Episode Five: How an Event Organizer, Venue and Destination View Recovery (Video)

In this fact-based, data-driven web series, SportsTravel will be interviewing leaders from destinations, sports organizations, hotels and industry suppliers to track the recovery of the sports-event industry. Each episode will feature insight from EventConnect on the latest statistics from tournament registrations and hotel bookings across the country, as well as a dialogue with a select panel of experts.

Episode Five: How an Event Organizer, Venue and Destination View Recovery

In Episode Five: How an Event Organizer, Venue and Destination View Recovery, SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz and EventConnect CEO Jason Parker discuss the latest tournament registration statistics and trends they are seeing in the timing of those registrations. This episode also includes an in-depth discussion from three perspectives of the sports-event industry’s recovery. James Peterson, sales and marketing director for Seacoast United Sports Club in New England, Jillian Surman, lodging director at Woodside Sports Complex in Wisconsin Dells, and Jonathan Paris, executive director of sports tourism for Visit Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, provide their expertise on how their sports organization, venue and destination have helped events come back. Each will also offer lessons they’ve learned from the past months and their advice on how to keep events returning in the future.

Episode Four: How NGBs are Approaching Return to Play

In Episode Four: How NGBs are Approaching Return to Play, SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz and EventConnect CEO Jason Parker discuss the latest tournament registration and ADR statistics, as well as which sports appear to be returning the fastest. This episode also includes in-depth discussions with leaders at two national governing bodies that are navigating return-to-play guidelines for their owned events as well as events run by other organizations in their respective sports. USA Volleyball CEO Jamie Davis discusses how his organization is approaching play for its elite athletes at the Olympic and Paralympic level as well as the championships that the NGB stages in convention centers and arenas and beaches nationwide. And US Lacrosse Vice President of Lacrosse Operations Ann Kitt Carpenetti talks about how her organization has approached its extensive guidelines, how the NGB has handled sanctioning of other events around the country and how the pandemic has affected the traditional season for the sport.

Episode Three: The Hotel Experience for Sports-Related Travel

In Episode Three: The Hotel Experience for Sports-Related Travel, SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz and EventConnect CEO Jason Parker discuss the latest tournament registration and ADR statistics, as well as which sports appear to be returning the fastest. And in a discussion about how the hotel industry has changed in recent months, hear from Yola Marshall, the vice president of commercial performance for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), and Nick Worrall, Red Lion Hotels’ global director of sales for sports about what occupancy rates are like right now, how the sports market is doing compared to other travel business, changes that teams and parents should expect in their hotel experience and best practices for communicating those changes to customers. We also talk with Brian Ryman, owner of Music City Classic, a baseball tournament series in Nashville that has seen teams travel for events to learn what the response to hotel stays has been for traveling teams.

Episode Two: How Sports Venues are Reopening

In Episode Two: How Sports Venues are Reopening, SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz and EventConnect CEO Jason Parker discuss the latest registration and ADR statistics and which parts of the country are seeing events come back the fastest. In a discussion about how sports venues are approaching their reopening, we talk with William Knox, the director of Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana, and Jamie Cox, general manager of the Panama City Beach Sports Complex in Panama City Beach, Florida, to hear how they’ve approached bringing visitors back on their property. We also talk with Janis Burke, the CEO of the Harris County–Houston Sports Authority and the chair of the Sports ETA Board of Directors, about Houston’s citywide plan to reopen.

Episode One: The Return of Youth Sports

In Episode One: The Return of Youth Sports,  SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz and EventConnect CEO Jason Parker discuss the latest registration, reservation and ADR statistics. In a discussion about what destinations are seeing on the ground, we have a dialogue with Sue Hollenbeck, the director of sports business for the Oklahoma City CVB, and Kirk Elmquist, the vice president of sports development for the Branson CVB. And in a talk with U.S. Youth Soccer CEO Skip Gilbert and Five Tool Baseball Founder Lynn Vanlandingham, we delve into what event organizers are hearing from parents and how they are approaching their upcoming events.

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