Post by Dino Büscher

This year, I spent most of my time at SPOBIS in meetings and informal exchanges with clients, partners and industry peers. Still, a few panels stayed with me. Not because of big statements, but because they touched questions I’m currently dealing with every day and all pointed in the same direction. 🤔 In the panel on Internationalisation, Innovation and Investments, voices like Jeff Berding, Fabian Veit, Oliver Bierhoff and Isabella Thun made one thing clear to me: international growth in football has matured. It’s no longer about chasing markets, but about balancing sporting ambition, financial stability and a brand identity that travels without losing credibility. That thought carried into The Authentic Edge panel on AI in sports sponsorship. One of the speakers was Henning Stiegenroth. My takeaway wasn’t about efficiency gains, but about expectation shifts. AI will raise the bar for authenticity, weak ideas won’t hide behind technology anymore. A similar clarity came from the panel on sport as a brand platform with Rolf Lange, Gerd Voss, Volker Greiner and Merle A. Meier-Holsten. The strongest statements weren’t only about reach, but about clarity - clear positioning, clear partnerships, clear decisions. What tied all of this together for me was a simple realization: as complexity increases, tolerance for noise decreases. And that’s exactly where experience marketing comes into play. 😅 In a world shaped by AI, internationalisation and constant distraction, real experiences are often the only moments where brands and people truly connect, where values become tangible and relevance can actually be felt. Not louder. Just more meaningful. 💯 And beyond the stages: it was genuinely good to see so many familiar faces again. Thanks for the open conversations Christoph Neininger, Malte Reinhardt, Gerd Voss, Oliver Bierhoff, Michael Schillinger, Daniel Battistel, Dr. Henning Stiegenroth, Johanna Bormann, Adriana Battaglia, Roland Bischof, Jan Milkereit, Christian Rose, Mario Frommhold, Stephan Rupprecht...