Last week’s inaugural Innovation in Sport Networking Breakfast has been declared an enormous success.

Essendon Football Club’s brand new event saw a number of key-note speakers from the sports business landscape discuss the future of the industry, with legendary former Bomber Jobe Watson joining a panel of experts at the exciting function.

The event provided guests with an opportunity to network with a broad variety of industry leaders in sport and technology, even delving into the future of player tracking from the United States.

Darren Birch – the AFL’s GM of Growth, Digital and Audience – spoke to guests and provided a great insight into the potential of esports, a field in which Essendon is paving the way among the football industry.

“The audience (teen males) is one we traditionally found hard to connect with and its important that we stay relevant so esports was an area we saw showed a lot of potential to look at for growth,” Birch said.

Essendon Chief Commercial Officer Justin Rodski said the new event represents the club’s commitment to lead the way in innovation.

“The theme of the event closely aligns to our strategic objectives as a club,” Rodski said.

“We have an innovation mindset, we are investing in growth and innovation, with exciting initiatives like esports and other projects.

“We are also creating a sports focused accelerator as part of our stage two development and expansion of our facilities at the club, in collaboration with RMIT University and RMIT Activator.”

The Breakfast is set to grow after its inaugural success to become a must-attend event on the calendar.

“For any business, in any industry, the innovation in sport networking breakfast is a great opportunity to stay ahead of the game,” Rodski said.