NEW YORK  –  Over the past two days, the BIG EAST Conference hosted a virtual Marketing and External Operations Summit featuring top industry experts and leaders from the Conference’s 11 member schools. The Summit was designed to refocus the collective marketing and external efforts of the conference on the anticipated return of fans to collegiate sports venues during the upcoming academic year.  Many of the sessions included presentations around cutting-edge technologies and innovative approaches to engaging fans, maximizing attendance and generating revenues. 
 
Kicking off the Summit was a featured talk by Amy Brooks, President of Team Marketing and Business Operations and the Chief Innovation Officer for the National Basketball Association.   Brooks and Greg Christopher, Vice President for Administration and Director of Athletics at Xavier University, discussed trends the NBA has seen over the past few months as fans were gradually allowed back into arenas.
 
Mark Beal, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Public Relations for the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information and the author of the book “Decoding Gen Z,” provided insights on the “most inclusive generation” and how to grab the attention of a new audience of recruits, fans and potential school donors through Gen Z’s three preferred social media platforms: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
 
Former ESPN Vice President of Women’s Sports, Programming and Acquisition, Carol Stiff, led a women’s basketball marketing and engagement session which also featured remarks from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, who discussed the growth of the Huskies’ fan base over the past three decades. The pair stressed the importance of storytelling and active engagement by coaches and student-athletes with the campus and local communities. 
 
Other expert guests included Molly Tissenbaum, Research Analyst for Sports Innovation Lab, which focuses on fan behavior and how to create breakthrough fan experiences; and Mike Behan, Chief Operating Officer for Legends, a premium experiences company. The duo highlighted sessions on smart venue opportunities and creative crowdfunding, respectively.
 
Representatives from BIG EAST partner FloSports, Lindsey Ross, Director of Rights and Acquisition, Kevin Sander, Senior Manager Partner Success, and Paige Johnson, Senior Manager, Partner Marketing, joined for an in-depth discussion about the newly-announced, expanded streaming agreement for the conference’s 2021-22 BIG EAST Digital Network (BEDN) Presented by SoFi, which will encompass over 600 women’s basketball and Olympic events during the upcoming academic year. 
 
The two-day event also included a strategic planning update from Val Ackerman, BIG EAST Commissioner, and Vince Nicastro, BIG EAST Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, as well as updates and a question and answer session on how recent developments with name, image and likeness legislation will affect the conference and its constituents.  Ackerman and Tracy Ellis-Ward, BIG EAST Sr. Associate Commissioner, Women’s Basketball and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, also led a review of the league’s women’s basketball strategy.
 
“We were excited to engage with our members and provide a unique and distinctive opportunity for them to hear from world-class presenters and collaborate with each other as we prepare for fans to return to our arenas this season,” remarked Nicole Early, BIG EAST Senior Associate Commissioner, Marketing and External Affairs.
 
Summit breakout sessions were led by athletics personnel from BIG EAST member institutions and focused on fundraising in a post-pandemic world; maximizing home openers; merchandising;  social impact and community engagement initiatives on game day; and collaborations between ticketing and development operations.
 
The Summit was attended by representatives from the ticketing, marketing, communications and development departments of all 11 BIG EAST member institutions and by staff from the conference office and league partners. 
 
The Marketing and External Operations Summit is the third in a series of BIG EAST business sessions which began in August 2017 with a Social and Digital Summit in New York, featuring representatives from all league institutions and executives from FOX Sports, Facebook and Instagram, MIT, Google, YouTube, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the New York Rangers.  In July 2018, in conjunction with the annual summer meetings of the league’s Directors of Athletics in Chicago, the BIG EAST held an External Operations Workshop with leading administrators from the member schools that included a featured talk by Rick Welts, then President and COO of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. The Chicago meetings focused on brand development, in-game presentation and best practices, social and digital promotion, ticket sales, increasing audience on all platforms, trends in athletic development, and the use of analytics and data in marketing and ticket sales programs. The Chicago program also featured a workshop dedicated to marketing and sales strategies in women’s basketball.