By Cheyenne Johnson, contributing writer
This year the Sports Marketing Association featured a 10-year anniversary conference.
The Sports Marketing Association is a form of marketing in which brands use mainstream or alternative sports to connect with both abroad and/or a targeted group of consumers. This is a worldwide organization that schools from all over travel to attend annually.
Several sport business majors traveled to Orlando last month to attend the conference. The students were provided with free transportation and accommodations such as food and hotel stay provided by Saint Leo’s Sports Business Association.
The conference was co-hosted by Dr. Eric Schwarz from Saint Leo and Bill Sutton from the University of Central Florida.
“The importance of attending this conference is to expand professional networks,” said Dr. Schwarz. “Also to learn about the latest theory and practice in sports marketing, and to represent Saint Leo University in the case study competition.”
The opening night speaker was Greg Downey, who currently oversees Brand and Consumer Marketing for NASCAR.
When asked how many students attend the conference each year, Schwarz said, “Each year it depends on budget, location, number of qualified students that apply to compete, and those that pass the interview process ahead of time.”
“Most years it is between four and eight students, and we have one to two teams compete. Sometimes we will just have one team compete, and the remaining people act as researchers. It really all depends on the year and the students,” said Schwarz.
In 2008 and 2010, Saint Leo placed first in the case study competition. In 2009, two teams competed and received second and third place. This year, two teams competed and finished in the top five. Final results will not be available for 10 days until the follow-up evaluation is completed.
“Students receive the case study on Oct. 1,” said Schwarz. “They have two weeks to create a 1000-word position paper, and then have another 10 days to prepare their 15-minute oral presentation with power point support.”
“The conference was a blast,” said sophomore Cody Mauch. “It was a really good experience. We were able to learn about event management as well as marketing, and we also were able to network with professors at other universities and professionals in the industry.”
“Greg Downey, the senior director of brand and marketing for NASCAR, and Pat Williams, senior vice president of the Orlando Magic, were two of the speakers that we had the opportunity to listen to. It was a lot of work and a few long days, but it was a great experience and I definitely would do it again in a heartbeat,” said Mauch.
Next year this conference will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from Oct. 22-26. Sports business majors who are interested should look into this ahead of time because it could be a great opportunity to represent the University and be a part of something important. It could be an opportunity to network, to talk to professionals in the industry, to get advice, and to possibly hand out and receive business cards.
Networking is a big part of the professional field, so getting advice from individuals that have worked their way up could be a worthwhile opportunity.
