How the FBA Candidate Alexandre Baronciani experienced the ESSMA Summit 2019
Alexandre Baronciani, an alumnus of the FBA Professional Master in Football Business, about how he experienced the ESSMA Summit 2019. The FBA, an ESMMA Partner, offers its students a Professional Master in Football Business with the objective to deliver them all the necessary tools and an optimal learning environment in order to succeed in the passionate and dynamic football industry.
Last week, my classmates and I had the chance to step up in the heart of the professional football community as we were invited to be part of the fifth ESSMA Summit which took place in Porto. This event represents the pinnacle in stadium management. Indeed, it gathers the most influential stakeholders and leaders of the venue industry and provides exhaustive discussions about stadium-related topics such as hospitality, safety and security, stadium development, daily operations, fan experience or sustainability among others. Seminars were organized around themes, where several guest speakers from a wide range of backgrounds were invited to talk about their own experiences and give their insights, then followed by panel discussions which gave sharpness to the conversations initiated.
In addition to the Summit content delivered by ESSMA, the experience itself represented a great learning value as we were immerged in the depth of the hosting venue, Estádio Do Dragão, home of FC Porto. By simply observing the stadium’s backstage and wandering within the facilities, I gathered a massive amount of knowledge and broadened my vision of what modern stadiums should embody.
When starting in the football industry, events such as the ESSMA Summit are wonderful approaches to better comprehend the complexity of the football ecosystems and their dynamics. ESSMA focuses on knowledge accessibility and consequently, carefully choose its guest speakers in various areas of expertise to offer valuable content. My areas of interest for the Summit were Stadium Operations and SMART & Sustainability. Therefore, I had the chance to attend sessions about implementation of a venue management system at Legia Warsaw and FC Porto’s sustainability strategy in the same day. Both presentations illustrated modern challenges encountered by football clubs and offered keys to better apprehend such questions in my upcoming career. On a social point of view, the conceived environment facilitates the networking and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. It allowed us, candidates, to gain confidence in our capacities, skills and attractiveness on the market.
“Attending the ESSMA Summit and spending two days discovering behind the curtains of a major European club was a fantastic learning experience. Portugal was kind to us and offered the opportunity to enrich our minds. ESSMA organized a world-class event without flaws. I can only feel satisfied for what I experienced but with the desire to keep learning and to grow within a very promising industry.”