The Future of Sports And Live Entertainment

Peter Ogbu Okwoche is an award winning Senior Presenter for BBC World News television and BBC World Service Radio. He has been in the broadcasting industry for nearly 28 years, 16 of them with the BBC. He is a regular face on BBC World News TV – particularly as the main anchor of Focus on Africa, the channels’ flagship African affairs programme broadcast around the globe. He has also worked on several of the BBC’s flagship radio programmes like the World Today, Focus on Africa, Network Africa, and Fast Track, amongst others.

He is Nigerian but has spent an extensive amount of time travelling. He is regularly deployed across Africa to cover major events, including major elections and sporting tournaments. He has interviewed many of the continent’s Presidents and Heads of States including those of Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. He has also spoken to leaders of industry, politicians and other news makers across the world and is highly respected internationally in the profession he recently led the BBC’s biggest expansion across West Africa in 60 years, successfully launching three new services: BBC Pidgin, BBC Yoruba and BBC Igbo.

Misha Sher is Global Vice-President at MediaCom Sport & Entertainment, an award-winning sports & entertainment marketing division of MediaCom (WPP Group).

Industry veteran who has been at the forefront of the sports industry for more than 15 years, Misha has negotiated and advised on more £1B in sponsorship investments with major sport & entertainment properties, including UEFA, IOC, NFL and F1 in more than 25 countries.

At MediaCom, he has built and scaled global sport & entertainment business that sits at the intersection of sport, media, lifestyle and culture, with clients that include some of the biggest blue-chip brands like Toyota, Shell, Richemont, American Airlines and Allianz as well as top talent such as Pelé, Brian Lara, Mesut Özil, Vinicius Jr and Eniola Aluko, to name a few.

A former professional footballer, Misha began his business career in banking with Brown Brothers Harriman before returning to sport as an executive.

Misha is a published author and his opinions are regularly featured in leading media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Fortune, CNN, Sky, CMO, The Drum, Marketing Magazine and Sport Business International.

He is a board director at European Sponsorship Association and holds an MBA in Football Industries.

Nkechi Nneka Obi is a Sports Management Consultant with over 30 Years experience and accomplishment in sports management, marketing and administration. Her experience spans a variety of projects especially with start-up operations in Marketing and Communication, Exhibition Design and Promotion, Event Design and Management, Media Content Development and Broadcast (Politics, Music and Sports), Political Media Campaign Management as well as Products Merchandising and Marketing. Nkechi’s expertise is derived from her international network of contacts and knowledge of the business of sports, garnered from years of training at major sports seminars and sporting events including the Sports Business Campus Series in London, from 2000 to 2006, SPORTELMONACO, Monaco from 1998 to 2008, Leaders in Football and Leaders in Sports (UK) from 2009-2011, among others.

Through her companies Premium Sports Management Services Limited (PSMS) and Sportspro Nigeria Nkechi has been primarily involved in the design and management of sports projects targeted at engaging the private sector as a pre-eminent partner in sports development in Nigeria, and has initiated several projects to deliver on this objective, chief of which was the Team Nigeria project (2003-2007)–to harness private and public sector funding for the training and participation of Nigeria’s athletes at international multi-sport events such as the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and All Africa Games and a host of other events.

Over the past 30 years, Nkechi has promoted capacity development in sports administration as a key component of sports development and has acted as Consultant on development of bespoke content and projects for several clients. These include government agencies such as the Federal Ministry of Sports / National Sports Commission, The Nigeria Police Force, The Nigerian Army, Kwara State Football Academy, The Nigerian Nationwide League One (the bedrock of grassroots football in Nigeria), as well as a host of blue-chip companies.

Nkechi sees the private sector as the chief driver of the development of sports as an industry and in January 2018 was appointed the first Thematic Lead of the Sports Industry Thematic Group of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), where she has put together a team of professionals in various economic sectors to midwife the process of developing a new National Sports Industry Policy to harnessing a minimum of US$5 Billion in Investment over a 10-year duration (2020-2030) that will reposition the sports industry as a private sector-led contributor to the economic and social development of Nigeria. She is also a member of the Technical Working Group on Youth & Sports of the 2021-2030 Medium and Long Term National Development Plan and the Nigeria 2050 Agenda.

Amadou Gallo Fall, a Senegalese native who joined the NBA in January 2010, helped open the league’s office in Johannesburg, South Africa in May 2010, and directed the NBA’s grassroots basketball development initiatives and partnerships with marketing, media and consumer product companies in Africa. He was named Basketball Africa League President in May, 2019.

In his previous role as NBA Vice President and Managing Director for Africa, Fall oversaw significant growth in the NBA’s business and basketball development efforts in Africa, highlighted by three sold-out NBA Africa Games – in Johannesburg in 2015 and 2017 and in Pretoria in 2018 – in support of charities including UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and SOS Children’s Villages South Africa.

Under Fall’s leadership, the NBA has expanded its grassroots and elite development efforts across the continent, including the Jr. NBA, Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Africa and The NBA Academy Africa. BWB, the NBA and FIBA’s global basketball development and community outreach program, has been held in Africa 17 times, with 10 former BWB Africa campers drafted into the NBA.

Fall was instrumental in opening The NBA Academy Africa in May 2017, where elite male prospects ages 14-18 have received scholarships and training after scouting programs conducted with local federations across the continent. Seven NBA Academy Africa graduates have gone on to commit to NCAA Division 1 schools.

Fall is a recipient of multiple leadership awards for his contribution to the growth of the game of basketball and youth development on the African continent. This includes Reputation Poll International’s 100 Most Reputable Africans (2020), New African’s 100 Most Influential Africans (2019), African Leader 4 Change (2017) and the South African Sport Industry’s Leadership in Sport (2018).

Fall previously worked for the Dallas Mavericks, starting as a scout in 1998 before ultimately becoming Director of Player Personnel and Vice President of International Affairs, when he served as the team’s international goodwill ambassador and oversaw scouting assignments. He helped start Basketball Without Borders Africa in 2003 and served as Camp Director until 2010.

Fall is also the Founder of SEED (Sports for Education and Economic Development), a global non-profit organization established in 1998 with the mission of using sport as a vehicle to inspire, empower and support the holistic development of promising African youth, preparing them to become global citizens.

He is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), where he played center on the basketball team. In February 2020 he was inducted into the UDC Athletics Hall of Fame.

Kelechi is Africa’s Biggest Sports Blogger, a cultural ambassador, Influencer, avid arsenal fan, host, environmentalist and a PhD Holder in Environmental Engineering from the University of Leeds. Kelechi has worked with brands such as Coca-Cola Uk, Budweiser Uk, Terence Higgins Trust, Union Bank Nigeria, snapchat, Dstv Nigeria etc.

Kelechi is a popular and passionate Arsenal Fan and is known for his fun and passionate interviews and options on Arsenal Fan TV. Being a proud and passionate Nigerian, Kelechi loves to watch Arsenal matches in his Nigerian attire thereby showcasing Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage. Indeed he is unapologetically Nigerian and grants interviews in his Nigerian accent. He is also a recipient of so many awards including the prestigious African Achievers Award.