Why did you start PrimeTime?

I was involved with coaching and traveling to tournaments with my youngest son when he was playing high school basketball. We went to a lot of bad tournaments where the event was not on a level that it should have been. I felt there was a business opportunity to [produce events with] sound business principles such as being customer-service driven, using systems and processes to be efficient and effective, and giving value for price. It was a bit of a quantum leap to go from practicing law to being an event provider, but with the support of family and our great staff, it was the right decision, and I have never regretted it.

How have you seen the market change in the last 12 years?

There has been a proliferation of providers. When we first started, it was a $5 billion industry that was almost exclusively executed by weekend fundraisers or booster clubs, or a mom-and-pop event that happened once a year. Beyond that, there were a couple national governing bodies with a much different business model than ours. But now, there are a lot of people trying to do what we do. I would guess for every one event that happened back then, there are probably 100 now.

How has your business evolved?

Twelve years ago, we didn’t have a website. Three or four years into it, we had online registration, which was a big differentiator for us then. Now there’s an expectation that everyone has that. Currently, there’s the impact of social media, which we work on daily.

What role does social media play in your events?

Social media is one of the top three priorities on my project list. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and we try to integrate them with our website. We have a number of social media initiatives we’re working on now to make events more interactive and immediate, whether it is posting the scores, stats or videos. Video has a big role in where we’re trying to go, whether it is produced by us, or providing a platform where teams can post videos. For the last two years, we’ve had live streaming of 150 games during our national basketball championships. I see a day when most, if not all, of the events will be live-streamed.

What is the participant age range in your events?

Basketball is grades 3 to 12, and football is grades 6 to 10. Soccer is a little different in that it’s ages 8 to 10 years old. And softball is for adults.

What impact do you see your business making in kids’ lives?

I believe that competitive athletics is a great place to learn about hard work, dedication and putting team before self. And that’s important because, for example, if I go to hire someone, I’m not as concerned with where they went to school and what their GPA was. I want to know if they’re prepared to work hard, if they’re committed, if they can make sacrifices and if they are willing to put team before self. There was a time when those lessons might have been learned at home, school or in a faith-based setting, but that’s not always the case today. I believe if you play a minute of college or high school sports, you’re going to have a competitive advantage and build a skill set that will help you be a more productive adult.

As CEO, what is your day-to-day role?

With 10 full-time employees, we’re an organization in which everyone does what needs to be done and takes on a lot of different responsibilities. Most of my time is focused on three areas: strategy—including products and processes—marketing decision-making and making my team more effective. A lot of my job is making sure my staff has the resources, opportunities and challenges to stay engaged and get done what we’re trying to accomplish.

How does a small staff manage more than 150 events on 48 weekends a year in up to 20 states?

I’ve got a great team, and I’d put them up against anybody. But obviously, 10 people cannot manage 150 events by themselves. We’ve invested in custom entry-management and scheduling systems that create efficiencies for us internally. Those help us market the events, drive the participation, capture the entries, schedule the games and get everything ready for the events. We also have a big pool of seasonal and part-time contract workers. We employ coaches, officials and young people in a variety of roles depending upon the market and the event. That pool of people can fluctuate between 40 and 50 in the slow season, or approach 200 when we get busy. The challenge within is to identify people that share our organizational values, and then get them the training they need to execute the event and be able to create the experience we’re committed to providing.

How do you provide consistency in so many events and regions?

I have committed to the turnkey operation because it allows me to offer consistency in delivery. I want my tournaments in Austin, Texas, Bentonville, Ark., and Chicago to look alike. It’s not a franchise, but it’s kind of a franchise model. We have our systems, and we find people locally to help us execute them. If I’m doing a new event in Louisville, Ky., I’ll send one of my best on-site managers from our home base in Dallas to do that event for the first two or three times. I want that person to demonstrate our brand and how it’s different, but I also want them to find the person in Louisville who they can develop and train and who will manage that event going forward.

What distinguishes your events in a crowded market?

One of the fundamental values we bring is a strong on-site presence and people who can have an impact, make a decision and effect change. It’s real simple, too. All of our site directors wear a red shirt. They follow our mantra: Ask, listen, solve. If you have a problem or a question at one of our events, you know to go to the person in the red shirt. One of my favorite anecdotes is from a couple years ago. We got a call from someone saying they were at one of our events, and it was the worst ever. The officials were bad, and they couldn’t find a red shirt anywhere. They got passed to our director of basketball, and told him the same story, ending with, “And we traveled all the way to Denton for this.” To which Chris [Hoover] responded, “We don’t have a tournament in Denton.” And why that was important was that we had created an expectation that someone in a red shirt would take care of problems—not just for our tournament, but for all tournaments.

What is your role on-site during events?

In the early years, I was the site manager at every event, but with the business growing so much, I’m not on-site as much as I used to be. I still get to events at least a couple times a month, but it’s more of a walk-through or meet-and-greet to express my appreciation to the teams, staff and participants. I don’t actually manage the events. Where that does change, however, is at our national championships. During championships, I actually [have an] office on-site at one of the multi-court facilities so I can interact with as many teams and on-site workers as I can. During the course of the event, I try to get to as many sites as I can to make sure we’re providing the experience we want to create.

How is your next national basketball championship going to be different?

The national basketball championship is our signature event. Twelve years ago, we had the first one in Kansas City, Mo., with 46 teams. Last year, we had 684 teams, which is the biggest event we’ve done to date. It’s the largest youth basketball championship in the country. This year, we’ve booked enough space to have 800 teams. How it’s changing is the NCAA-certified component is much bigger than it used to be. We had almost 60 college coaches last year observing the older players in their divisions, and I expect those numbers to double this year.

What does the Play Hard, Live Well Youth Sports Expo add to the national championship?

We added the expo a year ago as a separate event, although it’s connected to the national championship in that it’s at the same time. We had more than 50 vendors with products of interest to young athletes and their parents. We had [Basketball Hall of Fame member and Olympian] Nancy Lieberman and [former NBA player and coach] John Lucas as speakers. We had the Dallas Mavericks drum line. It’s an event I planned for more than five years, and it exceeded my expectations. It was a full day of interactive fun and activities, and the young people absolutely loved it. This year, we’ve added to it, and I think it’s going to be a great event.

Do you ever have time to just be a fan?

I got into this because I love basketball, but I watch less than I did before. But that being said, I really do enjoy it. This has been fun for me to do, and it provides competition. I can no longer compete on the basketball floor, but I love competing with other providers and companies.

We’ve talked basketball a lot, but you also manage football, soccer and softball events. What’s next?

PrimeTime Sports was originally about basketball, but each of those sports is a key component. The first sport we added was seven-on-seven football. We have about 15 football events a year, and we have our tournament of champions each year in College Station, Texas, which is the largest seven-on-seven football tournament in the country. We

added soccer next, which has such strong demographics. We have 217 leagues and about 25 soccer tournaments a year. The adult softball is new, and we do it as an outsourced event for the city of Farmer’s Branch, Texas. And we always are looking for other sports. I’d love to do volleyball and lacrosse. But we have to look at each sport and its different challenges. The cultures, logistics and expectations are all different. Before we go into a new market, we have to learn it and evaluate it and figure out if it is a place for us to be.

In what other ways is your business growing?

We can operate and execute events with the best of them, but tournaments are not going to be enough to reach the level of growth and impact on the sports world I want us to have. So while at the core we’re still an operating company, we’re also becoming a marketing platform in print, Web and social media. For sponsors, advertisers and anyone looking to market their sports-related products and services to young athletes and their parents, we offer everything from on-site execution with product giveaways and signage to being part of our newsletters to taking part in our Expo.

With your third-party event management, do you do stand-alone events or incorporate them into your own events?

Both. It’s on a case-by-case basis. We’ve done some PrimeTime Sports-managed events with our logo, some charitable events that we provided operational or marketing support for, some facility management and some consulting. We’ve executed parts of third-party events in some cases and done turnkey events for others. I think that’s going to be a growth area because we have developed a back room—the trained people and technology—and we can share that with people so they don’t have to go make a hefty investment in it to pull off the experience they want.

What have you learned from managing other people’s events?

It affirms the same basic principles we’ve applied, but when we apply our systems and processes to someone else’s events, it provides a fresh outlook. Sometimes we get into the routine with our own events because we’re so used to doing them, and sharing with others affirms why our systems are of value.

What inspires you to do your job?

I love to compete, I love my job and I’ve got 10 outstanding staff members on my team. I want them to grow, be fulfilled in their job and believe they’re working with the best game in town.

How do you inspire your team?

We talk every day about what we do and why we do it. We have our organizational values: CHAMPS, which is Customer-service driven, Have ability and integrity, be Active listeners, Make a difference, be Problem-solvers and Serve each other. We literally talk about those values every day. We also spend a lot of time talking as a team about decision-making and steps for success.

Where do you see PrimeTime Sports in 10 years?

I couldn’t have foreseen where we’re at today 10 years ago. If I gave a 10-year projection, it’s probably going to happen in two-and-a-half years. That being said, I want PrimeTime Sports to be a national organization. We are a very strong regional organization and one of the best sports event providers you can find. There is not a true national youth sports provider, other than possibly AAU (Amateur Athletics Union, a nonprofit), but that’s such a totally different model than anything else. For our model, that national presence doesn’t exist. I want that to be us. And I also want to do not only competition, but also a lot more training and camps, which is something we’ve done a couple times recently.

What’s your No. 1 goal for this year?

I want more than 750 teams at the national basketball championships. But my ultimate goal is I want a 1,000-team tournament.  I don’t think that’s ever been done before. We won’t do it this year, but that is something we’re going to get done.

Most of us feel claustrophobic in an airplane restroom, but consider the problem of a typical sumo wrestler. At weights up to 600 pounds, these VIPs can’t fit into airplane restrooms at all. To cope, they don’t eat or drink for half a day before flying to enable them to withstand a 10- or 11-hour flight with no restroom breaks.

Andrew Freund, founder of the California Sumo Association has planned hundreds of events for sumos during the last 15 years and works to accommodate the needs of his larger-size clientele. Freund organizes the U.S. Sumo Open, an international sumo tournament involving 50 sumo competitors from 15 countries. He has also worked three different times on international events for Japanese professional sumo, involving about 110 people, including 42 all-star elite sumos and another 70 or so coaches, referees and judges. He organized exhibition tournaments in 2005 in Las Vegas, in 2007 in Hawaii and in 2008 in Los Angeles.

Sumo wrestler Yamamotoyama. Photo courtesy of USA Sumo.

One of Freund’s key objectives is to make travel as easy and comfortable as possible for sumos, especially during a long airplane ride, and to minimize travel time. Depending on the size of the sumo, ground transportation might include a taxi or a large-size van. Yamamotoyama, a 6-foot-4-inch, 600-pound Japanese sumo, recently came to the United States for several appearances. When traveling around, he sat flat on cushions on the floor of a Dodge Caravan, from which the middle seat had been removed.

When flying, two adjacent first-class seats work well for sumos, but if they’re unavailable, three economy seats in a row work as well as long as the arm rests fold up. First-class seats may also be too expensive, sometimes five or six times the costs, possibly beyond the budget of the organization paying for the ticket, says Freund. There are no weight limits for passengers on commercial flights, but some airlines require passengers to buy additional seats. “We’ve put guys who are 500 or 600 pounds on a plane, no problem,” he adds.

In Japan, professional sumos are well respected and enjoy high status. They expect the rock-star treatment when they travel, says Freund. For the Grand Sumo Tournament Los Angeles in 2008, Freund chose a hotel that was less than four miles from the competition venue. “For elite caliber sumos, the less they have to wait around and sit on a bus, the better,” Freund said.

Photo courtesy of Chuck Green/USA Sumo.

Freund admits there are some special challenges to face when planning sumo events. “But on the other side of the coin, sometimes concerns are exaggerated,” he says. “Generally speaking, it isn’t that difficult.” For example, concerns that a hotel bed will break are overblown, especially considering that a sumo is no heavier than the combined weights of a large couple. “A sumo might eat what two people eat, but they’re not going to take out the whole buffet. If you put some common sense into it, it isn’t that difficult. You just have to make the necessary adjustments.”

Sumos certainly represent an extreme, but current trends suggest meeting planners will increasingly have to accommodate attendees of more diverse sizes in coming years. The size of the average American has increased substantially in the past two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A standard meeting room chair is now narrower than most people’s bodies, and many planners are asking hotels and venues to allow 4 to 6 inches between chairs for optimal comfort (read more room set-up tips here.) Proper medical care and adequate nutrition contribute to people getting taller, too, which presents its own challenges in travel and housing. Read more about this topic in the upcoming May/June issue—our annual sports issue—of Connect magazine.

Step 1: Start with the end in mind

When planning a live meeting, the first objective is to determine your goals. The same is true for a hybrid meeting that incorporates virtual elements into the live platform. Ask yourself what you want the end goal to be. Are you looking to expand your audience to members who could not otherwise attend? Are you offering continuing education units (CEUs), the virtual platform helping to increase the ability to gain this education after the conference concludes? Rosaelena Ledesma-Bernaducci, CMP, congress manager with McVeigh Associates Ltd., stresses the need to align objectives for all facets of the meeting. “It’s important to meet your objectives with the audience that’s virtually present as well as with the live audience,” she says.

Step 2: Decide what goes virtual

Choose the conference elements you want available to a virtual audience. Are you streaming the entire conference, general sessions and educational workshops? Perhaps it’s the well-known keynote speaker who has star power to attract an expanded audience. Just as the on-site audience will pay a fee to see a giant in the industry who may be retired and rarely speaks, so too will the virtual audience pay to have this opportunity.

Andy Straub, president of Blueyed Productions, which produces and integrates distance-learning programs, says it’s important to determine what you can bring to audience members that they wouldn’t otherwise see on their own. Straub’s company produced an event at United Artists movie theaters for Wine Spectator magazine. The theaters were set up with satellite feeds and the audience was taken into vineyards to get the first look at the year’s special wines ahead of the competition. The audience sampled the wines in the theater and asked questions of the vintners in real-time. “The ability to get thousands of people into a wine cellar at the same time was extraordinary,” Straub says.

Another example is within the medical industry, which was perhaps the first industry to broadcast a presentation. Referred to as a “live case,” cameras go into an operating room and a surgical technique or medical device is demonstrated in real-time. A practitioner may never have had the opportunity to see this technique in use before. The value of this never-before-seen presentation attracts an audience both on-site and virtually.

If CEUs can be obtained through the breakout sessions, it’s important to make this education available to the virtual audience. Keep in mind that the more sessions streaming simultaneously, the higher the costs will be. Each room requires its own set of cameras and streaming equipment, plus operating staff. However, fees charged to the virtual audience can offset this cost. If the CEUs are mandatory for their jobs or to maintain a certification, the cost can be justified and attendees are willing to make the investment.

Step 3: Adapt the Agenda

If you’ve determined your virtual audience will view the presentations from varying time zones, try to adapt your agenda to the best times for your participants. Eileen Roehl, CMP, managing partner of the Murfee Group, a medical and corporate meetings management company, has coordinated live case transmissions to 35 locations across the world. “We’ve done transmissions at 7 a.m. Eastern time to accommodate the European audience and at 4 p.m. Eastern time to accommodate the Asian market,” Roehl says. She also suggests placing the streamed presentation before a long break in the agenda. “This way, if there are any issues [with the technology], you have some cushion in the agenda timing.”

Step 4: Define the content

Once you’ve determined which sessions will be streamed, define the content of those presentations. This helps determine the rate of data transfer or bandwidth needed. Do you have one speaker showing a PowerPoint presentation or a panel of speakers with no visual elements? A static image such as a slide with no video does not require a strong signal to transmit. If you are transmitting high-definition medical images, however, the signal will need to be a greater capacity. The more motion or video the presentation contains, the stronger the signal needs to be, which requires a more expensive technology.

Step 5: Guide your speakers

It’s important to let speakers know from the very beginning that they will be presenting to both a live and virtual audience. Give them as much information about the virtual audience as you can, such as the number of people who are viewing online and what cities, states or countries they are viewing from. Kevin Novak, vice president of integrated web strategy and technology for the American Institute of Architects, suggests building the virtual experience as close to the physical experience as possible. “Make sure the virtual attendee has the same opportunity as the on-site attendee,” Novak says. This means speakers should be prepared to take questions from the virtual audience as well, whether the questions are coming from social media sites or a live chat platform. Speakers should acknowledge the virtual audience at the beginning of their presentations and thank them for attending.

It’s also important to make sure speaker contracts include a clause allowing you to distribute their presentations online. If you decide to stream their presentations after the contract is signed, request an addendum granting this permission. Most speakers will likely comply as it gives them a wider audience and greater exposure.

Step 6: Determine your Virtual Audience

If this is your first time entering the virtual community, it may be difficult to determine who would most likely attend the presentation virtually versus in-person. First, decide if you are reaching a local, regional, national or international audience. Perhaps your membership includes an international contingency that has stopped attending live meetings due to travel costs and budget cuts. This group would be a prime target for the virtual presentation. Novak looked at areas of the country where he didn’t have a strong in-person attendance at the annual convention and geared the virtual marketing towards those locations. “We found our on-site attendance was coming from a 300-mile radius of the convention center,” Novak said. “We weren’t hitting the majority of our membership [with the on-site meeting].”

Step 7: Understand the technology

Knowing your technology needs can be a daunting exercise. While most planners have a general knowledge of audiovisual equipment and online processes, most do not have the specific technical skills to set up the virtual presentation. Consult with your internal IT person and hire a vendor who has a history of successfully streaming presentations, both domestically and abroad.

If your presenter is off-site, you have a choice of three ways to stream the presentation: via Internet, fiber or satellite. “The decision comes down to cost versus image quality,” Roehl says. “The Internet is the cheapest solution, but it doesn’t give the best quality.” Staub says you can boost the speed of the Internet by using Polycom intelligence. Similar to a Polycom conference phone, the unit has video capabilities. One unit is placed at the off-site presentation venue and the other unit is placed at the hotel or conference center where the live audience presides.  The two units “talk to each other” to find the fastest way to move the signal.

Fiber is the wired version of Internet access—think of a T1 line—and is ordered through the venue’s telephone company as a circuit. However, the venue must have fiber available that is not already in use called “dark fiber.” “A lot of venues don’t have the fiber because they offer Internet as an option,” Roehl says.

Fiber can be cost-effective if you are transmitting in a local area, such as in the operating room example where the hospital is in the same city as the meeting venue, referred to as a “local loop.” Costs increase when the signal needs to be transmitted out of state, such as New York City to San Francisco. The local loop in New York City needs to be sent to a long-distance provider (incurring long distance charges of approximately $500) and then sent to the local loop in San Francisco. The fiber circuit must be activated, which can incur a fee upwards of $2,000. A one month’s usage fee of $2,000 is charged whether you use the circuit for one minute or three days. The activation and monthly usage fee are charged on both ends, so your cost is now $8,000—$4,000 in New York City and $4,000 in San Francisco—plus the long-distance charges.

Satellite offers the same high-definition, limitless bandwidth as fiber, but it can be a bit more cost-effective if the venue has a satellite dish. If this is not available, satellite trucks can be rented. An uplink truck at the off-site venue incurs a $3,000 fee and a downlink truck at the meeting venue incurs another $3,000. Satellite space is rented for approximately $600 and similar to a meeting planner’s site visit at a hotel, both venues need to be “scouted” to make sure the signal works. This incurs a charge of $500 for each scout. Total satellite cost is $7,600 as opposed to the fiber option of $8,500.

Whichever method you choose, make sure it is available on both ends—at the meeting venue and the off-site presentation venue. “You can’t have one site fiber and the other satellite, or one transmission standard-definition and one with high-definition,” Roehl says. “It needs to be apples to apples.”

In addition to the technology, the on-site venue must be adapted to enable the best viewing for the online audience. “Lighting is the main complaint of online viewers,” says Erica St. Angel, vice president of Sonic Foundry, which provides a hybrid event platform and webcasting through its Mediasite technology. Make sure presenters are adequately lit to transmit to video and the online audience. Perform a test and tape the speaker at rehearsals or tape one of your staff members and see how the picture transmits online. St. Angel says it’s best to put the speaker on a riser so the camera can shoot over the heads of the audience. She suggests using two cameras, one to film the speaker and one to pan the on-site attendees. “This helps to draw in the online viewers and makes them feel as if they are a part of the audience,” St. Angel says. Testing the noise level in the room is also important. If there is a lot of background noise, not only will the on-site audience have difficulty hearing the presentation, but the online community’s ability to hear will be further diminished.

Step 8: Have a backup plan

Every good planner knows that you shouldn’t plan an outdoor function without having backup space indoors. The same is true for a virtual event. If the technology goes down and you lose the signal, you need a backup plan. If a presenter is off-site, as in the example of a live case at a hospital, a taped case can be aired in the downtime or the agenda can be shifted to the next live presentation. “We have taped cases on-site and ready to play if needed, and the session moderators are prepped on the taped cases,” Roehl says. “We also have the next session’s live speakers present, so if there is a problem, we can proceed with the live speakers and do the transmission later.”

If the signal to the online community goes down, the ability to air an alternative presentation is not possible. Simply wait until the signal is back and notify the online audience that any part of the presentation that was missed will be available online after the conference.

Step 9: Ramp up Staffing

Just as a live event has staff members assigned to each meeting function, from audiovisual to food and beverage monitoring, so should the virtual component have a dedicated staff member. St. Angel calls this a “virtual concierge” and advises that this person should have no other job but monitoring the online presentation and perhaps the social media responses. That way, if the transmission signal or audio is lost, the virtual concierge can immediately call tech support to get the problem fixed. This person can also give updates to the online audience if there is a delay in the agenda. If a speaker is 15 minutes late in starting a presentation, for example, the online audience might think the technology is down. The concierge can send messages to the audience via chat or social media sites and get in front of the camera to inform the audience of the delay.

Step 10: Determine virtual fees

If you charge a fee for your conference, determine how the online presentations will be priced compared to in-person attendance. Novak says AIA did not charge a fee for virtual attendance for the 2009 convention. More than 17,000 online viewers attended sessions over three days (22,500 people on-site). In 2010, they charged the virtual audience a fee of $165 for 36 sessions viewed real-time and also available on demand post-event. The online viewership went down to 3,000 people. “Market the virtual component separately so it doesn’t get lost in the on-site fee package,” Novak says.  

In 2011, AIA taped the sessions, but did not stream them to an online audience. Instead they made the presentations available post-conference and on demand, charging $29 per CEU credit.
Don’t forget to communicate the link to access the presentations over and over again. St. Angel says the virtual attendee should receive the link when registering for the conference, then a reminder at least a month before the meeting and again a week prior. The link should take attendees to the organization’s website or event website for added promotion of the brand.

Step 11: Follow up

Just as you would survey your on-site audience for feedback on the meeting’s success, so should you survey the online audience. Generally the same questions can be asked of both audiences. It would be helpful to add questions to the virtual audience’s survey asking them how easy the site was to access, if they had any problems with the signal, etc. Be sure to ask them if they plan to attend the conference next year, on-site or online. It’s also beneficial to track how many times the presentations were accessed post-event.

Biggest Event:  Since 2005, Scully has helped plan the State Games of America every other year. The multi-event sports festival brings together amateur athletes of all ages who have qualified through their own state games to compete nationally. The 2011 State Games of America in San Diego attracted more than 9,200 amateur athletes and their families from 47 states.

About the State Games:  The State Games of America include athletic competition, entertainment, opening ceremonies and athlete parties. Planning for the State Games is a three-year process, says Scully. “Requests for proposals are typically sent out in early January or February, more than three years prior to the event. Contracts are typically signed with the winning bid entity approximately two and a half years prior to the event, and work begins immediately with the LOC [local organizing committees], local state games and the National Congress of State Games working together every step of the way.

Ideal Destinations: Scully looks for family-friendly, tourist and vacation destinations such as Colorado Springs, Colo., St. Louis and San Diego. “We expect that our host destinations will have easy access for travel by air and automobile, and will be able to provide sufficient numbers of hotel rooms,” says Scully. “We are also strongly aware of the need to have other vacation options available for athletes and their families, and expect that many of our competitors and their travel companions will spend an entire week or more building their vacation around the SGA events.”

Planning Resources: “One of my favorite tools is Google Alerts,” says Scully. “Every day, information about state games, CVBs and sports commissions is added to the Internet, and I find it educational to pick a few and try to learn something new, which can help me locally with my own state games in Maine. I think that if you don’t find the time to learn about new resources, as well as new ideas and even participate in group discussions, it’s very easy to get left behind.”

Advice for Fellow Planners: “It’s OK to climb into the ‘box’ and do what is safe and known and trusted,” he says. “However, make sure you know where the secret passageway is to get outside the box, because that’s where the fun is. Trust your instincts, take risks, and don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something you firmly believe in.”

| In Scully’s Words |

When I’m planning events…

I can’t live without my phone and Diet Coke.

I most miss my family.

I am most inspired by every athlete who competes in the Maine Games. Each one has an amazing story to tell.

I learn the most from my colleagues all over the country who do the same thing I do, and who aren’t afraid to share information, ideas and support.

My favorite music is ’60s and ’70s stuff. Harry Nilsson, The Beatles, Johnny Rivers, Little Feet.

My favorite books are “The Real George Washington,” “A Season of Life” and anything by Mark Twain. When I can, I enjoy reading American history. I’m fascinated by our founding fathers, what they went through to give us the country we live in, and I’m amazed at what history can show us about our future.

My favorite movies are “It Happened One Night,” “Casablanca” and “Blues Brothers.”

My favorite quote is “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Technology companies interested in being part of the New York event can submit applications until March 23. Companies will be exposed to more than 150 innovative, early adopter event planners in the NY area, as well as to an online audience via Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more.

More information can be found here or visit plannertech.com. Follow @plannertech (or #plantech) on Twitter to find out more about the event as it gets closer.