Another sold-out lunch, another packed room at Fratton Park.
The latest Pompey Business Hub at Portsmouth Football Club, powered by Network My Club, brought together members and first-time visitors for what was, once again, a real buzz from start to finish.
👇 Here are the highlights, with event photos here 📸.
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The event opened with arrival teas, coffees, and open networking, followed by a delicious lunch and sweet treats, a Q&A insight with Portsmouth FC, the event partner, and NMC updates to share too.
Before the second half of the event allowed for more open networking and chance to start or continue conversations.
Club Insight Q&A – Matthew Barker
After lunch, the club Q&A took centre stage with Matthew Barker, Head of Marketing & Communications at Portsmouth FC. Matthew gave the room a peak into how the role has evolved over the five years he’s been at the club, and what it actually means to do marketing inside a football club.
He spoke about how the team’s on-pitch performance shapes marketing and commercial performance in a way most industries never have to navigate, and how that makes traditional goal setting a real challenge.
Data and fan feedback, he explained, are what continually fuel the club’s innovation, whether that’s live matchday coverage or the digital offering reaching fans across the world.
Matthew also spoke about the growth of the women’s team and how it now features heavily in his department’s work. Recent pitch renovations and stadium developments mean the women’s team can now play their full season at Fratton Park for the first time.
He touched on where the biggest opportunities lie for the club going forward, particularly on non-matchdays, and how AI is being explored by him and his team as another source of ideas and inspiration for developing the marketing function.
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Making Companies Human Online with Event Partner; Rubber Duckers
The room then heard from the event partner, Rubber Duckers, with Founder, Ross Chapman, sharing more about their web design, development and video production business.
Ross spoke about the growing importance, in a world full of AI-generated content, of helping brands look and feel human and authentic online, whether that’s through a website or through the photography and videography his team produces for clients at events.
His view: as AI keeps developing, the value of being in a room together, and of being genuinely human online, only grows.
It’s exactly where he and his team focus their work with clients – and hard for us to argue with that!
To view the work Rubber Duckers are doing, visit their website here.
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Membership & Event Updates + New Venue
To close, Bradley Hatchett, Founder of Network My Club, shared membership and event updates, welcoming new members into the group, including several who were in the room, and thanking those renewing their membership.
There was also news of an addition to the Network My Club group, with events coming to Skylark Country Club in Hampshire from August.
With the venue complementing the existing Pompey Business Hub events at Fratton Park.
PLUS, sharing how members now also have a new membership perk of being able to use a meeting room at Skylark at no cost.
Members, login to your dashboard to find out how to claim it.
The next event at Fratton Park is Wednesday 23 September,
With the event at Skylark Country Club on Tuesday 18 August.
Bookings are open for both events, and others across the NMC group, here.
Event Photos
A big thank you to Naomi Lloyd of Naomi Lloyd Photography for capturing the event.
📸 Gallery
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