The Big Interview: Kate Bosomworth

Speed Communications MD Kate Bosomworth speaks to the newly re-launched sportindustry.biz about the formation of the London agency and joining the Sport England board.

You were appointed to the Sport England board last year, what does the role involve?

Yes, I joined the board last September (2013). It was an odd experience actually, as I realised I hadn’t been interviewed for a job for 20 years! It was quite an interesting hour, as I was very open and forthright with my views, in some way, quite critical of the grassroots landscape to some extent. I left thinking they’d never offer me the job after that, so I was quite surprised to be offered the chance to join the board, but also flattered and obviously I jumped at the chance – it’s been an extraordinary opportunity to work with some very talented people.

I joined at the same time as Debbie Jevans, Sally Gunnel and Ian Drake, and every month I feel incredibly lucky to be sitting in amongst this brilliant group of people.

I’ve always been mad about sport, my previous agency was dedicated solely to sport, health and fitness and during the eight years there we did an awful lot of grassroots community intervention projects and helped a lot of brands establish their feet in the health and wellbeing market. So Sport England was a really lovely opportunity, and I’m the only ‘PR’ on the board -,- but in order for Sport England to make the most of the post-Olympic opportunity and address the massive challenges we have, you need a mix of skills but also people to be fearless – why can’t we change how we do things? It’s always worth asking.

What’s encouraged me massively is the openness to debate, and they welcome challenge, so I’ve been really impressed by the board so far – they want opinions and alternate solutions bought to the table – I’m loving it.

I guess for them the challenge has been the legacy aspect, what are the key elements to that – have they been a success?

It was never going to be changed overnight, and it’s a shame that the over use of the word legacy has created an expectation that change should be immediate. But I am now amongst a board of people that will challenge the status quo at Sport England and how things are done, but I think they are enjoying the greater levels of innovation and idea generation they have round the table.

NBG’s have a different role in sport versus 10 years ago now their role is routed in driving participation and grassroots. I think the challenge that exists within the NGB community is they require different skills than they needed historically. NGB’s need nimble and innovative marketeers, as well as the very talented people who know sport inside out – but this is happening and it’s creating a exciting shift in national governing bodies.

There are those enjoying the challenge and shouting “yes it is our responsibility to get people moving and into sport and keep them sustained in sport” that are doing well. Sport England are also doing some really good things – they have recently created a high performing model for NGB’s so those doing well can share how they have done it with others. They are learning and sharing, they are being brave.

You mentioned you joined the board at the same time as a number of other very strong female personalities (Debbie Jevans, Sally Gunnell) – which a lot of board didn’t necessarily have a few years ago, what’s changed? And how far away are we from an equal boardroom?

We are getting there. I was listening to Heather Rabbats on BBC Radio 4 talking about representation at board level and is positive discrimination a good thing or not? Debbie Jevens has spoken a lot about it, it is changing, we are getting there, but it still needs to be a proactive debate for things to change. There aren’t enough women on boards in sport. There are plenty of bloody great women in sport, my guess is they are incredibly busy doing their jobs to spend too much time out and about talking about what needs to change. They are just getting on with it.

I don’t think its representative yet, but neither is the coverage of women in the sports pages, and sponsorship deals still don’t equal that of men. Work needs to be done and it needs to stay on the agenda.

I was at an event recently that was all about women at  board level and most of the audience was made up of high achieving alpha-females who ‘were’ on boards. I thought, why are we talking to these women – they know all this already!

But I do think it’s changing slowly, and it’s encouraging.

Now, the day job. What makes Speed Communications different?

Since taking over Speed I’ve tried to get rid of the silos that traditionally existed, numerous discrete teams that worked on their own clients etc, I’ve removed these walls and now clients can have access to all the experience in the agency, no matter what the team. We have a lovely blend of knowledge and experience in the agency, so it’s a shame not to use it all. Many of my consumer team are sport science graduates. We can put PR’s in front of clients and journalists whose knowledge is extraordinary and academic background is strong – clients like that level of technical knowledge.

Where do you see sport and tech going? The two are becoming a lot more connected than five years ago – is that trend set to continue?

I think so, we are connected at so many levels if you put sport and tech together. The science behind sports performance is very exciting and we are firmly in that space in terms of tracking and development sport performance, wearable tech, how sport and tech works to improve fan experience.

Speed managed the PR for the Lucozade Sport Conditions Zone in the summer which replicated the climatic conditions of Brazil, it was a direct, content driven, and epic piece of work, with technology deep-routed into that. For consumers we showed them how their body reacts to these extreme conditions and we demonstrated how Lucozade Sport helps the body cope. It was a superb piece of truly integrated work, delivered by a team of great agencies giving consumers a unique, sharable and memorable brand experience – it was brilliant.