Keynote Speakers
Day 1 Evening Keynote: Digital platforms and women’s sport: implications for gender equity
Kim Toffoletti
Associate professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University, Australia.
Her research applies feminist and sociological paradigms to understanding women’s experiences of sport and physical activity amidst a rapidly changing gender and sport landscape. Her research has advanced novel theoretical and conceptual frameworks for addressing new challenges arising from the increased attention on women's sport and leisure activities. Her books include Women Sport Fans: Identification, Representation, Participation (2017, Routledge) and the co-edited collections New Sporting Femininities: Embodied Politics in Postfeminist Times (2018, Palgrave) and Sport and Its Female Fans (2012, Routledge).
Day 4 Afternoon Keynote: An interview with Mark Bullingham
Mark Bullingham
Chief Executive Officer, The FA
Mark became CEO of The FA on 1 August 2019, heading up the team of 900 and taking full responsibility for the National Governing Body. The FA has a broad range of responsibilities across football in England, including the 28 national teams, FA Cups, the FA Women’s Super League, all grass roots football, all rules and regulations and the running of English football. It has an annual turnover of £440m.
He joined The FA in August 2016 as Chief Commercial and Football Development Officer where he was responsible for the commercial, marketing, digital and participation functions at the organisation. These include responsibility for all revenue streams across The FA and Wembley, such as broadcast, sponsorship, licensing, hospitality, and diversified revenue streams. In his time annual revenue at The FA rose by over £100m. Mark was also responsible for all marketing output across the organisation, including award winning campaigns for the England football teams.
Mark has received wide industry recognition including being recognised as one of the 100 most influential marketers by the Global Marketing Congress in 2015, the Drum Digerati 2018 and UK Sponsorship Personality of the Year in 2015.
He previously held the position of CEO EMEA for Fuse Sports & Entertainment, responsible for running one of the fastest growing businesses in the sector. During his five years of leadership the team grew from 18 people to 245 across 17 offices with an annual fee income of over €30m. The client portfolio included 10 of the top 30 global brands.
Mark joined Fuse in 2011 from his position as Director of Marketing for the America’s Cup Event Authority in San Francisco, where he helped transform the global event.
Mark has negotiated over $2bn of partnerships across a variety of platforms in sports, arts and music. He has an MBA with a track in International Marketing from ESLSCA in Paris where he became the first person to record a summa cum laude for an MBA.
Day 3 Evening Keynote: “How can we redress the gender (im)balance in sports coaching?”
Professor Leanne Norman
Director of the Research Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society, Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University, UK.
Leanne is an internationally recognised researcher for her research and writing within the area of gender equality and issues of diversity related to sports coaching, sports leadership, and organisations. Her work is driven towards improving the participation, performance, and leadership pathways for diverse social groups, principally, different groups of women. Leanne has written for academic and practitioner textbooks, written educational resources for coaches, and has published widely in academic journals related to sport and social issues. She has led national and international research projects as well as acted as academic expert and consultant for research funded by sport councils, governing bodies, and charities. Leanne utilises such research as the evidence for impactful engagement activities including leading the delivery of programmes towards supporting women to enhance their experience of sports coaching as a credible and valuable profession, as well as working with organisations to support them towards creating diverse leadership and coaching workforces.
Day 4 Morning Keynote - Creating a winning mindset
Maggie Alphonsi MBE
Maggie is the face of international women’s rugby and arguably one of the most well-known names in women’s team sports on the planet.
Before announcing her international retirement in 2014, she represented her country an impressive 74 times, scored 28 tries, and helped England win a record breaking seven consecutive Six Nations crowns. She was also a crucial member of the team that won the 2014 Rugby World Cup for the first time in 20 years and was part of the team that was crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality Team of the Year.
Through her England rugby career she has become a household name but also a media professional, and since retiring she has commentated on live rugby matches for SKY Sports, BT Sport and the BBC. In 2015 she became the first ever former female player to commentate on men’s international rugby when she was signed up by ITV for the Rugby World Cup, and she continues to work with ITV Sport across their rugby coverage.
Maggie is also the first ever former female player to become a columnist for a national newspaper, and you can regularly read her thoughts and opinions in The Telegraph. In 2016, Maggie made history by becoming the first England Women’s player to be elected as a National Member of the Rugby Football Union’s Council. She is one of just four females on the 56-strong Council and her role is to be a person of experience and influence in the Game, which includes a leading role in the Diversity & Inclusion steering Group.
Maggie is also an excellent speaker, and is well qualified to share her experiences. Certainly when she shares those experiences, you don’t need to be a rugby, or even a sports fan, to be interested or inspired by how she has become a prominent figure in the challenging world of a male dominated sport. From South East London, Maggie has taken her education as seriously as her rugby obtaining a MSc in Sports & Exercise at Roehampton University, a BSc in the same subjects at De Montfort University and a BTEC National Diploma in Leisure Studies at Hertford Regional College. Additionally, she has been awarded a Honorary Doctor of Arts from the University of Bedfordshire.
Day 4 Afternoon Keynote: You Cannot be Neutral – addressing issues of gender equity in sport for future generations
Håvard B. Øvregård
Senior Adviser in The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, Norway
Håvard has worked for the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) since 2007. He started as Project manager for “With Sports Against Homophobia” 2007-2010, and has since the end of this project been adviser on NIFs LGBTIQ-related work. From 2011 he has been responsible for NIFs work to prevent and handle sexual harassment and abuse, and since 2013 he has also worked with diversity, equality and safeguarding in general, including gender equality and gender based violence / gender harassment in Norwegian sport. He has been part of establishing the “Gender Barometer” in 2017, an annual report by NIF on gender equality in the leadership of organised sport in Norway.
Starting at age 19 as President of the Norwegian School-Student Union in 1995, he has had numerous responsibilities in youth and student organisations at national and international level. As board member of The Norwegian Children and Youth Council 1996-1998 and the European Youth Forum 1998-2002, as well as adviser for The Norwegian Ombudsperson for Children 1997-1998, he was especially occupied with children and youth’s participation in society. After being Bureau Member responsible for Equality and Human Rights in the European Youth Forum 1998-2000, this interest developed into a general interest in the mechanisms of inequality, discrimination and exclusion, and how organisations can work to counter these mechanisms.
Håvard has extensive experience from roles and responsibilities at international level, including UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, UN Special Session on Children, UN Expert Group Meeting on Global Priorities for Youth, the Pool of European Experts on Sexual Violence in Sports, and as speaker at numerous events on the topics of gender equality, LGBTIQ and sexual harassment and abuse in sport, including the IOC Athlete Safeguarding webinar series for International Federations and the IOC Gender Equality webinars for International Federations.