Part of the modern athlete’s image is that of the social interaction on various media platforms. That’s where Steve Dao and his company, Dynamic Sports Media, can help examine each athlete’s branding and work build it into a larger concept of community image. Dao talks about some of the nightmare scenarios of social media’s influence on branding, but also provides advice on avoiding a false athlete narrative in order to avoid controversy, because it lacks the athlete’s genuine character. Dao discusses how Dynamic Sports Media can help clients and athletes navigate the water of sponsorship alignment in order to ensure a cohesive teamwork focused on the right objectives. Twitter: @Steve_Dao
C. Ryan Shelton has been able to successfully operate in both the world of minor league hockey and that of minor league baseball. Shelton talks about his experiences in developing great fan experiences, understand the nuances of customer service, and how he continues to trust with season ticket holders. Shelton expands on the idea of sports sales, talking about his 1-on-1 prospect engagement strategy at the ballpark with a high success ratio. Twitter: @CRyanShelton
The role of NCAA compliance is often misunderstood by the public and sometimes, even those overseen by rules education. Brian Blair talks about his guidance with coaches and administrators to ensure that compliance works for both the athletic department staff as a whole as well as student athletes. Blair discusses how the perception of student-athlete awareness of athletic department issues is presented through SAAC, as well as his own experiences as a student athlete at Wofford. All while wearing a nice bowtie. Twitter: @BToTheBlair
Kevin McNamee has over thirty-five years of experience as a Division-I administrator as well as a coach of swimming and diving. McNamee talks about how his coaching days helped develop his administrative role with St. Bonaventure for 17 years, then moving to George Mason for the last 19 years, overseeing of some of the more detailed aspects of the department. McNamee discusses various points on how to conduct proper business operations, event management, as well as sports programming, along George Mason’s magical men’s basketball ride in 2006 through the NCAA Tournament to the Final Four. Twitter: @KWMcNamee