Program
2009 Association of Luxury Suite Directors Conference and Tradeshow
Tentative Conference Schedule and Seminars
Please note: dates, times, and sessions are tentative and subject to change
| Sunday, June 28, 2009 | 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. | ALSD Golf Tournament |
| 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. | Conference Registration |
| 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. | Exhibitor Set-up |
| 2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. | New Attendee Meeting |
| 2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. | Vendor Orientation Meeting |
| 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | Board of Directors Meeting |
| 4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. | Exhibit Hall Open |
| 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. | Tour and Reception: |
| American Airlines Center | |
| Monday, June 29, 2009 | |
| 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. | Breakfast & Optional Exhibitor Appointments |
| 9:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. | League Meetings |
| NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, IT, F&B | |
| Minor Leagues, College, Racing, Soccer | |
| 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | All Leagues Best Practices Meeting |
| 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. | Exhibit Hall Open - Cocktail Hour |
| 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. | Exhibit Hall Open - Dinner in Halll |
| 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. | Kick-off Party |
| Tuesday, June 30, 2009 | |
| 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. | Keynote Speaker |
| 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. | Exhibit Hall Open |
| 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Sessions |
| 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. | Keynote Lunch, Keynote Speaker, Award Show |
| 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. | Sessions |
| 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. | Tour: New Cowboys Stadium |
| 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. | Tour and Game: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington |
| Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | |
| 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | Sessions |
| 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | Sessions |
| 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. | Tours: Alternate Venues |
| Texas Motor Speedway, Pizza Hut Park Dr Pepper Ballpark |
|
| Thursday, July 2, 2009 | |
| 10:00 a.m. | Board of Directors Meeting |
| 1:30 p.m. | LIDS 4 Kids |
2009 Seminar Overview
Executive Track Sessions:
Teams Working with Sponsors on the Premium Levels
Description: It's the era of the vertical niche. In the age of YouTube, My Space, and Facebook, it's no wonder that sport marketing is undergoing segmentation driven by individualism and customization. It's all about location, location, location in the venue marketplace. Sport marketing, which was once considered as an already narrowly defined method of reaching customers, e.g. fans at a sports venue, is no longer good enough. The emergence of the $10 billion premium seat marketplace, with its corporate ownership of suites, has created an upscale class of customers who exist not by age, income, gender, or product preference, but by the location of their seat. Suites are to teams what zip codes are to demographers: they tell a lot about the consumer.
Transitioning from One Venue to the Next
Description: Many of us have gone through or are getting ready to go through the transition from an existing venue to a new venue. The challenges when moving into a new venue include, for instance, keeping your customers, placement of suites, clubs, and club seats, and creating that unforgettable event in an unfamiliar venue. This session will include the "things you need to know" before you make the move to the new venue. Experts from the industry will present fine points you need to keep in mind during this time. Ticketing professionals, architects, team personnel who have been through a transition, and vendors and suppliers will participate on this panel, which is geared towards the decision maker.
Renovation: Pro Forma Budgets
Description: Pricing is everything when considering a renovation. This session will lay out specific figures and details, such as finishing costs, with no holds barred. Case histories will be presented from the vendor/supplier side and from the team side. You need to know what your renovation will cost you, down to the last chafing dish and final toilet seat. Panelists on this session leave nothing to chance. Every penny is accounted for in these executive presentations.
The 21st Century Venue: The Future of the Premium Business and the Next Generation of Products
Description: The days of nostalgia in sports are giving way to a futuristic generation of high-tech, high-touch product introductions. Some of the world's largest companies are developing comprehensive programs that will control the stadium of the future. It's the coming age of cashless venues, hand-held video devices, swipe-card concessions, ticketing kiosks, social networking platforms for the ticket and premium industry, and next generation HD, all controlled by a single, unified information technology platform.
The Return of the Personal Seat License
Description: Personal seat licenses are getting big again. The Wall Street Journal has reported that personal seat licenses are being sold by the New York Jets on EBay. A personal seat license (PSL) is essentially a fee you need to pay before you actually buy the ticket. Teams building new venues use PSL's, often to the dismay of the general populace. Successful teams and venues, such as the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants, are going to them. Pricing PSL's is both an art and a science. Charge too much and you can alienate your existing fan base. One thing is for certain: for PSL's to work, demand has to far outstrip supply. This session will go into the details of whether you should charge for PSL's and if so, how much.
New Suite Models
Description: The Harris Club at the United Center; the Gridiron Club at Bank of America Stadium; The Lofts at TD Banknorth. What do these clubs and suites have in common? These ideas, like others from teams around the country, are customer friendly, cost-effective ways to modify premium space in venues. The improved spaces prove functionality and fan appeal are only a few revamped steps away for teams. Some venues choose to reduce the number of suites and add a larger, lower-ticket-price club with all the action of a luxury suite. Others choose to scale down a suite, offering mini-suite packages to smaller parties. This session will help you decide which "product" is right for your venue. Panelists will spell out their rationale for transforming a space while explaining why one idea works and why another might not.
Rights Fees on Premium Levels: F&B, Secondary Side, Naming Rights
Description: Determining rights fees for venues on premium levels is a relatively new phenomenon. However, there are some established metrics that will help teams' premium seating marketing professionals. There are sound methods of sorting out how much your properties are worth. The ALSD will bring in major corporate sponsors who work on multiple levels with multiple teams to determine fee levels for rights fees of all types.
Ticketing on the Secondary Side: The Various Models
Description: This session is for team executives who want to investigate the blurring of primary and secondary ticketing in venues. Markets may be confusing to teams these days and this session will help sort out this new ticketing landscape. Teams, on their own platforms, can do primary and secondary tickets. Teams can also rely on the leagues to develop these initiatives. Whatever the case, it is important to note that secondary ticketing is fractured; there are many models. This session will highlight the options that teams have on a team case-study level. Representatives will be invited from MLBAM, Tickets.com, Ticketmaster, and major secondary companies, as well as team-centric representatives.
Executive Track and Training Track
Management Platform: Hiring, Firing, and Finding Great Employees
Description: It's all about setting up a premium group in your venue. This session will dive into the hiring process for new premium employees. The key is finding great employees and making them even better. When attracting potential members of your staff, salary is always an important topic; address that concern with our panel. Firing is one of the toughest aspects of any job, but you can learn the appropriate way to let an employee go and the reasons behind the firing of employees. The initial goal is to get that premium staff; the complementary goal is managing it effectively.
Executive Track and Training Track
Setting Up a Marketing Center
Description: Do you have a new venue? Are you considering building out a marketing center to kick start your suite and premium seat sales? Do you want to know if the cost of building out justifies the increased sales created by the marketing center? The Dallas Cowboys have set up one of the most interesting centers the ALSD has ever viewed. Travis Clark will demonstrate a cost/benefit analysis for your viewing pleasure.
General Track Sessions:
Relationship Managing: Getting Along With Your Premium Seat Customers
Description: Staying close to your customer is the secret to higher renewals. Some teams have become experts at "touching" their best customers on nearly a daily basis in some form or another. See how the most successful teams have creatively developed multiple programs to stay involved with their customers. Maintaining your customer base is not always about money; it's about creating a great atmosphere where the customers are happy with the attention they receive.
Renewals
Description: With leases becoming shorter and shorter, is there a more important topic than renewals these days? It has, in effect, become the driving revenue focus for most stadiums that are not new. How do you maintain renewals and what type of incentives are being offered? This is probably the #1 sales focus for the premium seat market. The ALSD will show case histories of those teams who are most successful and why they are. We will make every effort to bring in teams from different sports that have different financial challenges.
Suiteholder Focus Group
Testimonials from Suiteholders
Description: It's an annual highlight of our ALSD show. We bring in the suiteholders who tell you exactly what they are thinking, no holds barred.
Responding to a Tough Economy in the Hospitality Market
Description: Has the market lost its appetite for stadium hospitality? Stadium operators are increasingly concerned as to how the credit crunch may affect hospitality revenues over the coming months. Have your hospitality sales and renewals been affected? Are you taking steps to protect your stadium business from any impact that may happen in the coming months? Find out how you can protect your organization from the credit crunch.
Value-Added Approaches
Description: What can the team do besides discount tickets to retain customers? The name of the game in 2008 and 2009 is all about value-added programs. The ALSD will explore such new concepts as group buying, gaining access to other venues, and a variety of added-value programs that provide the customer with the real and/or perceived ROI for this premium market.
Going Green
Description: You know the general steps to going green in your venue... turn out the lights in an empty suite, use fewer disposable products, but how can you take the next step to save your venue energy and, most importantly, money? Case studies on topics such as "sustainability" will be presented in this seminar.
General Track and Sales Track
Positioning Your Venue in a Crowded Market
Description: There are 14 markets where all four major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL) are being played. Add to that list, Major League Soccer, racing, tennis, and colleges all sell suites along with minor league teams. A city such as Dallas is very, very competitive in the local market. However, that does not keep some cities from thriving despite what appears to be a thin corporate marketplace. The trick is to position your venue/team so that your value proposition is different than your competitors. In this seminar, we will explore markets that are crowded and teams that are successful in crowded markets.
General Track and Sales Track
Closing the Sale
Description: You can see it in the customer's eye: he wants to sign on the bottom line. But he hesitates. He is able to walk out of the room. Once he walks out of the room, chances of getting him to sign decrease... sometimes a great deal. How do you get him to sign on the dotted line? There are tricks to keeping the fish on the hook. You just have to have the right bait. Learn why 20% of the people sell 80% of the product and why some, in tough markets, actually thrive while others flounder.
General Track and F&B Track
Mixology: The Making of a Great Cocktail
Description: Brought this back by popular demand is this five-star Mixology seminar. Mixology is a topic that is interesting to not only F&B companies and their drinkmaster generals, but also for our attendees who simply want to know the secrets that the pros know when making a great cocktail.
General Track and F&B Track
Beer Basics: History and Pairings
Description: Wine is not the only thing food is prepared and served with. Beer also has its partners. Come learn the foods that are best paired with your favorite beers. Want more? We've also asked Crown Imports to detail the history of beer and its journey into the food and beverage industry. Here's a secret; it's not just a tailgate beverage anymore.
Sales Track Sessions:
Database, Discretionary Spending, and DemographicsDescription: The 21st century Information Age has ushered in multiple new ideas utilizing the latest and greatest in database marketing techniques.
Personal Development: Getting to the Next Level
Description: The cream almost always rises to the top. Find out what those who have almost effortlessly risen to high ranks know that you may want to learn. Want to know the secrets of their success? Find out from the experts who do this for a living.
F&B Track Sessions:
Backroom Kitchen TourDescription: Sometimes what the madding crowd doesn't see is what really affects what the crowd needs to be happy. See how a really efficient backroom set up can truly impact your bottom line.
The Changing Business Climate: Who Are the New Players?
Description: The F&B business is "in play" as they say. At least two new major players have either changed hands or emerged on the F&B front. Learn how the new F&B climate will affect business on the premium levels.
Creative Menu Preparation
Description: In tough times, you need to be creative... especially with menu preparation and the need to maintain the bottom line. Learn how companies are adapting to the new economic realities in the hospitality business.
Setting Up an Efficient Kitchen System on the Premium Levels
Description: Service is the name of the game for premium level products. An efficient kitchen system on the premium levels is essential for providing great service. This seminar will demonstrate proven methods that the major companies use to make sure service is always first class.
Controlling Tailgating
Description: Learn how you can "own" the tailgate, a new idea in F&B. There are unique ways to throw a tailgate party. Whether it's on the train into the city or stadium or in the stadium parking lot, F&B companies can make tailgating their own... and reap the profits too. Have unique tailgating ideas that benefit your F&B company? Bring them to the table.
Cashless Venues
Description: The future is here. It started in Europe and cashless venues are making their way to the U.S. There are some interesting advantages and potential disadvantages of the new technology. Learn the ups and downs of this new F&B technology.
The Economy and the Profit Squeeze
Description: This is an idea session for companies who wish to cope in a tough economic climate. The roundtable sessions will explore different topics as to how companies are changing their menus, staff, and general overhead.
Concession Rights Fees
Description: So will concession rights fees keep going up? Will they drop? Will they be tied to attendance or will companies pony up major fees demanding longer contracts? This is the place to learn about the future of how companies will go after business.
Still to come:
IT Sessions
League Meeting Agendas