Symposium

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. “...

The National Association of Sport Commissions is excited to share its 2019 Member Award Winners. Every year the NASC honors organizations and individuals in the sports events and tourism industry to celebrate their accomplishments and achievements! There were a ton of impressive nominees this year, and deciding on a winner for each category was incredibly difficult. With that said, our 2019 winners hail from all over the country, from Minneapolis to Gulf Shores. Without further ado, here are your 2019 NASC Member Award Winners: Sport Commission of the Year, Over 500k -Sport Minneapolis, powered by Meet Minneapolis Sports Commission of the Year, under 500k -Spokane Sports Commission Sports Tourism Organization of the Year, over 500k -VisitAnaheim Sports Tourism Organization of the Year, under 500k - Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Sports Event Marketing Campaign  -Savannah Sports Council Destination Branding and Marketing Campaign of the Year, und...

The NASC is excited to congratulate our recent Certified Sports Event Executive graduates. Through this program, these graduates have shown the world they’re serious about making a difference in the sports events and tourism industry. Give a round of applause to these CSEE graduates, as they prepare (or continue) to take the industry by storm. CSEE 2019 Spring Graduates: Danny Corte, CSEE Jamie Patrick, CSEE Billy Bos, CSEE Mark Kowalewski, CSEE John Poole, CSEE Ashley Wilson, CSEE Jeremy Leifel, CSEE Matthew Bosen, CSEE Daniel Gallagher, CSEE Kris Jackson, CSEE Kathy O'Connell, CSEE Luchie Javelosa, CSEE Jarrett Dowling, CSEE Al Stauffacher, CSEE Consuelo Sanchez, CSEE Shaheen Roostai, CSEE Sarah Kirchberg, CSEE Kelsey McLean, CSEE Ashleigh Bachert, CSEE Matt Prewitt, CSEE Kristyn Hawkins, CSEE Mark Hargis, CSEE Clay Partain, CSEE Bill Kelly, CSEE Suzanne Keller, CSEE Holly Kesterson, CSEE St...

The National Association of Sports Commissions would like to congratulate 2019 NASC Hall of Fame inductees. Each of these members have played a vital role in the success and promotion of the National Association of Sports Commissions and have contributed significantly to the advancement of the sports events and tourism industry. Our 2019 inductees are as follows: Patricia Ernstrom- Vice President of Special Events, San Francisco 49ers Jack Kelly- CEO, World Equestrian Games Pam Gerig-Bland- Executive Director, Palm Beach County Sports Commission Kevin Smith- Founder, OnPoint Sports Strategies, LLC Induction into the NASC Hall of Fame is considered to be the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. These inductees have typically spent decades in the sports events and tourism industry; they have been leaders in the industry; and they have an extensive list of accomplishments locally, nationally, and even internationally in some cases. Patricia, Jack, Pam, and Kevin...

People tend to fall on three sides of the networking spectrum: The people that love socializing and meet all kinds of people The people that hate networking and skip these sessions or don’t participate The people that are good at networking and leave with a valuable lead and/or resource Depending on the day, each of us usually falls into one of these categories when we must attend networking events. Many factors contribute to how we react to networking including the hours worked that day, what’s happening outside of work, and energy levels in general.  Please take a moment to learn some networking lessons that may provide positive results while networking at the 2019 NASC Symposium. Look at this stack of business cards! These are on my desk right now. Can you imagine if your card is located near the bottom of that stack? I’m sure my card is at the bottom of stacks on hundreds of desks around the country. This is a constant reminder that I’...