Pitch Perfect Innovation Contest

Shaun Curtis

President of S.O. CASUAL CREATIVE

Shaun Curtis, co-owner of S.O. Casual Creative., presents the firm as a strategic brand partner in the sports industry.
With decades of global sports management experience and deep ties to Caribbean, Canadian, and U.S. sports cultures, the company helps organizations transform underused sports assets into powerful brand stories. Rather than acting as a typical agency, S.O. Casual builds long-term brand systems that strengthen commercial value, cultural relevance, and fan connection across stadiums, digital platforms, and international markets.
Their goal is to create lasting impact that extends well beyond a single event.

Website

Igor Oreper

Chief Strategy Officer at Bitmovin

What if your video platform understood the game?
AISA is Bitmovin's AI Scene Analysis product - an intelligent layer that automatically detects key moments, tags scenes, and generates highlights from live sports content in real time. For rights holders managing thousands of broadcast hours, AISA cuts content operations from hours to seconds. It's not a research project - AISA is generally available and our partners are building.
With the FIFA World Cup approaching, the market need has never been clearer.

Website

Padraig O'Donovan

CEO of LAYERCAKE

Layercake is the company behind Streamcake, a cloud-native media orchestration platform redefining how live sport is produced and delivered. Streamcake replaces complex, hardware-driven broadcast workflows with automated, software-defined production, enabling sports organisations to design, deploy and operate scalable live workflows across competitions and venues. By integrating with existing broadcast infrastructure and cloud services, Streamcake dramatically reduces operational complexity and costs by up to 90%, while enabling organisations to increase event coverage by up to 800%. The result is more games streamed, more fans engaged, and new commercial opportunities through scalable, broadcast-grade sports production.

Website

Julian Buëhler

International Media Rights Distribution at PHYGITAL INTERNATIONAL

This pitch introduces Phygital Sports, a new competitive format that blends physical athletic performance with digital gaming. It presents the global ecosystem led by Phygital International and highlights the role of the Games of the Future as the world’s premier phygital event. The presentation will briefly review key outcomes from Games of the Future Abu Dhabi 2025 and preview Games of the Future Astana 2026, demonstrating how this hybrid format is attracting governments, media partners, and brands seeking innovative ways to engage the next generation of sports audiences.

Website

Kenth Andersson

SVP Business Development Global at APPEAR

Appear made NBC Sports’ live remote production model possible for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics. With Appear’s X Platform, NBC combined high-quality HDR video delivery with flexible fiber, satellite, and cloud workflows to move more live cameras and feeds than ever before.
This enabled a more agile, efficient, and scalable production approach, supporting fast turnaround and seamless contribution from Italy to the United States. Appear’s X technology helped maximize international bandwidth, simplify complex operations, and strengthen NBC’s ability to deliver premium Olympic coverage across broadcast, streaming, and digital platforms with the speed, reliability, and quality audiences expect.

Website