Five hundred thirty faculty members and students descended on downtown Columbia May 27-30 to attend the 24th Annual Conference of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM). The 2009 event marked the first year the conference was hosted in the state of South Carolina. The University of South Carolina Department of Sport and Entertainment Management (SPTE) was honored to add Columbia among the list of cities, including Fort Lauderdale, Kansas City, Toronto, and Vancouver, selected to host the prestigious event.

This year’s conference featured a record number of academic presentations: 186 breakout sessions and 75 poster presentations. With the sport industry facing challenges due to the current economic situation, the research presented was important to both the academic community and the industry.

Keynote speeches were delivered by Mark Dyer, senior vice president of strategic planning and development, IMG Sports and Entertainment, and USC letterman Jim Hunter, vice president of corporate communications, NASCAR.

The 2009 conference was the largest in history, with attendees from 204 universities and 15 countries. The 96% tourist rate generated significant economic impact for the downtown area.

“Without the students’ help we would not have been able to host this conference. They did an
outstanding job.”

—Matt Brown
SPTE Faculty and NASSM Treasurer
(pictured at podium)

Attendees experienced southern hospitality at its finest – Gamecock style – with receptions at the Colonial Life Arena and Williams-Brice Stadium. Other special events included a Columbia Blowfish baseball game, comedy show at the Township Auditorium, and golf tournament at Northwoods Golf Club.

The NASSM conference was also a hands-on learning experience for 12 SPTE students who assisted in the planning and execution of the event. Several of the students received academic credit for their work through the Maymester course Event Logistics Planning taught by SPTE Associate Professor and NASSM Treasurer Dr. Matt Brown.

Asked about the students’ performance, Dr. Brown said “Without the students’ help we would not have been able to host this conference. They did an outstanding job. Many long time NASSM attendees said this was the best NASSM conference in the organization’s history. We have the students and Lori Hedstrom, director of special events for the department, to thank for that.”

SPTE would like to thank Eat More Tees (Rusty Koss, SPTE ’99)
and Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (Dr. Laura Sawyer, SPTE ’92) for their support of this event.