Wednesday, January 28, 2015 // The Statement
6B

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ince 2011, University students have been
vaulting into the sports industry via the
Michigan Sport Business Conference, an

event planned, organized and run entirely by Uni-
versity students. The goal? Innovation.

Last year’s conference, which took place on

Oct. 24, was entitled “Game Changers: Innovat-
ing Today. Defining Tomorrow.” The conference
focused on how students can break into the sports
industry — “How do get your first job in sports”
was just one of the topics covered — and how future
leaders can help the industry evolve, with panel dis-
cussions like the “Intersection of Sport and Urban
Development.”

Innovation, however, was not only the theme of

last year’s conference. It’s part of the organization’s
refrain.

MSBC’s mission is “to inspire creativity and

innovation in the sport industry and allow individ-
uals to build the relationships necessary to achieve
their personal aspirations,” said Business junior
Max Himelhoch, one of the MSBC’s newly elected
co-presidents.

Last year the conference brought in approxi-

mately 400 Michigan students and 70 students
from other colleges around the country as attend-
ees, according to fellow co-president and Kinesiol-
ogy junior Alyssa Duguay.

MSBC’s newly chosen organizing student team —

which is technically a Ross School of Business club
— has 31 members in total and is sectioned into five
divisions: marketing, planning, team relationships,
partners and speakers.

While the conference won’t happen again until

sometime in late October or early November, the
teams have already begun the extensive prepara-
tion process.

Himelhoch said that MSBC had its highest num-

ber ever of applicants for the organizing student
team this year. Out of the 150 who applied, 75 were
accepted for interviews before the final team was
cut down to 31 people in total. Even last year’s team
members had to re-interview.

The team looked for a set of diverse and passion-

ate students throughout its application process.
Accepted members range from Sport Management
and Business students to Communications majors,
Art majors, and, of course, athletes.

This year they’re even trying a new “hybrid” pro-

gram for study-abroad students.

Kinesiology junior Morgan Bartelstein is cur-

rently in Prague. She’s also a communications
coordinator working to keep a dialogue going with
potential speakers.

“I think one of the things that allowed us to try

this is that when we look for our new team, we’re
looking for people that really want to be a part of it,
who are passionate about working with us and will
be dedicated to it,” Himelhoch said.

Himelhoch went on to say that being a part of

MSBC’s organizing student team is invaluable to
students hoping to enter the sport industry upon

graduation.

“It gives anyone who’s interested in potentially

going into those fields a chance to get some hands-
on experience here,” he said. “You leave at the end
of the year, or at the end of however many years you
spend with the conference, having really accom-
plished real, tangible things.”

It’s the skills developed, he says, that help stu-

dents create a future in the industry.

“I use them in interviews all the time, whether

it’s the marketing plan that we made or just the
experiences that we’ve had,” he said. “It’s been
extremely valuable to everybody.”

Prior to becoming the upcoming conference’s

co-president, Himelhoch was the vice president of
marketing. As such, he helped develop a marketing
plan that increased conference revenues by 65 per-
cent and increased the number of student tickets
sold by 15 percent.

Likewise, Duguay added significantly to the con-

ference last year as former vice president of team
relations. Kinesiology senior Josh Kadden, former
brand director and vice president of partnerships,
said that improvements in the internal organization
could be accredited to Duguay.

Duguay is notably also the first woman co-pres-

ident that MSBC has had. She says that MSBC is
“very progressive,” and that more women attend
the conference each year.

“It is scary for women in the sport industry.

Sometimes you feel like it’s a more masculine indus-
try to enter,” Duguay said, “but more and more
women are attending.”

She further noted that the number female speak-

ers attending the conference each year is rising as
well.

As for Kadden, he’s been a part of the organizing

student team since the conference’s first year.

His division’s job has been to grow the MSBC

“brand,” to legitimize it and make it more recogniz-
able. Duguay said that he and his team were instru-
mental to last year’s conference.

“He raised $60,000 in partnerships,” she said.

“He was fundamental and we continue to push
these new goals.”

Business senior David Carlson likewise has

worked to push the organization’s goals and will
continue to do so for the upcoming 2015 conference.
Last year he was a “cross-functional committee
member” on the brand team, which operates under
the marketing division’s umbrella.

The project he focused on was called the “BIG”

project, an acronym for “Build, Inspire and Grow.”
At the conference each year, this BIG initiative pres-
ents 10 of the country’s best Sports Management or
Sports Business students an award, honoring them
for their extracurricular and in-classroom work.

“It gives them an opportunity to be recognized

for their outstanding achievement,” Carlson said.

While members of the student group organize

and run the conference, they also seek advice from
two advisory groups — the Board of Directors,

made up of five executives from the sport industry,
and the Advisory Council, composed of recent grad-
uates of the program.

It’s in this way that members think about the

MSBC organization like a business instead of a club,
with tiers of factions and divisions.

Kinesiology senior David Herman, one of last

year’s co-presidents, will soon sit on the Advisory
Council.

As to the future of the conference, he spoke about

self-innovation.

“What we really want for the conference is for it

to not actually be thought of as a conference,” Her-
man said. “We want the MSBC to be a brand that is
providing, creating, spreading the knowledge of the
sport industry to students.”

He said soon the MSBC brand will be one that

tells students where and how to find information
about the sport industry, one that will help students
network year-round.

“While the conference is our focus, ultimately we

want to expand,” Herman said.

University alum Dustin Cairo, one of the co-

founders of MSBC and a current Advisory Council
member, said the conference is looking to transition
from what he calls “MSBC 1.0” to “MSBC 2.0.”

MSBC 1.0, he said, involved creating a founda-

tion for the conference — one made up of strong
relationships with people in the sport industry, the
School of Kinesiology, the Ross School of Business
and the Athletic Department. He says the student
team has done an “incredible job” with that first
phase of MSBC.

The step that will launch the organization into

MSBC 2.0 is a strategy summit slated for the end of
February, he said. Ten to 15 individuals — includ-
ing alumni members and four to five current orga-
nizing students — will meet in New York City for a
two-day strategy session. He hopes the session will
lead to plans for innovation in five main areas of the
MSBC organization.

From the student organizing team, the Advisory

Board and the conference attendees, everyone in
connection with the MSBC is looking to innovate.

They’re looking to innovate the sport industry

itself, the MSBC as a business and their profession-
al selves. They’re looking to learn what it means to
be a part of the sports industry and how to become
successful within it.

Carlson emphasized this in speaking to why he

attended the MSBC for the first time his freshman
year.

“I’m interested in the industry and these people

who are powerful in the industry, who have a lot of
influence within the industry, are going to provide
me with a learning experience,” he said.

“I’m going to learn the market, I’m going to learn

what it took to bring a team or a brand or a sector of
the industry to life. We were watching — firsthand
— people talk about it, talk about their experience in
that industry. That, to me, was the invaluable part.
That’s why I think people show up.”

Conference allows students to engage in real-world

sports business

by Lindsey Scullen, Daily Staff Reporter