To better understand the “behind-the-scenes” of this electrifying event, we decided to reach out and interview Rasmus Sojmark – CEO & Founder SBC.
Here is our exclusive interview:
1-Hey Rasmus, how are you? Finally, the global gambling markets are back! High-level training and networking in an SBC event… How nice is it to go back to making face-to-face appointments and shaking hands with friends and new partners?
Hi Domenico. It’s great to be back with a major in-person event and I’m looking forward to meeting many old friends and all the people I’ve only ever met over Zoom! There’s no substitute for meeting people face-to-face – it’s by far the most enjoyable way to do business and the best way to build strong relationships.
People from across the industry have told us how excited they are about the prospect of finally meeting up again at a big show, and I’m delighted that SBC is the first events company to provide that opportunity for them.
2-The choice of Barcelona does not come by chance, in fact, Spain is one of the few territories without a quarantine obligation for those arriving from other States. In addition to the location and the preventive anti-Covid19 measures, what will make this important SBC event unique?
One of the hallmarks of SBC’s events is the quality of our conference agendas and speaker line-ups, and we’ve certainly delivered on that for Barcelona. We’ve lined up 250 of the most influential figures in the industry to speak, including CEOs of major companies, such as Entain’s Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Sportradar’s Carsten Koerl, Sportium’s Alberto Eljarrat, Parimatch’s Roman Syrotian, Pinnacle’s Paris Smith, and Yggdrasil’s Fredrik Elmqvist. They’ll be tackling an agenda that covers the future of sports betting and online casino, the best safer gambling strategies, opportunities in emerging markets, innovation and much more.
We also have 100 leading suppliers taking part in the exhibition, so there is no better place to see the next generation of technology and games. Running alongside that, there is a very different way to check out those innovations, with a program of product launches and presentations on the venue’s main stage.
And, of course, no SBC event would be complete without our evening networking parties. Events shouldn’t only be about business – socializing and fun are an important part of the experience, and our parties are a great way to relax with colleagues and the contacts you made during the day.
3-During the pandemic, your company has been able to adapt to the problems of travel and meetings and has converted its main events into online editions! What milestones have been achieved? Will we see more SBC events on the web in the future?
After initially launching our digital series on a third-party platform, we decided to build our own online event platform, which gave us greatly improved functionality and created a better user experience for delegates. So, we have the capability to stage high-quality digital events when we want to do them.
We know they work well for some things, such as conferences for emerging markets and games showcases, and will add them to our schedule when appropriate. But at the moment, the SBC team is focused on delivering the in-person events our audience wants for the rest of 2021 and across 2022.
4-To close our short interview… in your opinion, what legacy has Covid-19 left in the market for major land-based events? How has the landscape changed and what are the next steps that organizers like SBC will have to make these events easy to reach, safe and always on-trend?
We can’t just rely on using the same formats again and again to do that. Instead, we have to continue finding innovative new ways in which to deliver the learning and business opportunities that make our conferences and trade shows so valuable to delegates, sponsors and exhibitors.
Part of that is evolving the format and utilizing technology effectively so that there’s something new and exciting for attendees every time – like the product launch presentations we have here in Barcelona. But it’s also about finding ways to help our customers to expand into emerging markets, as we are doing with our brand new SBC Summit CIS and SBC Summit Latinoamérica events next month.