We know more stuff now than ever before. Last night over 300 gathered over two floors of Cafe en Seine to hear and to talk about how that knowledge in hanging sport on and off the field.
Opening up the night host for the evening, our very own Rob Hartnett informed the audience that Kevin Tripp was currently the highest rated goalkeeper in this season’s UEFA Champions’ League with a performance metric almost twice that of his nearest rival; that Schalk Burger carried the ball across the gain line 38 times in the Rugby World Cup and that an average 912,000 people in Ireland had watched our own rugby heroes over their five game journey.
We also learnt that he slept for 179 hours and 12 minutes in total during the month of October and took 398,356 steps. Does any of that matter, well we then found out that yes it does, that sport and technology are comfortable bedfellows and that there is money to be made from getting the two of them acting in unison.
Here are our take away highlights of the night:
“None of us are getting out of here alive” were the words uttered by Dr Matt Campbell of Trinity, an expert in the study of neurovascular tissue in the brain. He was referring to the fact that everybody will die at some stage. He wasn’t referring to the specific environment of Cafe en Seine.
He did make a point during the night that surprised many in that his admission we don’t have enough evidence yet to say whether concussive injury through sports should force players into retirement and that in many cases taking a break for a year might be just as beneficial.
Fiona Slevin of Orreco spoke of the extension of technology advantages from the world of elite sport to that of the broader medical world. The investable value of cracking the first was likely to have a ceiling of $145 million. for the latter though that rises just a bit, to $77 billion. So the training ground of sports really is the path to a much bigger arena.
Paul Pierroti, MD of Accenture Analytics in Dublin revealed that the company captures 1.8 million data points during a single game of RBS 6 Nations rugby and that the real trick in their technology partnership with the tournament lay in making that data relevant and presentable enough for a broadcaster to grab one headline in near real time and make the audience smarter about what they are watching.
He also revealed that Accenture would be holding initial talks with a major force in world soccer inside the next two weeks looking at how they might use digital to gain greater revenue from their global fan base.
It’s not likely that will be Hamilton Academical’s but that is where Kitman Labs’ Lead Sports Scientist Susan Giblin cut her teeth before going onto Kitman who are now using the latest in 3D mapping technology to most accurately measure player movement and flexibility in terms of injury prevention.
There is a much greater hunger to learn from data among players on this side of the Atlantic, at the highest level of the game.
John Paul Hartigan the CEO of Shadowman Sports revealed that his company, having shifted from Limerick to California has just signed a major partnership with the St Louis Rams, its first in the NFL and that their equipment was saving the practice of tackling in training by substituting body to air contact for body to body. It’s hard to believe that grizzled NFL coaches and players would buy into that but they are. Great job!
Ian Lucey revealed that he is in the process of setting up a fund with ten leading sports stars, including Jamie Heaslip, who will invest their own money and be part of the decision making process on which companies to invest in. We mortals will be able to invest alongside them. Lucey has a good track record in this space so all form an orderly queue now.
Playertek CEO Ronan MacRuarí told us that his business is succeeding in its bid to make wearable technology available to ‘park’ players. It’s on trial with two Premier League clubs for use on some of their teams as well as in pockets across mainland Europe and Scandinavia.
The start up pitch of the night award, sponsored by Eamon Sayers’ World Sports Team went to Reddin, a swiss company that is doing this (apologies if the scandinavian female Christy Moore style music is not to your taste, we still bet you want one of these…)
The night was a great success. Well done to Richard Barrett and Ross O’Dwyer of Pundit Arena, Clyde Hutchinson and Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business who hatched the plot only a few weeks beforehand and brought it to life. Watch this space for future events.
Sport for Business is a community of sporting and business leaders.
We work closely with our members in over 130 of Ireland’s leading sports and businesses shining a light on the commercial world of sport, building and collaborating on great events that help us all to be better at what we do.
Sport for Business is a community of sporting and business leaders. 
