State of Play

Each year, our award-winning sports sector team hosts State of Play — a free and invite-only conference and networking event for senior decision-makers and subject matter experts from across the world of sport. 

Held at Etihad Stadium — the iconic home of Manchester City FC — State of Play explores important themes through a series of engaging panel sessions. 

For attendees, it’s a chance to hear from and share insights with fellow leading voices in sport to level up together. 

2024’s theme was athlete welfare — and our speakers and panellists discussed a wide range of topics including mental health and wellbeing, the specific challenges facing women in sport, how technology can support our approach to welfare and the dangers associated with having a social media presence.

We were fortunate to have Kevin Sinfield CBE give an inspirational keynote speech — led by an interview-style conversation with the BBC’s brilliant Felicity Kvesic. They explored Kevin’s experiences of playing, leading (as captain) and managing rugby teams in both rugby league and rugby union. Kevin’s insights into the workings of the world of rugby were honest and extremely thought-provoking. He illustrated just how important it is to get the opinions of professional athletes into how their respective sports are looking after their own wellbeing and what improvements must be made.

Alistair Brownlee was also kind enough to sit down with our Head of Sport, Lydia Edgar to discuss the lessons he learned about athlete welfare from his stellar athletic career — including the infamous incident at Mexico 2016 where he helped his brother, Jonny, across the finish line after he’d collapsed due to extreme heat.

We also heard from Andy Etches — CEO at Rezzil, a fast-growing sports technology company — to find out how virtual technology is impacting the world of sport and how it may be increasingly used in injury prevention, treatment and recovery.