The Sports Technology Talks: Meet the Speakers
The aim of STA TechTalks is to facilitate privileged access to the minds and learnings of international visionaries from all walks of life, not just sports. These will give delegates the chance to hear extraordinary stories of innovation, examples of daring tech-led implementation, and learn and be inspired by people leading disruption across the world. STA TechTalks consists of presentations given by senior figures, from a range of sectors, who are tangibly changing their worlds through technology. These presentations won’t promote hype and attendees should leave the talks better informed and inspired as to ways they can embrace technologies which have radically altered other sectors, businesses or consumer experiences.
Bill Johnson, Senior Vice President and Design Principal, HOK
Bill Johnson is a senior vice president and the design principal for HOK. Recognized as a visionary in the design of sports and entertainment facilities, Bill’s portfolio of work includes professional, civic, and collegiate sports facilities across the country. His approach is defined by his ability to develop integrated solutions that achieve the unique objectives of each client and contribute to the vitality of the broader community.
Over the course of his career, Bill has applied his expertise and future thinking to a wide variety of project types to create award-winning projects like Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, MetLife Stadium and collegiate sports facilities across the SEC and Power 5 conferences. Sports Business Journalnamed Bill on its list of ‘power players’ in sports facility design and development, and he was a member of Sports Business Journal’sinaugural ‘Forty Under 40’ class, which recognizes the best and brightest in sports business. His talk is on the subject of How the Latest Technology is Transforming the Stadium Experience for Fans and Athletes.
Benjamin Lickfett, Head of Technology and Innovation, Diageo
Benjamin has over a decade of experience in using technology and innovation to unlock the brand potential of Fortune 500 firms and startups. In his current role at Diageo, he is driving the ‘test & learn’ agenda, and championing digital transformation across a world-class spirits portfolio in Europe.
Prior to Diageo, he co-founded the leading financial services comparison site in the Nordics, an e-commerce retailer for non-medical allergy products and the first user-generated cause-marketing platform (one exit, one survivor, one implosion). Benni also spent several years as an innovation consultant for industry leaders including Hilton Hotels, Best Buy, ExxonMobil, Cartier, and Tetra Pak. He holds an MBA from IE Business School and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University. His talk will discuss Transforming Physical Experiences through AI and Digital Innovation.
Xavi Cortadellas, Global Head of Design and Innovation, Gatorade
Xavi is in charge of driving the vision, development, and innovation of Gatorade and Propel, and oversees their expansion into technology platforms. Xavi also leads the Brand Design team spearheading the brand look across different consumer touch points including retail theatre, packaging, and build-outs.
Xavi was born in Barcelona, where he earned a degree in Architecture. He has a strong sports performance and design background stemming from his 11 years of experience with Nike in Spain, Mexico and Brazil. Xavi’s talk will be on Unlocking Innovation Working with Pro Teams.
James Hewitt, Head of Science and Innovation, Hintsa Performance
James is a speaker, author, and scientist. He brings complex concepts to life to explore and enhance human performance. James’ areas of expertise include the ‘future of work’, human performance in a digitally disrupted world, and methods to facilitate more sustainable high-performance for knowledge workers. His work spans consulting for Formula One drivers and teams, advising Fortune 500 C-suite executives, and giving frequent keynotes and workshops in Europe, the United States and Asia.
James is based in Switzerland and the UK. In addition to his role as Head of Science and Innovation at Hintsa Performance, James is an active researcher at Loughborough University, ranked as number one in the world in Sport, Exercise, and Health Science by QS World University Rankings. His talk is titled The Attention Paradox - Improving Cognitive performance.
Closing the TechTalks will be a panel discussion on athlete welfare. With elite athletes from all sports so vulnerable to a range of issues - head trauma, depression, doping, career or life altering injuries - the STAs are highlighting this with a view to inspiring innovation. Speakers on the panel include ex-QPR footballer, Bradley Simmonds…
Health and wellbeing coach Bradley Simmonds has gone from strength to strength over the last few years. Through the power of social media, Bradley has engineered a wellness platform like no other – providing fitness enthusiasts around the world new workout routines and daily motivational posts.
Bradley aims to motivate millions of people every day to live and maintain a healthy sustainable lifestyle, whilst working with more of the countries credible brands and the worlds’ greatest athletes. His positive attitude and unique approach has attracted many high-profile clients, including the UK’s leading sports and entertainment stars.
Bradley’s introduction to fitness comes from his background as a professional footballer for clubs such as Chelsea FC and Queens Park Rangers. From there, he learnt from the best nutritionists and strength and conditioning coaches, which inspired him in his pursuit for a new career as a personal trainer, 3 years ago, aged 20. Several years on, Bradley released his first book this year, Get It Done, an Amazon bestseller and has become an ambassador for brands such as Adidas, TAG Heuer, Maxi Muscle and has appeared in campaigns with Nivea and GQ.
The STA TechTalks London series will be brought to you by Switzerland, the partner nation at this year's Awards. The Swiss Business Hub UK & Ireland is part of Switzerland Global Enterprise the federal invest and export promotion agency supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises from Switzerland and Liechtenstein wishing to export and develop their market presence in the UK and Ireland. The TechTalks will open with a Welcome Introduction from Swiss Ambassador to the UK, Alexandre Fasel.
For anyone serious about sport, the TechTalks are not to be missed. Buy your tickets for the talks here, or gain free entry by purchasing premium tickets to the STAs, taking place later on May 3rd.
Early-stage entrepreneurs across the UK with a clear social or environmental mission are invited to apply for EASI26 – the Entrepreneurs' Award in Social Innovation – before the 31st March 2026 deadline.
University of Edinburgh spin-out BIOCAPTIVA has raised £1.58 million in a new funding round and launched its first product in the US.
The appointment represents a key step in AppsFlyer’s continued evolution as the Modern Marketing Cloud, helping brands unify measurement, data collaboration, and activation across increasingly complex digital ecosystems.
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SPORTL, a London-based pay-as-you-train fitness booking platform, has launched today across app stores after closing a £250K pre-seed funding round backed by industry experts.
With this investment, Uvionix will accelerate its product release and expand its market presence across the US and Europe.
The company's technology will have innovative applications in infant nutrition, cosmetic and dermatological, and cognitive industries.
This funding will accelerate Mulder’s mission to tackle the transparency and compliance challenges that complicate the medical device supply chain.
Tangible, a software platform for decarbonizing construction has raised $3 million in a funding round co-led by Prologis Ventures and Pi Labs. Additional investors include Foundamental, Silence VC, and RE Angels.
DBLX, led by CEO and Co-Founder Nicky Hoyland, collaborates with global enterprises to enhance their people experiences. The company’s offerings include immersive digital content, bespoke platform development, and strategic consulting services.
Apheris, the leading federated computing company powering data networks for the life sciences sector, today announced the completion of a Series A funding round, bringing total funding to date to $20.8 million.
It was more of a gut feeling that led us to the intersection of digitalisation, mobiles and the democratisation of payments. Paynetics felt strongly about making moving and managing money right for everyone and started building a platform that covers it all.
I’m Simon Goodman and I started out in PR, where I was introduced to the noble Choc Ice working on the Cadburys account. At the time they were looking to upgrade the humble choc ice.
In 2017, Matt launched Borrow A Boat, aka the ‘Airbnb’ of boats, making waves in the charter industry by offering a modern marketplace solution with the aim of making boating more accessible, affordable, flexible and inclusive for all.
Founded in 2021 by Alisa Patotsakaya, Immersive Fox is a text-to-video generation startup that specialises in providing businesses with AI-generated videos for sales and customer communication.
Samantha Gilchrist, co-founder and CEO of The Gilchrist Collection, shares her life as an entrepreneur.
Co-founded by Conrad Poulson in 2014, Huq has been at the forefront of utilising cutting- edge technologies and innovative mobility research methods.
Going from employee to founder was a huge leap of faith. I announced the agency just a few days after turning 26 and like most 26-year-olds, I hadn’t ever owned or run a business before.
Patchwork Health was co-founded by Dr Anas Nader and Dr Jing Ouyang with the mission to make truly flexible and sustainable working a reality for all healthcare staff, amid the current workforce crisis.
After a lifetime working as a project manager for some of the world’s largest tech companies, Jeb Buckler set up Startup Giants PLC to ensure that no good tech concepts should go to waste.
So, I encouraged Ben to officially incorporate The Handbag Clinic as its own independent luxury handbag offshoot in 2013 – all still operated through our ecommerce platform at the time.
I’m Diana Babics, founder of Nourish Awards. I began in finance (accounts and auditing) before deciding this simply wasn’t for me. I then headed off to university as a mature student, initially to study art and design and latterly interior architecture.
greenworkx is co-founded by two education sector workers, Mat llic and Richard Ng, who are passionate about the planet and believe reskilling and upskilling UK workers into green jobs is future-proofing the economy.
Blaise Hope, founder and CEO of Origin Hope, brings two decades of media experience to his groundbreaking content partnership venture.
Co-founded by Nisha Ramisetty and Sam Williams, the idea for Naksha was born in 2020 when cooking became an escape during lockdown.
Charlene Hurlock was inspired by her daughter and her best friend who independently started swapping their pre-loved clothes. Aside from being a Mum, Charlene's background is predominately in global exhibition sales and media advertising.
In North America, Iced Teas (Coldbrew) is a bustling £2bn marketplace. Yet, in the UK, despite being the second fastest-growing soft drink sub-category (after cold brew coffee), there is still a lack of appreciation for brands like Kaytea.
I’m Melissa Gauge, founder of SpareMyTime. I left my corporate role in 2016 to set up a City-based business with a couple of partners and another business by myself, an online platform.
Founded in 2006 by Amelia Peckham and Clare Braddel, Cool Crutches & Walking Sticks aims to empower those who need support to walk.
I’m Gerry Lianos - the co-founder of Raffolux, an online raffling platform that gives people the chance to win amazing prizes for a low cost and support charities close to their hearts.
Jason Tim is the CEO and co-founder of CloudSmiths and has been CEO for the past two years. Prior to this, he held previous roles at the company such as Managing Director and Sales Director.
My name is Lucy Bramley and I'm the founder of Ruched & Ready, one of the UK's leading size inclusive fashion labels helping women embrace their curves and feel confident.
KBF Enterprises was established in 2008 by Managing Director, Kieran Fisher and is the business behind two of the most recognised sports nutrition brands in the UK – Bodybuilding Warehouse® and Warrior®.
Matt Cater is co-founder of Clix Technologies, an innovative new company that offers the UK’s only mobile-first, fully customisable, Web App-based smart lockers.
Ben Maruthappu is a London-based doctor and CEO of Cera, a multi-award winning digital-first home healthcare company, which has grown 100-fold in the past three years, now delivering over 50,000 patient appointments a day.
The Natural Love Company was founded by friends and wedding photographers Ben Foster and Barney Walters. The Cornwall-based business was launched as a result of their previous careers being put on halt by the pandemic.
As the CEO of Botify, Adrien has had both a global and notable career, co-founding Botify back in 2012 and thereafter relocating to the United States from France. Adrien is passionate about shifting the organic search marketing landscape.
Sançar has spent years leading marketing teams at high-profile startups, including Typeform and Hotjar. Early in his career, he struggled to set work-life boundaries and lacked a clear understanding of his personal wellbeing needs and values.
Co-founded by Mike Robertson and Adrian Brown, AbbeyCross is the world’s first B2B trading and compliance marketplace, focused on improving underlying market infrastructure for Emerging Market (“EM”) currencies.
My name is Derk Roodhuyzen de Vries and I am the CEO and co-founder of Fixico. Alongside my business partner Mark van Laar, we created Fixico back in 2014 to revolutionise the car repair industry.
Linkup was founded by the two Manchester-based entrepreneurs, Jack Peagam and Ben Whatson, as they aim to step away from ‘traditional' career paths and combine their shared passion for creativity with business.
Emilie Vallauri is a 27-year-old program manager at Techstars with a passion for innovation. Born and raised in Nice, France, Emilie studied business and political sciences before embarking on a career punctuated by innovation and supporting startups.
Zsuzsa has been instrumental in growing Antavo from a startup to a scaleup. As Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder, she is transforming the company into a unique loyalty technology vendor, offering a next-gen, best-in-class solution to the loyalty sector.
Software engineering and product development is my specialisation - and I have had a wide range of experience across the industry. I had a brilliant 22-year long career at IBM, working across a number of roles, which I really loved.
Holly Zoccolan is an entrepreneur and Founder of new parenting app, Carol. Before Founding Carol and entering the tech space, Holly built successful online wellness brand The Health Zoc in 2016.
Anna Gudmundson is the CEO and co-founder of Sensate, a device that emits infrasonic waves that are synchronised to resonate with the specially composed hemispheric audio in the app.
Rebecca is Senior Vice President of Clients, Partnership and Creative Transformation at CreativeX, provider of an industry-first AI driven data platform to help the world’s most loved brands including PepsiCo, Nestle and Facebook achieve creative excellence.
Five sustainable gaming companies that provide great inspiration to startups wanting to do good in the world.
From 31 January, businesses moving goods from the European Union (EU) to Great Britain (GB) will need to comply with new UK safety and security declaration requirements.
Its simplicity has made transitioning from traditional tobacco to vaping a breeze for many.
Bitcoin, the digital currency conceived in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, is a financial phenomenon. Despite the volatility of global markets, it has demonstrated remarkable resilience.
From university students and young entrepreneurs to senior executives, imposter syndrome remains a common thread in everyone’s personal career journey.
Seeing your ideas materialise, working for yourself, leading others, and becoming a CEO might seem like a dream come true, and indeed, it is for many.
While the benefits of a well-executed PR strategy are evident to practitioners, misconceptions among business leaders often cast PR as fluff, lacking business results.
In an era marked by the cost-of-living crisis, the landscape of consumer behaviour is undergoing a significant transformation. This shift demands a strategic adaptation from businesses.
When it comes to managing spend in a business, the budgeting process can set a high level of accountability. This drives headcount forecasts, subscription-based spend, and key projects throughout the year.
Real-world usage of ChatGPT highlights a challenge that entrepreneurs and business leaders face today in understanding how to harness ChatGPT's capabilities effectively and seamlessly integrate it into business processes to yield tangible productivity.
However, 2022 was the year of the Amazon aggregation downfall. Funding dried up and inflation and rising interest rates hit the highly leveraged aggregators’ debt hard.
It goes without saying that moving away from outdated decision-making processes which rely solely on a handful of senior executives can unlock a realm of opportunity for businesses, but it is useful to begin by considering why exactly there is a need for this change.
Beyond the launch, the challenge then becomes the pursuit to be seen. This is where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes in to act as an ally for your online business. With the high street experiencing dwindling foot traffic, the allure of being a hidden gem has lost its appeal.
When the narrative is almost always the same, it can perpetuate a very particular idea of how a business should be run that has for so long excluded so many.
With the emergence of embedded finance and digital payment solutions, a lot of businesses are experiencing fundamental shifts leading them to become, to some extent, a fintech.
The difference between securing the investment and losing interest often hinges on how effective startups are at conveying their vision and value proposition, so creating a compelling pitch deck has never been more important.
Acknowledging these concerns, Dr. Yousef Alhammadi, the Executive Director of The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA), sheds light on a groundbreaking approach that empowers parents to safeguard their children’s digital experiences.
Every business has taken on the responsibility to speed up the process of collecting customer payments without compromising security. It is another way to stay competitive in a business environment with decreasing margins and substantial competition.
Edge computing has emerged as one of the most important trends in IT since the advent of ChatGPT and LLMs.
Are you equipped to embrace the future of tax administration? With the UK's Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, traditional tax practices are poised for a digital makeover.
Recent instances of Microsoft, TikTok, and Meta facing GDPR fines due to inadequate protection of young people's data underscore the insufficiency of efforts by Big Tech to safeguard the next generation of consumers.
Now, there are opportunities to access accounting software that simplifies the process. This is especially crucial since tax regulations have gone digital, requiring all financial reports, including tax returns, to be submitted online.
Within this exciting landscape, the concept of "smart EVs #1" has emerged, encompassing a range of cutting-edge electric models that combine intelligence, sustainability, and style.
A happy and healthy workforce will bring more productivity, engagement, and loyalty. However, it’s important employer’s realise a ‘1 size fits all’ approach to wellbeing just won’t cut it.
In particular, AI’s potential impact on email marketing cannot be overstated. For businesses, it has the potential to streamline activity, increase engagement, and ultimately drive conversions.
From the humble kitchen table offices to the dynamic innovation hubs scattered across the UK, venture capitalists and angel investors have wholeheartedly recognised the nation's immense potential in spearheading advancements in the tech sector.
You are an early-stage founder, eager to generate buzz and excitement around your business. You live and breathe your startup, but how do you catch the media's attention and inspire them to write about it?
Circular economy is another way of thinking about an economic system that far better matches both the fact that man exists as part of an ecosystem, not separated from it, and how we best create and deliver valuable solutions.
A sales strategy is a plan of action that outlines the approach and tactics a business will use to achieve its sales goals and sell to prospective clients. It details the steps that a company will take to identify, engage, and convert leads.
Bitcoin, the digital currency conceived in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, is a financial phenomenon. Despite the volatility of global markets, it has demonstrated remarkable resilience.