At this year’s Symposium in Knoxville, TN, we honored organizations for being the best in 11 different categories in 2018. We want to take this time to spotlight each of them. This month, it’s Rockford Area CVB, winner of the Destination Branding & Marketing Campaign of the Year.
“This accolade is certainly indicative of a lot of hard work, strong storytelling and diverse programming that collectively keeps elevating Rockford as a sports destination. But again, we have so much more to accomplish and are really excited about what the future holds for us and the greater sports tourism industry.” Nick Povalitis, Director of Sports Development, Rockford Area CVB.
Rockford Area CVB has seen many successes in the past few years including retaining legacy events such as the USA BMX Midwest Nationals, winning six bids with NJCAA National Championship, and creating a viral hit with a community watch party dubbed Jurassic Park RKFD.
Povalitis counts Roc...
The summer 2019 edition of the Playbook is available now. Download your copy.
Inside this issue
Creating an Emergency Management Plan
Keep in Contact with Your New Contacts
NCAA Site Selection and Bid Process
In Hosting Events, Collaboration is Key in Virginia's Blue Ridge
2019 Hall of Fame Inductees
Member Award Winners
Empowerment through Accommodation
Fox Cities Takes Events in House
We encourage members to share information with your peers. Contact Meagan Grau, Director of Member Services and Engagement, at meagan@sportscommissions.org to learn more about how you can contribute to a future edition of The Playbook.
Have you written an article on an industry topic? Read an article that you think would be helpful to your industry peers? Share it with us, and we’ll post it.
One of the many benefits of being a Sports ETA member is being able to contribute to our blog. We post weekly about industry news, tips on the 4 S’s of sports events and tourism, and achievements made by our members. It’s really easy to contribute! All you have to do is email Meagan Grau at meagan@sportscommissions.org. Not only will we post it to our blog, but we’ll add it to our social media with an audience of more than 7,000 people.
While you are checking out our blog, make sure to subscribe to get the highlights from each month straight to your inbox.
Asheville, North Carolina has hosted many cycling races in the past, so it is no surprise that they picked up another cycling coup: The Gran Fondo National Championships.
According to the Asheville Times, the Gran Fondo will guarantee a higher revenue than their most recent race, The Haute Route, since Ashville will be the host for both 2019 and 2020.
The Haute Route Asheville was a three-day event held at the end of May 2019. This event brought in about $1 million to the city. Since riders and their families always spend time in local hotels, restaurants, and shops, these events are so exciting for small businesses.
Congratulations to the Asheville Sports Commission for all their hard work on these many cycling races. Keep up the good work!
View the full article from The Citizen Times.
Normally when you hear Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama comes to mind. It is true that Crimson Tide football remains one of the most popular events in the state, however, a new event is starting to attract tourist attention.
Tuscaloosa is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year by having multiple celebrations to attract tourists from outside of the state of Alabama.
We have more detailed information thanks to an article released by the Tuscaloosa News last week.
According to the article, there was a free Bicentennial Bash in March that was held in the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, including bands like The 400 Unit, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Broken Bones, along with others.
The biggest day of celebration will be on Dec. 13th, since that was the day the town was founded back in 1819. There will be a statue unveiling and more celebrations to be revealed later.
Congratulations to Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports.
Stoll On Sports
Do you have a "Bucket List"? If so, what's on it? I have a relatively informal one, but one item that has been on my list as long as I can remember is attending the NCAA Division I Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. This past week, thanks to the graciousness of a dear friend, I got to check that dream off my bucket list.
If you followed the WCWS, you know that UCLA won their program's 12th National Championship in impressive fashion last night. In honor of the their 12th time taking home the coveted hardware, this edition of Stoll on Sports features my 12 Lessons Learned from the 2019 WCWS.
Pretty close to heaven for the mountain-dwelling tomboy!
Here we go...
12. There is nothing better than being at a ballpark on a beautiful summer evening.
Period.
Bama v. OU...2 powerhouse programs
11. Softball is continuing to grow and...
Every new year comes with new goals for a business. You have been working hard at accomplishing those goals and have probably run into a few bumps along the way. So where do you stand with that goal? Don’t wait and evaluate your progress at the end of 2019. It is time to act now to make sure your business is as successful as possible.
DW&C CPAs and Business Advisors have created a list of steps to take to ensure that you are on the right track to meet your yearly goals:
Start with HR- The people who are on your team are your most valuable asset. Take time to evaluate your employee turnover rate. According to an article published by DW&C, “High employee turnover could be a sign of underlying problems, such as poor training, lax management or low employee morale.”
Evaluate Marketing- Are you reaching your monthly engagement goals? If you don’t know, be sure to increase your tracking of social media engagement.
Don’t have any ...
The National Association of Sports Commissions (NASC), the governing body of the $11.4 billion sports events and tourism industry, announced May 9, 2019, a new brand designed to represent a more inclusive organization to lead the sports event and tourism industry and its membership. The organization will now be referred to as Sports Events & Tourism Association or Sports ETA.
Download Sports ETA presentation.
A record turnout of industry leaders in sports events and tourism attended the 27th annual symposium held in Knoxville, TN from May 6-9 to elect new leadership, honor members with national awards and participate in dozens of continuing education programs led by industry leaders.
Way back in April, I had the pleasure of attending an etiquette session led by Patricia Rossi at the NASC (now called SportsETA) Women's Summit in Tampa. This was the second annual Women's Summit held in conjunction with the NCAA Women's Final Four basketball tournament. I wrote about my takeaways last year as well.
Patricia was the last presenter in 48 hours chock-full of wisdom and knowledge bombs. All 70 attendees were exhausted, and perhaps more than a little sleep deprived, to say the least. You might say she had drawn the short straw. Not to mention, she was presenting to a bunch of awesome women who work in sports...let's just say (and I'm just surmising here), but this industry may be a bit more casual on the etiquette side of things than say, corporate finance.
In a nutshell, Patricia rocked the house! She was engaging, hilarious, and an absolute delight. She is a southern belle that (if I'm honest) at first impression, intimid...