The Sports Technology Alliance will bring senior leaders from across Irish sport together at the Sport Ireland Campus this Thursday, 15 October, for a summit focused on one of the sector’s most persistent challenges: turning digital ambition into practical organisational change.
The second Irish edition of the summit will take place at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena, running from 10 am to 3 pm, followed by networking. Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business will be MC for the day.
The theme, Where Strategy Gets Stuck: Making Change Land, reflects a deliberate shift from exploring the potential of new technology to understanding how sporting organisations can implement it effectively.
The Sports Technology Alliance was established in 2022 as a collective of specialist technology businesses that work with sporting organisations to improve operations, engagement, and sustainability.
Its approach recognises that no single technology platform can meet every requirement of a modern sports organisation, particularly where systems for membership, learning, communication, participation and data management need to work together.
The Dublin summit will focus on three areas where those challenges are particularly visible.
The opening session, led by Ben Wells, CEO of PTI Digital, will examine the difficulties involved in delivering change across sporting organisations.
Under the heading Making Change Land at Club Level: Top-Down and Bottom-Up, the discussion will consider how national strategies can lose momentum when they reach the clubs, coaches, volunteers and members expected to implement them.
The second session, led by Courtney Stuhmcke of etrainu, will examine The 2026 AI Playbook for Sport.
Artificial intelligence was already a prominent topic at the Alliance’s inaugural Dublin gathering in 2025, but the conversation has evolved considerably over the past year.
This time, the emphasis will be on practical experience: which applications deliver measurable benefits, where expectations have exceeded reality, and how sporting organisations can adopt AI responsibly.
The final session, led by Jack Clay, Director of Customer Experience at Spotler, will examine Building Practical Marketing Lifecycles for NGBs.
This will focus on the relationship between attracting participants, converting interest into membership and maintaining engagement over time.
It will also examine how sports organisations can use more targeted communications and automation to improve member experiences without requiring substantial increases in marketing resources.
The summit will bring together senior sporting executives, governing body representatives and technology specialists, with an emphasis on discussion and shared problem-solving rather than conventional product presentations.
Attendance is free for senior executives and decision-makers in sport, with places limited. For late registration, email info@sportstechnologyalliance.com
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Image Credit: Sport for Business
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