Symposium

The Sports ETA Symposium Appointment Portal opens on Friday, March 13.  In preparation, it is vitally important that you make sure to update your profile and your company information.  For destinations/sports commissions this means updating the sports you can host and the venues you have for groups to use.  For rights holders, this would be updating where you host events, specific community needs (bid fees, GOC/LOC, etc.), events open for bid, and important information destinations should know about your event. For vendors, this could mean including a short description of all the products/services you provide, and even listing any special offers or promotions. Why is this important? When you enter the portal, you will see the list of potential organizations to request an appointment.  For destinations, knowing where rights holders meet, what they are looking for and what their key needs are, you can determine which appointments are approp...

There may still be time left in 2019, but here at Sports ETA, we are working hard on the 2020 Symposium. We’ll be headed to Kansas City, Missouri April 20-23 for our 28th annual meeting. Registration is now open, so start planning your trip! It doesn’t matter if this will be your first Symposium or your 28th, we are planning an all-new event with more deep-dive education sessions and breakouts divided by skill level. Plus, the 2020 Sports Marketplace is back and it is sure to be more interactive and provide informal learning opportunities to hundreds of people. You will be able to start making those one-on-one marketplace appointments in March. If that hasn’t sold you yet, then listen to those who went last year. The 2019 Symposium received a 4 or 5-star rating from 72% of respondents, who enjoyed marketplace appointments, education sessions, and all of the networking opportunities to catch up with colleagues and to meet new ones. Take a look at how much fu...

We are excited to release our Request for Proposal (RFP) to partner and host the Sports ETA Symposium in 2023, 2024, and 2025. As you may know, the Symposium is our signature event through which we deliver authentic education, business development, and networking opportunities. Our annual meeting attracts hundreds of sport tourism professionals and industry partners who gather to exchange time, resources, strategies, solutions, and more. The Symposium features dozens of education sessions, countless networking opportunities, and business development appointments in the Sports Marketplace, all to help our members produce measurable ROI for their organization, elevate their sports events, and improve the quality of life in their destinations. Below are important deadlines to keep in mind: December 2019 - Q&A Calls January 15, 2020 - Proposal Submission Deadline February 2020 - Finalists Notified Spring 2020 - Site Visits conducted by staff, committee chair...

We are excited to announce that the call for speaker proposals is now open through December 15 for the 28th Sports ETA Symposium in Kansas City, MO April 20-23, 2020! We place a strong emphasis on seeking presenters who expand our industry's knowledge base through relevant and engaging content delivery, as well as specific implementable takeaways for audience members. Speaker Proposals If you or someone from your organization is interested in applying to lead a breakout session at the 2020 Sports ETA Symposium, we encourage you to submit an application! Click Here to Submit a Proposal We are accepting speaker applications through December 15. Sports ETA Symposium The Sports ETA Symposium is the annual meeting of the Sports Events & Tourism Association (Sports ETA), the non-profit trade association for the sports events and tourism industry since 1992. Sports destinations meet with hundreds of decision-makers res...

Build relationships with hundreds of sports events and tourism professionals at the 28th Sports ETA Symposium in Kansas City, MO April 20-23, 2020. Online registration is now open, lock in the best rate by registering with early bird pricing today! After 12/31/19, rates go up. Register Today! Important Information Registration Rates Schedule Hotel Accommodations Need help convincing your boss? Don't worry, we've got you covered! We've put together a justification toolkit to arm you with information to share with your supervisor on the benefits of attending the Symposium, how it will make you a better employee, and help advance your organization.  Justification Toolkit We think the Symposium is a must-attend event, but don't just take our word for it... take your fellow sports events and tourism professionals' words too! See what they have to say about the Sports ETA Symposium. QUESTIONS? Co...

Ready, set, run what some call “The South’s Toughest Bridge Run”. Savannah Sports Council is the 2018 award winner for Event Marketing Campaign for the Enmarket Bridge Run. The 5k or 10k race takes runners across Savannah’s Talmadge Bridge. “This event means the world to me,” says Rob Wells, Director of the Savannah Sports Council. “I keep telling people that this award means so much more than most because it is selected by our peers and presented among them.” While the Savannah Sports Council won this campaign award for the Enmarket Bridge Run, which saw a 17% increase, they saw tremendous success at other events last year. The Publix Savannah Women’s Half Marathon celebrated its fifth year with a 13% participant increase and the Enmarket Savannah Hockey Classic celebrated its 20th anniversary. “With all of that, the thing I am most proud of is the creation of our Scholar-Athlete award which we gave out at the 2018 G...

The Symposium is one of the most thrilling times of the year with opportunities to network, participate in various educational sessions, and explore a new city. If you would like more info about the Symposium, visit: https://www.sportseta.org/symposium/about 28th annual Symposium April 20-23, 2020 Kansas City, MO Hosted by Visit KC and Kansas City Sports Commission We are already preparing for the 2020 Symposium. Schedule, education sessions, and speakers will be announced later this year! If you have not attended the Symposium before, this is the year to begin - because Kansas City has it all! Plan your trip to come down early or stay later to explore all that Kansas City has to offer. We made a “Bucket List” of a few activities you and your coworkers can try next year: Go ziplining with Zip KC - they can take you on ziplining tours day or night in the park! They also offer team building activities if you want to take your entire Sports Commissi...

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. 

It’s back to work for those of us who went to the NASC Symposium in Knoxville last week. As you are getting back to your projects and events, don’t forget about all those contacts you met last week. In the sports events and tourism industry, networking is key and we hope you met a lot of great people at the Symposium to help in future projects. So don’t let those business cards go to waste. Follow-up is key to developing a new professional relationship. Forbes has a few great tips to master the art of the follow-up. Start with a quick email this week. Don’t feel it has to be something long and profound. Simply say you enjoyed meeting them and if you can, reflect back on a point from your conversation, even if it wasn’t about work. Link in on LinkedIn. This is another way to connect days after meeting. LinkedIn also offers many free tools to keep your contacts front-of-mind for both you and them. Plus, you can send them a quick note on their work...

KNOXVILLE (May 10, 2019) – The National Association of Sports Commissions (NASC), the governing body of the $11.4 billion sport tourism industry, announced this week a new brand designed to represent a more inclusive organization to lead the sports and event tourism industry and its membership. The organization will now be referred to as Sports Events & Tourism Association or Sports ETA. A record turnout of industry leaders in sports events and tourism attended the 27th annual symposium held here from May 6-9 to elect new leadership, honor members with national awards and participate in dozens of continuing education programs led by industry leadership. “In our largest-ever Symposium where sports events and tourism industry leaders meet, we introduced a new brand for the organization called Sports ETA that represents the evolving and growing nature of the industry we lead,” said Al Kidd, President & CEO of Sports Events & Tourism Association. “...