One-Zero returned to Dublin yesterday as a conference touching the commercial world of sport that stands comparison to the best around the world.

The line up of speakers covered a wide variety of sports and a comprehensive tour of the best work being done linking sporting bodies with fans, sponsors and in the world of broadcast and media.

The day began and ended on the cutting edge of US Sport with Julian Duncan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Heidi Browning of the NHL telling us how their teams and sports are proving their mettle in reaching out to younger fans, less committed to tradition, more distracted in how they view the world but still committed to the experience of supporting their teams.

Over the coming weeks, there will be content emerging to give an overall sense of what was spoken about on the day.

Sport for Business was one of the partners of this year’s event and we were delighted to see so many Members who had been able to enjoy being there as part of our Inspire Women partnership.

Sarah Keane, president of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, Cliona O’Leary, Deputy Head of Sport at RTÉ and 25 others were there to absorb the knowledge and intelligence that was evident throughout.

We also hosted the Broadcast and media Stage where we saw presentations and discussions from Alexandra Willis of Wimbledon; Tim Orme of F1 and Killian Jones of Play On’ Lee Walker on the strategy of Bleacher Report; and Noel Quinn of the GAA; Brian Quinn and Maria Rua Aguete on the transformation taking place in streaming.

Core Sponsorship was in charge of the sponsorship stage where Kim Skildum-Reid gave a powerful talk on Disruptive Sponsorship and other subjects covered included eSports and Athlete Influence.

Fellow Sport for Business members William Fry sponsored the Keynote programme that included Neil Curtis from Wieden + Kennedy, Swan Sit, former VP of Nike and Mike Downey of Microsoft on the change impact of technology.

Gareth Nettleton of Strava was a star of the Fan Engagement stage as the audience weaved their way between the different areas of the Aviva Stadium that were in use.

There was a discussion on the stage, and doubtless more on the floor about investment in tech and sport and as part of Dublin City Council’s hosting of the event, a €10,000 prize for the winner of a pitch competition between sports technology startups was won by Snaptivity.

We learned about the technology that goes into the modern stadium from Tomás Meehan of the GAA looking at Croke Park and Don Daly of Dublin City Council looking ahead to Euro 2020.

Everywhere you turned there was insight to be gained and the stadium was filled with most of the leaders from within Irish sport, Irish sports marketing and indeed from our own Sport for Business community.

They were joined by international guests and speakers who were impressed by Ireland’s welcome and capacity to put on a world-class show.

Here is a taste of what the day was like…