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

S

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

