LONDON, UK
WEMBLEY STADIUM
14th – 15th May 2024
PowerPlay is excited to kick off 2024 at Wembley Stadium, London alongside Everything In Sport for their Women Edition Global Series for 2024. We will be bringing together entrepreneurs and emerging female-led sports-tech start-ups to present their business concepts aligned with our six PowerPlay categories: Recreation, Wearables & Performance Enhancement, Future Technology, Esports, Data Analytics and Fan Engagement & Media Broadcasting.
This presents an ideal platform for investors seeking promising start-ups in the sports-tech sector and for innovators to engage with industry experts eager to invest in their offerings. Participants can anticipate accessing legal support, mentorship, coaching, marketing assistance, crowdfunding opportunities and networking with fellow enthusiasts.
ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR
Sharon Wright
Sharon Wright
My seventeen-year career has been marked by substantial roles in finance, customer experience, sales, and marketing, with significant seventeen year tenures at Nike and Adidas. As the Global Go-to-Market Director at Reebok in Boston, MA, I led the creation and implementation of strategies aimed at significant growth on an international scale. In this leadership role, my focus was on aligning marketing initiatives with the overarching goal of substantial revenue growth, helping to strengthen Reebok’s market presence in the studio category.
Founder and CEO of Sports Business Growth
I am a seasoned professional in driving growth for start-ups and scale-up businesses, focusing on go-to-market strategies and international expansion. With a commercially driven approach, I’ve successfully generated millions in revenues and played a key role in securing significant fundraising rounds. Additionally, I mentor at tech accelerators globally, leveraging my expertise to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. My work is dedicated to crafting strategies that ensure profitable and sustainable growth for businesses looking to scale.
Current Roles: Fractional Chief Marketing Officer at VALR Fitness and Optimi Health.
Growth leadership:
Leading the global business for women’s studio business. Creation and execution of the global go-to-market strategy. Delivering 42% of quality business unit growth in global revenues within two years.
Project Management:
Leadership and management of multiple internal. external, local and global teams. Ensured the delivery, execution and commercial return of the strategic business plan. Driving commercial insights for new product development ,marketing launch leadership across multiple sporting goods products.
Strategic Partnership Management:
Growth of a key global brand partnership to $11m in revenue in two years via a multi-channel proposition. Extensive experience in sports marketing assets selection, management, activations, events and PR.
Brand Management:
Responsible for a £7m annual marketing budget allocation, planning, campaign execution, ROI tracking and reporting, driving growth in brand health tracking metrics. Awarded a European marketing award for most successful campaign execution.
Commercial leadership:
Grew both Nike and adidas women’s business to the number one position from third and fourth, respectively.
Grew the adidas women’s revenues by 58% to £15m in less than three years, accounting for 40% of the overall women’s business. Assigned by the MD to work on the women’s strategic planning team for the UK and Ireland.
Grew Nike’s market share to 25% (no.1) and increased the ASP by 24%. Recognized with a Nike award for significant achievements in the women’s business.
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
Phil Benton
Currently Chairing the Womens Sports Alliance Advisory Board and supporting its mission to elevate athlete’s stories, co-chairing strategic advisory groups for the Running Industry Alliance looking to improve the sport and business of running.
27 years with the adidas group across a variety of senior sales and marketing roles and as part of the North Europe Leadership team
As General Manager London created a strategic vision and plan for the adidas brand delivering successful consumer and commercial growth with new partnerships across sport and fashion as well as retail expansion.
Whilst VP Sales for adidas and Reebok was responsible for developing long term successful strategic partnerships with key local and global retailers, as well as the formation of specialist sports, clubs and fashion divisions.
Additionally worked on various European project teams including trading terms harmonisation, alignment of the order to cash process as well as account portfolio management across European markets.
Played hockey at National league level and am involved in coaching, umpiring and administration to help support participation in the sport.
Lorin Hamlin
Lorin Hamlin joined Under Armour in 2011 to manage the grand opening of the state–of–the art Innovation Lab, and serve as legal liaison between Innovation and the UA business units. She has built out that role to include business development, with a special interest in sports tech accelerator programs. Lorin now leads the Open Innovation practice at Under Armour, searching for the new and next idea to make all athletes better.
Justine Lee
Award-winning marketing and communications leader and board member. Advisor to local, regional and national purpose-led organisations predominantly in the leisure and personal development sectors, on how to develop audience-focused marketing and communications strategies. Actively involved in grassroots initiatives to encourage women and young people in non-traditional sports and activities, particularly within the outdoor environment.
Robin McCammon
Robin has 25+ years of experience across brand and product marketing, global event activation, commercial growth with senior leadership in the traditional and digital sport industries.
He has led multiple global partnerships while at adidas and General Motors and was the CCO of an esports gaming startup in London, providing strategic vision in charged environments, taking on high profile, challenging and powerful projects, using his multicultural background to raise awareness to, and drive, Purpose-led initiatives.
Robin is the founder of Left Peg Ltd, working in sports, music and culture, identifying exciting opportunities with brands and partners looking to expand across new spaces and experiences.
Robin Chairs Talent Pathway iD, a Data Insights Platform Revolutionising Talent Development and across sport and the corporate space, and is an Ambassador for Digital Jersey.
Robin is the proud father of 3 amazing daughters
Sandra Lopez
Sandra E. Lopez is a distinguished Technology Visionary Leader, acclaimed for her pivotal role in founding new businesses and spearheading digital transformation across diverse enterprises. As the CEO and Founder of Ambi Ventures, she serves as Fractional CMO, specializing in innovative go-to-market strategies that fuel exponential growth for companies spanning startups, major corporations, and non-profits. Ambi Ventures doubles as an investment entity, with a primary focus on empowering Latinx founders in consumer technology. Lopez is a Board Member of PureRed and Junior Achievement and additionally holds the position of Co-Chair for the Sports Integrity Global Alliance.
Previously, Lopez held key positions such as GM/CMO of Microsoft’s Ads business, where she significantly impacted market acceleration in the digital industry. She has been instrumental in global discussions on emerging technologies, notably as the former Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on VR/AR/XR.
Before her tenure at Microsoft, Lopez led Intel’s entry into the immersive media segment and managed the wearable business for Intel’s New Technology Group. During her time at Intel, she held various roles in corporate marketing, including director of B2B and consumer marketing.
Lopez has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including recognitions as one of the “Top 100 Women in Technology,” “Most Powerful Women in Tech,” and “Top 10 Latina Executives.” Prior to her time at Intel, she held various positions at Adobe Systems Inc., Macromedia, Computer Associates International Inc., and other technology companies.
She holds a B.S. in Economics and Textiles and Clothing from the University of California at Davis and completed the Stanford Executive Accelerator Program in 2016. Committed to community development, Lopez focuses on empowering the next generation of women leaders and Latinx/Hispanic professionals.
Dana Dar
Dana has extensive experience working in the Sports Media and Sports Technology industry, specialising in the use of technology and innovation across the sector.
She started out her career as a sports television reporter and producer, covering major live events including NBA, NFL, Olympics, global football and more.
The second part of her career focused on working in global technology firms that provide services to the sports and media industry, reaching senior level positions at companies such as SES and Intel. With an emphasis on creating commercial strategies she’s been an integral part of teams introducing new technologies dedicated to enhancing the sports experience within the entire ecosystem through storytelling, content creation and monetisation; media and digital strategies; fan engagement; player development and performance optimisation.
She currently works as a consultant to sports organisations and sports tech start-ups.
Dana is truly passionate about how technology and innovation can support and enhance the sports experience. While working in the sports-tech industry, she has dedicated her time to being a mentor and advisor to multiple sports-tech startups, being a firm believer in mentorship as an essential component in building success and helping new generations of founders to bring innovation into the space.
In addition to her work as a consultant and advisor, she is currently the co-founder of Kick Off, a company set up to bring tech and innovation to sports organisations worldwide. As part of Kick Off, she’s also worked on projects dedicated to bringing a sports excellence mentality to youth development programs and developing sports communities.