To celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2023, the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) is launching a new honour – the ESA Fellowship.
Nominations opened today as ESA began the process of recognising long-serving leaders who have made an outstanding contribution to the sponsorship industry.
The first recipients of the ESA Fellowship will be honoured at the 2023 ESA Awards ceremony in London on 9 March. Thereafter the Fellowship will become an annual process with one person inducted each year.
ESA Chairman Andy Westlake said: “I’m delighted that we are providing an opportunity for sponsorship professionals who have made a lasting impact on the industry to be given due recognition through the ESA Fellowship.
“I would urge anyone involved in sponsorship to consider who they look up to as the real standard-bearers of the sector. I am sure we will be spoilt for choice with a diverse range of candidates nominated from across Europe.”
Recipients of the ESA Fellowship will be gifted lifetime individual membership of ESA, which began life in 1988 as the Institute of Sports Sponsorship (ISS). The European Sports Consultants Association (ESCA) was formed two years later, and the two bodies merged in 2003 to become ESA.
The nomination process for the 2023 ESA Fellowship is as follows:
- Sponsorship professionals are invited to nominate candidates before the deadline of 23 January 2023.
- ESA will create a shortlist from the nominations received and the ESA Board will select the inaugural recipients.
- The inductees will be invited as VIP guests to the 2023 ESA Awards where they will be awarded their ESA Fellowship.
The 2023 ESA Awards ceremony will take place at The Brewery in London on 9 March and tables and tickets are now on sale with an early bird discount available until 6 January.
The ceremony will be hosted by Nigel Owens MBE, and the shortlist features almost 100 organisations from Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and the UK demonstrating best practice in arts, culture, entertainment and sports sponsorship.
-ENDS-
For media queries, please contact:
Jonathan Coates | ESA Marketing, Communications and Events Manager
marketing@sponsorship.org | +44 7788 352219