Events

Big Picture Seminar - Steve Sayer

3rd Mar 2021 5pm

This activity takes place online

JOIN THE SEMINAR HERE

Steve Sayer - The Return to Live: The World's No.1 Entertainment Destination through the Covid Pandemic and Back to Live.

Learn about Steve: Steve Sayer

Steve Sayer is Vice President and General Manager of The O2, the world’s most popular music and entertainment venue. As VP & GM, Steve heads up the Senior Leadership team at The O2 and is fully accountable for all aspects of venue management across the busy campus, including overseeing all aspects of venue strategy, improving the experience for The O2’s many customers, venue development projects and driving continued commercial growth.

Over the past eight months Steve has taken on the additional responsibility of leading The O2’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Steve joined The O2 in 2014 as Commercial Director, overseeing ticketing operations, merchandising, food and beverage and corporate sales, along with securing exhibition content and managing Up at The O2, the roof walk attraction over the venue.

In this role he worked closely with the AEG Europe leadership team to manage a number of capital improvement projects to identify and activate new revenue streams and enhance the fan experience. Prior to this, Steve was Operations Director for Manchester City Football Club and was responsible for match day and major event operations.

About the lecture:

The O2 is home to the world’s most popular music, sport and entertainment arena, and so much more. The O2 campus, situated underneath the iconic tented structure includes The O2 arena, indigo at The O2 and Icon Outlet, one of London’s most exciting retail destinations; The O2 is also home to Up at The O2, a climbing experience across the famous roof, Hollywood Bowl, Cineworld, ‘Mamma Mia! The Party’ and over 30 bars and restaurants. The O2 has been visited by over 70 million people since opening in 2007 and The O2 arena was given the accolade Venue of the Decade by Billboard Magazine in 2019.

At the start of 2020 the future looked bright. The event diary was full, new partners were joining, the venue’s CSR initiative Good Vibes All Round was moving to the next stage, and footfall to Icon Outlet was at an all-time high. Then Covid hit and the reality of the situation slowly started to dawn on us all. The next few months were a whirlwind, as we all tried to find our feet personally and professionally. When the lockdown came The O2 was forced to close its front doors for the very first time since opening.

In this talk The O2’s Vice President and General Manager, Steve Sayer will share insights into how the venue responded to the crisis, worked to re-open safely and continues to build a plan to ‘Return to Live’. Steve will reflect on lessons learned, highlight some key achievement and showcase some of the work the venue team are doing to fully re-open later this year.

Join us on the 3rd March 2021 @ 5pm!