This week saw us run the first ever UKSN ‘Digital Sport London’, a move into looking beyond just social media but the greater impact that digital innovation has had (as continues to do so) on the Sports Industry.

We’re very proud of the events we put on and are always looking at new ways in which to educate and inspire those who come along.  This is just the start as there are many new innovations and ideas that we’re looking to implement over the coming months, not just in London but elsewhere in the UK.

If you’re interested in what UKSN events there are coming up, then make sure you keep and eye on our events page.  On there now you will find the booking forms for the next Digital Sport London event (13th Nov) and also our first venture into Leeds (20th Nov).  Venues and speakers for both will be revealed shortly.

Back to our most recent event.  We were very lucky to find a great host in The Bakery London, an accelerator fund in Old Street with a great events space and also a thank you to Stream UK who sponsored the drinks on the day.

During the event we heard from a set of amazing speakers who have ‘been there done that’ in a mix of case study presentations and panel sessions, all of which had one theme running through them – live sports events and how digital innovation has impacted the industry.

In future we hope to Live Stream our major events, when this happens we’ll make the announcement and make sure that you are aware of how you can tune in to them.  The aim is to run the first of these at the next Digital Sport London event in November (fingers crossed).

As well as the presentations you can see below, there were two brilliant panel sessions that discussed the topic from very different points of view.  The ‘Sports’ panel consisted of Richard Clarke (Arsenal), Robert Hodges (Sky Sports), Alexandra Willis (AELTC) and Andrew Humphries (The Bakery).  The ‘Tech’ panel had industry luminaries including Simon Banoub (Opta), Sanjit Atwal (Squawka), Duncan Burbidge (Stream UK) and Andy McKenzie (LiveWire Sport).

You can also check out another recap of the day by the guys at Lexis PR with their ‘Digital Sport London: digital channels should focus on the fan experience and brand‘ article.

Below are the presentations from the day.  The first one coming from Alexandra Willis, Editorial Content Manager at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), who looked at this years Wimbledon Championships and how they used digital media to take the message of the championships to fans around the world.

Next up was David Strachan who is Creative Director at Pulse Innovations, a company I know well from working for the earlier in the year.  They are a technology company who work closely with Twitter and have clients such as the Indian Premier League, BBC, International Cricket Council and ESPN.  David gave us a look at the work they’ve been doing with both the IPL and BBC, showcasing how Twitter can be integrated into live broadcast.

In the second half of our programme we took an interesting look at one event from two different perspectives.  The event was the August Transfer Deadline Day, something that’s become a ‘must watch’ for most football fans as we look out for who our teams are going to sign right at the death.

Ball Street are a new company who work with the likes of Ian Wright to deliver football in a different way to fans.  They worked on a live production that involved Wrighty, football bloggers and fans as their production took place with a live studio audience and Google hangouts.  But what did they do and what did they learn from it?  Co-founder Matt Wilson gave us some insights…

Finally, we had the pleasure of welcoming David Gibbs (Director of Digital Media) and Robert Hodges (Social Media & Community Editor) from Sky Sports.  They gave us a multi-platform look at how they covered one of the biggest days in their calendar, one which in-essence they have invented and turned from a plain day in football to an international event.

Thank you to everyone who came along.  Don’t forget to book your place on the next one where we’ll be welcoming some of sports top bloggers as well as speaking to a ‘mystery’ international guest.  For more info go to our events page.

Thanks!