Memories: 2012 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

On Friday, March 2 and Saturday March, 3, over

20 Cornell ILRSMC members attended the sixth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. The conference goal is to provide a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry. MIT Sloan is dedicated to fostering growth in this arena, and the conference enriches opportunities for learning about the sports business world.

The club is proud to have sent such a large group to MIT in 2012, no doubt thanks to the great memories made at last year's event.

After the jump, read about some of our members' favorite moments from the 2012 SSAC.

Colin Dailey: The top highlights for me was getting to go up to people and expand on previous connections I generated at the Ivy sports symposium. I had great conversations with multiple important sports figures, and made strides toward a deeper connection and internship possibility. My favorite panel was the sports sponsorship and branding panel primarily because it was really intriguing and all of the panelists provided great insight, not just a couple of them. Additionally, I really enjoyed meeting and experiencing the true personality of some of these sports leaders.

Michael Hendel: Going to some of the research presentations and learning about the arduous and detailed work that some of these graduate students and professors have done to come up with fascinating theories. In one of the presentations, after thorough research, a group believed that trading Chris Paul for Deron Williams would have made sense for both teams. In another presentation, it was shown that home teams shoot a worse free throw percentage than the away teams because of psychological reasons. The home team actually feels more pressure because of the unnaturalness of silence.

Adam Kirsch:

-Talking to notables like Mark Shapiro, Eric Mangini and 49ers COO Paraag Marathe about the club and our projects
-Chatting about sports psychology with NFL defensive end Lawrence Jackson between panels
-Discussing the different functions within the industry with team employees in different capacities
-The Baseball Analytics and Franchises in Transition panels
-The opening panel, which featured two ILRies (Gary Bettman and Rob Manfred)

Reed Longo: There were many highlights over the weekend at MIT that made it such a great experience. However, the most memorable thing for me was sitting next to Lions DE Lawrence Jackson during the Brand Equity panel. Since it was mostly an older crowd, I kind of felt like I had to overcompensate with professionalism. Yet, when I was talking to Lawrence, it was a great change of pace to be able to kick it a bit and not resist the urge to say "dude" (which is hard enough for me to begin with). Our conversation was personal, as he gave me some great insight on comparing his days at USC, Seattle, Detroit, and the media's portrayal of his linemate Ndamukong Suh. I think anyone who heard him speak at the Coaching Analytics was impressed by his articulation and intelligence. Yet, what impressed me most was that he was recording the entire Brand Equity panel on his iPhone while taking detailed notes. There's no doubt that he will have a successful career after his playing days are over.

Daniel Lowenthal: The Trade Show was an unbelievable experience; truly unique and insightful, yet it absolutely felt like it was the first one of its kind (fist time at the conference at least.) I was the one who tweeted the coverage of it, and it really gave me some great experience in the field of sports journalism/summarization.

Eric Maimon: Networking with some of the panelists and attendees.

John Rodriguez: My favorite moments at the MIT Conference were hearing from and getting to meet both David Gill, CEO of Manchester United and Drew Carey, owner of the Seattle Sounders. One point that Carey made which I thought was really interesting is how teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona elect the president of the club every four years and how he has implemented that into his own MLS team and how he is pushing the rest of the league to do the same.

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Be sure to look for more posts concerning the club's experience at the MIT SSAC in the coming days!