In 2017 Sphere Connect were awarded a contract to deliver the Commercial Director role for the Corporate Games, involving developing partnerships and undertaking negotiation with cities in the UK and overseas to host annual Games. The role also involved using Sphere’s specialist UK and European networks to engage with a wide range of private and public sector organisations to get them involved in sponsorship initiatives and participation.
With responsibility for securing deals for annual UK Corporate Games plus smaller Corporate Cup events, Sphere Connect delivered deals with Stoke on Trent in 2018, Coventry in 2019 and Lancaster for 2020 as well as several Corporate Cups. This involved extensive negotiations with senior leaders from the local authorities at these cities, engaging with potential client organisations to secure teams to participate in the Games, recruiting sponsors from the commercial sector, undertaking the PR and marketing as well as playing a lead role in organising the Games event weekends.
Over the two-year period, we delivered over £150,000 in participation sales as well as securing event contracts with host cities. We used our wealth of experience, expertise and skills drawn from working on major sports and commerce events to manage and deliver the UK Corporate Games and Corporate Cups, planning and delivering complex multi-sport events with a wide range of partners. The Games owners also asked us to negotiate a deal for the World Corporate Games in Qatar and we returned from there with a deal secured.
Having been so successful over two years, the Games owners invited Sphere Connect to take on the responsibilities of Chief Executive for the company as they were so impressed with the work we had undertaken. However, we chose not to take up this opportunity and instead moved on to other opportunities to further develop Sphere Connect as a business.
“The Corporate Games has a long and proud history and when we took on Sphere Connect to work with us in the role of Commercial Director, we wanted extensive sports and commerce sector experience and knowledge as well as strong commercial acumen both at a UK and international level.. We got all of this and more, as Michelle and Sphere Connect delivered excellent results in the UK for us and even stepped in to help us land the contract with Qatar for the World Games. We wish the team at Sphere Connect all the best for the future”.