generate genuine feelings of hope and anxiety, of joy and despair.”

“Our focus is on finding ways to increase the emotional experience that fans go through when watching sport.”

In Turin, Hawkins will showcase the wide range of applications used in the Indian Premier League cricket; where the Board of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) have partnered with Sony to deliver an integrated television, online, mobile and in stadia big screen production of the event.

“With the IPL we’ve focussed on using technology to help build the atmosphere in the stadium,” continued Hawkins, “while at the same time making fans feel like they are a part of their team.”

Sony’s partnership with the BCCI included innovations such as allowing fans watching at home to record video messages of support to be broadcast on the big screen while players are warming up, and using in-stand microphones to measure crowd noise… challenging fans to spur their team on by raising the decibel levels!

“As we’ll explain in Turin, the idea behind all of these applications is to increase interaction and engagement with the sporting experience; to make fans feel that they can actively contribute to their teams’ success.”

LEARN FROM the experiences of Sony, and a range of international case studies of enhancing fan engagement and improving the matchday experience, only at Fan Experience Forum 2012.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Paul Hawkins is the founder of Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd – the technology used in tennis and cricket as an aid to the umpire and broadcast enhancement. Andre Agassi described Hawk-Eye as “the biggest thing to happen in tennis for 40 years”.

Hawk-Eye was acquired by Sony in 2011, as part of a wider Sony strategy to be as synonymous with sport as it is with film, music and gaming. Paul is now playing a leading role in growing Sony’s sports business and forming the strategy to achieve Sony’s ambitions.

Paul has played several sports to a good level, and his own personal passion for sport is conveyed in his approach to innovation – to unravel the beauty of our sporting worlds and present it in a way which all can relate to and be inspired by.

Paul gained a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from Durham University after which he worked for Roke Manor Research Ltd – where the idea of Hawk-Eye was initially pitched.

Join us in Turin for a day of discussions, site visits and peer-to-peer networking that will enhance your fan experience forever!

But, the challenge facing the Premier League and its Clubs is in turning this into a consistent level of service that all fans can expect.

So, how does the Premier League make sure it offers a unique experience and meet the increasingly high expectations of its audience? And how should a 21st century ‘Premier League experience’ look and feel for the next generation of fans?

Cathy Long, Head of Supporter Services at the Premier League will join the speaking line up at Fan Experience Forum 2012 to discuss just that.

“Our job at the Premier League is to help our clubs improve what they do,” explains Cathy.

“And the VisitFootball scheme has been phenomenally successful, with clubs very receptive to what we’re trying to achieve. The scheme is about encouraging longer-term thinking, and about providing better stadium experiences for a broader range of people.”

In addition to the VisitFootball scheme, the Premier League also developed the ‘Raise your Game’ guide – an interactive e-book, packed full of simple low cost ideas and smart solutions to improving the family experience. Click here to view the e-book.

“The bar for customer service is constantly being raised,” continues Cathy. “That’s why events like the Fan Experience Forum are so important. I’m delighted to be taking part, and look forward to sharing ideas with clubs and stadiums from around the world.”

Fan Experience Forum 2012 explores the latest trends, winning strategies and business ideas to enhance the sports fan visitor experience.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN US IN TURIN

About the speaker: Cathy Long is Head of Supporter Services at the Premier League. She is responsible for a wide range of projects covering stadium and fan issues and is particularly interested in improving the stadium experience. Her previous experience includes running the Fans Embassy at Euro 2000. She has written about football for a number of publications, co-edited a book on Liverpool FC and its role in the city (Passing Rhythms, pub. 2000.) and contributed to various other books on football and its fans.

The club – winners of the 2011 Customer Experience Award at TheStadiumBusiness Awards - has implemented a number of measures to enhance the matchday experience for fans attending fixtures at the Cardiff City Stadium, with a particular emphasis on families.

Informed by extensive research and focus-group consultations, the club has introduced a number of key incentives and activities designed to appeal to families of all ages; turning the Family Stand into ‘a hive of activity’ on a matchday, as described in the following video:

At Fan Experience Forum 2012, Julian Jenkins, Director Of International Marketing & Special Projects at Cardiff City FC, will explain how the club is now taking the lessons and application of its family success to all areas of its business – providing a real rediscovery (and re-engagement) with the Cardiff City club brand.

“I am looking forward to sharing our fan experience journey with the international stadium sector,” comments Julian.

“And in particular, I’m keen to highlight our model of innovation rather than preservation. Our move to the new Cardiff City Stadium allowed us as a club to eradicate a number of our historical problems and solely focus on delivering the diverse fan experience.”

“We’re delighted to be a part of the first Fan Experience Forum,” continues Julian. “And we look forward to exploring the journeys and experiences that other venues have undergone.

“We are constantly seeking new ideas to enhance our customer experience, and I’m certain that the Forum will offer invaluable knowledge and insights to help us achieve that goal.”

JOIN THE DEBATE! Explore the latest trends, winning strategies and business ideas to enhance your fans’ event experience only at Fan Experience Forum 2012, 16 May 2012, in Turin, Italy.

Register here

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Julian Jenkins has been working within the Football industry for over ten years – both on and off the pitch. An apprentice footballer who sustained a serious knee injury an early age, Julian has over 10 years experience in the Football Industry. He has also worked in sales and sponsorship both in the public and private sector. It is this experience that has given him the vision and passion to deliver a customer centric experience with the ability to monetise the transition and maximise the commercial opportunities.

Julian joined Cardiff City Football Club in 2001 as Head of Media & Communications, prior to setting up his own company. After two years self-employment, he returned to his role at Cardiff City Football Club, before taking on his current position as Head of Customer Services & Ticketing. He has won a number of awards nationally, with international recognition for innovation and excellence in his field.

Julian’s customer-centric approach recently saw Cardiff City awarded the Football League’s prestigious Family Club of the Year award for the 2010/11 season. Raising the profile of the Football Club to this standard has been his biggest challenge to date, much of his efforts pulling the Club away from its clouded past to one that now offers a customer experience that is renowned for best practice.

These experiences – and invaluable lessons learnt along the way – have provided Julian with a superb grounding in an often volatile and political industry sector. Turning the historical perception of Cardiff City into the reality of a club who excels in the fan experience, is great testament to someone who has worked hard to achieve what some said was almost impossible during the early stages.

“Any other business would see as logical the need to understand who its customers are, what matters most and then to devise a level of service delivery that drives growth, through creating advocacy, retention and repurchase,” says Mark Bradley, Founder, The Fan Experience Company and co-host of Fan Experience Forum 2012 in Turin.

“But sports teams – often clinging on to the belief that sport is different – have resisted this approach, often in favour of a growth strategy based on winning – and when that doesn’t work – discounting.”

“In football, for instance, this curious philosophy may have its roots in the almost ‘adversarial’ relationship between the core fan and his/her local football club. Of course, it’s not that way deliberately; it’s a result of various historical and cultural factors, but it has led to an increasing distance between the core supporter and the Club – characterised by a dysfunctional customer attitude based on ‘loving the team, but hating the club’.”

For the past seven years The Fan Experience Company has been working with a number of key sports leagues, associations and clubs to address these issues: using experiences of real fans as a catalyst for mindset change and then devising the strategies to confront the often entrenched cultural barriers, overcome them and prepare the ground for engagement and growth.

“By contrasting the internal ‘sports club’ view with the external ‘fan’ view, we’ve not only been able to identify improvements to the fan experience,” explains Mark, “but, at a deeper level, we’ve also caused our clients to think differently about the nature of the ‘customer’ relationship.

“For example, by contrasting the internal view of the fan’s motivation (‘it’s all about winning’) with the actual view (where the love for the team is generational in nature, often linked to specific memories and life events) we can uncover the club’s true identity / brand and re-configure engagement around this.”

At Fan Experience Forum 2012, Mark will showcase some of The Fan Experience Company’s key successes within Session 1: ‘Fan Engagement – Making The Business Case.’ (Download the full speaking line up here.)

“The Forum is a terrific opportunity to engage more senior people in the sports industry, and highlight the real benefits of change. Fan engagement is not a ‘theory’. It’s not academia. There is a proven business case for change, as we will demonstrate in Turin.”

JOIN THE DEBATE! Explore how defining a sustainable fan engagement strategy can help the future of your sport business only at Fan Experience Forum 2012, 16 May 2012, in Turin, Italy.

Register here

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: An expert in service excellence & customer service, the author of Inconvenience Stores (2004) and Retails of the Unexpected (2008) and an agent for change in the football industry, Mark’s USP is an ability to use the ‘real customer experience’ to expose organisational weaknesses, highlight opportunities, entertain and inform but, most significantly, as a wake-up call for industry.

The Football League has credited The Fan Experience Company with increasing family attendance at fixtures by over 12% (more than 2 million people) in the 5 years since they together established the Family Excellence Awards to let Clubs see themselves through the fans’ eyes. Mark has now successfully taken his work to the SPL (Scottish Premier League), the FA (Football Association), the Rugby Football League and a number of individual Clubs, including Liverpool, Sunderland, Leeds Rhinos and Middlesbrough, each of whom has seen a renewal of fan consultation, engagement and ‘off the pitch’ performance improvement.

A family man and football fan with a CV encompassing everything from homelessness campaigning, table waiting and Spanish & Catalan translation, to retail financial services and service excellence consultancy, Mark draws both on a rich palette of real customer experience as well as innovation and best practice from the world’s most pioneering organisations.

Related news:

• Preliminary programme for Fan Experience Forum 2012 launched
• Speaker preview: A Sense of Obligation – the Australian Membership model

Making a financial contribution to your club through purchase of a Membership is the physical demonstration of that bond.

Membership is about Belonging. Commitment. Obligation. Affiliation. And loyalty.

But what are the implications of the model? And how transferable is this model outside of Australia?

At Fan Experience Forum 2012, Simon Arkwright (pictured), CEO of Sport Research Group, explores the AFL concept of club membership; examining specifically how the membership culture in Australian sport affects key marketing and operational considerations such as brand positioning, ticket sales, service recovery and revenue generation… and ultimately, the fan experience.

Learn from Simon, and a range of international case studies of fan engagement and matchday experience, only at Fan Experience Forum 2012. Join us in Turin, 16 May 2012, for a day of discussions, site visits and peer-to-peer networking that will enhance your fan experience forever.

Register Now

About the speaker: Simon Arkwright is CEO of Sport Research Group, an Australasian sport marketing and research consultancy.

Established in 1999, Sport Research Group is regarded by many as the world’s most fan-centric sport research consultancy. Sport Research Group has taken the universal concept of fan passion and codified it. The resulting world renowned passionEight® conceptual framework provides sport marketers with an invaluable fan development and marketing tool.

Sport Research Group works closely with almost all of the 100 Australian and New Zealand professional sport teams/clubs. Through research consultancy and through the annual Sport is Fantastic conference, Simon has a very good understanding of most aspects of the Australasian sport business industry.

In partnership with the Fan Experience Company and Coyle Media, the Fan Experience Forum 2012 will be held parallel to TheStadiumBusiness Summit 2012 in Turin, Italy, on Wednesday 16 May 2012.

The Forum will explore the latest trends, winning strategies and business ideas to enhance the fan’s event experience.

Explains founder Ian Nuttall: “Without doubt the ‘fan experience’ is at the heart of every sport business. Yet, many teams and venues continue to base their growth on two highly unpredictable strategies: winning and discounting. Neither is sustainable in the long term.

“At Fan Experience Forum we’ll present an alternative growth path – putting the fans first!

“The Forum will showcase how enlightened sports businesses are finding new ways to foster deeper connections, happier customers and stronger brand loyalty.”

The expert speaking line-up for the Forum includes:

• Julian Jenkins, Head of International Development, Cardiff City FC, Wales
• Neil Doncaster, CEO, Scottish Premier League, UK
• Cathy Long, Head of Supporter Services, Premier League, UK
• Sefton Perry, Football Licensing Unit/Head of SLO Project, UEFA
• Stuart Dykes, SLO Consultant, Supporters Direct, Germany
• Simon Arkwright, CEO, Sport Research Group, New Zealand
• Mark Bradley, Founder, The Fan Experience Company, UK
• Pat Coyle, Founder, Coyle Media/Sports Marketing 2.0, USA
• Dave Boyle, independent consultant and adviser
• plus many more!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAMME

Related news:

• Premium Seat Seminar programme unveiled
• Event Preview for TheStadiumBusiness Summit 2012 unveiled
• Xperiology launches Fan Experience Forum 2012 alongside TheStadiumBusiness Summit 2012

Reserve your seat here