How can social media both save and make you money?

How can you increase television ratings using these new forms of communication?  

What’s the risk of inaction?

Amy Martin, the creator of Twitter’s “Random Acts of Shaqness” will answer these questions and provide the bottom line.
(No fancy terms or formulas, promise!)

Here are some of the items that Amy will discuss...
  -  Top three ways to monetize social media
  -  How social media can save you money
  -  How to converge mediums to increase TV viewership, ratings,
     and fan engagement
  -  Why the sports industry is perfect for monetizing social
     media

A little background on Amy:

Amy Martin began her career living the agency life, working with clients such as the Arizona Cardinals, Phoenix Coyotes and the Super Bowl XLIII Host Committee. Following her agency stint, Amy transitioned to a new position with the Phoenix Suns. During three seasons with the Suns, she was responsible for concepting, pitching, executing, and measuring digital marketing partnerships. It was her success developing and monetizing the Suns digital media platform that lead her to entrepreneurship and the creation of Digital Royalty, a Phoenix-based firm specializing in digital integration and social marketing. Her most notable example of success is the growth of Shaquille O'Neal's digital brand via social media, implementation of measurable strategies and the procurement of major endorsement deals. Digital Royalty clients include the UFC, Chicago White Sox, Discount Tire, and Shaquille O'Neal to name a few.

Most senior management positions require oversight of a variety of disciplines and personnel within your company, but managing up also comes into play in many cases. Steve LaCroix and a few sports industry veteran panelists will offer a variety of insights geared towards involving ownership groups and executive boards in your day-to-day business...creating a winning formula from top to bottom.


A little background on Steve:

Steve LaCroix enters his 9th season with the Vikings in 2009 as the teams Vice President of Sales and Marketing, adding the title of Chief Marketing Officer in 2008. LaCroix oversees all aspects of Vikings generated revenues, including corporate sales, sponsorships, media sales, ticket sales, suite sales and hospitality. LaCroix also leads the teams marketing, radio and television programming, websites, new media initiatives, merchandise and e-commerce operations, community and special events, marketing partnerships, advertising, branding, promotions and game day activities.

The seventh annual NSF ADchievement Awards recognize the best sports-themed advertising from the previous year in eight different categories. Over 500 ads are entered into the competition from throughout the sports industry, including: major and minor league teams, colleges, players associations, retail stores, and television networks. A preliminary judging panel of advertising experts narrowed the submissions down to six finalists in each category. In this session, the finalists will be on display and session attendees will have the opportunity to vote to determine the category winners.

A little background on Ron:

Ron Seaver founded the National Sports Forum in 1996 as a way for the different teams, leagues, and events in North America to come together to share best practices in ticket sales, marketing, sponsorship sales, business development, and fan entertainment.
 
As President of the National Sports Forum, Ron works closely with the NSF Steering Committee on the planning of the agenda as well as selection of speakers, panelists, and session leaders for the annual conference.
 
Ron's career in the sports industry spans over 25 years. Prior to starting the Forum, Ron worked on the team side as well as the agency side of the sports industry.

This session will be about diversity in sports being a business imperative.  The speaker, considered the nation's leading expert on diversity in sport, will discuss not only how to change the workplace staff so that it looks more like America, but also how to change internal attitudes so that the atmosphere is the most productive possible work environment.

A little background on Dr. Lapchick:

Human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, internationally recognized expert on sports issues, scholar and author Richard E. Lapchick is often described as "the racial conscience of sport." He brought his commitment to equality and his belief that sport can be an effective instrument of positive social change to University of Central Florida where he accepted an endowed chair in August 2001.  In five years it was named one of the nation's top five programs by the Wall Street Journal, the Sports Business Journal and ESPN The Magazine. In 2009 it was named the #1 MBA program in the nation for volunteer service and leadership.

Will Ellerbruch, Regional Sales Manager of Daktronics, will host a panel that discusses different methods of staying in contact with customers during the year. They will analyze how many times a year you touch your customer and the different methods available for use.  He will reveal best practices for generating strong relationships and will also share tips on where to focus your efforts to ensure you're hard work doesn't go unnoticed.

Panelists to include:

Mike Mulhall, Director, Ticket Sales, Cleveland Indians

Mike Tomon, VP of Sales and Service, Cleveland Cavaliers

David Brown, Regional VP, Midwest, IMG College

Matt Brown, VP of Corporate Partnership Sales,
Detroit Red Wings/Olympia Entertainment


A little background on Will:

Will Ellerbruch is a regional Sales manager for the Great Lakes Region in the Large Sports Venues market.  His responsibilities include selling to major league sports teams, minor league sports teams, colleges, universities and other sports.  He works with facilities to discuss how to generate revenue using LED and digital signage products.  Ellerbruch earned a Bachelor of Science degree in sports management and a minor in business form Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN.

Major projects Ellerbruch has worked while at Daktronics included the Steelers, Colts, Browns, Bengals and Lions of the NFL, Blue Jackets and Red Wings of the NHL as well as the Indians, Pirates, Tigers and Reds of MLB. 

David Warschawski, CEO & Founder of Warschawski, ranked the U.S. #1 small agency for the last three years, will host an interactive session on how to capitalize during a down economy.  David will share best practices for generating powerful ROI on limited budgets.  He will also share tips on where to focus your time, money and energy to ensure youre getting the biggest bang for your buck.

A little background on David:

David established Warschawski in 1996 to provide clients with the highest quality of PR, marketing, advertising and branding service.  He founded the company on his wide range of experience and expertise in the field of public relations and marketing, as well as his years of experience in brand building and business achievement consulting. Warschawski was named Small Agency of the Year for the U.S. in 2006, 2007 and 2008.  Over the last ten years alone, Warschawski has won more than 200 awards for its work.  For eight consecutive years, Warschawski also has been ranked as one of the top 20 Best Agencies To Work For in the U.S. Today, Warschawski serves Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies.  Prior to founding Warschawski, David worked at Edelman in New York City, at that time the number one rated large U.S. agency.  Prior to Edelman, he worked at The Dilenschneider Group in New York City.

Bill Glazer is the Secret Weapon that has taught Ron Seaver the marketing that he incorporates to grow the National Sports Forum. He is the President of Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle, Professional Speaker, Marketing Consultant and Coach, and a much sought-after copywriter. After 30-years of 'in-the-trenches' work with his own hugely successful businesses, he perfected his unusually effective advertising (i.e. Outrageous) combined with Direct Response marketing that routinely receives outstanding responses.

Today, clients pay Bill Glazer a minimum of $25,000 plus royalties to write advertising for them and they'll wait routinely 9-months for a $12,000 day of consulting.

During his talk "OUTRAGEOUS Advertising That's OUTRAGEOUSLY Effective," Bill will show you ready to use examples that you could take back and apply in order to create hugely successful sports franchises (the first 50 to attend will also receive a free copy of Bill's new best seller book).


A little background on Bill:

Bill Glazer is one of the most celebrated marketing advisors in the world. He is best known for his OUTRAGEOUSLY EFFECTIVE direct-response advertising and direct mail. Many of his campaigns have pulled in over one million dollars in sales.

Bill and his "Outside the Box" Marketing Strategies have often been featured in the most prestigious Marketing Magazines in the world. Most recently, DM News, which is the newspaper of record for Direct Marketers, ran a feature story on Bill's Outrageous Marketing Strategies that are Outrageously Effective.

In 2000, the industry journal MR Magazine names Bill and his BGS Marketing System to the list of the 100 Top People, Places, and Things Impacting the Industry at the Millenniumthe equivalent of being named to People or Time Magazine's list of the 100 most noteworthy or influential individuals.

Perhaps the shining jewel of Bill's accomplishments was his winning the prestigious RAC Award at the 2002 Retail Advertising Conference.  This honor is equivalent in retail as the Oscars are to movies and the Emmys to television.

Dan Kennedy, America's top marketing consultant, recently said of Bill: As you might imagine, given my extensive travels, speaking to over 200,000 businesspeople a year for ten consecutive years, Ive seen the advertising and marketing of hundreds and hundreds of people and nobody, and I mean nobody has a handle on direct-response advertising and marketing for business like Bill does.

In 2003, Dan Kennedy asked Bill to partner with him to provide marketing and business building advice to both of their list of members that now tops 200,000 worldwide.

Do you think you could sell a million tickets a week? More importantly, are you? Proven ticket sales strategies are a secret to be shared. Join Jeff as he brings some insight and advice on some of the best, most effective methods/strategies that Feld Entertainment has employed to sell major quantities of tickets all across the world.


A little background on Jeff:

As Senior Vice President of Event Marketing and Sales, North America, Jeff Meyer oversees ticket sales, advertising, promotion, local/regional sponsorship, and strategic alliances for all North American engagements of Feld Entertainments touring spectaculars. These tours include: 3 units of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey , 2 tours of Disney Live, 6 tours of Disney On Ice, 100+ Monster Jam events, FMX Freestyle Motocross, Arenacross, the Supercross racing series and the recently launched Nuclear Cowboyz tour.

His career at Feld Entertainment began in 1987 as a Regional Marketing Director responsible for promoting events in 40 markets spanning from Augusta, Georgia to the San Francisco Bay Area and parts of Canada.  In 1994, he took on the role of Director, Sponsorship and Strategic Alliances and managed a number of relationships with fortune 1000 companies.    In 2002, Jeff was elevated to Senior Vice President and has been in his current position since.  A native of Denver, CO, Meyer received his Bachelor of Science in Commercial Recreation as an Eisenhower Evans Scholar from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  He resides in Leesburg, VA with his wife and three children.

Did you know... if Facebook was a country, it would be the fifth largest in the world? That the news of Michael Jackson's death overpowered Twitter due to the outpouring of fan tweets? That 22 of the 100 Most Popular Websites are blogs?

We've talked about the importance of engagement and the significance of social media in our industry, but despite popularity some are only flirting with the potential. This session will help you make the most of your Facebook, Twitter and blogging efforts, help you reach followers effectively, and fully engage social media in your marketing mix.



A little background on Sundeep:

Sundeep Kapur has been assisting marketers with email marketing strategy since 1997. Sundeep is an industry veteran working with customers across multiple industries helping them to enable technology and services to brand, personalize and speak to customers more effectively. Read more about his work on his daily blog: www.emailyogi.com.