Jimmy’s Blog

My most recent blog posting was about one of my dreams coming through.  Well, I’m extremely fortunate to have another dream come true.  For the past 3 – 4 years, I’ve been trying to figure out ways to get the various Asian and Asian-American business communities working better together.  Each individual group is doing well in their own right, but it’d be great to see how we can collectively work better together.  A great working model is the Hispanic business community — which has collaborated well together — and shown the collective purchasing power and growing business opportunities within this powerful demographic.

Why is this important?  Because of the changing demographics taking place in the US (notice all of the press about the current US Census Bureau).  According to estimates, by 2040, the percentage of Hispanics in the US will grow from 15% to 30%, the percentage of African-Americans will grow from 9% to 12% and the percentage of Asians will grow from 6% to 9%.  Thus, the importance of companies and brands to realize the increase need for multi-cultural marketing and business efforts.

Washington, DC is the most international city in the US and is the most powerful city in the US and in the world.  But, yet, there hasn’t been an organization that has collectively woven the leaders from the various Asian business communities.  So, in partnership with the Greater Washington DC Board of Trade – and their dynamic leader, Jim Dinegar – we just held our first-ever Asian Leadership Forum on Tuesday night at one of the premier hotels in DC, The Hay Adams.

There’s four of us that have been laying the groundwork — George Cabalu, Julian Ha, Wade Tetsuka and myself.   This initial get-together this week was to invite 25 – 30 prominent Asian and Asian-American executives to see if this is a viable option to have the various Asian business groups interacting more with one another.  There are dual benefits — to grown one’s own personal network as well as to create incremental business revenue for one’s respective firm.

I’m proud to say the evening’s event was a smashing success.   A good number of DC’s most prominent Asian government officials, business executives and entrepreneurs were in attendance.  We generated excellent discussion in the room and the flow of emails over the past day shows that we’re on to something good and right.

There is a lot of work ahead of us …. creating a brand and logo … growing the network … identifying the key issues to focus on.  And, this will not just specifically for Asians.  The intended membership base will be Asians, Asian-Americans and executives focused on developing and / or growing their business opportunities in Asia.

And, last but not least, we’re going to tie in a philanthropy angle so we can benefit a few of the terrific Asian community service organizations — such as Asian-American LEAD, Asian Pacific Islander American Scholar Fund, etc.  If all goes well, we’ll create a signature black-tie gala event in 2011 – preferably in May which is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

More to come as we hold our next brainstorming session in the coming weeks.

One of my many dreams is starting to play out and come true.   I’ve been working with non-profits in the greater Washington, DC area for the past decade, primarily focused on helping children from lower-income families pursue their college education and / or get started in their work careers.

In mentoring and working closely with these young adults, I’ve seen there’s clearly not much of a difference in intellect or desire to achieve success in life.  But, one of the drawbacks has been their socioeconomic background.  Some people are fortunate to be born into families with two parents, a beautiful home in the suburbs, multiple automobiles, excellent education opportunities, etc while others are born and raised by a single mother, often times a teen-aged mother, who may not have much in way of housing, food, and other comforts of life.

One of my dreams has been to take a group of inner-city children, especially ones from Wards 7 and 8, and give them a tour by children from the well-to-do suburbs of places like Fairfax and Montgomery Counties.   I want these youngsters to see that if they study hard in high school, attend college, and work hard, that they can achieve the “American dream.”  Some youngsters in Wards 7 and 8 rarely have been out of their neighborhood and have never been to the suburbs.  So, they don’t know anything else except their current environment.

At the same time, I’d love to see these young adults from Wards 7 and 8 and similar places provide a tour to the children from the well-to-do suburbs to show them their neighborhood … with the much tougher living environment, including small apartments, no cars, drug dealers in the neighborhood, etc.  For the suburban youngsters, it’d open their eyes and hopefully make them appreciate what they have in the suburbs.  Instead of complaining about not having the latest model tech gadget or a new piece of clothing or fancy car, it’d make them realize how fortunate they really are.

So, last Friday, we were able to start what I hope is a long-term partnership between one of the best non-profits in the area, Year Up, and Georgetown University’s GAMBLE (Georgetown’s Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs) group.   Thanks to the leadership from Norean Sharpe, the new Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, and Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, Executive Director of Year UP DC, we’re creating a partnership between the two groups, which will include a business case competition taking place this month on the Georgetown campus.

Last Friday morning, we introduced nearly 100 Year Up Students to 30 GU GAMBLE students at the Year Up office in Rosslyn.  Tiane Mitchell Gordon, AOL’s Chief Diversity Officer, and I both spoke to the students.   Tiane spoke passionately about her terrific life, the importance of Diversity and Inclusion efforts and why it’s critical to believe in yourself and achieve your dreams.

I spoke about why education and philanthropy are so important to me — and why we need to do all we can to continue to give back and help others.

This coming Friday morning, Apr 16, we’re going to host the Year Up students on our Georgetown University campus — the GAMBLE students will have a mentoring session, specifically for the business case competition.  Then, a tour of the campus will be provided to the Year Up students.

Then, on Fri, Apr 23, we’re going to stage a business case competition among the Year Up students at the new business school building on campus.  I have been given the wonderful honor of delivering the keynote speech at the luncheon.

As noted at the beginning of this blog posting, this has been a dream of mine to expose inner-city, lower-income kids to places like Georgetown University – so it can inspire them to study, work hard and pursue their college education to make a difference in their lives.   At the same time, I’d like some of the GU students to go visit where some of the inner-city kids are from … like Wards 7 and 8 as well as PG County.  This will help the students, especially the ones from the nice suburbs, appreciate where they come from — and realize how good they’ve had it in life thus far.

This dream is indeed coming true.  This is part my continued efforts to keep “paying it forward.”   I will update my blog regularly about this new and terrific partnership.

What a great day in Sports today!  What a great week — what a great time in general for the Sports industry.

First, it’s Opening Day in MLB (although the Yanks – Red Sox did get it started with an entertaining game last night).  In DC, our hometown Nationals will host the imposing Philadelphia Phillies, featuring the best pitcher in baseball, Roy Halladay.  One of the highlights will surely be having President Obama throw out the ceremonial First Pitch today.  This had been a long-standing tradition but with DC having no baseball team for over 30 years, the tradition went away.  So, it’ll be great to have the POTUS in attendance.

Then, at 2:00 pm is the Tiger Woods press conference at the Masters in Augusta, Ga.  This will be one of the most historic and most-watched press conferences in the history of Sports.  Tiger, along with a handful of others, has been one of the most famous and popular athletes in the world over the past decade.  I’m sure he’ll feel much better after he’s done with the press conference this afternoon.  So many people will tune in — and the so-called experts will analyze the Q & A over and over and over.

Then, at 9:20 pm, is the tip-off of the NCAA Championship Game between the mighty Duke Blue Devils and the upstart Butler Bulldogs from the Horizon Conference.  This too will most likely generate huge TV ratings.   Coach K is deserving of the praise he generates — he runs a clean program, graduates his players and wins championships.  But, having Butler win it all would be one of the coolest sports stories in a long time.   They are certainly not a Cinderella team — they are legit and have NBA-caliber players on the squad.  I’m so excited for this game.

And, all of this is just today.  What else is going in Sports?  So much — the NHL season will end this week — then it’s time for the NHL play-offs.  Play-0ff hockey is one of the greatest things in Sports.  The teams crank it up another level and really go at it.  Kudos to the Washington Capitals for securing their first-ever Presidents Trophy for the most points in the league.  Verizon Center will absolutely be boisterous and “rocking the red” next week and hopefully for the next two months.

DC United kicked off its’ home schedule this past weekend.  Soccer will continue to become a bigger story in the Sports world – especially with the World Cup starting in June.  ESPN will throw heavy promotional weight behind this terrific sports event.

Oh, yeah, and how about those Skins?  Trading for Donovan McNabb?  Wow.  It’s hard to believe a team traded a star player within their own division.  But, the Eagles didn’t want to pay the huge bonus due in early May and the high salaries for the next few seasons.  They got what they wanted — draft picks.  And, the Skins and Coach Shanahan got themselves a Hall-of-Fame caliber QB.  Of course, now they need to focus on improving the offensive line to protect Donovan.

Whew, what a great time in Sports — today, this week, this month.  Love it.

For the second straight year, I had the tough task of serving as a judge for the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders auditions at FedEx Field this weekend.  It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.  🙂

In all seriousness, this is a highly competitive environment.  There are about 20 of us that gather to serve as judges for the auditions.  After everyone goes through the initial rounds, the judges gather and tally the scores.

There is a great array of ladies trying out … from various ethnic backgrounds, experience levels, geographic locations, etc.  There’s definitely a bit of nervousness as they introduce themselves and then perform a short dance routine in front of the judges.

As noted last year, the Redskins Cheerleaders are referred to as the “First Ladies of Football.”  It’s a terrific squad full of a group of smart and talented ladies.  They don’t just serve as cheerleaders for the home games at FedEx Field, they also do a ton of community service work throughout the greater Washington, DC area.  And, they also go overseas a few times a year to help support our hard-working and deserving US Military soldiers.  Being the son of a retired Army officer, I remember how much everyone’s spirits were lifted when celebrity guests from the US came to entertain us at the military bases in foreign countries.

The finals for the Redskins Cheerleaders Final Auditions will take place this Thursday from 7:30 – 9:30 pm at the Bethesda Theatre, 7719 Wisconsin Ave in Bethesda.  Tickets are $15 for general admission and $25 for VIP.   I encourage you to attend and to cheer on the NFL’s best cheerleaders (trust me, I was at the NBA All-Star Game in Dallas in Feb – where the Cowboys cheerleaders performed — the Skins Cheerleaders are much better)!

Our Georgetown University Sports Industry Management program hosted a two-day SEME (Sports Event Marketing Experience) at Nationals Park this past Friday and Saturday.   We bill this as the premier sports career and networking conference.

We’re now in our 7th year and I think this year’s conference was the best one ever!  The conference was sold out for the third straight year — we had approximately 300 attendees and over 80 sports executives serve as panelists and moderators.

Our keynote speakers / guest speakers included Sunil Gulati, the President of the US Soccer Federation; Glenn Chinn, VP – Global Brand Management, EA Sports; Ahmad Nassar, Allison Tucker and Steve Goodman from the NFL Players Association and a host of other esteemed executives.

I had the good fortune of serving as a moderator for the three panel sessions — “Sports 2.0 – The Effect of the Economic Crisis,” “Breaking Into the Sports Industry” and “New Technologies: Impacting the Way We View and Market Sports.”   Each panel session went well, primarily due to the excellence and experience of the panelists.   A list of the agenda and panelists can be found at http://www.seme-now.com.

I told the students and attendees throughout the two days that I thought it was an extremely wise use of their time to come to the conference to listen and learn from the panelists and speakers as well as to network with the dozens of sports executives in attendance.

Many of the vets, such as myself, didn’t have these types of conferences and networking opportunities when we were graduating from undergrad and graduate school and trying to enter the hyper-competitive sports industry.  I think that’s why so many of come to “give back” and to help the younger generations.   My email box has been slammed the past couple of days from conference attendees — I’ll do my best to help each and every one of them in one way or another.

Kudos to Matt Winkler, Kristen Consolo and the hard-working staff and volunteers that helped make this a terrific conference.

Wow, what an amazing night last night.  We held our 11^th annual Asian-American LEAD fund-raising dinner at the China Garden in Rosslyn.  The event was a smashing success – we had over 400 guests in attendance and set a record in terms of fund-raising.

As a board member and co-chair of the development committee, this is an important day for our organization.  We need to keep raising funds in this tough economic environment in order to stay afloat and to keep delivering our much-needed services to our students, most of whom come from low-income Asian families in Washington, DC.

The student performances are always a highlight.  Once again, the children – from elementary to high school – delivered a number of terrific performances.  I was also riveted by the moving speeches from two students … both who moved to the US in the past few years.  Their families moved them here to provide them an opportunity to receive a better education.  It must be extremely difficult to come to the US when one doesn’t know the English language nor the customs and traditions.  Yet, these two outstanding students made the move … and they both thanked AA LEAD for helping them get acclimated to the community and to their respective schools.

The other highlights included our keynote speaker, Yul Kwon.   Yul is a good friend of mine who is most known for being the Korean-American that won “Survivor” a few years ago.  He’s also a highly educated and respected business executive.  Yul moved to DC last fall and is now serving as Deputy Commissioner for the FCC.  He delivered a fantastic speech about his perspective of growing up as an Asian-American in the US.  He also stressed the importance of education as well as the importance of organizations such as AA LEAD to help the children achieve their dreams.  We are truly grateful to Yul for addressing the AA LEAD family at last night’s dinner.

The other highlight for me was having the distinct honor of introducing one of my mentors, Mario Morino.  We awarded Mario with the AA LEAD’s first ever Washington, DC LEADer award.  There is no one more deserving.  Mario is the Godfather of Philanthropy for the greater Washington DC region.  He is clearly one of the great Washingtonians of the past 3 decades.  His Venture Philanthropy Partners organizations has helped over 10 of the leading non-profits in the DC positively impact tens of thousand of children.

In delivering the introduction, instead of reading Mario’s impressive bio, I told a real-life story.  I brought my 10-year old mentee, Sally, to the stage with me.  I told the audience  how Mario became one of my primary mentors over 10 years ago.   He asked me to help him meet young up and coming business executives who might become donors to the VPP family.  Four of us have joined the VPP family in the past few years.  Because of VPP, I learned about AA LEAD.  And, because of AA LEAD, I’ve gotten to become part of a terrific organization – and I’ve also become mentors  to 10-year old Sally and her 14-year old brother, Da-Zhi.  I’ve blogged in the past about how I’ve promised to their mother that I will ensure that both of her children attend college (through my personal contributions as well as help with scholarships and grants).  The summary to my intro was that because of Mario Morino, there’s a VPP; because of VPP, organizations like AA LEAD are thriving; because of AA LEAD, I’ve become mentors to two wonderful mentee / students – who are going to go to college and achieve their dreams.  So, it was wonderful for me to introduce my mentor, Mario, to my mentee, Sally, on the stage last night.  Yes, I nearly broke down but I managed to not do so.  But, the smile from last night hasn’t left my face yet.  Last night was a dream come true.

Thank you to AA LEAD staff, students, board members, volunteers and to the many wonderful friends that supported our organization last night.

We’re now in the 2^nd half of the semester for our Sports Marketing Strategy course.   Our 47 students are starting to get antsy as they enter the downstretch for graduation – which take place on the Georgetown University campus in late May.

During last night’s class, the students took a 20-question quiz, review the chapter from the text book about Sport Sponsorship, discussed some background information for their final project, and then heard from our guest speaker, Billy Stone, of CBS Sports / College Sports TV Network.

We try to provide an array of guest speakers that provide real-world experiences from their various roles in Sports.  We’ve had team owners, agency presidents, sportswriters, league executives and TV event producers.  Coming up in the next few weeks will be a Sport Sponsorship analytics expert, a person who manages the financial portfolios of over 70 pro athletes, a professional agent, etc.

This year’s  class has been superb – the students are very engaged.  I love to teach and share my knowledge of sports marketing experience.  And, it’s great when the class responds in such a positive manner.  I’m already looking forward to next Monday’s class.

For the fifth straight year, the Capitol Movement Project rocked the house!   Last night, CMP held its’ annual performance at the historic Lincoln Theatre, located right next door to the ever-popular Ben’s Chili Bowl.

As a long-time board member of CMP, I’m always so proud of the entire team – from the dancers to the choreographers to the volunteers.  I invited a total of 20 guests, which included a mix of adults and children.  Based on the thank-you texts and emails, each and every one of them had a wonderful time at the event.

CMP’s mix of contemporary dance, hip-hop, ballet, tap-dance and international dance is unique to the greater Washington , DC area.  From the reaction of the crowd throughout the evening, the audience was entertained during the entirety of the 2.5 hour performance.

This has been an important 12 months for the CMP.  The new dance studio opened on 14^th St NW last Spring.  A variety of classes are being offered throughout the week.  To learn more about CMP, its studio and the performances, please visit the website at www.capitolmovement.org.

As mentioned in the previous blog, we brought 18 graduate students from Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management program to London during Spring Break Week to meet with sports executives and firms as well as tour a couple of the legendary sports venues.

This week has been a home run!  Over the past few days, we took the students to meet with the British Parliament’s head of Culture, Media and Sport; Arsenal; Nike UK; 2012 London Olympic Committee; James Grant Media Managment (UK’s leading entertainment and sport agency); Octagon UK; and AEG / 02 Arena.

Across the board, the sports executives were generous with their time in explaining their respective business — then engaging in lively Q & A with our students each and every time.  We can’t thank these executives enough for taking time from their busy schedules to meet with our group.

I must also thank our students — they were prompt, well-dressed and asked a series of terrific questions.  They made me proud and they certainly made  the GU SIM program look top-notch in the eyes of the executives we met with in London.  Some of the meetings were 2 to 2.5 hours in length.  And, if we didn’t leave so the execs could back to work, we might have stayed well over 3 hours!

One of the highlights of the trip was attending the Arsenal v Porto UEFA Champions League match on Tuesday night at Emirates Stadium, regarded as the finest football stadium in the UK.  Wow, an amazing experience.  They take their football very seriously here.  And, one huge difference is that the focus is the product on the field … not big HD screens, loud music, half-time acts, etc.  Instead, the entire focus is the product on the field.  Of course, there are business and programming reasons for the difference, but it was still unique to observe.  And, having the hometown Arsenal win 5 – 0 also helped make it a joyous night.

This was a wonderful week and hopefully the start of a long-term partnership between our GU SIM program and the wonderful sports executives and firms in London.   Cheers.