Sports Marketing 2.0 | Pat Coyle

While my first impression of the Beverly Hilton was not positive, my first impression of the Econ SM Conference held here yesterday was very positive indeed.

I’m walking through the lobby toward the pre-conference breakfast, and pass buy a guy who looks kinda official who is digging something out of a box. He looks up, checks my name tag, and say, “hi Pat. Thanks for being a loyal reader of my blog.”

The guy was Rafat Ali, Publisher & Editor of Paid Content.Org, the host of the show. How cool is it to be among a sea of 500 attendees and who knows how many thousands of readers of his blog, and he nailed me. Knew exactly who I was because I link to his blog frequently from this blog. It made me feel welcome, cool and warm and fuzzy all at the same time. Great way to start the show.

Next I stepped into to the breakfast area and immediately ran into Joe Marchese from Archetype Media. He’s a guy I had corresponded with prior to the show thanks to a nifty “social net system” they set up for us to us. We sat and chatted for a few minutes and found several ways we might work together. While sitting with them, I saw Steve Touhill from Clearspring, the company that does our widgets, and got a chance to meet his CEO (whose card I didn’t get and whose name I forget). Anyway, this is the way it went all day and into the night. When we weren’t being educated by the high quality panelists, we were linking up with colleagues. I have a fist full of business cards, yes, but more than that I have new friends in some high places who will help me and the Colts as we continue to pursue the Web 2.0 dream.

I even met Shawn Gold, SVP Marketing for MySpace. Pretty random. Met him washing hands at the sink in the men’s room. So I introduced myself and had a nice chat and got his card…which is kinda my brush with greatness, I suppose. (He hadn’t shaved, BTW, but now that I know him I can’t make fun. Anyway, at least he wasn’t wearing sneakers with his suit, which is apparently all the rage among digitial business hot shots.

I need to be brief this morning so I can catch my plane home, but suffice to say that I heard from the panelists many things that confirm our strategy as well as the obstacles we face. I’ll try to add more detail later.