SportTech Europe 2015: Keynote Q&A with Barbara Slater, BBC Director of Sport

Barbara Slater, BBC, Director of Sport

SVG Europe’s SportTech Europe 2015 conference on May 7 at Manchester United FC will lead with a Keynote Q&A between BBC Director of Sport Barbara Slater and Sadie Groom, Bubble & Squeak Communications, Managing Director. Barbara Slater took up her role as Director of Sport in April 2009. She had previously been Head of Production and Head of General Sports for the department.

Her responsibilities include working with governing bodies to retain a broad portfolio of broadcasting rights, overseeing the planning and coverage of major sporting events and leading the sports journalism operation at BBC Sport’s new base in Salford. In 2012, Barbara Slater was responsible for the BBC’s cross-platform sports coverage of the London Olympic Games — the most watched TV event in UK broadcasting history. She was awarded the ‘Inspirational Woman Prize’ at the Women in Film and Television Awards in recognition of this achievement and has since been appointed as an expert to the International Olympic Committee Radio and Television Commission for 2014.

Slater joined the BBC in 1983 as a trainee assistant producer in the Natural History Unit in Bristol, but has spent most of her career as a producer in BBC Sport, specialising in outside broadcasts and overseeing the production of a range of sports including tennis and golf. She was awarded the OBE in 2014 for her services to sports broadcasting.

She grew up in Birmingham, and was an international gymnast, competing for Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976. Barbara Slater is married with three children.

SportTech Europe 2015 will take place in Manchester on 6-7 May. For a full programme, and to register to attend, please visit https://www.svgeurope.org/sport-tech-europe-2015/full-programme/.