Every year when we venture to Boston for the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference there is a wonder if it is worth the time and the trip. Could we spend time elsewhere, there are already way too many conferences…here is the random stat I came up with by the way…
Because I had nothing better to do. lol From Mar. 1 to Apr, 15 you could attend 16 #sportsbiz conferences in no less than 11 cities from Oslo to NY to London to Nashville to Boston etc. It may cost you about 3OK in travel and passes, an interesting way to see the world. maybe.
And can you sit Sloan out for a year? Maybe? Then you get there and meet even more new people and realize its time well spent, especially the time OUTSIDE the rooms as much as the time in. We will have a summary of this year’s granular learnings later this week, but there was an “aha” moment that came together today to break siloed thinking and learning (which we have talked about before) that was more generational and still very impactful and important as the calendar and the clocks flip.
It was stirred by this story by Dave Kaplan in the New Yorker about an archeological dig for sports writing…namely the trio of writers who still all the NY Post home and keep its back page thriving. The three…Phil Mushnick, Larry Brooks and Steve Serby…continue to ply their trade in print and have helped keep the Post growing in an era of clicks and deep paywalls, and most will say are a throwback to an era where print was king. It was great to read and remember their stories and how they thrive today, but there was a key part of the story that has great importance in learning from the past and going forward.
Brooks was about to call it a career five years ago after losing his wife, Janis, to cancer. That changed with the arrival of an eager UMass intern named Mollie Walker, who had grown up in New Jersey devouring the Post sports section and would eventually be promoted to Rangers beat writer at age 23. She remembers excitedly gabbing about hockey to a decidedly reserved Brooks at a Rangers practice. But he was ultimately taken by her enthusiasm and determination. “She invigorated my career,” says Brooks. For Walker, the grandfather of two has been a godsend for her own budding career. “Imagine having your mentor and best friend wrapped up in one,” says Walker, who now co-hosts a Post podcast with Brooks called Up in the Blue Seats. “I’ve learned so much from Larry: how to stand up for yourself, how to be respected in the hockey space. I think the world of him.”
Learning. Institutional knowledge. Sharing a craft and listening to each other to transcend ages, communication devices, relationships and the like.
I am constantly trying to balance the gold of the past with the glitter of the future. I talk to young students like I did at Sloan to elan more about how they engage, and…also at Sloan, I hear from those later in their career who shake their heads and opine about the changing flow of media and storytelling and refuse to accept and change to see the how and the why. By the way, this refusal happens on both ends.
I have been in several conversations with young, smart, media types recently who couldn’t understand why putting a piece of content out on Insta stories or TikTok without asking when lets say a press release or a blog post or a LinkedIn feature was going up would matter. ‘It’s different for us to understand why that has to be all done together when it’s not the same audience” I heard. Conversely I was in a conversation with a veteran storyteller in a hallway at Sloan who didn’t get why a clip of video that could be funny or have a slightly altered point of you should be included with a print story or even a news release. ‘THEY…meaning a generation who are digital natives and look to see a story before they will read or listen to it…don’t need or care about words on a page. They only want to consume the way they consume and don’t want to even understand the way it has worked for years.”
Guess what? THEY are both wrong. The happy medium in storytelling is cohesive and well timed and reaches everyone’s screens in whatever format THEY…the audience…choose. It all works together.
How does this tie to Sloan and the New Yorker story on three of a generation sliding into the rear-view mirror? Learning. Best practices adapting across generations. Some other examples. Forst from Sloan. I was part of a Saturday conversation where my colleagues Scott Rosner and Frank Brown talked about a seminal moment in our industry with some younger colleagues standing by. Namely, how Frank, a literal Hall of Fame writer, covered for Associated Press, the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team at Lake Placid and witnessed history and delivered the story in the medium of the moment…print…to the world. It was a 15 minute discussion that left some of those listening who were not born…we joked their parents may also have been pretty young or yet to get to this world…leaving having learned a few things about media and the big moment that still apply today…speed and accuracy, resourcefulness, resilience, backstories, deep understanding of the audience etc. etc. What has changed is that if it happened today, Frank Brown would have been using his hand held device to share all other elements of what he was witnessing. The essence of the big event didn’t change, the medium evolved.
It was the same idea as I finally watched the film September 5 when we got back from Boston Saturday night. I had seen a panel discussion put together by Sports Video Group last fall, and while the technology has changed greatly from what the production and broadcast team had to work with in 1972, the concept of leadership, teamwork, getting the story right hasn’t changed, and it should serve as a great example not just for those in any communications field from then until now, it should be a shared experience of learning for those looking to take us into the future.
While I do believe in a line I heard from Jellyroll this past December, that it is “Better to look through the windshield ahead than the side mirror back,” there is a great deal we continue to pick up from shared learning…taking the examples of the past through the stories of those who did the work, and tying those experiences…by listening…to those who will lead forward. That is how best practices get executed, not by either side scoffing, but by both learning. Both sides will think from time to time that something is silly or archaic or quaint or outdated or nonsensical, that’s OK. However listening for the germ of application is much more important. What he/she/they did in the past will have relevance to what we are doing in the future as long as we keep advancing.
A chance encounter re-charged the veteran Larry Brooks, just as much as a rising star can get a kick out of a veteran who has been there as well.
We get lifted when we build together regardless of age or outlook. I saw it in the halls of the Hynes Convention Center, I read it in NY Magazine, and I will keep looking for more. We win as a team, we lose by not learning.
Let’s keep it going. Maybe going to all those events isn’t such a bad idea at all.
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