Washington Redskins Cheerleaders

For the second straight year, I had the tough task of serving as a judge for the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders auditions at FedEx Field this weekend.  It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. 

In all seriousness, this is a highly competitive environment.  There are about 20 of us that gather to serve as judges for the auditions.  After everyone goes through the initial rounds, the judges gather and tally the scores.

There is a great array of ladies trying out … from various ethnic backgrounds, experience levels, geographic locations, etc.  There’s definitely a bit of nervousness as they introduce themselves and then perform a short dance routine in front of the judges.

As noted last year, the Redskins Cheerleaders are referred to as the “First Ladies of Football.”  It’s a terrific squad full of a group of smart and talented ladies.  They don’t just serve as cheerleaders for the home games at FedEx Field, they also do a ton of community service work throughout the greater Washington, DC area.  And, they also go overseas a few times a year to help support our hard-working and deserving US Military soldiers.  Being the son of a retired Army officer, I remember how much everyone’s spirits were lifted when celebrity guests from the US came to entertain us at the military bases in foreign countries.

The finals for the Redskins Cheerleaders Final Auditions will take place this Thursday from 7:30 – 9:30 pm at the Bethesda Theatre, 7719 Wisconsin Ave in Bethesda.  Tickets are $15 for general admission and $25 for VIP.   I encourage you to attend and to cheer on the NFL’s best cheerleaders (trust me, I was at the NBA All-Star Game in Dallas in Feb – where the Cowboys cheerleaders performed — the Skins Cheerleaders are much better)!

SEME 2010

Our Georgetown University Sports Industry Management program hosted a two-day SEME (Sports Event Marketing Experience) at Nationals Park this past Friday and Saturday.   We bill this as the premier sports career and networking conference.

We’re now in our 7th year and I think this year’s conference was the best one ever!  The conference was sold out for the third straight year — we had approximately 300 attendees and over 80 sports executives serve as panelists and moderators.

Our keynote speakers / guest speakers included Sunil Gulati, the President of the US Soccer Federation; Glenn Chinn, VP – Global Brand Management, EA Sports; Ahmad Nassar, Allison Tucker and Steve Goodman from the NFL Players Association and a host of other esteemed executives.

I had the good fortune of serving as a moderator for the three panel sessions — “Sports 2.0 – The Effect of the Economic Crisis,” “Breaking Into the Sports Industry” and “New Technologies: Impacting the Way We View and Market Sports.”   Each panel session went well, primarily due to the excellence and experience of the panelists.   A list of the agenda and panelists can be found at http://www.seme-now.com.

I told the students and attendees throughout the two days that I thought it was an extremely wise use of their time to come to the conference to listen and learn from the panelists and speakers as well as to network with the dozens of sports executives in attendance.

Many of the vets, such as myself, didn’t have these types of conferences and networking opportunities when we were graduating from undergrad and graduate school and trying to enter the hyper-competitive sports industry.  I think that’s why so many of come to “give back” and to help the younger generations.   My email box has been slammed the past couple of days from conference attendees — I’ll do my best to help each and every one of them in one way or another.

Kudos to Matt Winkler, Kristen Consolo and the hard-working staff and volunteers that helped make this a terrific conference.

11th annual Asian-American LEAD Dinner

Wow, what an amazing night last night.  We held our 11^th annual Asian-American LEAD fund-raising dinner at the China Garden in Rosslyn.  The event was a smashing success – we had over 400 guests in attendance and set a record in terms of fund-raising.

As a board member and co-chair of the development committee, this is an important day for our organization.  We need to keep raising funds in this tough economic environment in order to stay afloat and to keep delivering our much-needed services to our students, most of whom come from low-income Asian families in Washington, DC.

The student performances are always a highlight.  Once again, the children – from elementary to high school – delivered a number of terrific performances.  I was also riveted by the moving speeches from two students … both who moved to the US in the past few years.  Their families moved them here to provide them an opportunity to receive a better education.  It must be extremely difficult to come to the US when one doesn’t know the English language nor the customs and traditions.  Yet, these two outstanding students made the move … and they both thanked AA LEAD for helping them get acclimated to the community and to their respective schools.

The other highlights included our keynote speaker, Yul Kwon.   Yul is a good friend of mine who is most known for being the Korean-American that won “Survivor” a few years ago.  He’s also a highly educated and respected business executive.  Yul moved to DC last fall and is now serving as Deputy Commissioner for the FCC.  He delivered a fantastic speech about his perspective of growing up as an Asian-American in the US.  He also stressed the importance of education as well as the importance of organizations such as AA LEAD to help the children achieve their dreams.  We are truly grateful to Yul for addressing the AA LEAD family at last night’s dinner.

The other highlight for me was having the distinct honor of introducing one of my mentors, Mario Morino.  We awarded Mario with the AA LEAD’s first ever Washington, DC LEADer award.  There is no one more deserving.  Mario is the Godfather of Philanthropy for the greater Washington DC region.  He is clearly one of the great Washingtonians of the past 3 decades.  His Venture Philanthropy Partners organizations has helped over 10 of the leading non-profits in the DC positively impact tens of thousand of children.

In delivering the introduction, instead of reading Mario’s impressive bio, I told a real-life story.  I brought my 10-year old mentee, Sally, to the stage with me.  I told the audience  how Mario became one of my primary mentors over 10 years ago.   He asked me to help him meet young up and coming business executives who might become donors to the VPP family.  Four of us have joined the VPP family in the past few years.  Because of VPP, I learned about AA LEAD.  And, because of AA LEAD, I’ve gotten to become part of a terrific organization – and I’ve also become mentors  to 10-year old Sally and her 14-year old brother, Da-Zhi.  I’ve blogged in the past about how I’ve promised to their mother that I will ensure that both of her children attend college (through my personal contributions as well as help with scholarships and grants).  The summary to my intro was that because of Mario Morino, there’s a VPP; because of VPP, organizations like AA LEAD are thriving; because of AA LEAD, I’ve become mentors to two wonderful mentee / students – who are going to go to college and achieve their dreams.  So, it was wonderful for me to introduce my mentor, Mario, to my mentee, Sally, on the stage last night.  Yes, I nearly broke down but I managed to not do so.  But, the smile from last night hasn’t left my face yet.  Last night was a dream come true.

Thank you to AA LEAD staff, students, board members, volunteers and to the many wonderful friends that supported our organization last night.

GU – Sports Marketing class

We’re now in the 2^nd half of the semester for our Sports Marketing Strategy course.   Our 47 students are starting to get antsy as they enter the downstretch for graduation – which take place on the Georgetown University campus in late May.

During last night’s class, the students took a 20-question quiz, review the chapter from the text book about Sport Sponsorship, discussed some background information for their final project, and then heard from our guest speaker, Billy Stone, of CBS Sports / College Sports TV Network.

We try to provide an array of guest speakers that provide real-world experiences from their various roles in Sports.  We’ve had team owners, agency presidents, sportswriters, league executives and TV event producers.  Coming up in the next few weeks will be a Sport Sponsorship analytics expert, a person who manages the financial portfolios of over 70 pro athletes, a professional agent, etc.

This year’s  class has been superb – the students are very engaged.  I love to teach and share my knowledge of sports marketing experience.  And, it’s great when the class responds in such a positive manner.  I’m already looking forward to next Monday’s class.

Capitol Movement Project rocks the house

For the fifth straight year, the Capitol Movement Project rocked the house!   Last night, CMP held its’ annual performance at the historic Lincoln Theatre, located right next door to the ever-popular Ben’s Chili Bowl.

As a long-time board member of CMP, I’m always so proud of the entire team – from the dancers to the choreographers to the volunteers.  I invited a total of 20 guests, which included a mix of adults and children.  Based on the thank-you texts and emails, each and every one of them had a wonderful time at the event.

CMP’s mix of contemporary dance, hip-hop, ballet, tap-dance and international dance is unique to the greater Washington , DC area.  From the reaction of the crowd throughout the evening, the audience was entertained during the entirety of the 2.5 hour performance.

This has been an important 12 months for the CMP.  The new dance studio opened on 14^th St NW last Spring.  A variety of classes are being offered throughout the week.  To learn more about CMP, its studio and the performances, please visit the website at www.capitolmovement.org.

GU’s SIM program in London

As mentioned in the previous blog, we brought 18 graduate students from Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management program to London during Spring Break Week to meet with sports executives and firms as well as tour a couple of the legendary sports venues.

This week has been a home run!  Over the past few days, we took the students to meet with the British Parliament’s head of Culture, Media and Sport; Arsenal; Nike UK; 2012 London Olympic Committee; James Grant Media Managment (UK’s leading entertainment and sport agency); Octagon UK; and AEG / 02 Arena.

Across the board, the sports executives were generous with their time in explaining their respective business — then engaging in lively Q & A with our students each and every time.  We can’t thank these executives enough for taking time from their busy schedules to meet with our group.

I must also thank our students — they were prompt, well-dressed and asked a series of terrific questions.  They made me proud and they certainly made  the GU SIM program look top-notch in the eyes of the executives we met with in London.  Some of the meetings were 2 to 2.5 hours in length.  And, if we didn’t leave so the execs could back to work, we might have stayed well over 3 hours!

One of the highlights of the trip was attending the Arsenal v Porto UEFA Champions League match on Tuesday night at Emirates Stadium, regarded as the finest football stadium in the UK.  Wow, an amazing experience.  They take their football very seriously here.  And, one huge difference is that the focus is the product on the field … not big HD screens, loud music, half-time acts, etc.  Instead, the entire focus is the product on the field.  Of course, there are business and programming reasons for the difference, but it was still unique to observe.  And, having the hometown Arsenal win 5 – 0 also helped make it a joyous night.

This was a wonderful week and hopefully the start of a long-term partnership between our GU SIM program and the wonderful sports executives and firms in London.   Cheers.

London

Okay, so now I’m changing my mind about London. I’ve been to London a couple of times but it always was a short 2 – 3 day that was normally tied up with business or business-related meetings. And, it was nearly always overcast and / or rainy.

But, after spending a full week here in London with our 18 graduate students from Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management, I’m starting to get a much more positive feel for this wonderful city.

I’ll blog separately about our sports trip this week, but basically we went to 2 – 3 meetings / visits per day — and it was easy to navigate around the city via the legendary tube system.

BTW, these are the coolest taxi’s in the world, but they’re also quite expensive. So, taking the tube — both underground and overground, was much preferred. The map routes are well laid out and it’s fairly easy to figure out.

As for the food, I did try one of the local staples — fish (cod) and chips, which was excellent. I haven’t yet tried one of the other local fav’s — the bangers and mash. At the restaurant last night, it was listed as wild boar. So, I declined. But, I did hit a number of terrific Chinese and Japanese restaurants, which are plentiful in this international city.

From a Sports perspective, London is important (of course, the futbol is legendary) due to the upcoming 2012 Olympics Games. Thus, we’ll be program another group of students here in 2011 and 2012. This week was a great start to what we hope we will be a terrific partnership between Georgetown’s SIM program and the leading sports firms / executives that we met with this week.

Cheers.

Ted @ Georgetown Univ

He did it again!  Who’s he?  My mentor, Ted Leonsis, spoke to our Sports Marketing Strategy class last night at Georgetown Univ.  For the fifth straight year, he absolutely wow’ed the students with stories about his amazing and wonderful life.  It was a riveting 75 minutes as Ted shared his life lessons as well as engaged in a lively Q&A session.

This Georgetown University connection between Ted and I is quite strong.  Georgetown Hoyas hoops is literally the first thing we discussed when I was introduced to him in the Spring ’95 — back when AOL was starting to gain momentum as a force to be reckoned with.

Georgetown also provided Ted with his foundation for his incredible career.  The stories about his connection with his mentor, Father Durkin, and how the university helped him get started on the path to success are described in detail in his new book, “The Business of Happiness.”   I devoured the book and its’ lessons in a couple of days.  I highly recommend this book — which can be easily purchased at http://www.amazon.com and http://www.barnesandnoble.com.

Ted shared stories about building his initial company; creating his famous “List of 101 Things”; helping build AOL into a major media powerhouse; owning and operating the Capitals; starting SnagFilms; Revolution Money; his mentorships / friendships with his E-buddy, “Big Ken” Holden, Hoop Dreams mentee, Michael Hendrickson; producing documentaries; his love of his wife and children and family; and the 6 lessons spelled out in the book.

As I mentioned at the start of class last night, there’s a great connection … Father Durkin was Ted’s mentor, Ted is my mentor, and I mentor a number of students.  So, we are literally passing on life lessons from Father Durkin.  We are now in the fourth generation of these wonderful teachings.  The “Pay It Forward” program is indeed ongoing.

We have so many outstanding students in the class.  I know Ted’s life lessons opened some eyes last night.  And, I know in my heart that these lessons will be passed on to future generations from our current class of students.   Peace.

My Dad

Today marked the second anniversary of my father’s passing.  I went to Arlington National Cemetery, where he is interred, this weekend to pay respects to my father.  As I’ve blogged about in the past, my three heroes — my father, a retired Army officer; my favorite uncle, Uncle Art, a retired Air Force officer; and the father one of my closest friends, General Jack Guthrie, have all been laid to rest at ANC over the past 3 years.

I do miss my father very much.  But, my family and I are fortunate that he lived a long, wonderful life.  And, I do firmly believe that he’s reunited with his parents, brothers and friends up above.

I remember in the past that when friends had lost a parent, they would say don’t take life for granted.  If you have time to spend with your loved ones … grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, kids, etc — to do so.  One never knows when life can be taken away.

So, when my friends sometime debate whether to go visit a relative, I strongly encourage them to do so.  My family and I are fortunate that my father lived a nearly additional 12 years after a major quadruple bypass surgery in ’96 (his heart stopped twice in the post-op room).  He made a full recovery.  And, I made it a priority to speak to my father nearly every day and to visit my parents on a regular basis.  We also created a few lifetime experiences – such a spring visit to Paris as well as more simple things like attending a Three Tenors concert (my father loved Luciano Pavarotti) and a Nationals game (which was a delight after not having baseball in DC for three decades).

I promised my father that I would focus on taking care of the family, to be good to my friends, to continue to heavily volunteer and help children from lower-income families and to have fun in life.  I lead far from a perfect life, but I live a happy life since I try to best to do as promised.   Last year, we attended a family reunion in Tokyo with my Japanese relatives and a family reunion in Arizona with my American relatives.   And, I feel fortunate to be involved with so many terrific non-profit organizations (I blog regularlylabout my mentees) as well as heavily involved in advising and teaching a number of undergrad and grad students at Georgetown.

I miss you, Dad.  But, I know you’re with me in spirit.  Please give me the strength to continue doing as promised.   I love you.