Event info

Business- and sports leaders will join Ramón Calderón former President of Real Madrid in a Business and Football conference he’s hosting in Iceland on May 11th in Harpa conference and concert hall

This highly informative conference draws on lessons from sports experiences to help business professionals develop winning leadership skills

Iceland is well known for the raw beauty of its nature, but now this small nation has captured the world’s attention through its recent achievements in team sports. This trend of performing far beyond the demographic level typical of a nation of this size has in recent years propelled Iceland's national sports teams to the point of qualifying for several major tournament.

Iceland is a country of 325.000 people. For comparison, England has a population of over 53 million, Spain around 47 million and Germany more than 80 million. Iceland’s population, and pool of potential footballers, is closer to nations like Belize and the Maldives, or the city of Tarragona in Spain.

What can the business industry learn from football and sports management?

Sports serve as one of the most effective learning laboratories for training in leadership, strategy, teamwork and collaboration. Focusing on leadership lessons derived from sports experiences, you will explore:
· How the greatest sports managers and leaders develop talent and motivate their teams;
· How characteristics of successful sports teams can be applied to work teams;
· What strategies iconic sports managers and leaders have used to adjust to increased levels of competition and you can apply these tactics to your workplace;
· Learn the process of building unique and strong teams;
· How great managers prepare their teams before battles against bigger, stronger and more talented teams;
· How to manage, and how not to manage professionals with too much ego and self-interest.

Iceland has dome amazing in creating unique sports teams

How does Iceland manage to create unique and cohesive teams in sports when the country has much fewer players to choose from compared to other countries? And, what can companies learn from this to implement better team spirit and cooperation between their employees?

The key topics used to answer these questions are:
1. Team work, how to build unique teams
2. What has changed in Icelandic business and sports that has led to this success
3. How to use sports management to unlock peoples´ potential and achieve high performance in the workplace
4. The leader, what is the difference in managing small vs. big teams and what can they learn from each other
5. View from the outside on Iceland’s´ success in sports and business

Famous sport leaders and managers will come to Iceland to join this conference

The conference will be joined by former coaches, players and leaders from sports that want to come to Iceland to share their experience, to learn from the locals and to help sharing the message about the Icelandic miracle to other countries. Those speakers that will join Ramón Calderón are e.g. Kevin Keegan former national coach of England, David Moyes former coach of Manchester United, Chris Coleman national coach of Wales, John Carlin writer about sports, economics and politics for Financial Times and El Pais and Dagur Sigurdsson best handball coach of the year by IHF.

Icelandic business and sports leaders

To create different angles and perspectives Business and Football has gathered leaders from the Icelandic business and sports industry, e.g. Bjarni Benediktsson Minister of finance, Dagur B. Eggertsson Mayor of Reykjavik, Andri Thor Gudmundsson CEO Ölgerdin, Jón Rúnar Halldórsson Chairman of FH football club, Ari Kristinn president of Reykjavik University, Grímur Sæmundsson CEO of the Blue Lagoon, Halla Tómasdóttir Presidential candidate, investor and CEO, Þórdís Lóa Chairman of the FKA, Þorgerður Katrín Director for Education and Innovation, at Business Iceland and former Minister of Sports and Culture. Heimir Hallgrímsson national coach of Iceland football. Hafrún Kristjánsdóttir Psychologist & Head Sport Science at Reykjavík University.

Who should attend

The conference is designed for business managers, business owners, and other business professionals who want to strengthen their skills in leadership, coaching, team building, leading a business, and leading in difficult situations, or who find sports a compelling source for leadership lessons.

The world of business has much to learn from the world of sport when it comes to unlocking our people potential and achieving high performance in the workplace.