Understanding the statistics and likelihood behind catching a foul ball at a baseball game launched a company called IdealSeat. Founded in Seattle, CEO Joel Carben shares his vision of increasing the fan experience through probability and statistics, especially when it comes to the amount of potential interaction between a customer and the game of play. Carben's company has invested thousands of hours on increasing the chances that customers who buy through their app will increase their ability to catch a foul ball, simply through past tracking in the stadium. Now on a tour of 30 Major League Baseballs parks in order to spread the word about IdealSeat to the general baseball fan, Carben is prepped to provide the ultimate fan interaction tool available on the market today. Twitter: @JoelCarben

Neil Horowitz understands how the digital world is encroaching on the traditional marketing and branding campaigns of sports teams. Horowitz has worked for two NHL franchises, developing their social media accounts on multiple platforms, and now utilizes his experiences for Wilshire Axon Sports. Horowitz's main driver is helping smaller franchises compete in the mobile app space, something that can actually cost a mighty budget if performed in-house with limited success. Horowitz discusses the pros and cons to social media, how to really ensure that engagement is coming from both fans and teams, as well as how connection points matter at all times in the digital space. Twitter: @njh287

Jason Bowers is in a unique spot at his alma mater; an assistant IT director for Cornerstone University, he's created a second job for himself as a volunteer running social media for the NAIA Division II men's basketball program. This has paid off 10-fold for the program, which has increased its engagement with its fans, especially after securing the 2015 NAIA Division II National Championship while Dancin' In Branson at the NAIA National Tournament. Bowers shares his thoughts on how he runs the social media accounts for Cornerstone men's basketball, as well as ways that he keeps his channels both fresh and relevant, and avoids subscribing to the idea of increasing followers at any and all costs. Bowers may be a volunteer for the program, but he has certainly increased awareness to a dramatic degree, while having a ton of fun in the process. Twitter: @JBBowers

Laura Madison is changing the car industry by provoking a discussion on what car sales representatives should be doing online. Madison works at the Toyota dealership in Bozeman, Montana, but has made national and international news through her branded website sales, creating blog posts, videos and other social media content, reviewing the cars that she sells on the lot. This has translated to hundreds of additional car sales through digital means, and made Madison's reputation grow within the car industry. Several of these aspects could be copied tomorrow by sports franchises, adopted by the team's sales representatives, and pushed into selling socially in order to help the customer better understand and engage with the ticket sales product. @LauraDrives

Jeramie McPeek has been with the Phoenix Suns since 1992. He's witnessed the transition from print to online, as well as how to digitally engage each fan along the way. McPeek discusses some of the platforms used in order to achieve that engagement, along with facing the fact that major brands are also at the mercy of the platform algorithms that alter communicating with the fans or followers that have already asked to receive that information entirely. McPeek also attended The Sports Fan Summit in Melbourne, Australia in July 2014 with the Tao of Sports host, and they chat about the engagement as well as learning atmosphere of the Australian sports business crowd, and running in terror from the Australian possum (google it, trust us, those things were scary). Twitter: @JMcPeek

Sports sponsorship decks and ticket brochures are easily some of the worst materials to deliver to the best clients. They often come in the form of rudimentary PDFs, one-sheet paper proposals or Microsoft Powerpoints that convolute the process rather than help it. Sportsdigita's CEO Angelina Lawton may have discovered the solution to these types of issues with the founding of her company, which has started to revolutionalize a digideck and ebrochure model that incorporates video, audio, photography and online presentation. Lawton discusses some of the issues that stem from the cumbersome process of developing a typical deck, especially the time spent by corporate sales staff attempting to manufacture one, that can be saved by utilizing Sportsdigita's service. Twitter: @AngelinaLawton

Kristopher Bazen is a sports branding and graphic design specialist with over a dozen years of experience in the professional sports and collegiate athletics marketplace. Bazen discusses his passion for creating great design, as well as ensuring that he captures both trends and imaginations based on inputs from his clients. Bazen discusses his survival from cancer, and what he's learned along the way in terms of prospective on what he does. Twitter: @KrisBazen

Fanmaker hasn't reshifted their digital focus in college athletics as much as they have complimented their existing workflow to build an insights component to their client offerings. Fanmaker CEO Jason Cole talks about the humble beginnings of the company, formerly called Row27, that burst onto the scene with some of the best vendor video production and microsites offered to college athletic departments and professional sports franchises. Some of those dynamic images have helped shape recruiting in a segment of the sports industry where innovation was often lacking. It's also about capturing and engaging with the elusive fan. Cole covers the trends that are beginning to come into focus now, especially how data insights as well as fan information is becoming so vital to an organization's existence and future. Twitter: @JRCole

While the words "fan engagement" are thrown around quite a bit by other social media companies, Lodestone appears to have a finger on the pulse of what fans want to engage with. Lodestone CEO Mark Drosos chats about the difference between engagement and actually engaging fans, and there is a wide chasm in the two styles. Drosos speaks about some of the issues surrounding social media, as well as the misunderstanding of how to fully embrace a fan-first approach to developing an omni-channel platform strategy. Twitter: @MarkDrosos

If you want to dissect the role of a social media coordinator in news and sports down to its core, you want to talk to Kathryn Przybyla, who has served in both capacities with stints at CNN, The Buffalo News, the Buffalo Sabres and now the Brooklyn Nets. Przybyla talks about the various ways in which a digital message can align impact for fans, as well as how to ensure that it retains the voice of the organization. Przybyla also discusses how the Nets' international fans help drive attention to social media content creation for platforms used overseas, and how to build the optimum amount of information for each fan. Twitter: @katprz