Sport is first and foremost a passion.

That being the case, what are the best ways to exploit this passion in order to grow your print and digital audiences as well as attract advertisers?

Topics include:

• Innovations in the world of digital sport news,
• Take advantage of your special qualities and make use of your local information!
• World Cup 2010 > The lessons to learn for bringing your communities together,
• Work with visual journalism to grab the attention of your readers,
• Develop your sports news on new platforms,
• Fantasy Games and online games, drivers of growth for your publication, 
• The new types of business to develop with sponsors of sports events, 
• Sports organisations: partners or competitors?

Chairman of the conference:

Matt KELLY, Publisher, Mirror Group Digital (United Kingdom). 

Day 1 – Thursday 3 February 2011

9.00 Welcome participants and coffee
9.30 Opening comments

Session I – Trends and future perspectives

> Ten amazing innovations in the world of digital sport news in 2010
By Matt KELLY, Publisher, Mirror Group Digital (UK).
From sophisticated audience profiling to exceptional use of social media, from compelling new ad formats to how apps are providing publishers with a new (and profitable?) opportunity online - Matt Kelly, Publisher of Mirror Group Digital, presents a quickfire round-up of ten of the most interesting developments in the world of digital sports news in the past 12 months.

> The challenger landscape to a leading sports media group in Brazil
By Paulo HENRIQUE FERREIRA, Digital Media Executive Manager, LANCE! Group (Brazil).
Faced with competition from TV, magazines and others sources of sports news in brazilian complex media landscape, how LANCE! have built its audience and how this media group is preparing for a multiplatform environment, with 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games ahead.
And how LANCE! is growing audience on digital platforms, including mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad, and attracting advertisers with special operations to engage this mulplatform audience.

Coffee break in the exhibition area

Session II - Stop under-exploiting your added value: turn local sports news to your advantage!

> How to produce profit from local football
By Stephan PHILLIPS, Managing Director, Archant Norfolk (UK).
The presentation will give an example of how one publisher in Norfolk, UK, is using their relationship with a local football club to create additional print and digital profits.

> When sport becomes a passion
By Stephan MINARD, Marketing Manager, Nexway (France).
There is nothing more engaging and addictive than supporting a local sports club.
Participative, sporting, community-spirited and local, the sports website combines all these successful factors.
Analysis of several projects highlighting the interest of the major information providers in hyperlocal sports websites.

13.00-14.30 Lunch

Session III – Multi-platform campaigns and a new spirit

> Imagine mobiles and iPads as a curve? Accelerate into the curve!
By Jeremie CLEVY, WAN-IFRA consultant and former manager for the Eurosport Internet newsrooms (FR, UK, ES, IT, DE).
Launched barely one year ago, the iPad has already more than 10 million users worldwide. It joins the tens of millions smartphones that have been sold.
Smartphones and tablets are complementary in their uses, and they offer an opportunity to build up a relationship with your readers throught the day.
In order to achieve this, learn how to benefit from the print/web/phone/tablet complementarity.
Topics included:
- The best sports apps on mobile and iPad,
- Top 3 of the best "media" ideas on tablets,
- Accompany your readers all day long,
- What advertising innovations have developed?

Session IV - The new types of business to develop with sponsors of sports events

> Major sports events: Cooperate with the organisers and understand the sponsors
By Thibaut POTDEVIN, Business Developmennt Manager, UEFA (Switzerland).
The calendar of big sports events (Olympic Games, World Cup, European Cup) defines the schedules of newsrooms and production departments.
However, only few players in the newspaper industry succeed in benefiting from the advertisers' spend in this area, and fewer still obtain contents from the organisers. But there are several ways to change this...

Coffee break in the exhibition area

> Sports organisations: partners or competitors?
By Larry KILMAN, Director communication, WAN-IFRA and member of the FIFA Media committee (France).
News publishers and sports organisations have a mutually beneficial relationship. But today — thanks to new technology and the increasing monetization of sport — that relationship is under pressure, with organisers imposing new restrictions on free and open news coverage of sporting events.
The presentation examines these restrictions and the impact on the sports news business – and what’s being done to maintain the new media’s ability to report freely in the digital age.


Session V - Make greater use of visuals to grab the attention of your readers

> Sports information graphics
By Chiqui ESTEBAN, Infographics consultant for Innovation Media Consulting and New Narratives Director at lainformacion.com (Spain).
Information graphics constitute a major asset for enhancing the quality of a news story. This is especially true for sports news where visuals occupy a very prominent position.
A review of the best sports information graphics, their interests and their costs.

18.00 Summary of the day
Get Together with french specialities!


Day 2 – Friday 4 February 2011

8.30 Welcome coffee
9.00 Conference

Session VI – Social media and sports news

> World Cup 2010 – The lessons to learn for bringing your communities together
By Cédric MOTTE, Consultant WAN-IFRA (France).
The thousands watching the matches live, plus the millions more sat in front of their screens are themselves (potential) sources of information and of transmitting that information to bring the event to life.
So what methods and tools were used, and with what results, by those who sought to engage their audiences around the World Cup in South Africa?


Session VII - Benefit from your brands to attract advertisers and partners,

> Advertising and sports news: develop special campaigns and innovate!
By Alexandre BOUGOUIN, specials campaigns Director, Amaury Medias (France).

Coffee break in the exhibition area

Session VIII - Fantasy Games and online games, a minor initial investment but a major lever of growth

> Fantasy Sport Games: a powerful cross-platform proposition to build and engage your audience while generating significant revenues
What are the recipes for success?
By Andrew WAINSTEIN, CEO, Fantasy League (UK).

> Using entertainment to build highly engaged communities - at a profit
By Stavros DRAKOULARAKOS, Managing Director, 24 Media (Greece).
How a simple game of accurately picking between sports dilemmas lead to a 20.000-strong community of players in 2 months.
Analysis of methods complementing the content offering of www.sport24.gr (a leading 24 Media brand and the largest sports portal in Greece), expanding its user database, minimum marketing spending, generating traffic at off-peak hours, multiplying repeat visits and attracting new advertisers.

End of the conference
13.00 Concluding cocktail lunch

Trainings:

WAN-IFRA organizes on Wednesday 2 February two trainings sessions on managing sports news:

• Training 1/2 day (Wednesday morning) "Sports news business digital",
• Training 1/2 day (Wednesday afternoon) "Invent “added value” sports journalism". 

Please note that these trainings will be include in a package with the conference. Rates informations below...

Partners-exhibitors:

• AFP, the global news agency.
• Scoreradar, the media service from Sportradar group. 
• SID, the leading sport news agency for the German speaking countries.
• SoHo, the CMS dedicated to the sports management and adapted to editors.
• Wincomparator, a London based company providing sports data.