Hosted by SBRNet and First and Pen
Football, sports hospitality, retail, the baseball players’ players union, lifestyle footwear, golf, running, data analytics, television production, finance and working for a major brand will all be among the career options presented to students of color at the first ever Get in the Game Conference set to take place October 6-8, 2023 in Baltimore.
Get in the Game is a new event, created by SBRnet and First and Pen to connect sports companies sports with young men and women of color looking to break into the business. The three-day event will feature panel discussions, presentations, workshops, and experiential field trips all designed to educate students about the wide range of career options in the sports business.
“This event is all about the students and showcasing for them the many different jobs and career options available in the sports business,” said Yussuf Khan, president of First and Pen. Khan started his career at ESPN and since then has held a number of executive roles in the sports media business and also teaches at several colleges in the New York area. “My students are constantly asking about jobs in sports and those questions helped inspire us to create this event,” Khan said. “Any student attending Get in the Game will come away with new perspectives on how they can work in sports.”
Get in the Game’s original outreach was to students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, but it is open to students of color at any school. To date students from North Carolina A&T, Howard, Morgan State, Winston-Salem State, Towson, Fisk University, Lenoir Rhyne University, NYU, Drexel, George Washington and Long Island University have all registered to attend.
In addition to the panels and presentations, Get in the Game will include a career expo, where students can meet with sponsors to learn about specific jobs and internships available in the coming year. Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of the presenting sponsors for Get in the Game, plans to make several offers to students during the event. Executives at lifestyle footwear company Clarks say they will also have jobs and internships available to students who attend Get in the Game.
“I have been around the sports business for 25+ years and am seeing a genuine desire by companies to attract and retain more young men and women of color,” said Mark Sullivan, a managing partner at SBRnet, which distributes data and content to more than 260 colleges and universities across the United States.
The full agenda for Get in the Game can be seen here: https://getinthegameconference.net/GITG/agenda.aspx
Students can register by visiting: https://getinthegameconference.net/GITG/Register.aspx
In addition to Dick’s Sporting Goods and Clarks, sponsors include: On Running, ASICS, Under Armour, The Ad Council, The Baltimore Ravens, Morgan Stanley, The Detroit Tigers, The Detroit Red Ewings, Sodexo Live, the MLB Player’s Association, The American Junior Golf Association, Ohio University, The Footwear Retailers and Distributors of America and Program Productions.
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About First and Pen: First And Pen informs, inspires and connects through voices of color in sports. The publisher is the sports media vertical from The Khanate Group; a media, tech, and eCommerce company fully committed to supporting and investing in underserved and overlooked communities, individuals, and voices of color. Company CEO Yussuf Khan has over two decades of experience in sports and multicultural media. After beginning his career at ESPN, he invested the last 18 years of his career in start-up ventures, building a successful track record at companies such as CSTV (now CBS Sports Network), Interactive One (now Urban One), Big Lead Sports and The Shadow League. The media veteran has a unique and diverse career path with a long history in the fields of multimedia sales, marketing, communications, journalism, and content creation.
About SBRnet: SBRnet is a comprehensive online data platform of nationwide sports marketing analytics, using syndicated and custom proprietary sports fan information for the professional and college sports, consumer research, industry reports, and licensed industry articles. Since 2020, SBRnet has been owned by Neil Schwartz and Mark Sullivan. Schwartz is a 20-year veteran of sports data with stints at Nielsen and SportscanInfo.
Sullivan is an editor and publisher and one of the founders of The Running Event conference and trade show. The pair are also co-hosts of the “My First Job in Sports” web series.
For further information, please contact Yussuf Khan at [email protected] or Mark Sullivan at [email protected].