6
A CONFERENCE
NEWBIE
O
O
ften, I still feel like an outsider in this industry.
Although I've worked with USIndoor for nearly two
years, and I've learned a lot in that time, there is much
more that I don't know and understand about indoor
sports facilities and complexes.
For me, USIndoor's Facility Operators Conference
and Trade Show has been the place to be. I've now
been to two conferences, and I'm impressed by
the amount of knowledge that people bring with
them every year. This year's conference was in
Louisville, another new destination for me. (I had
never been to Las Vegas before last year's
conference, either.)
Facility Bus Tour
In my opinion, the Facility Bus Tour is one of the best
features of the Conference. Like a school field trip,
it's a different experience to actually walk around,
see things, and ask questions. This year's Bus Tour
was a great example of that—all four hosts provided
background on their facilities, showed us around, and
took plenty of questions.
This year, the Bus Tour went to Mockingbird Valley
Soccer Club, Hoops, Legends Sports Academy, and
Oldham County YMCA Indoor Sports Arena. It was a
nice selection of facilities with similarities but also
quite a lot of differences.
Legends Sports Academy, for example, is
a smaller facility with a primary focus
on baseball. The interesting aspect isn't
the baseball itself, but how the facility
manages multiple sports or playing
areas in relationship to each other.
That's been my biggest takeaway of the two bus tours
I've been on. Having a field is the easy part; it's the
management of the space and time that takes a lot of
thought and effort. Seeing how others do it is a great
way to get an idea that might translate to one's own
facility.
General Session and Keynote
How is the industry doing? Where is it going?
Numbers!
The State of the Industry report by Jason Clement of
SFA was interesting and detailed. The "live polling,"
using responses via text message, was a unique way
of gathering information from the room. It allowed
Jason to correlate trends in the room to trends in
the industry.
This year's Keynote Address was presented by
Kyle Schlegel from Louisville Slugger. Branding is an
important topic in any business, and losing brand
identity can be problematic for even a well-established
brand, as Kyle demonstrated—something we can all
take a lesson from.
Learning Sessions
While taking photo and video, I attend a variety of
sessions, and I get to hear some of the presentations.
Despite not being a facility owner, operator, or staffer,
I find the topics interesting. For example,
while my interest in sports law primarily
relates to professional sports leagues
and teams, John Wolohan's "Hot
Legal Topics" session was one that
held my interest.
by Michael Horn
