From Formula One to the NFL: How The LIVE Team is Elevating Fan Activations in Sports

This is part of an occasional series spotlighting companies, destinations or individuals that will be attending the TEAMS Conference & Expo for the first time. This year’s edition will take place from October 26—29 in Birmingham, Alabama, and will feature a Rookie Reception for first-time attendees. That event will be on Monday, October 26 at 4:00 p.m. CT at the Protective Stadium Club of the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex.

The LIVE Team aims for that “wow factor” during at its fan activations.

Anup Daji, senior vice president of experience at THE TEAM, saw that in full force at this year’s Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix. The Red Bull Energy Station, a trackside VIP hospitality zone at Turn 11 of the Miami International Autodrome, provides a perfect example of what THE TEAM likes to execute.

Lively trackside views, gourmet food and beverage, energetic DJ sets and exclusive Q&A sessions with drivers such as Max Verstappen — it’s all part of what the LIVE Team helps its clients, such as Red Bull, package into premier events.

The Red Bull Energy Station, a three-day hospitality experience at the Miami GP, cost a pretty penny to access. ZK Sports listed the experience at $4,250 ahead of the 2026 event.

But it delivered in luxury hospitality and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, which is part of what the LIVE Team looks to deliver.

“What Red Bull really sought out to do was to set the standard for what premium on-track hospitality should look like,” Daji said. “(Fans) get a tremendous Red Bull-first experience, which is really unlocking the unexpected.”

Crafting Experiences with the LIVE Team

The Live TEAM lives within THE TEAM, a marketing and talent representation agency formerly known as Wasserman that works with clients in sports, music and entertainment across six continents, 28 countries and more than 70 cities worldwide.

THE TEAM has worked with high-profile clients from the MLB and NFL to Google and American Express.

“I’m a big proponent of creativity and pragmatism,” Daji said. “We make sure that the vision we’re selling our clients is going to be achievable and deliverable within their budgets.”

Daji’s work is focused on the experiential pillar, which encapsulates THE TEAM’s full event management lifecycle. Sports activations play a key role within that area, and the LIVE Team provides everything from branding and signage to live event production and operations.

Daji refers to the LIVE Team’s work as “the last mile,” getting boots on the ground and executing live events.

Daji sees the future of fan activations leveraging the creator economy — bringing in creators to capture the engagement and reach more people by showing exactly what they experienced.

But regardless of how the future unfolds for sports events, the LIVE Team is sticking to the tenets that have carried it for more than 15 years.

“Speed, efficiency and quality will be the core tenets of what we’re going to be delivering to our clients,” Daji said. “We always want to make sure that we’re delivering practical and pragmatic solutions that can be deployed at the level of scale that our clients are looking to achieve.”