For the past 10+ years Mike has been researching, analysing, commentating, writing, publishing, and teaching on the economics and social impacts of staging major events, with the view to improve delivery and leave a sustainable legacy for the communities, people and places that play host.

As Director of Research, Intelligence, Education at Trivandi, and as a Professeur at the Sorbonne, University of Paris 1 (Pantheon-Sorbonne), his aim is to connect and collaborate with world leading scholars/scholarship with practitioners/practical knowledge to generate cutting edge research, evidence-based intelligence, and a new international educational program to advance how to think about and do major events - to continually improve delivery and leave a sustainable legacy.

Since 2021, he has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Event Management Journal (EMJ), the leading international academic journal for the study of events, based in New York, USA.

Previously, he has been a tenured professor at the University of Central Florida and held the position of Reader and Head of Department at the University of Surrey, where he was also Director of the UK Olympic Studies Centre, responsible for leading major events research and education.

He has been fortunate enough to travel the world examining the economics and social impacts of hosting major events, including the London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and now the Paris 2024 and LA 2028 Games, alongside various other events like the Commonwealth Games and regional sports and cultural events. His research has been published in leading journals and funded by large- and small-scale grants from the International Olympic Committee to the European Union, and applied to over 50 consultancy projects across diverse settings, from small festivals to large-scale major sporting events. You can access and read his published research here.

To help disseminate this knowledge he has given keynotes and talks around the world; he hosts the ‘InsideEvents’ podcast with audio and video interviews to examine contemporary topics and issues in events; he writes short thought pieces in ‘The Conversation’ and reports for leading agencies like the United Nations; and he often provides media commentary around the economics and social implications of hosting events in publications like Les Echoes to The Guardian. He has given interviews and debated live on radio and TV from the BBC to a one-hour debate on Sky News on the global events’ response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. You can find out more about his keynotes, talks, media work and thought pieces here.