Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Media Mensch Expands to Professional Sports

Sports are now going to be part of our future MediaMensch offerings and radio show. In April, we were able to attend a press conference for Lowes Motor Speedway and the Sprint All Star race. There are some new changes to the track. The walls at the race track are now painted Yellow to reflect the Sprint brand. There was also an introduction of a contest before the race to see who can create the best "burnt rubber" among the professional drivers. This contest is modeled after the types of things that are done such as the Home Run Derby or the Slam Dunk competitions at the All Star games. Clint Bowher, driver of the Jack Daniels car and Humpy Wheeler owner of Lowes were interviewed by the various media outlets. After the media event, a lunch in the Time Warner media center was held and I had a chance to meet some members of the local media and spend a few minutes with Clint.

Yesterday, I receieved an invite to attend a press conference for the Charlotte Bobcats where they announced a new coach...the coaching legend, Larry Brown. This was my first Bobcats press conference. Sitting in the 2nd row, I had a chance to see and hear Michael Jordan discuss who he came to hire Larry Brown and talk about the future of the franchise. Many of the people now running the Bobcats came out of the college basketball powerhouse a few houses of the interstate, University of North Carolina. It was interesting to watch the "Tarheel" leadership and coaching arrive at the Bobcats.

Today, I had the opportunity to interview Ulf Nilsson, hockey legend and media executive on www.blogtalkradio.com/mediamensch . We discussed topics ranging from digital media, television, hockey, culture, coaching/mentoring and life lessons.