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13 Oct, 2014

Global sports industry touches down in Seoul

Seoul, Oct 10, 2014, Korea.net — Experts from the global sports industry gathered in Seoul on October 7 for the second annual Sports Industry Conference 2014, a special event aimed at exchanging information and ideas about how to make a difference in the current sports industry environment and how to further boost the industry.

Held at the National Museum of Korea in Ichon-dong, the conference began with a keynote speech by Professor Guillaume Bodet of the University of Lyon in France.

In his speech, “The World’s Sports Brand and its Future,” Bodet emphasized the need for change in the direction of the industry in order to maintain sustainable growth. He also suggested a series of successful cases that were good examples of the mixed power between brands and technical prowess.

Professor Yoo Pil-hwa of Sungkyunkwan University said, “Sports are a giant industry that involves profit, entertainment, technology and art. To grow the sports industry, we need to take a hint from the business strategies which successful brands have pursued, such as the globalization of their brands, the specialization of products and knowhow, as well as the ‘glocalization’ of distribution and marketing.”

In the following speech, Toshiaki Mizuno, a senior manager at Mizuno, one of Japan’s biggest sporting equipment brands, emphasized that, “We should make a continuous effort to develop related technology, while coming up with products that are in tune with the times and which live up to customers’ demands, and constantly make changes to our goals, too.”

Meanwhile, Preussel Matthias, head manager at the Mammut Sports Group, a Swiss producer of mountaineering and trekking equipment, gave a presentation on the theme of, “Strategies taken by the world’s successful sporting equipment brands.”

Matthias stressed the necessity to build brand power, enhance technology and establish respective strategies in the categories of products, brands and marketing.

“This conference provides a meaningful place for both domestic and international sports enterprises, as global companies share their own business strategies and domestic ones introduce their own future plans to go global, too,” said an official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which hosted the event.

“Hopefully, the conference will help to raise awareness of the value and the importance of the sports industry as a new growth engine.”