December 2, 2021 The 2nd Annual Eurasian Sport Industry Conference with the theme of "Staging and Evaluating Sport Mega-events" was grandly held online, attracting near  40,000  participants worldwide with proactive results and positive influence attained. The conference was co-sponsored by the leading European institution emlyonbusiness school and China's top sports institution Beijing Sport University, with UniWEsport, Mailman, and WHYTEWOOLF as the strategic partners of the event. This live conference was honored to invite scholars, experts and industrial elites from the China Institute of Sport Science Tsinghua University, Beijing Sport University, Renmin University of China, Université Paris-Saclay, The Open University of UK,  Istanbul Bilge University, Qatar University among many other guests from Europe and Asia. Participants exchanged insights into the organization and benefits of mega-scale sports events and discussed the current development of sports events in Eurasia and the future prospect of the sports industry.

Professor William Hua WANG, Associate Dean of emlyon business school, Dean ofemlyon business school Asia, delivered a congratulatory message to the conference and mentioned the 2021 League of Legends World Championship Final，which had been widely celebrated in a feverish manner on social media. According to Professor Wang, this sports event,  was a night of dreams for the younger generations and a sign of the huge business potential still hidden in the ever-expanding fields of the sports industry.

Professor Zhang Jian, Vice President of Beijing Sport University, wished the conference a great success He hoped that the 2nd Annual Eurasian Sport Industry Conference, as a useful attempt in normalizing academic exchanges in Eurasia, could witness the sharing of minds between Chinese and international scholars and experts, who could provide new perspectives and more wisdom to mega-sports events in China and fuel the expansion of the sports industry worldwide.

Simon Chadwick, Professor of Eurasian Sport Industry, Director of the Center for Eurasian Sport Industry, emlyon business school, and Li Shengxin, Vice Dean and Professor of School of Management, Beijing Sport University, were the moderators of the conference.

International Session | Facing Major Changes  of a Century

On the "Transformation" of Mega Sports Events

Centering on the industrial hotspot of "sports events", five experts and scholars from world-renowned universities shared their cutting-edge ideas through live streaming. From the perspective of soft power, Simon Chadwick, Professor of Eurasian Sport Industry and Professor of Eurasian Sport Industry, emlyon business school, analyzed the important role of soft power in sports and its profound influence on sports business and politics.

Cem TINAZ, Director of the School of Sport Sciences and Technology, Istanbul Bilgi University, focused on the key success factors and obstacles in the management of sports sponsorship and explained its impact on the management process and the industrial differences between emerging countries.

Taking the most popular e-sports events asher research object, Yue. Meng-Lewis, Associate Professor in Digital Marketing, UK Open University Business School, noted that career development in e-sports is a complex dynamic system, while traditional career theories are insufficient to cover electronic gaming which possesses uniqueness as an emerging profession of athletics.

The still rampant pandemic posed challenges and crises of varying degrees to every sector. Michel Desbordes, Professor in Sports Marketing, Université Paris-Saclay and emlyon business school, elaborated on sports events in an uncertain environment and explained in detail both the impact of the pandemic on sports events from a financial perspective and the transformation and changes that the industry would face in the future.

Wadih Ishac, Assistant Professor of Qatar University, examined the special group of football fans amid the  COVID-19and screened the measures formulated and adopted by the major sports events and the national and international health agencies before the pandemic.

China Session | Drawing the Future of the Sports Industry

New Opportunities for the Development of Chinese Sports Industry

Focusing on the sustainable development of mega-sports events, Professor Zhang Jianhui at the Physical Education Department of Renmin University of China，and Qiu Xue，Deputy Director and Researcher China Institute of Sport Science, delivered speeches themed as "Sports Mega-events: the Development Engine of Green Low-carbon Sport Industry" and "The Conception and Implementation of the Olympic Movement Under the View of Sustainable Development", depicting the severity of environmental issues, the positive role that sports industry can play in environmental improvements, the road-map of sports industry in sustainable development as well as the importance of ESG. Yuhong Wen, Professor of School of Leisure Sports and Tourism, Beijing Sport University, cited the example of Tokyo Olympic Games, discussed about the management and evaluation of the organization of open water swimming competitions.

In February 2022, Beijing will host the 24th Olympic Winter Games, a major sports event that attracts global attention and once again puts China in the "central position" in the sport industry . Xiao Yun, lecturer of Beijing Sport University, Ren Liang, Vice-President and Professor of Hebei North University, and Hu Xiaoqian, Associate Professor of  Tsinghua University Sports Department, discussed the frontier topics, “Mega-event as a Booster for Regional Coordinated Development: the case of Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games”, “Building a New Growth Pole for the North Wing of Hebei Province from the Perspective of 2022 Olympic Winter Games”, and  “The Governance of Sport Legacy of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in the Time of COVID-19”, respectively. The three experts analyzed the new opportunities and development brought to China’s sports economy and industry by the Winter Olympics from different perspectives.

Panel Discussion| Focus on Sports Industry in Post-Pandemic Era

Seamless Integration of College Education and Sports Career

In recent years, emlyon business school has incorporated the practice of corporate social responsibility into all aspects of the school. This conference also paid special attention to the future prospect of student community in sports career so that students could have in-depth dialogue with industry leaders.

To this end, the conference offered special invitation to Joao Frigerio, founder and CEO of iWorkinSport, Li Taozhi, founder of UniWESport, Kevin Liu, consultant of Whytewoolf and Yang Zhihui, Account Manager of Mailman. The guest speakers exchanged their opinions on the theme "Next Gen Jobs - what skills and knowledge will new entrants to the industry need to be successful?”. Their dialogue with students provided valuable advice for the younger generation on career development in the sports industry and revealed business opportunities and challenges for future industry growth. The corporate executives also learned what the young students have in their minds and came up with new ideas for corporate talent training.

Building on the success of the first Annual Eurasia Sport Industry Conference, the Second Annual Conference was also organized by emlyon business school and Beijing Sport University. By giving full play to their own strengths, both parties adopted a Eurasian perspective in examining sports events and analyzing the intersection and role of sports, business and politics, solicited opinions and reports from scholars, practitioners and students, which gave a boost to the prosperity of the sports industry.

As a world's top business school that has accumulated rich research results and training experience in sports, emlyon business school has established the Center for Eurasian Sport Industry which integrates industry-university-research cooperation and promotes the healthy evolution of sports industry. With profound insights into the Eurasian sports industry, emlyon business school has also elaborately created a MSc Program of Sport Industry Management, which, with solid foundation in theory and practice in industry, helps students to develop business thinking model in the sports industry management through real cases, resource integration and experience sharing. The program also provides in-depth insights of the trends and opportunities of the sports industry, and reshapes the new value of life and career.

Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry

The Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry is a leading institution in the field of sport, and is engaged in the delivery of cutting-edge research, impact and education. Based in Shanghai, the centre operates across emlyon business school’s campuses in Paris, Lyon, Saint Etienne, Bhubaneswar and Casablanca. We have a particular expertise in European and Asian sport, as well as in the fields of experiences, talent, performance, digitalisation and globalisation.

MSc in Sports Industry Management