Sponsorships can quickly come under fire when sponsors attract negative media coverage and public pressure, creating tough decisions for rights holders that can have a significant impact on the industry. This webinar – exclusive to ESA members – will examine various ways to handle controversies and crises.
Featuring expert speakers who have dealt with such predicaments, this session will include reflections on challenges faced by sponsors, rights holders and agencies around their moral and commercial responsibilities in the heat of a sponsorship backlash.
Strengthen your crisis-management plans and ensure the resilience of your sponsorship deals with insights from leading industry professionals.
Shona McCarthy
Chief Executive, Edinburgh Fringe Festival Society
Shona joined the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society as Chief Executive in 2016 and has championed the Edinburgh Fringe as the world’s leading performing arts festival and expo, founded on the principles of open access and freedom of expression.
From 2011-2014 she was Chief Executive of the Culture Company, leading on Derry – Londonderry’s transformational year as UK City of Culture. Prior to that she was Director of the British Council Northern Ireland. She headed up Imagine Belfast to deliver Belfast’s bid to be European Capital of Culture. She also spent many years as Chief Executive of Cinemagic Film Festival for young people, Belfast; and the Foyle Film Festival, Derry; and was Head of Exhibition at the Northern Ireland Film Council.
Shona has over 30 years’ experience working in senior leadership positions and was awarded a prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship for Innovation in 2014, making her part of a global network of leaders and influencers, and a NESTA cultural leadership award which took her to work with the Seagull Foundation for the Arts in Calcutta India in 2007. She is an Honorary Fellow of Surrey University, a visiting Professor at Edinburgh Napier University and an Honorary Fellow of the Marketing Society of Scotland.
Karen Morris
Founder & Director, Reg&Co
Reg&Co is a boutique agency that brings organisations together to make good things happen. As Founder and Director, Karen helps organisations understand the value of their partnership offer and then translate the strategy into obtaining sponsors.
Karen has over 30 years of experience, specialising in creating value for clients through loyalty programmes, brand partnerships, sponsorship or fundraising. Clients have included Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, Harlequins RFC, CRUK, Landsec, TfL, Liverpool City Council, Glasgow Life, World Gymnastics Championships, Transport for Greater Manchester, FT, Affordable Art Fair, BBC Earth Experience, Radix Big Tent, Moniker Art Fair, IWSC, Volunteer It Yourself, Photo London and Somerset House among many others.
Sophie Morris
Chair, ESA
Sophie Morris is Co-Founder and Director of Sponsor View (formerly Millharbour Marketing) and has worked in marketing and sponsorship for over 20 years. She is a Chartered Marketer, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Market Research Society.
Sophie also sits on the Board of the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University and the Danish sponsorship group ‘SPOT:ON’ and judges sponsorship awards in the UK, Belgium, Slovenia and for ESA. In 2023 she was elected as Chair of ESA.
Martin Prendergast
Arts Partnerships & Public Affairs Consultant, Martin Prendergast Communications
Martin works with some of the most exciting and prestigious arts organisations in the UK, including RADA, The BRIT School, Lightroom and Artichoke. Formerly the Director of Communications at the National Theatre, and at Guardian News and Media before that, he set up a consultancy, Martin Prendergast Communications (MPC), in 2019.
Martin has worked with some of the world’s most famous brands, including American Express, Aviva, Coutts, Sotheby’s, and The Guardian (among many others) to create award-winning and valuable brand partnerships. He was elected in 2023 as a Board Director of ESA, where he is interested in understanding how the value and profile of arts sponsorships can be elevated so that it is closer to that of the sports sector. He is a trustee of Theatre Peckham and HOME in Manchester, and a proud Speaker for Schools.
The webinar recording is available exclusively to ESA members in our website event resources.
Sign-up to our mailing list to be the first to hear about future ESA events and other updates.
