Last week was a good, busy week in DC.  Here a few of the highlights —

I co-teach a Sports Leadership and Management class on Monday evenings at Georgetown.  This is the third time I’ve taught this class.  The first time was with Kevin Payne, President, DC United and George Perry of the Freedom.  The second time was with Marty Conway from AOL – and a former exec with the Orioles and Rangers.  This semester I’m teaching with Steve Goodman from NFLPA and Zach Bono, formerly with the Redskins, Wizards, Bucs, etc.  We’ve also been fortunate to have a number of excellent guest speakers this semester — executives from the Wizards (Tommy Sheppard), Capitals (GM George McPhee), Redskins (Jeff Ritter), NFLPA (Marc Levin), etc.  I love teaching this course and interacting with our excellent students.

On Tuesday afternoon, our business school at Georgetown hosted a terrific panel session featuring Under Armour Founder and CEO, Kevin Plank and Rosetta Stone CEO, Tom Adams.  I know our students very much enjoyed hearing from these business leaders of these two very popular and growing brands.

On Wednesday afternoon, I moderated a panel session titled “Fan Engagement” at the Radio Advertising Bureau’s Conference in DC.  Fortunately, we had three excellent panelists — Chris Oliviero, SVP Programming, CBS Radio; Jim Rushton, SVP, Corporate Sales, Miami Dolphins; and Mark Turley, Dir, Corporate Media Sales, Pittsburgh Penguins.  Although a majority of my career has been spent in the Internet space, I did get my start in radio so it was terrific to be back among radio execs at the RAB Conference.

Then, on Wednesday night, I attended the 24th Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards Gala at the beautiful Kennedy Center.  What a spectacular night!   The Princess of Spain was there as well as Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor.   The honorees were Juan Luis Guerra, Alejandro Sanz, Mario Kreutzberger, Jaime Esclante and Cuauhtemoc Blanco.  The performers included Luis Enrique, Belinda, Jorge Celedon, Jenni Rivera, etc.  Lots of pride and emotion throughout the evening — congrats to Antonio Tijerino and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation for hosting another terrific event.

Thursday night was a great event hosted by Ridgwell’s and the Greater DC Board of Trade at the redesigned Arena Stage.   The many people in attendance marveled at the new Arena Stage.  They hit a home run — and it will go a long way in improving the waterfront area in that part of town (which will eventually extend to the area around Nationals Park).

It was also a good week of business as well as mentoring a number of students and mentees.   And, topped off by the great Skins win over the Eagles on Sunday and OU’s nice victory over Texas on Saturday!