MUMBAI: Some of the biggest names in sports, sports marketing and management, advertising and television will converge at India's first sports marketing forum Sportzbiz 2003 tomorrow at the ITC Grand Maratha in Mumbai.
The half day forum, presented by ESPN-Star Sports, will discuss the status of various issues facing the business of sport in the country. It will be addressed by industry stalwarts like Percept CEO Rajesh Pant, Broadmind-WPP national director M Suku, BCCI vice president Kamal Morarka, ESPN MD Manu Sawhney and Starcom India general manager Ravi Kiran. The event assumes greater significance with World Cup cricket just round the corner, as it aims to tackle the several issues that face the evolving sports marketing scenario in India and lay out a path for future development of the field.
Organised jointly by indiantelevision.com and SportzPR, India's first sports communication consultancy, the theme of the seminar is Sports Marketing : The New Frontier. The forum will discuss in depth issues like the management of sports events, harnessing the power of TV, why marketers are investing huge amount of money in sports, and the level of corporate involvement in sports. Also on the agenda is a debate on the phenomenon called cricket that takes up a large share of the sports marketing buck, the realities and the road ahead. 
The first session of the day will dwell on 'Business of Sports... Is Sports giving you the right bang for your marketing buck?', with panelists including Fosters MD Pradeep Gidwani, former Star India ad sales VP Raj Nayak, former world Billiards champion Michael Fereira, Starcom India General Manager Ravi Kiran, and ESPN Star Sports presenter Harsha Bhogle. 
The second session will deal with 'Cricket and beyond cricket' and will have as panelists Kamal Morarka, Vice President, Board of Control for Cricket in India, Autocar India editor Hormazd Sorabjee, Indian Hockey Federation president KPS Gill, President, All India Tennis Association secretary general Anil Khanna, All England badminton champion Pullela Gopichand and Procam International MD Anil Singh. 'Sports and TV... Harnessing the power of television', the third session, will be debated by panelists Ayaz Memon, Sports Editor, The Times of India, ESPN MD Manu Sawhney, TEN Sports CEO Chris McDonald, Broadmind-WPP Marketing Communications national director M Suku and Percept CEO Rajesh Pant. 
The last session of the day 'The Future - Can we realize the full potential of sports marketing in India?' will be discussed by panelists who include Nimbus Communications chairman Harish Thawani, Motorsports Association of India president Nazir Hoosein, Formula Three Ace Karun Chandhok, Sony Entertainment Television CEO Kunal Dasgupta, Sports Authority of India Director General Shekhar Dutt and IMG director sales, Jamie Stewart.