BSM Writers
10 Tributes To John Madden From The BSM Staff
“This is a piece that could go on forever. Frankly, there is no one correct way to eulogize John Madden.”

Published
1 year agoon
By
BSM Staff
No one, and I mean NO ONE has made a bigger impact on the way football is presented on television than John Madden. You could just mention his eponymous video game series and the way TV executives plucked innovation after innovation from it to change the way the sport looks on TV and that would be enough. His contributions and the things networks did to woo him and make him happy though go far beyond however many pixels we are at these days.

Busses, turduckens, telestrators – these are all things football fans know and think about because of John Madden. He orchestrated a trade of a cartoon character to Disney in order to get the partner he wanted at NBC.
This is a piece that could go on forever. Frankly, there is no one correct way to eulogize John Madden. That is why the BSM staff is doing it in ten different ways.
After news of Madden’s death became public, I scribbled down about two dozen ideas. Then I picked my ten favorites and sent them to our columnists to make sure the guy got every kind of tribute he deserved. Enjoy! – Demetri Ravanos
PERFECT PARTNERS FINALLY REUNITE by Jason Barrett
Pat Summerall and John Madden’s pairing was perfect. They were a hit for over two decades because they understood their roles and the differences each brought to the broadcast booth. In Summerall, you got the straight man, who gave the booth the steady, serious touch it needed when important moments were unfolding. No matter how dramatic the moment, Pat was calm, cool, and collected, allowing the pictures to tell the story. Perhaps his best quality though was understanding Madden, and giving him the room needed to operate.
The nation became captivated by John’s personality and vocabulary, but they also respected his ability to analyze football. The fact that each spent time in the NFL led to mutual respect between them, which allowed them to understand the pace of the game, tell stories, and interact unlike any other combination in the history of football broadcasting. Many are understandably saddened by John’s passing. But knowing that one of the greatest tandems of all time is now reunited in Heaven should ease some of the pain, and make all of us envious of not being able to hear their next broadcast.
THE BEST MOVE FOX EVER MADE by Ryan Maguire
Growing up, when Madden and Summerall were the ones doing YOUR game, you knew the eyes of the entire country were going to be on your team (for better or worse). Whenever another announcing crew from CBS was calling the action, it just didn’t feel as special or meaningful.
When FOX got the rights to air games in 1994, reuniting that duo was vital and Rupert Murdoch outbid NBC and ABC to do it. Why? Because he knew that having Madden and Summerall as the number one crew helped give his young network much-needed credibility to the league and its fans as a rookie rightsholder.

Sure, Fox brought new voices and innovations to the broadcast that have withstood the test of time, but having Pat and John remain the duo that would bring you every week’s marquee matchup provided that comfortable familiarity that made things feel legit.
MR. THANKSGIVING by Brian Noe
Of all the many reminders we have of Madden — his famous video game, his signature usage of the word “boom!” — any mention of turducken will also remind me of him immediately. Madden routinely professed his love for the magical mixture of boneless chicken, duck and turkey on Thanksgiving Day telecasts. Madden also began giving away a turkey leg to the Thanksgiving Day MVP way back in 1989.
Madden fit perfectly on Thanksgiving; he had a jolly vibe and was ready to eat. If only Madden had been on the call for the infamous Jerome Bettis botched coin toss game in 1997. Now that would’ve been some tremendous television.
HOW JOHN MADDEN HELPED US UNDERSTAND FOOTBALL by Andy Masur
When you think of John Madden, you may harken back to his Super Bowl victory as head coach of the Raiders. But if you’re of a certain age, it’s all about Madden the television analyst. That’s where I’m most familiar with his work.
Think about how many times you heard, “Boom!”, “Whap!”, “Bang!” or “Doink!” to describe action on the field. Madden was a master of describing things the way we saw it. He simply said it how we were thinking it. The words live on as his legacy.
He also pioneered the use of the telestrator, a device he first used during the 1982 Super Bowl to draw plays and routes on our screens at home. Madden would use his squiggly lines to punctuate things that happened on the field. But they weren’t only used to highlight those plays. He once circled the lack of facial hair on Troy Aikman who said he was trying to grow a beard. But when it came to football, those markings were followed by information that the common fan could understand.
John Madden, the G.O.A.T. pic.twitter.com/dnEvOnF6ZY
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) December 29, 2021
Imagine trying to watch a game now without a telestrator. You can’t, can you? He paved the way for Tony Romo and even a still facial hairless Troy Aikman.
AN HONOR GREATER THAN ANY THE LEAGUE COULD GIVE by Tyler McComas
Who was the NFL MVP in 2005? Yeah, I don’t remember it either, but I could easily tell you who was on the Madden cover that year. That’s because being on the cover of Madden was arguably more celebrated and memorable than winning the league MVP.
“The Madden Curse” even became so synonymous with the NFL, that EA Sports had to continually dismiss the notion an actual curse was hovering over the game. The suspense of the unveiling of the Madden cover athlete has turned into one of the main events of the NFL offseason, and that will only continue to grow in time. Madden’s is easily one of the most iconic names in video game history.
JOHN MADDEN MADE FRANK CALIENDO by Demetri Ravanos
Mad TV was to Saturday Night Live what the La Quinta by the airport is to the Chrysler Building. The former produced nearly nothing worth remembering. That is, nothing except for Frank Caliendo’s impressions and one stood out above the rest.
Caliendo’s John Madden impression struck a chord. Thanks to the video game and his presence on the biggest games every week in our country’s most popular sport, Madden’s voice was ubiquitous enough to convince even the most casual of sports fans that this Frank Caliendo guy was onto something.
Viewers noticed and networks noticed too. Since he retired Madden, Caliendo has brought Terry Bradshaw, Mel Kiper Jr, Jon Gruden, and more to life for both FOX and ESPN. The sports world wouldn’t know Frank Caliendo existed, let alone have him on speed dial, if not for Caliendo locking in on John Madden as his jumping-off point.
FOOTBALL’S MOST FAMOUS BUS by Jeff Caves
John Madden didn’t hurry to get to his next NFL assignment. Due to claustrophobia, he avoided airplanes and rode the “Madden Cruiser” to his assignments. He willingly signed up for a life on the road from September until February from 1979 all the way until 2008.
He stopped and visited with people in small towns, went to minor league baseball games, and interviewed people on the bus. He even did the Madden NFL video game deal on the bus in a few days. He reminded us to enjoy the ride. And he wasn’t in it for the luxury. He gave a bus tour here in 1991. It wasn’t glamorous. He had to love it!

THE EULOGY BEFORE DEATH by Brandon Kravitz
The All Madden documentary on Fox aired at the perfect time considering the news that followed. The build-up and promotion to this one-hour special was tremendous, and the special delivered on the hype.
I sat down and watched the first 15 or 20 minutes on Christmas Day when it originally aired, but amid all the NFL, NBA, and family obligations, I was forced to finish it on another night. As fate would have it, that night would be Tuesday, and I received the notification about John’s passing during the final 10 minutes of the documentary. What started as a beautiful detail of this legend’s life/career, became this picture-perfect eulogy. I’m just so glad John was able to sit there and witness all the great things people had to say about him and the impact that he had just prior to his passing, very rarely are we fortunate enough to honor living legends that way.
He was an icon as a coach, an all-time great broadcaster, a Hall of Fame father, and he taught us all how to love and appreciate the game of football. John Madden was truly one of a kind and this documentary could not have aired at a better time. How fitting that the special would end with the screen fading to black and a reflective and emotional John Madden saying “whoa, that was something. When I hear that stuff, it makes me realize what I didn’t realize.”
WHAT NOW FOR EA SPORTS? by Jeremy Evans
The game itself is unlikely to change as it is popular and the main goal of the game is to win with current players, but tribute will continue to be given to John Madden and his family for the quintessential role he played in the growth of American football and living a graceful life. Maybe Madden will introduce in-game cheat codes on a play, to increase player rating, or possible Coach Madden advice on whether to use certain plays or defensive schemes. That would indeed be a great highlight and memory for the man in the game. Madden’s legacy lives on.
THE VIDEO GAME THAT CHANGED TV by Derek Futterman
With improvements in technology and design, video games across all sports have become more realistic, giving users the ability to authentically simulate matchups of their choosing at any time. The Madden NFL video game series truly set the standard for authenticity, as it always was – and remains – highly detailed by featuring accurate player portrayals, stadium renderings and parcels of in-game strategies, including team-specific playbooks and artificial intelligence to bolster the CPU.
Evidently, Madden NFL changed the way football is disseminated to an audience, especially through the medium of television. Today, watching a football game encompasses much more than seeing the action on the field; it is about having an understanding of the teams, the strategy and the implications of each matchup, just as Madden himself did every week. Additionally, graphics and presentation aspects from video games, including the vertical view of the field and detailed voice tracking by play-by-play and color commentators, have lent their part into modern-day television broadcasts.

John Madden’s intuitiveness for the game as a player, coach, broadcaster and video game connoisseur has required existing personnel at all levels of the game to make sure they are prepared and able to perform their role to the highest of their ability, no matter what it may be – one of many reasons why his legacy will live on in perpetuity in the world of sports.
BSM Writers
Amanda Brown Has Embraced The Bright Lights of Hollywood
“My whole goal was that I didn’t need people to like me; I needed people to respect me.”

Published
22 hours agoon
March 17, 2023
The tragic passing of Kobe Bryant and eight others aboard a helicopter, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, sent shockwaves around the world of sports, entertainment, and culture. People traveled to Los Angeles following the devastating news and left flowers outside the then-named STAPLES Center, the arena which Bryant called home for much of his career, demonstrating the magnitude of the loss. Just across the street from the arena, Amanda Brown and the staff at ESPN Los Angeles 710 had embarked in ongoing breaking news coverage, lamentation, and reflection.
It included coverage of a sellout celebration of life for Kobe and his daughter and teams around the NBA opting to take 8-second and 24-second violations to honor Bryant, who wore both numbers throughout his 20-year NBA career. They currently hang in the rafters at Crypto.com Arena, making Bryant the only player in franchise history to have two numbers retired.
During this tumultuous time, Bryant’s philosophy served as a viable guiding force, something that Brown quickly ascertained in her first month as the station’s new program director.
“I had people that were in Northern California hopping on planes to get here,” Brown said. “You didn’t even have to ask people [to] go to the station; people were like, ‘I’m on my way.’ It was the way that everybody really came together to do really great radio, and we did it that day and we did it the next day and we did it for several days.”
The 2023 BSM Summit is quickly approaching, and Brown will be attending the event for the first time since 2020. During her first experience at the BSM Summit in New York, Brown had just become a program director and was trying to assimilate into her role. Because of this, she prioritized networking, building contacts, and expressing her ideas to others in the space. This year, she looks forward to connecting with other program directors and media professionals around the country while also seeking to learn more about the nuances of the industry.
“The Summit is kind of like a meeting of the minds,” Brown said. “It’s people throughout the country and the business…. More than anything, [the first time] wasn’t so much about the panels as it was about the people.”
Growing up in Orange County, Brown had an interest in the Los Angeles Lakers from a young age, being drawn to play-by-play broadcaster Chick Hearn. Brown refers to Hearn as inspiration to explore a career in broadcasting. After studying communications at California State University in Fullerton, she was afforded an opportunity to work as a producer at ESPN Radio Dallas 103.3 FM by program director Scott Masteller, who she still speaks to on a regular basis. It was through Masteller’s confidence in her, in addition to support from operations manager Dave Schorr, that helped make Brown feel more comfortable working in sports media.
“I never felt like I was a woman in a male-dominated industry,” Brown said. “I always just felt like I was a part of the industry. For me, I’ve kind of always made it my goal to be like, ‘I deserve to be here; I deserve a seat at the table.’”
Brown quickly rose up the ranks when she began working on ESPN Radio in Bristol, Conn., working as a producer for a national radio show hosted by Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt, along with The Sports Bash with Erik Kuselias. Following five-and-a-half years in Bristol, Brown requested a move back to California and has worked at ESPN Los Angeles 710 ever since. She began her tenure at the station serving as a producer for shows such as Max and Marcellus and Mason and Ireland.
Through her persistence, work ethic and congeniality, Brown was promoted to assistant program director in July 2016. In this role, she helped oversee the station’s content while helping the entity maintain live game broadcast rights and explore new opportunities to augment its foothold, including becoming the flagship radio home of the Los Angeles Rams.
“Don’t sit back and wait for your managers or your bosses to come to you and ask what you want to do,” Brown advised. “Go after what you want, and that’s what I’ve always done. I always went to my managers and was like, ‘Hey, I want to do this. Give me a chance; let me do that.’ For the most part, my managers have been receptive and given me those opportunities.”
When executive producer Dan Zampillo left the station to join Spotify to work as a sports producer, Brown was subsequently promoted to program director where she has helped shape the future direction of the entity. From helping lead the brand amid its sale to Good Karma Brands in the first quarter of 2022; to revamping the daily lineup with compelling local programs, Brown has gained invaluable experience and remains keenly aware of the challenges the industry faces down the road. For sports media outlets in Los Angeles, some of the challenge is merely by virtue of its geography.
“We’re in sunny Southern California where there’s a lot of things happening,” Brown said. “We’re in the middle of Hollywood. People have a lot of opportunities – you can go to the mountains; you can go to the beach. I think [our market] is more about entertainment than it is about actual hard-core sports. Yes, obviously you have hard-core Lakers fans; you have hard-core Dodgers fans, but a majority of the fans are pretty average sports fans.”
Because of favorable weather conditions and an endless supply of distractions, Brown knows that the way to attract people to sports talk radio is through its entertainment value. With this principle in mind, she has advised her hosts not to worry so much about the specific topics they are discussing, but rather to ensure they are entertaining listeners throughout the process.
“People know the four letters E-S-P-N mean sports, but really our focus is more on entertainment more than anything,” Brown said. “I think the [talent] that stick out the most are the ones that are the most entertaining.”
Entertaining listeners, however, comes through determining what they are discussing and thinking about and providing relevant coverage about those topics. Even though it has not yet been legalized in the state of California, sports gambling content has been steadily on the rise since the Supreme Court made a decision that overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act established in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (2018). Nonetheless, Brown and ESPN Los Angeles 710 have remained proactive, launching a sports gambling show on Thursday nights to try to adjust to the growing niche of the industry.
Even though she has worked in producing and programming for most of her career, Brown is eager to learn about the effect sports gambling has on audio sales departments. At the same time, she hopes to be able to more clearly determine how the station can effectuate its coverage if and when it becomes legal in their locale.
“I know that a lot of other markets have that,” Brown said regarding the legalization of sports gambling. “For me, I’m interested to hear from people who have that in their markets and how they’ve monetized that and the opportunity.”
No matter the content, though, dedicated sports radio listeners are genuinely consuming shows largely to hear certain talent. Brown recalls receiving a compliment on Twitter earlier this quarter where a listener commented that he listens to ESPN Los Angeles 710 specifically for Sedano and Kap. Evidently, it acted as a tangible sign that her philosophy centered around keeping people engrossed in the content is working, and that providing the audience what it wants to hear is conducive to success.
At this year’s BSM Summit, Brown will be participating on The Wheel of Content panel, presented by Core Image Studio, featuring ESPN analyst Mina Kimes and FOX Sports host Joy Taylor. Through their discussion, she intends to showcase a different perspective of what goes into content creation and the interaction that takes place between involved parties.
“A lot of times in the past, all the talent were on one panel; all the programmers were on one panel,” Brown said. “To put talent and a programmer together, I think it’s an opportunity for people to hear both sides on certain issues.”
According to the most recent Nielsen Total Audience Report, AM/FM (terrestrial) radio among persons 18-34 has a greater average audience than television. The statistical anomaly, which was forecast several years earlier, came to fruition most likely due to emerging technologies and concomitant shifts in usage patterns.
Simultaneously, good content is required to captivate consumers, and radio, through quantifiable and qualifiable metrics, has been able to tailor its content to the listening audience and integrate it across multiple platforms of dissemination. The panel will give Brown a chance to speak in front of her peers and other industry professionals about changes in audio consumption, effectuated by emerging technologies and concomitant shifts in usage patterns.
Yet when it comes to radio as a whole, the patterns clearly point towards the proliferation of digital content – whether those be traditional radio programs or modernized podcasts. Moreover, utilizing various elements of presentation provides consumers a greater opportunity of finding and potentially engaging with the content.
“We do YouTube streaming; obviously, we stream on our app,” Brown said. “We’ve even created, at times, stream-only shows whether it’s stream-only video or stream-only on our app. We all know that people want content on-demand when they want it. I think it’s about giving them what they want.”
As a woman in sports media, Brown is cognizant about having to combat misogyny from those inside and outside of the industry, and is grateful to have had the support of many colleagues. In holding a management position in the second-largest media market in the United States, she strives to set a positive example to aspiring broadcasters. Additionally, she aims to be a trusted and accessible voice to help empower and give other women chances to work in the industry – even if she is not universally lauded.
“I’ve kind of always made it my goal to be like, ‘I’m no different than anyone else – yes, I’m a female – but I’m no different than anyone else,’” Brown expressed. “My whole goal was that I didn’t need people to like me; I needed people to respect me.”
Through attending events such as the BSM Summit and remaining immersed in sports media and the conversation at large about the future of sports media, Brown can roughly delineate how she can perform her job at a high level.
Although the genuine future of this business is always subject to change, she and her team at ESPN Los Angeles 710 are trying to come up with new ideas to keep the content timely, accurate, informative, and entertaining. She is content in her role as program director with no aspirations to become a general manager; however, remaining in her current role requires consistent effort and a penchant for learning.
“Relationships are very important overall in this business whether you’re a programmer or not,” Brown said. “Relationships with your talent; relationships with your staff. If you invest in your people, then they’re going to be willing to work hard for you and do what you ask them to do.”
The 2023 BSM Summit is mere days away, and those from Los Angeles and numerous other marketplaces will make the trip to The Founder’s Club at the Galen Center at the University of Southern California (USC).
Aside from Brown, Kimes and Taylor, there will be other voices from across the industry sharing their thoughts on aspects of the industry and how to best shape it going forward, including Colin Cowherd, Rachel Nichols, Al Michaels and Eric Shanks. More details about the industry’s premiere media conference can be found at bsmsummit.com.
“I’m excited to be a female program director amongst male program directors for the first time and get a seat at the table and represent that there can be diversity in this position,” Brown said. “We don’t see a lot of it, but… there is an opportunity, and I hope I can be an example for other people out there [to show] that it’s possible.”

Derek Futterman is a features reporter for Barrett Sports Media. In addition, he interns in video production with the New York Islanders and formerly worked as production manager for the team’s radio broadcasts. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on Twitter @derekfutterman.
BSM Writers
Pat McAfee Has Thrown Our Business Into a Tailspin
Yet even with all the accomplishments he’s been able to achieve, McAfee is still anxious and unsatisfied with the state of his show and his career.

Published
22 hours agoon
March 17, 2023
When you have one of the hottest talk shows in America, you’re always up to something. That’s the case for the most popular sports talk show host in America – Pat McAfee.
The former Pro Bowl punter was on top of the world on Wednesday. With over 496,000 concurrent viewers watching at one point, McAfee was able to garner an exclusive interview with frequent guest Aaron Rodgers who announced his intention to play for the Jets.
Yet even with all the accomplishments he’s been able to achieve — a new studio, consistent high viewership, a syndication deal with SportsGrid TV, a four-year, $120 million deal with FanDuel — McAfee is still anxious and unsatisfied with the state of his show and his career.
At the end of the day, he is human and he’s admitted that balancing his show, his ESPN gig with “College Gameday,” and his WWE obligations has taken a toll on him.
McAfee and his wife are expecting their first child soon and he recently told The New York Post he might step away from his deal with FanDuel. Operating his own company has come with the responsibility of making sure his studio is up and running, finding people to operate the technology that puts his show on the air, negotiating with huge behemoths like the NFL for game footage rights, booking guests, booking hotels, implementing marketing plans and other tasks that most on-air personalities rarely have to worry about.
McAfee says he’s looking for a network that would be able to take control of those duties while getting more rest and space to spend time with family while focusing strictly on hosting duties. FanDuel has its own network and has the money to fund such endeavors but is just getting started in the content game. McAfee needs a well-known entity to work with who can take his show to the next level while also honoring his wishes of keeping the show free on YouTube.
The question of how he’s going to be able to do it is something everyone in sports media will be watching. As The Post pointed out in their story, McAfee hasn’t frequently stayed with networks he’s been associated with in the past for too long. He’s worked with Westwood One, DAZN, and Barstool but hasn’t stayed for more than a year or two.
There’s an argument to be made that the latter two companies weren’t as experienced as a network when McAfee signed on with them compared to where they are today which could’ve pushed the host to leave. But at the end of the day, networks want to put money into long-term investments and it’s easy to see a network passing on working with McAfee for fear that he’ll leave them astray when he’s bored.
It’ll also be difficult for McAfee to find a network that doesn’t put him behind a paywall. Amazon and Google are rumored to be potential new homes. But both are trying to increase subscribers for their respective streaming services.
It will be difficult to sell Amazon on investing money to build a channel on YouTube – a rival platform. For Google, they may have the tech infrastructure to create television-like programming but they aren’t an experienced producer, they’ve never produced its own live, daily talk show, and investing in McAfee’s show doesn’t necessarily help increase the number of subscribers watching YouTube TV.
Networks like ESPN, CBS, NBC, and Fox might make sense to partner with. But McAfee faces the possibility of being censored due to corporate interests. Each of these networks also operates its networks or streaming channels that air talk programming of their own. Investing in McAfee could cannibalize the programming they already own.
And if McAfee works with a traditional network that isn’t ESPN, it could jeopardize his ability to host game casts for Omaha or analyze games on Gameday. It’s not impossible but would definitely be awkward on days that McAfee does his show remotely from locations of ESPN games with ESPN banners and signage that is visible in the background.
If SportsGrid has the money to invest in McAfee, they might be his best bet. They have all the attributes McAfee needs and they already have a relationship with him. It is probably unlikely that he’ll be censored and he would even be able to maintain a relationship with FanDuel – a company SportsGrid also works alongside.
Roku is another option — they already work with Rich Eisen — but they would move his show away from YouTube, something McAfee should resist since the majority of smart TV users use YT more than any other app.
If the NFL gave McAfee editorial independence, they would make the perfect partner but the likelihood of that happening is slim to none. NFL Media has independence but it was clear during the night of the Damar Hamlin incident that they will do whatever is necessary to stay away from serious topics that make the league look bad until it’s totally unavoidable.
It’s hard to think of a partner that matches up perfectly with McAfee’s aspirations. But once again, at the moment, he’s on top of the world so anything is possible. The talk show host’s next move will be even more interesting to watch than the other fascinating moves he’s already made that have put the sports media industry in a swivel.

Jessie Karangu is a columnist for BSM and graduate of the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland but comes from Kenyan roots. Jessie has had a passion for sports media and the world of television since he was a child. His career has included stints with USA Today, Tegna, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Sightline Media. He can be found on Twitter @JMKTVShow.
BSM Writers
5 Tips For Networking At the BSM Summit
“Have a plan and don’t leave home without it.”

Published
22 hours agoon
March 17, 2023By
Jeff Caves
Bring your game plan if you attend the BSM Summit in LA next Tuesday and Wednesday. No matter your purpose for attending: to learn, get a job, speak, or sell an idea, you must be able to read the room. To do that, it helps to know who will be there and how you can cure their pain.
Have a plan and don’t leave home without it. If you have time, buy How to Work a Room by Susan Roane. If you don’t, just follow these five tips:
- INTRODUCE YOURSELF: Before you arrive at The Summit, figure out what you want, who you want to meet, and what you will say. Once you get there, scout out the room and see if anyone of those people are available. Talk to speakers after they have spoken- don’t worry if you miss what the next speaker says. You are there to meet new people! Most speakers do not stick around for the entire schedule, and you don’t know if they will attend any after-parties, so don’t risk it. Refine your elevator pitch and break the ice with something you have in common. Make sure you introduce yourself to Stephanie, Demetri and Jason from BSM. They know everybody and will help you if they can.
- GET A NAME TAG: Don’t assume that name tags will be provided. Bring your own if you and make your name clear to read. If you are looking to move to LA or want to sell a system to book better guests, put it briefly under your name. Study this to get better at remembering names.
- LOSE THE NOTEBOOK: When you meet folks, ensure your hands are free. Have a business card handy and ask for one of theirs. Remember to look people in the eye and notice what they are doing. If they are scanning the room, pause until they realize they are blowing you off. Do whatever it takes to sound upbeat and open. Don’t let their clothes, hair, or piercings distract from your message. You don’t need to wear a suit and tie but do bring your best business casual wear. A blazer isn’t a bad idea either.
- SHUT UP FIRST! The art of knowing when to end the convo is something you will have to practice. You can tell when the other person’s eye starts darting or they are not using body language that tells you the convo will continue. You end it by telling them you appreciate meeting them and want to connect via email. Ask for a business card. Email is more challenging to ignore than a LinkedIn request, and you can be more detailed in what you want via email.
- WORK THE SCHEDULE: Know who speaks when. That is when you will find the speakers hanging around. Plan your lunch outing to include a few fellow attendees. Be open and conversational with those around you. I am a huge USC fan, so I would walk to McKays– a good spot with plenty of USC football memorabilia on the walls. Sometimes you can find the next day’s speakers at the Day 1 after party. Need a bar? Hit the 901 Club for cheap beer, drinks, and food.
You’re welcome.

Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio, digital, hyper-local magazine, and sports sponsorship sales in DFW. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop SPORTS RADIO The Ticket in Boise, Idaho, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at jeffcaves54@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @jeffcaves.
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