【ANN NEWS Los Angeles】 ALEVA Media Group LLC held a strategic partnership press conference and signing ceremony in Los Angeles on Sept. 6, 2026, formally launching the “ALEVA 2028 Global Sports Strategic Partnership Initiative” and announcing strategic partnerships with DigATrend and TripGuru.
The partnerships will focus on sports marketing, athlete partnerships, international brand promotion, ticketing and travel services, international media communications, innovative imaging technology, and cross-border business resource integration. ALEVA said it will use the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a key development milestone, connecting athletes, international brands, film and television content production, media technology, and the U.S. and Asian markets to explore more sustainable global sports business opportunities for companies and partners.
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, California State Assemblymember Mike Fong, three-time U.S. Olympic swimmer Kara Lynn Joyce, and guests from the sports, film and television production, immersive technology, international media, and business sectors attended the event.
Political, Business and Sports Leaders Focus on Opportunities Around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
ALEVA co-founder and President Eva Qian introduced the event’s main guests and provided background on the initiative.
Chu and Fong shared perspectives on women-owned businesses, small-business development, community engagement, the sports economy, and international exchanges, and discussed the economic, cultural, and international cooperation opportunities that the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics could bring to Southern California.
Both elected officials emphasized the importance of supporting women entrepreneurs and small businesses, including expanding access to resources, business networks, and market opportunities, and creating broader opportunities for women-owned businesses to grow.
Fong said Southern California has strong advantages as a hub for sports, entertainment, and international business. As the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics approach, related investment, community engagement, tourism spending, and international business exchanges are expected to increase further. How local communities and small and medium-sized businesses can participate in this development will also be an important issue in the coming years.
The two elected officials presented certificates to ALEVA principals Lu Liu, Eva Qian, and Ling Ju Liu, as well as IQI principal Khiow Hui Lim.
Olympian Kara Lynn Joyce: Extending Athletes’ Value Beyond Competition
Former U.S. competitive swimmer Kara Lynn Joyce shared an athlete’s perspective and discussed future directions for sports partnerships at the event.
Joyce represented the United States at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympic Games and won four Olympic silver medals. She said the public usually sees athletes at their most brilliant moments in competition, but their real growth often takes place away from the arena, through years of training, injury recovery, psychological pressure, setbacks, and starting over.
She said future commercial partnerships built around athletes should not be limited to exposure during competitions, but should extend to athletes’ personal stories, brand partnerships, content distribution, and long-term career development.
ALEVA said athlete partnerships will be an important part of the “ALEVA 2028 Global Sports Strategic Partnership Initiative.” The company hopes that more systematic content development, brand connections, international media communications, and marketing will enable athletes’ commercial value and personal influence to develop over a longer period beyond their competitive careers.
Eva Qian: Bringing the Stories Behind the Medals to the World
ALEVA Media Group co-founder and President Eva Qian said ALEVA hopes to combine sports, film and television production, media technology, and international business resources to bring more of the real stories behind athletes to audiences around the world.
Drawing on years of experience in Hollywood film and television production and media technology, Qian said the film industry taught her that what audiences ultimately see on screen is often only the most compelling part of a story, while the images themselves are supported by years of preparation and largely unseen work behind the scenes.
“A two-hour movie may represent years of preparation and the combined efforts of hundreds of people.” she said, “Sports are actually the same. The difference is that a movie can be reshot, but when an athlete steps onto the field of competition, there is often no second chance.”
Qian said that when people see athletes standing on the podium, they see medals, applause, and smiles, but rarely see the countless early mornings of training, injuries, failures, financial pressures, and the process of getting back up time and again.
“This is exactly the story ALEVA wants to tell.”
She also discussed the parallels between the immigrant experience and the spirit of sports. In her view, in some respects, an athlete’s pursuit of Olympic gold and many immigrants’ pursuit of the American dream share a similar underlying spirit.
“Both journeys begin with courage, perseverance, and the determination to step into the unknown. Athletes cross finish lines, while immigrants may cross oceans and borders, but both carry the hopes of their families and communities.”
Qian said that whether they are athletes, entrepreneurs, or people who come to the United States to begin their lives again, what can truly influence and inspire the next generation is often not only what they ultimately achieve, but how they complete their journey.
Brand Partnerships Shift From “Exposure” to “Telling Stories Together”
Discussing sports marketing, Qian said ALEVA hopes to foster more authentic, long-term, and content-driven partnerships between brands and athletes.
“A truly great brand partnership is not just about placing a logo next to an athlete, but about finding the right story, the right audience, and the right platform.”
ALEVA plans to connect athletes, brands, Hollywood content production teams, media platforms, innovative technology, and the U.S. and Asian markets, enabling brands to participate more naturally in athletes’ stories and create long-term value through documentary content, social media, international distribution, live events, and brand experiences.
The company also hopes to enable the San Gabriel Valley and the broader Asian community to participate in opportunities arising from the development of the global sports industry, giving young people from different cultural backgrounds greater visibility into possibilities in sports, entrepreneurship, and international development.
Lu Liu Announces Formal Launch of the “ALEVA 2028 Global Sports Strategic Partnership Initiative”
ALEVA co-founder and CEO Lu “Lulu” Liu (刘璐) formally announced the launch of the “ALEVA 2028 Global Sports Strategic Partnership Initiative” at the event.
Liu said the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be more than a global sporting event, providing an important window in which global attention, cross-cultural communications, international consumption, and brand globalization converge.
She said ALEVA hopes to establish a global sports business partnership platform for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic cycle, connecting companies, athletes, media, film and television content, technology, ticketing, travel, and related business services, while offering more flexible ways for companies of different sizes and stages of development to enter the global sports market.
Liu also said: “We have now assembled a professional team in Beijing responsible for implementing and advancing the project, with Hao Ziyi coordinating related partnerships and project connections in China.”
According to ALEVA’s development plan, the company will provide customized services based on companies’ market objectives, including strategic partnerships, athlete partnerships, branded content production, international media communications, on-site brand experiences, and VIP hospitality.
In terms of its timeline, ALEVA will focus on partner development and confirmation of partnership rights in 2026; gradually roll out content production and market activation in 2027; prioritize brand visibility, client experiences, and related hospitality activities around the Los Angeles Olympic cycle in 2028; and after 2028, continue extending brands’ long-term influence through the content assets, communications channels, and audience relationships established through the initiative.
DigATrend, TripGuru Establish Strategic Partnerships With ALEVA
Khiow Hui Lim (林巧慧), representing DigATrend and TripGuru at the event, said in her remarks that the Olympic spirit is reflected not only in competition in the arena, but also in how a city welcomes people from around the world with openness, hospitality, and respect.
As the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics approach, Los Angeles and California will welcome athletes, spectators, families, brands, and business partners from around the world. Lim said this will not only be a world-class sporting event, but also an important opportunity for international tourism, city hospitality, payment services, cross-border business, and cultural exchange.
Lim said DigATrend primarily serves markets and consumers, using bilingual Chinese and English services to connect ticketing, hospitality, transportation, and related services; TripGuru, meanwhile, focuses on providing back-end technology and operational support for inventory management, reservations, payments, and fulfillment.
She said the strategic partnership among DigATrend, TripGuru, and ALEVA will focus on compliant ticketing resources, hospitality and travel product packages, multilingual international distribution, payment services, and brand sponsorship activation, with the goal of establishing a more complete, efficient, transparent, and user-centered cross-border service system.
Lim also said that on Aug. 6 this year, the relevant parties signed a nondisclosure agreement and began reviewing LA28-related ticketing technology and partnership documents. Under the current plan, technical system integration is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027.
She also said UnionPay International has selected TripGuru as one of its first global AI travel payment partners, further integrating payments, travel, artificial intelligence, and cross-border services to build a comprehensive service ecosystem for international travelers.
“Technology is ultimately just a tool, what truly matters is people.” Lim said.
She said she hopes technology and services will enable families visiting Los Angeles for the first time to arrange accommodations and itineraries with greater peace of mind, allow spectators from Asia and other regions to make reservations and payments in languages familiar to them, and enable international partners to participate through a clear, transparent, and compliant system.
Going forward, the parties will further collaborate in sports, international media, travel services, brand promotion, cross-border payments, and business resource connections to jointly advance the “ALEVA 2028 Global Sports Strategic Partnership Initiative.”
Hollywood Film Technology Helps Bring Athletes’ Stories to Wider Audiences
At the press conference, ALEVA also introduced its partnership resources in film and television production and immersive imaging technology.
Renowned Hollywood producer and emerging imaging technology expert Steve Schklair has worked extensively in film production, stereoscopic imaging, and the development of new imaging technologies. His professional experience includes international film projects such as The Hobbit, The Great Gatsby, Transformers, X-Men, Planet of the Apes, and The Martian.
Schklair said technology itself is not the goal, the story is ultimately what matters.
In his view, the significance of next-generation imaging technology lies not only in creating more visually compelling content, but more importantly in bringing audiences closer to athletes themselves, allowing them to see the training, challenges, sacrifices, perseverance, and growth behind competitive results.
He said sports content is moving beyond conventional event broadcasting into an era of more diverse storytelling. Immersive imaging, multi-angle capture, and new media technologies can allow audiences to experience training and competition from a perspective closer to that of the athletes themselves, while also creating opportunities for brands to develop content partnerships distinct from traditional advertising.
Connecting athletes with brands, cinematic storytelling, advanced technology, international media, and the U.S. and Asian markets, while beginning now to build a library of athlete stories, brand partnerships, and high-quality content, could create sustained value throughout the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic cycle and beyond.
Using the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a Milestone to Explore a Long-Term Global Sports Business Ecosystem
ALEVA said the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are not the endpoint of the initiative, but an important milestone connecting sports, culture, technology, and international business.
Going forward, the company will continue integrating athletes, international brands, film and television content production, innovative technology, global media, travel, and cross-border business resources, exploring sports business partnership models with long-term value through athlete storytelling, brand partnerships, content distribution, on-site experiences, and international market connections.
ALEVA said its goal is not only to help athletes gain broader international exposure, but also to help different types of companies participate in the global sports market in ways that are more authentic, culturally connected, and capable of generating long-term commercial value.
As global attention in sports increasingly turns toward Southern California, the two years between now and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be not only a period of preparation for the Games, but also an important phase for accelerated development across the sports industry, international tourism, brand marketing, media content, technology applications, and cross-border business.
ALEVA hopes to use the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as an important window to build new connections among sports, brands, content, technology, and international markets——bringing more athletes’ stories to the world while helping more companies find new paths into international markets through the dreams, perseverance, and influence represented by sports.
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