Marketing Director Jessica Motaung represented the Club at Beyond Sport United 2014 which took place on Tuesday, 10 June 2014 at Yankee Stadium, New York City.

“The theme “Putting community at the heart of investing in soccer” ties very well with the Kaizer Chiefs brand. The meeting with different sporting codes from various countries was another opportunity to share knowledge and expertise and more so benchmark Chiefs with the best in the world. AS Roma, Athletics World Foundation, International Cricket Council, International Olympic Committee and Tottenham Hotspur were some of the represented organisations in the 300 delegates who attended the conference,” said Motaung speaking to kaizerchiefs.com from New York City, US.

Beyond Sport United is an event born out of the idea that professional sports teams, as heroic brands with historic resonance, have the profound ability to be hubs of positive influence and resource within their communities. Now in its fourth year, the event is backed by its Founding Supporters – MLB, MLS, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, NHL, and WNBA – and teams, leagues, partners and potential collaborators gather to discuss how they can better engage with communities.

The aim of the one-day event in 2014 was to focus on two key themes relevant to teams and leagues and community engagement:

- A desire to interact and engage youth

- The growing importance of digital and social media platforms

Beyond Sport United 2014 was focusing on these interlocked themes and explored how genuine community engage and social responsibility can result in a shared-value outcome when it comes to teams leagues reaching new markets, new fan bases, and successfully utilising new communication platforms.

“Engaging youth is part of our strategy at the Club and currently we are developing our Youth Academy structures at the Club and through other outreach programmes we endeavour to prioritise on the youth as they are the future. Currently we are leaders in terms of team sports in South Africa with over a million followers on our Facebook and both twitter and Instagram also picking up nicely. To engage on a topic about youth was a coincidence as South Africa is currently commemorating Youth Month in remembrance of the events of June 16, 1976,” said Jessica

Motaung took centre stage during the closing of the conference in front of the 300 delegates she was part of a panel discussion together with Erik Stover – Chief Operating Office; New York Cosmos and Bart Wiley – VP, Business Operations; Seattle Sounders.

Motaung had to face the questions about her father, Mr Kaizer Motaung (Chairman) who played for the Atlanta Chiefs in the US in the late 60's and 70's which is where the name Kaizer Chiefs comes from. The audience were interested to know how Motaung (Jessica) is packaging Chiefs as a commercial brand and turning it into one of South Africa’s best-known commercial entities. Motaung had to talk about Chiefs’ success in building a strong support base than any other club in SA.

Mark Abbott – President & Deputy Commissioner, Major League Soccer and Jean Afterman - Assistant General Manager & Senior Vice President, New York Yankees gave the keynote addresses during the opening of the conference. The workshop titles included Soccer and Shared Value: How to Maximize Sponsor Activation with Social Responsibility. Jessica Motaung, Erik Stover – Chief Operating Officer, New York Cosmos and Bart Wiley – VP of Business Operations, Seattle Sounders facilitated a workshop on More Than a Club: How a Team Goes Beyond Soccer.

“I am excited that Chiefs were part of such a forward thinking conference and will be working on implementing some of the lessons learned and improving on the elements that we have been implementing well so far at Chiefs. Beyond Sport United will be heading to South Africa soon which will be good for South African sport as we are part of the Globe and we have to benchmark ourselves against the best from other parts of the world,” added Jessica.