Workshop to tackle role of sports managers in the digital era

Raymond Jaravaza . .
SPORTS business has fully entered into the digital era and sports managers must ditch Stone Age and outdated methods of running sports institutions in order to thrive in the fast growing technological age, an official has said.

As part of presentations that will be tackled in the fifth edition of the Sports Leaders Institution of Zimbabwe (SLIZ) summer camp, the role of sports managers in the digital era will come under the spotlight.

The camp runs from 9 to 11 November in Nyanga.

“We are aware of the global vil­lage we are in so we have slotted in a pre­sen­ta­tion on
dig­i­tal era sports man­agers and their role in running efficient sports organisations which meet the needs of technologically savvy fans, competitors and business partners.

“In short we are saying now is no longer the time for outdated sports management methods from marketing to database collection. Nowadays football clubs, for instance, no longer have to wait for newspapers to publish upcoming fixtures but instead use social media platforms,” said SLIZ president Russell Mhiribidi.

Local football clubs such as Bulawayo Chiefs, Chicken Inn and Caps United have fully embraced the use of social media to interact with their fans and disseminate official news and updates.

Bulawayo Chiefs’ Twitter account is the most captivating on the local football scene with witty interactions with its followers, even receiving a nod from Italian giants AS Roma.

International clubs are creating more personalised content to connect with their fans and generate revenue by taking advantage of the continuous advances in technology.

SLIZ prides it­self as “game chang­ers” in the coun­try’s sports in­dus­try, coming up with top­ics that help lo­cal ad­min­is­tra­tors keep up with the global sports man­age­ment trends.

The summer camp will be attended by sports lead­ers, teach­ers, head­mas­ters, sports di­rec­tors, SDC (school de­vel­op­ment com­mit­tee) rep­re­sen­ta­tives, coaches, sport­ing as­so­ci­a­tions and ter­tiary in­sti­tu­tions representatives.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion, which is recog­nised for play­ing an ac­tive role in sports in­dus­try de­vel­op­ment in Zim­babwe by the Sports and Re­cre­ation Com­mis­sion (SRC), has also been on the fore­front of speak­ing against age cheat­ing.