Whew, what a long, good day.  I was at Nationals Park today from 9:00 am – 7:30 pm for our SEME (Sports Events Marketing) 2009 Conference.   SEME, which is hosted by Georgetown University, is a terrific conference for undergraduate students, graduate students and people interested in working in the sports industry.

We had over 250 in attendance … and over 90 sports and entertainment executives came to speak on various panels.  I was on two panels and also participated in the networking luncheon.

The first panel was titled “Industry Trends and Outlook for 2009 in Sports.”  Matt Winkler, SEME founder, was our moderator.  I shared the panel with Tim McDermott, CMO, Capitals; Andy Feffer, COO and EVP, NFLPA; and Bill Krause, VP, UnderArmour.

The second panel I sat on was the “Changing Role of News and Sports Media.”  Meredith Geisler was our moderator and the other panelists were Jim DeLorezno, Octagon; Kelly Perdew, CEO, RotoHog (an winner of Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” in year 2); Chartese Burnett, VP, Nationals; and Jim Welch, Sports Editor, USA Today.

This is our sixth year of the hosting the conference … and, it keeps bigger and better every year.  I think it’s a great place for the students to come to network, job hunt and learn.

Tomorrow is another full day of great sessions!