The GW School of Business will host the “Sports and Events Marketing Experience” April 16-17 at Funger Hall. Personalities from the sports and business world are scheduled to appear, including Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon, Nike executive Larry Miller, and Under Armour founder Kevin Plank. Newusiness professor Matt Winkler founded the conference.
“The event idea began as a project I was doing with Octagon, a sports marketing firm four years ago,” he said. “Two years ago we started doing research. We did that for a year and then started planning for this April. It’s taken a Herculean effort to put this on. We have gotten so much help from our student steering committee, which has eight members.”
Plank, Friday’s key-note speaker, will speak at 1 p.m. As a student at the University of Maryland eight years ago, he began to develop a line of clothing to help athletes stay cool and dry. Now, his company supplies apparel to collegiate and professional sports teams.
Miller, the president of Nike’s Jordan Brand division, is Saturday’s key-note speaker and will speak at 10 a.m. Wilbon, a columnist and host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, will also speak Friday.
The event staff expects close to 50 sports professionals and at least 125 students from GW and other local universities to attend. GW business school student Jeff Feinstein will be one of them.
“Professor Matt Winkler used his contacts in sports to get speakers and panelists,” the junior said. “He wanted to give the students an opportunity to meet and learn from these people.”
Other speakers include USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and Sports Business Journal columnist Bruce Schoenfeld.
Several corporate and team presidents will also appear, including representatives from the DC United, MCI Center, Washington Mystics and Ripken Baseball.
GW will be represented by Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz and the director of the sports management program, Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti.
Tickets for GW students are $195 and can be purchased online at www.sportseventsexperience.com.
