EUROPEAN HANDBALL TALKS

The European Handball Talks brought together 200 guests from both inside and outside the world of handball, to generate new ideas to improve European club competitions.

The key note speech was given by Norwegian business philosopher Anders Indset, who lives in Germany and was a semi-professional handball player in the second German division for TV Gelnhausen.

Indset told the audience that a “humane capitalism” would be the way of the future, and identified six takeaways for a successful future in both life and for sports business: use analytic skills; train self-trust and ownership; use your voice to activate and inspire people; use the power of the team; get better through voluntary work; and appreciate success.

The first day focused heavily on new technology including the Metaverse, NFTs and Web 3.0, and how handball and sports could use these to engage with fans and sponsors.

On day two, brands, target groups, media rights and fan-created content were on the agenda. Martin Skigaard Skammelsen, Marketing Manager Aalborg Håndbold, explained the concept and the growth of his club in terms of VIP and fan experience.

Other topics included reaching ‘generation Z’ through social media, and a major part of the second day of the European Handball Talks was about sports marketing and sponsorship.

The event concluded with a speech by Peter Hutton, former CEO of Eurosport, former vice president of Fox Sports, advisor to Meta and many sports leagues.

Hutton said he thought leagues and sports should not rely on pay TV income anymore, but should distribute their content free of charge to a wider audience in order to grow sport.

“We learnt how to inspire people and partners, and the experts inspired us,” said the event’s organiser, David Szlezak, Managing Director of EHF Marketing GmbH.