Day 3 of The 2019 National Sports Forum

The final day of the 2019 NSF. The presentations of the 2019 NSF ADchievement Awards will take place where the best advertising campaigns will be awarded!

Picture this: You’ve left the office, the day is over and as you try to fall asleep at night you lay there in bed… and you’re thinking… and thinking… and thinking. What keeps some of the best minds in the business up at night?

As a long-standing tradition, the NSF will begin the final day of the 2019 conference with the “What Keeps You Up at Night?” Super Panel. This gathering of top notch executives will tell us exactly what they’re losing sleep over.

This panel of top executives navigated through a discussion on the issues that consume their thoughts post-game and year-round.

MODERATOR

Lisa Woodward

Manager, Sponsorships

Anheuser Busch

PANELISTS

Brian Killingsworth

Chief Marketing Officer

Vegas Golden Knights

Desiree Reed-Francois

Athletic Director

University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)

Marc Badain

President

Oakland Raiders

Chris Powell

President & General Manager

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

The first set of breakout sessions on Tuesday, February 12, 2019

The early results are in. In this session, Nick Kelly, Head of US Sports Marketing for Anheuser-Busch, taught attendees first-hand about how Anheuser-Busch is leading a new wave across the sports industry with new incentive-based partnerships. Attendees came away from this session with a better understanding on how these new deals are put together and how they will not only work better for sponsors, but for teams and sport properties, as well. They learned more about this ongoing evolution of the sponsorship model and gain valuable insight as to how teams and brands can and should be working together to continue pushing the sports industry forward as we head into 2019 and beyond.

SESSION LEADER

Nick Kelly

Head of Sports Marketing

Anheuser - Busch

This interactive breakout session titled, “Ten Things You Don’t Have Time to Think About (That Can Grow Your Bottom Line)” helped attendees remove themselves from their day-to-day, think differently and take a risk. In this session, we took you behind-the-scenes into 4FRONT’s innovation process with topics including 1.) How to Create Moments of Truth, 2.) How to Create A Collaboration + Communication Mindset, 3.) How to Translate Social and Digital into the Game Day Experience and more. We showed all of our cards and equipped attendees with transferable learnings from college, major and minor league teams. But, as always, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

SESSION LEADER

Katie Foglia

Senior Manager, Innovation

4FRONT

“Fevo is a peer-to-peer marketing and sales amplification tool that integrates directly with your ticketing system.  Come grab a mimosa (literally!) and find out how teams are leveraging Fevo to drive incremental revenue across their sales and marketing campaigns. Turn your fans into sellers by layering-in social and providing a mobile-first buy-flow. Attendees heard from Fevo’s best partners as they dive into different use cases for the platform, successes they’ve accomplished, and how you can replicate their strategies in your own market.”

SESSION LEADER

Colin Casey

EVP, Partner Development

Fevo

PANELISTS

Ben Conrad

Senior Director, Database Marketing

Milwaukee Bucks

AJ Tomeny

Senior Manager, Ticket Sales

Minnesota Wild

Nick Zombolas

Director, Group & Event Suite Sales

Vegas Golden Knights

This session will host technology leaders in sports and highlight Smart Venues, the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), facial recognition and biometrics, and the role they are playing in revolutionizing the fan experience and driving new business opportunities in sports. The panel covered how technology and data can be used to drive revenue, lower costs, improve fan engagement, optimize venue operations and enhance team performance. The discussion was hyper-focused on how Sponsorship, Ticket Sales and Marketing departments can benefit from these technology solutions.

SESSION LEADER

Channing Butler

Sr. Director of Sales

Connect Partnership Group

PANELISTS

Tinus Le Roux

CEO

Fancam

John Short

Global Business Development Executive, Sports and Entertainment Technical Solutions

IBM

Joe Hammer

Global Alliances Director

Nokia

Chris Dill

Vice President, Business Development

Venuetize

Ed O’Brien

Head of Sports

CLEAR

The race for revenue gets more competitive every day. Sponsors increasingly want a quantifiable return on their investment. Fans demand an elevated experience. Teams strive for a deeper connection to their fans. In this session John Roberson, CEO of Advent, talked about finding the sweet spot where those goals intersect. And it’s an intersection that leads to new, often surprising revenue sources.

SESSION LEADER

John Roberson

CEO

Advent

Esports is one of the fastest growing segments of media, entertainment and technology. In fact, Newzoo anticipates the esports industry will reach $1.4 billion by the year 2020. Esports unprecedented growth and unparalleled traction has made it an enticing business opportunity and everyone wants a piece of the action, from novice players and college athletes to multimillion dollar brands and traditional sports franchises. So how has esports exploded and why are traditional sports franchises getting in the esports game?

Complexity Gaming, the longest-standing esports organization in North America, was acquired by Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and real estate investor John Goff. This is one such way the traditional sports world and esports world are colliding and opening new doors. This partnership has expanded the horizon for a plethora of new business opportunities for both the franchise as well as the esports organization.

In this session, Jason Lake, CEO and Co-Founder of Complexity Gaming, explored in-depth why traditional sports franchises should climb aboard the esports train. From his own experience, Lake explained how traditional sports can get involved and maximize opportunities within the esports industry, including tapping into a global fanbase of 380 million, engaging younger digitally native audiences, leveraging sponsorship opportunities and brand partnerships, and exposing traditional sports to new streaming platforms.

SESSION LEADER

Jason Lake

Founder & CEO

Complexity Gaming

At every digital summit you get information about how social is a strong revenue driver. “OUT with traditional marketing mediums and IN with digital platforms” they say… But how? This session focused on the “HOW” of social revenue generation. We touched on the basics and then dove into “how” to sell tickets, hospitality and sponsorship. All without breaking the bank.

SESSION LEADER

Laura Waters-Brown

Manager, Tournament Digital Marketing and Analytics - Championship Management

PGA Tour

This breakout dove into the world of special events and how they can add a whole new revenue stream to your business. We briefly covered the process of starting this new business revenue department from scratch at MBS. Then, we dove into the special events business from start to finish –covering the life cycle of selling the venue/event space, to planning with clients, to executing the event, and the post event method. We then went over the importance of getting all stadium/arena departments to buy in and how vital those departments are to the success of the business. Attendees learned the fun of planning parties for a living!

SESSION LEADER

Natalee Anderson

Director of Events & Tours at Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Atlanta Falcons

Courtney Kiefer

Director of Special Events

Churchill Downs

TBA

The second set of breakout sessions on Tuesday, February 12, 2019

This session took attendees behind the scenes with a roll up your sleeves open panel discussion with sponsors who oversee strategy, relationships and decisions on a day-to-day basis.

SESSION LEADER

Jim Kahler

Executive Director, Sports Administration

Ohio University

PANELISTS

Amy Azzi

Senior Director of Sports Marketing

T-Mobile

Matt David

Director of Budweiser Sports

Anheuser-Busch

Morgan Hamlin

Senior Sponsorship & Marketing Representative

VCU Health

This was a fully immersive session where attendees worked with peers to work through the 5 steps to turn digital to dollars and drive more revenue for your team. They worked on better understanding the audience, plus content & distribution options to understand the value they will bring to their partners and fans. By the end of the session attendees were ready to pitch their campaign to sponsors and understand how you can repeat the process for all of their digital assets.

SESSION LEADER

Sean Callanan

Owner

Sports Geek

We heard from senior industry leaders who shared their knowledge and expertise of working for and with companies that are seeking to hire different backgrounds and personalities but with the same goals and values in mind to benefit their company culture. Aside from recruiting and hiring, how do you bring positive change to your existing staff infrastructure, style, personality, and philosophy by celebrating and highlighting the “non-traditional” backgrounds, educations, and skill sets? What are we doing as an industry to find new candidates vs. recirculating the same talent? Once we make those unique hires, how are we encouraging and promoting their growth and strengths within a company? How are hiring managers and HR/talent acquisition professionals making it a priority on job descriptions, during interviews, and at the on-boarding/orientation stages? What are the risks and rewards of an unconventional hire?

SESSION LEADER

Mark Gress, Jr.

Vice President

Prodigy Sports

PANELISTS

Jody Diaz

Chief People Officer

Learfield

Eric SanInocencio

Snr Director Digital Media & Strategy

Houston Texans

Natasha Rush

Regional Director of Human Resources

Legends

We dove into the Oakland Athletics ticket sales practices that are bringing new fans to the ballpark experience. Topics included the innovative A’s Access membership ticket program and the implementation of various new heritage/theme nights that drive new groups sales business.

SESSION LEADER

Josh Feinberg

Director of Group Sales

Oakland Athletics

Paris Freeman

Account Executive, Group Sales

Oakland Athletics

There’s a 50% chance a woman is powering the voice of your favorite NFL team on social media. So what’s it like being a millennial woman changing the game in the world of sports? Women born from 1981 to 1996 grew up with the WNBA, cheering US Women’s Soccer to win World Cups and gold medals, and watching women host SportsCenter. Millennial women were raised being told they could do it all; when entering the workforce, they haven’t slowed down.

These panelists have excelled in the front office, working within the NFL, NHL, NBA, PGA TOUR, Team USA and college sports. They continue to change the way we interact with our favorite teams and create space for a new generation of sports fans.

SESSION LEADER

Farren Benjamin

Head of Sports Sponsorship, North America

Tagboard

PANELISTS

Lauren Teague

Strategist

Convince & Convert

Marissa O'Connor

Director of Social Media Strategy

Arizona Coyotes

In 2018, the Supreme Court overturned PASPA, foreshadowing a massive expansion in legal sports betting across the country. The Las Vegas Lights FC of the United Soccer League and William Hill had already introduced a broad partnership that includes live in-game wagering updates in-stadium, and on the team’s broadcast outlets. Qualified new members of the William Hill app earned $5 in betting credit for every Lights FC win in 2018. Attendees learned more about one of the country’s first and most innovative sports betting partnerships.

SESSION LEADER

Steve Pastorino

VP, Corporate Partnerships

Las Vegas Lights

Emerging as the winners of their respective flights, attendees listened to what our industry experts deemed the three best ideas generated through the NSF Tech Tank. We saw some innovative new technologies from each of our three tech tank flights centered on specific technological trends in the sports industry:

• Corporate Partnership & Brand Activation
• Ticket Sales & Strategy
• Marketing & Fan Engagement

This session showed us what’s NEXT in sports technology!

SESSION LEADER

Josh Keiles

Vice President, Business Development

National Sports Forum

This session provided tips and best practices for sales teams looking to improve their selling process and closing rates. Attendees learned how to hold people accountable and best practices for tracking that accountability, as well as how to improve closing rates through digital marketing and soft introductions. In addition, attendees joined the discussion to hear more tips for prospecting, negotiations and retention.

SESSION LEADER

John Torris

VP, Business Development

PlayStation Fiesta Bowl | Cheez-It Bowl

Ticket sales are the life-blood of sports organizations. As ticketing evolves at hyper speed, it’s essential that sports organizations stay ahead of the marketplace. Technological advancements coupled with the creativity of contemporary ticketing companies are changing the way leagues, teams, venues and sports properties do business. Our moderator lead this diverse panel in exploring the rapidly changing nature of ticket sales to stay profitable. Attendees learned some great tips and best practices for increasing sales and filling seats from the MVP’s of the industry!

MODERATOR

Brette Sadler

President

WISE Las Vegas

PANELISTS

Bill Hanni

Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales & Service

Monumental Sports & Entertainment

Chris Giles

Chief Operating Officer

Oakland A's

Sarah Contardo

Vice President, Sales & Strategy

Churchill Downs

We celebrated the close out of the 24th Annual National Sports Forum at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway!

Losers, located in the MGM Grand served as the official bar of the 2019 NSF!