"A Good Idea Doesn't Care Where It Comes From..."

Overview

There’s an old saying that goes: “a good idea doesn’t care where it comes from…” and while that may very well be true (…as most NSF “alums” would readily attest), coming up this February in Louisville… we’re pretty sure we know not only where the good ideas will be coming from… we’re also confident we know where they’re going to be GOING as well!

The ideas will be coming from YOU… lots of ‘em… and where they’re going is home with all of this coming year’s Forum attendees… home to be copied and put into practice helping your organizations to be more productive, sell more tickets, and activate more sponsorships.

We can all benefit from reviewing what we’ve done in the past and looking for new ideas so we want you to give us the one “killer” idea your organization put into practice this year. It could be a promotional event... or a group sales program. Maybe it’s an internal staff sales contest... or a customer service program. What about that new concession stand sales driver you put into play last season... or the fan incentive contest that is, in reality, a mailing list builder?

And for those of you that aren’t teams, leagues, or events... what about your success stories? What one program or event did you create that got the fans buzzing around your tent, or bounced them from the stadium into the supermarket? Tell us about that exciting new program you developed and launched with a team that has them asking themselves why they didn’t do this earlier.

Maybe it’s true that there are no NEW ideas... but one thing we’ve learned over the years of putting on the Forum... there are a MILLION variations on a theme, and many of ‘em are outstanding!

Here’s how it works...

It’s simple – all we need you to do is answer three questions:

1. What was your OBJECTIVE? (What were you looking to do?)

2. What ACTION did you take to accomplish that objective?

3. What was the RESULT of that action? (In other words … what happened?)

That’s it! Send us your best SAMMY idea along with the entry fee by the November 30, 2010 deadline and we’ll take it from there.

Submission Period

SAMMY Entry Forms

2011 SAMMY Entry Form 2011 SAMMY Entry Form

The six best SAMMY Ideas...

We’ve put together a top-notch SAMMY jury consisting of sports industry professionals from the pro and collegiate teams here in San Diego. They’ll have the difficult task of reviewing all the submissions and narrowing down them down to the six best ideas from all entries.

You’ve got the Microphone…

We’ll contact the “owners” of each of the six finalists and give you one month to prepare a ten-minute presentation for a special stand-alone SAMMY Award finalists session at the 2011 National Sports Forum on Tuesday, February 1, 2011! Take us through your company’s program or idea... what did you set out to do... and what was the recipe for success?

Product and service providers – don’t use the ten minutes as an infomercial to pitch your product… instead, tell us from the team’s perspective, what was their objective and how you helped ‘em meet their goals… or better yet have someone from the team present with you.

Will you be a presenting finalist in Louisville?

And the winner is...

After all six finalists have presented on Tuesday afternoon... the NSF attendees will vote for the idea that they think, of all of them, was the BEST, most creative, most effective idea of the year.

So tell us what you’ve won...

Later that evening, we’ll announce the SAMMY winner at the Budweiser Gala and have you come up on stage to accept the SAMMY Award trophy and take a bow in front of the entire sports industry!

“So what do I need to do?”

Take a couple minutes right now to look back over the last year or two – what’s the one thing your sales department... marketing department... corporate sponsorship service division... retailer relations... HR... your advertising people... or ticket sales staff has implemented that’s been nothing short of a really great idea? Narrow it down to the best idea and send it to us before the deadline of November 30, 2010.

If you have any questions or for more information, call Nick Gilbert here in the National Sports Forum office at 1-800-232-3133 x203 or e-mail nick@sports-forum.com.

Good luck – we’ll see you up on the SAMMY Stage!