Abe Madkour:
Good morning. This is a special Morning Buzzcast coming from San Diego at SBJ's Thought Leaders retreat and our Thought Leaders Retreat Tech. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast. I have two of my colleagues with me today, Taylor Bloom, Dan Kaufman. Taylor?
Taylor Bloom:
Abe, good to be here. Hey, everyone. I'm Taylor Bloom, head of sports technology here at SBJ.
Dan Kaufman:
Thank You, Abe. Dan Kaufman, managing Director of sports technology at SBJ. Glad to be here.
Abe Madkour:
So gentlemen, we've been at this since Monday when the event started at this beautiful resort and we've had great attendance, great energy, great engagement. Let's talk about some of the themes that stood out to you, Taylor. What were some of the consistent themes from your group discussions or dinners or conversations?
Taylor Bloom:
So we're here with a lot of executives, managers. Big theme to me is how they're looking at caring for and treating their employees. And we heard some of that this morning and the other day of just the current climate of hiring talent, developing talents, and what senior execs are looking for in younger talents and what those younger employees are looking for from their organizations, which is, I think really interestingly, not necessarily compensation as the top priority. There's a lot of desire to belong to your organization, to be at an organization that has a purpose that you align with, and that's something that definitely stuck with me.
Dan Kaufman:
I thought the discussions around college and NIL were the most interesting. My sense from the group was a certain level of concern, frustration, wonder, not really sure where it's all going to land. And certainly it's a space that is, I'm going to use the word fractured, right now.
Abe Madkour:
And to set the scene, both of those were in group discussions where well over 100 top leaders in sports going around the room in an off the record setting so they can be a little bit more frank and open and share their thoughts. And colleges, certainly. Where's the money coming from to pay the student athletes after this house settlement gets finalized, so that was certainly a thought. Running a better business as collegiate leaders and really focusing on driving new revenue was a theme. It was certainly an undercurrent of a lack of confidence that some people in college can figure this space out.
Dan Kaufman:
Yeah. I think there's concern about Title IX, right? How can we have all the money go into one program and support those programs that make the money, but then do we also have to distribute that money to make sure we comply with Title IX or are we going to try to get around Title IX some way? There was a lot of talk about the mystery that might evolve from that.
Abe Madkour:
One of the other themes that we all heard about, which is private equity and investments in sports, and on Monday afternoon, or maybe it was Tuesday morning, the room seemed a little split on whether certainly sovereign wealth funds and foreign investment in American sports is a good thing. Didn't you feel that, Taylor?
Taylor Bloom:
Lots of conversation about sovereign wealth funds. It seems like there was a part of the room that's like, eh, let's be really careful, and the other part of the room was, hey, the cat's out of the bag, let's roll with this. And it was really interesting to see how people were kind of jumping on both sides of that.
Dan Kaufman:
My sense was, as long as the sovereign wealth funds don't have control, people would be okay with that.
Abe Madkour:
Yes. And there was somebody who spoke up from the audience saying, "I've worked on these deals. It is a very passive investment." And I saw some people in the group discussion, okay, that almost nod their head in agreement and weren't sure that was the case. Taylor, I'll start with you on this one because we had a parlor game bet at a table this morning, how soon the word AI would come up in the conversation, and it came up around 10 minutes in. What were your takeaways from the three days, really, on AI in terms of its use in applications in sports?
Taylor Bloom:
Patience, starting small, but keeping a big journey in mind. What I mean by that is there's a lot of small but meaningful applications now, whether it's helping employees be more productive in a variety of different tasks. That's been critical for a lot of different organizations to start to test with and start small with and understand this is a process with AI. And people, I think, also realize at the same time it's not going to change us overnight. There seems to be almost a little bit of a post-AI hype hangover going on a bit where people are now playing the long game and saying let's learn it right now. Let's see where we can apply it in bits and pieces to our organization, but they'll see changes another decade coming potentially.
Dan Kaufman:
Yeah, I'll make a comment that's general and then one that's specific. I think generally, everyone has a feeling that they have to pay attention to it and something is going to happen that is important over the next 6 to 12 months. But I think everyone has a sense of also just trying to stay above water and catch up and think about what is going on here? What is going on there? Can I take baby steps, to your point? But I don't think that anyone really has a real coherent strategy around everything that needs to be done.
Taylor Bloom:
It's almost gone, in a year or so, we went from we can't talk enough about AI at these events to, oh, we're talking about AI now. But we've done it. So it feels like we've had some similar conversations for about a year or so now, really waiting for a big breakthrough product or application.
Dan Kaufman:
I sensed that, but I also sense that people will not stop talking about it. They're tired of talking about it, but they know how important it's going to be and they have to keep doing it. We have to keep following it.
Abe Madkour:
But it also got so, I would say, not basic, but it was really enlightening for me because I'm not engaged with a lot of chat GPT and AI technologies right now. But Tameka Rish from Arthur Blank's Sports and Entertainment, AMB Sports and Entertainment, basically outlined how she uses it. She uses it a lot to do performance reviews and get tone right in emails and to get tone right in interactions and dialogue with colleagues. She used it to plan her trip to Europe and everything like that. So even these basic starting points, to your point, Dan, were interesting for me to learn and see. Taylor, I'll bring you in on this. On Wednesday when we talked and kicked off Thought Leader Retreat Tech, you brought in a speaker from the Warriors who is bringing a lot of the psychological aspects to organizational thinking.
Taylor Bloom:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's a lot of nodding heads, a ton of note-taking from hearing from Dr. Scott Goldman, the high performance psychologist for the Golden State Warriors, and a number of other teams, and he's worked across the sports industry. I think a lot of people out there know him. And he has a very interesting role. He works with high performers on the court, in the front office, and he was really sharing some, I think, interesting insights. And I have some notes in front of me that I would just share with our listeners. Value the time to think was something that really resonated with me. He was the one that was talking about employees want belonging over compensation right now, especially younger employees. And then when you're going to work and when you're working for your org, are you filling a day or are you fulfilling a day? And he spoke a lot about that and those are three main things that stuck with me.
Dan Kaufman:
I thought it was really interesting when someone asked the question, are you asking us what our values are professionally or personally? And he turned around and said, "Think about if those two don't align, whether or not your profession is where you really want to be." So his point there was that they should be very similar, both professional and personal values and goals.
Taylor Bloom:
So when Scott Goldman was talking about filling a day versus fulfilling a day, he was getting at what Dan was just mentioning is, are you showing up at an organization where your life mission statement, which is something he talked about a lot, is aligned with your company's mission statement? And for the managers and executives in the room, a lot of head nods, a lot of note-taking again on that. I heard directly from some people at our table saying, "I need to refresh our messaging to our employees to align with what they're doing when they come into our org. Are they fulfilling their day, are they feeling fulfilled, or are they just kind of 9:00 to 5:00 punch in the time slot there?"
Dan Kaufman:
I also thought it was really interesting, the next speaker after that, Abe, Gary McCoy from PKI, his tech that he presented to everyone claims to be able to measure cognitive bandwidth, cognitive load, by listening to someone's voice. And his applications primarily are in with athletes, professional athletes, how well are they going to perform on the field? But the discussion did go towards, can we use this for executives? Does this have broader applications where you could measure someone's ability to perform using AI just from listening to their voice? I thought there was certainly interest from the audience. They wanted to learn more. I think that we'd be fooling ourselves if there wasn't some skepticism, some concern. The word Orwellian was thrown around once. But Gary's a brilliant guy and he's doing some very interesting things and I'm really interested to see where he goes with what he's got going on.
Abe Madkour:
And then we also had a fair share of star power throughout the three days. You mentioned the two speakers on Wednesday. It kicked off on Monday with Anita Elberse from Harvard. We had Marvin Demoff and his son Kevin Demoff speak about sports business over 40 years. We had Dr. Damon Friedman who told a powerful story of growing up without any direction but becoming a very accomplished general and how the military changed his life and leadership and innovation. We also heard from Chuck Todd, who gave a very interesting look at the political landscape at this very dynamic and volatile time in our country's history. And then we had group activities, a lot of group discussions. We were all tasked with imparting our own individual values or organizational values and mission statements like you all talked about. And I think it was a good group think exercise.
Taylor Bloom:
I think that's what makes this retreat really unique. Everyone knows SBJ is lineup of conferences and the value they provide, but this retreat really stands out for getting into that type of conversation with peers, fellow executives, and it's just incredibly valuable and interesting to see how people are approaching their mission statements for their company.
Dan Kaufman:
Yeah. And I'm super excited for the rest of today, Thursday. We've got a lot in store today. Again, a half day, but a bunch of content that's going to be really valuable, group discussions, and more networking. And great activities today for everyone to enjoy. Pickle ball, sea kayaking, golf, a lot of fun stuff here in San Diego.
Abe Madkour:
And for those wondering, I will just say, women's sports, while we didn't mention it specifically, a thread throughout the three days. So a lot of consistent conversations that people expect, college sports, facility funding, private equity, the winners and losers of media content and distribution, women's sports, those were paramount and consistent, in addition to organizational insight and leadership and values.
Taylor Bloom:
And like you said, all while taking place during a historic political time. So there's just a lot of different threads intersecting here, which, frankly, made for some really thoughtful conversations from the group.
Abe Madkour:
So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, July 25th. I'm Abe Madkour, joined with my colleagues, Taylor Bloom and Dan Kaufman. Our colleagues will bring you the Morning Buzzcast on Friday. I'll return on Monday. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you down the road.