Sport was very much to the fore at the second annual conference of the Irish International Business Network held in London last week.
Niall Quinn was the first of the keynote speakers and gave a run through of his transition from sporting star to business leader.  He was playing before the massive influx of cash that now dominates soccer in the Premier League and has had to think smart about his choices after hanging up his boots.
The transition came quicker than he had anticipated when he was at the end of his Sunderland career.  The club was in big trouble and owner Bob Murray, a local car dealer had put the club up for sale.  Quinn hooked up with Patsy Byrne, a Kerry builder who had created a large firm in the UK as well as a big name in greyhound and horse racing circles.
They began the process that led to the Drumaville consortium taking control of the club.
The week before they arrived 70 people had been made redundant.  The club was struggling and Quinn realised that it needed sorting out off as well as on the pitch.  That he did so in rapid time is partly down to the decision to bring in Roy Keane as manager.  The two had only recently, and very publicly, crossed swords in Saipan but Quinn believed he was the man for the job and so it proved.
Promotion to the Premier League saw turnover shoot from £22 million to £70 million overnight and built a platform for the club to re-establish itself and move on.
The same could be said of Quinn who is now involved as Chairman and the driving force behind Q-Sat, a communications business which brings broadband technology to remote regions through the use of satellite communications.  The business is established in Ireland but has more recently expanded to Africa, in partnership with Intel and Altobridge.
“Your strength as a business is in those you network amongst and partner with,” said Quinn.
This was never so true as in the far flung Irish community that was doing business at the conference.
Ricky Simms, the manager of Usain Bolt, Mo Farah and a host of international athletes was there.  The County Donegal native’s business is based in London but covers the world and we will carry an interview with him in Next week’s Sport for Business about how he has combined the worlds of sport and business.
Cathy Soraghan of Women on the Run was there and actively promoting her ‘Gym in a Box’ concept, while Aoife ní Muirí from Sports Clinic Plus is another we will feature in the coming weeks with her development of a smart tool for physiotherapists and patients with sports injuries to speed an effective return to fitness.
The driving force of the network in London is Sligo Born Andy Rogers who chaired the Irish Community Group as part of LOCOG at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Sport is a common language, especially in the Irish community and Sport for Business will look closer at the whole area of how sport and business can work closer within the business diaspora to assist each other when we go international with our Members’ Round Table programme during 2013.
View all the latest news on the commercial side of Irish sport
Find out more about how Sport for Business can be of benefit to you
Subscribe today for the free Sport for Business daily news digest