41st National Athletic Directors Conference

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) are hosting the 41st National Athletic Directors Conference Orlando World Center Marriott Resort from December 15th through December 19th. 

I'll be presenting in the third workshop session on Sunday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.  The workshop will be on "Lining Up Sponsors For Your Athletic Program."  It will be moderated by Tracy Leinen, CMAA, Athletic Director from Boise (Idaho) High School.

We'll be discussing district-wide and single school partnerships.  We'll discuss how we can cultivate and keep these partnerships valuable and hassle-free.  At last count, we already have over 200 participants signed up for this workshop.  Hope to see you there. 

The flood gates

Looks like school districts all over the U.S. are looking into advertising programs.  I've been lucky enough to get to talk to some of these districts and have heard some good - and bad - ideas.

For example, putting electronic billboards on your chest and walking up and down the bleachers for fans to see... well, you call that one.

There's two things the school district I work with abides by that I think has distinguished ourselves and has prevented us from receiving any push back from anybody in our community.

Two simple rules:

• Keep the advertising relevant - Work with companies that complement the schools and/or programs that they affiliate with.  Neither the company or the school or school district will benefit from a partnership that is not relevant.  
• No trapped environments - we don't do anything on the inside of buses or inside of classrooms.  We haven't put any advertising anywhere that a student, employee or fan can't walk away from.  In fact, I really haven't found many companies even want the students.  School districts would benefit more from working with companies that want to reach parents and/or school employees and use that as the anchor to your program. 

Don't open the flood gates to outside companies that don't have the best interest of your school district in mind.  And, never allow multiple companies to sell the same inventory.  I know it sounds good initially when somebody brings it up and says let's just let all of them sell it so we ensure it sells... but, after you think about it, consider this:
You'll have companies over-promising and under-delivering.  They'll also undercut each other to win the business and that will drop the value of your inventory.  It also confuses local businesses when multiple school programs, the school district, the booster club, the band, football team, PTA, and teachers are all calling them asking for donations and proposing partnerships - add in multiple third-party companies and you'll confuse them even more.