Strengthening the handball brand – but at what price?

High-calibre representatives from sport, sports business, media and marketing will take part in the European Handball Talks, a business side event of the VELUX EHF FINAL4, on Friday, 31 May at Flora Cologne from 14:00 to 18:00.  

The European Handball talks are being held for the third time in a row and offer a great networking platform one day ahead of the benchmark event of the European indoor sports.

“Our goal with the European Handball Talks is to provide a platform for discussion which can offer answers to important questions and problems in the world of handball,” says EHF President Michael Wiederer.

“Over the past three years, the event has established itself as a not-to-be-missed business event for the handball industry. Even though the VELUX EHF FINAL4 starts one day later, the European Handball Talks are a stand-alone event. Cologne is, of course, a natural choice as many stakeholder and partners are already there to attend the VELUX EHF FINAL4.”

The EHF and EHF Marketing GmbH have defined two priorities for this year’s edition. In light of the upcoming media and marketing contract with Infront and DAZN from 2020, the first part will deal with ‘Building the Brand in the Digital Age’.

Marco Klewenhagen (Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of SPONSORS), Michael K. Rasmussen (owner of the agency ‘purpose @ heart’), Sascha Kojic (CEO of SN1 Consulting), Xavier O'Callaghan (Managing Director of the US office of FC Barcelona) and David Szlezak (Managing Director of EHF Marketing GmbH) will participate in the podium discussion.

Players’ workload under the spotlight

At the beginning of April, the European Handball Players Union (EHPU) caused a sensation with their “Do Not Play the Players” campaign, centred around the increasing demands on players.

One of their demands was a meeting with the EHF and the federation will use the European Handball Talks as a platform for a discussion on this issue with different stakeholders.

Under the title ‘Professionalisation of Handball’, EHPU President, Michael Sahl Hansen; Mikael Appelgren, goalkeeper at Rhein-Neckar Löwen; Martin Schwalb, TV expert; FIBA Executive Director Europe Kamil Novak and the EHF General Secretary Martin Hausleitner will discuss this topic.

Special treat for bookworms

There will also be a highlight for book-lovers at the event, with the author, Julie Larsson, starting proceedings with a reading from her new book children’s book.

The book ‘The Handball-Detectives: Alarm at the Arena’ is being sold ahead of and at the VELUX EHF FINAL4  in cooperation with charity partner Plan International to support their  ‘Girl’s fund’ campaign.

The European Handball Talks will finish with an awarding ceremony for those who have successfully completed this year’s edition of the European Handball Manager course organised jointly by the EHF and the German Sport University Cologne.

If you wish to attend European Handball Talks please register via the link: www.ehffinal4.com/EHT2019.