More than 150 delegates of the inaugural Sport At The Service Of Humanity conference and their guests are expected to attend a casual reception tonight at the Chorus Café, blocks away from St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican. While the event formally kicks off tomorrow, a number of the delegates have started to arrive. The reception is hosted by The Aspire Group, which helped organize and sell sponsorship around the event. Tonight’s gathering will be well-attended by members of the U.S. sports business community.
Aspire CEO Bernie Mullin, Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman and former Coke marketing exec Scott McCune were among those that attended today’s opening press conference at The Vatican. Ackerman and McCune were part of the content committee setting up speakers and panels, and both will lead discussion segments over the three-day event. Guests are experiencing perfect weather, with bright blue sunny skies and temperatures in low 70s, and also seeing very manageable offseason crowds around Rome.
This comes amid a busy week worldwide for sports business conferences, with the two-day Leaders Sport Business Summit kicking off tomorrow in London, along with the NeuLion Sports Media & Technology Conference in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
