The Irish and international sports marketing community is a lesser place today with news of the passing of John Trainor, the Founder of not only Onside Sponsorship but in many ways of the insight industry that powers the sponsorship sector.
John has been through the mill with illness over the last number of years but never spoke openly about it preferring instead to keep on working, keep on building Onside and keep on delivering the projects that so many within the sector relied upon and swore by.
His illness mapped the pandemic years and so many were unaware. The revival of the Annual Onside Sponsorship event at the Aviva Stadium in November was brilliant in terms of the gathering of those present but even more so for John’s presence there, albeit in a wheelchair.
That was a price he paid on what we all thought and hoped was a road to recovery. He has been planning and plotting with his team at Onside up until December before falling ill again and passing away today.
He leaves behind his wife Eithne and three young sons in his private family and hundreds more in his public and work family that will be devastated by the news.
For the last eight years we have worked closely together on the Onside Surveys, including exclusively with the Sport for Business membership. We became co-workers and friends, him with the detail and the insight, and me with the platform and the audience.
It was a relationship that took time. I had more chats and cups of coffee with John than anyone else teasing out the ways our two businesses could benefit each other. We would talk about introvert and extrovert personality types and how a mix of both was always going to be able to deliver the best results.
His name was a bye-word for meticulous research and considered analysis. If it had first the John Trainor and then latterly the wider Onside stamp of approval that was good enough for rights holders and sponsors alike.
In November we recorded a Podcast looking at the world of Sponsorship. The conversation that took place before and after the record button was pressed will stay with me for a long time when he spoke about his illness, about the impact on those around him, and his motivation to create a business that was bigger than him alone.
At the time I listened in the hope that this was a reflection on darker times that had passed but now we have the darkest moment of all.
He will be missed terribly in a professional capacity and by those who knew him best at a much deeper personal level.
He was a special person with a collection of special gifts that enabled him to become an integral part of what is now a more than €200 million industry.
In fact, his final Industry snapshot suggests that will be a €227 million industry through this year. Those details would matter to get right. And if I didn’t he would surely find a way to set the record straight.
I am a better person for having known him and worked with him. I am not alone.
Rest in Peace John.
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