From having Olympic Games accreditation at the age of just 4, to leading one of the world’s biggest broadcast operations, Ursula Romero has a fantastic story to tell.
The daughter of early pioneers in major event broadcasting, Ursula is the CEO of ISB, International Sports Broadcasting. With over 20 years experience providing coverage of global sporting events, Ursula and ISB are now transitioning away from mainstream sports to providing a platform for emerging sports and events.
Ursula on getting involved in the Olympic movement as a young childđș:
” I got into it because I got dragged all over the world, in the nicest possible way, as a 4 year-old following my parents to the Olympics. It was amazing. The first time I had direct contact with the Olympics was in 1984, when my Mum and Dad moved to Los Angeles because my father got hired by ABC, who was the Host Broadcaster, to lead up the whole host broadcasting operation in LA. Little did we know that this little Spanish guy from Seville would end up in Seville running the whole host broadcast operation for the Americans.
It was amazing because I was only 4 years old and to move to DIsneyland country, it was pretty cool. My Mum was also involved with the games, working for German TV, so I do remember having accreditation when I was a kid and being able to go and see the Opening Ceremony. My Dad’s office was in the Paramount Studios and his office was one of the dressing rooms used by Hollywood legends, so those are all cool memories for me.”
 The future of Host Broadcastingđ„:
 “I think the role of the host broadcaster will always be needed, because if everybody comes with their own camera and starts shooting whatever they want, then the actual quality and vision and mission of these multisports events gets too fragmented.
 Whether the scale of it as it is right now is needed, I don’t know. I honestly believe that less is going back to more. Recently it has been about throwing more cameras and new technologies at it and the budget has gone through the roof. Now it is more about telling the story and you don’t need so much equipment to do that anymore, because you focus more on the story and I think it will be more focused on innovation through technology, rather than innovation through equipment.”
 Ursula on her future ambitionsâ:
“I think you have to diversify and for me at least and for me it is about building your own new challenges. My big love is films, so I want to get more into the creating stories, creating content and creating the perfect event would be great. The idea is to make smaller events for shorter attention span, because let’s face it, we all have a shorter attention span, especially the younger generations.Â
I had opportunities from when I was very you and I want to give back. I have been doing some workshops recently, especially focusing on the whole women in broadcast side of things and I think it’s great that companies like us and OBS and HBS are now giving those kind of opportunities.”