Neumann sport management students get creative with three-day webinar
Senior students of Neumann University’s Sport Management seminar class refused to let coronavirus ruin their capstone project.
Beginning Tuesday, the team of
14 students sd hosting a threeday networking event, with speakers around the Delaware Valley, and from Indiana to New York to Miami.
SENIOR LIFEDr. Julie Lanzillo has been the professor of the Neumann University Sport Management 460
(NUSM460) senior seminar class for the last five years. In a coronavirus-free world, the sports networking event for alumni, current students and industry professionals in the Philadelphia area would have taken place on campus for one day.
Instead of canceling and missing out on a tremendous end-ofsenior-year experience, Lanzillo’s students (or her “associates”) got creative. They devised a plan to hold the event over three days via the Zoom app. The event is called Virtual Conversations: Sports Management Careers & Current Topics in 2020, presented by NUSM460 Associates of Neumann University.
“Ultimately what has happened since 2015 is we spend the entire semester running this company and their final deliverable is the students produce this large sports industry networking event. Over the years it has grown in the Philadelphia region to attract 100-plus people, between students and industry folks in professional, collegiate and high school sports and other organizations in the Philadelphia market,” Lanzillo said. “Obviously, that was our plan again for 2020 and (Monday) was supposed to be the actual event. But we knew a month ago that wasn’t going to be a possibility. Rather than throw up our hands and say maybe next year, the students instantly pivoted and said let’s do something online. Let’s make this a virtual conference and let’s go for it, and they did.”
There are more than 60 speakers scheduled to participate in 12-panel virtual discussions over three days from April 21-23. The event features representatives from the Philadelphia Union, Miami Dolphins, New York Liberty, Indiana University, the University of Delaware, Valley Forge Casino, Nerd Street Gamers, Metlife Stadium, Prodigy Sports, and the Philadelphia PGA.
This webinar is designed to attract people interested in learning from some of the leading experts in sports management. The event features professionals from around the country, while guests from all over the world are registered to attend.
“Through my own network, through the networks of the students and the other sport management faculty, we’ve got about 60-65 people over the span of two days that wanted to be on the panels. It wasn’t just local, either. This is what my hope was, that we could get people from all over and we have,” Lanzillo said. “We have people who work for local teams and we have people who work for universities and professional teams from outside the area on different panels. It’s incredible.”
The 14 students/associates heading the project are presidents Marisa Meglino, Dasha Gorokhova and Colin Blake, Alex Rucci (Director of Marketing & Communications), Brady Simon (Executive of Marketing & Communications), Tom Van Horn (Executive of Digital Media), Jake Armano (Executive of Video Production), Dennis Foreman (Executive of Content Production), Cory Ruggiero (Director of Event & Facilities), Jake O’Loughlin (Executive of Event & Facilities), Owen Delesky (Director of Industry Relations), Andrew La Rosa (Executive of Alumni Relations), Bhavya Patel
(Executive of Budgeting), and Jarrett Langrell (Executive of Fundraising).
“The organization is called NUSM 460, the name of the company, if you will,” Lanzillo said. “It’s legit. They have a huge budget they have to manage. Everything here is real, it’s not hypothetical . ... It’s my class, but they’re the stars. It was my idea but every one of them said, ‘Let’s go.’ All of this has happened in this tiny amount of time.”
The webinar includes a wide variety of sports management discussions. There’s something for everyone.
“We pieced together this schedule based upon common topics. We have a panel on women’s leaders in sports and we have a panel on eSports, one on sponsorship, one on communication, one on sports betting and gaming. There’s a total of 12 panels,” Lanzillo said. “Once we established each panel, then different students became the moderators for that and they ran with it. We have two students overseeing the women’s leaders in sports panel, so they’re handling all the marketing for that and producing all the social media content. They’re in constant contact with the panelists to make sure everything is under control and ready to go.”
Attendance is free of charge. Those interested in registering for one or more sessions can visit nusem460.wixsite.com/nusm460 and click the RSVP tab on the main page.
“There’s no cost for anybody to attend, which is something we felt strongly about,” Lanzillo said. “You’re going to get access to some impressive people who work in sports across a myriad of areas. It’s a webinar format, so people can type in questions and get responses. That’s what you’re going to get, a really diverse panel of industry executives and experts that you wouldn’t normally have access to.
“Coming from a school the size of Neumann, that’s pretty neat, too.”
You can read more about the project by following NUSM460 on Twitter and Instagram.