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First
eSportsTravel Summit at TEAM ’17 Featured
Unique
Track of Programming
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Highlights
included a look at producing e-sports events; the impact
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of virtual
reality, artificial intelligence and augmented reality
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on sporting
events; and a case study of the NBA 2K League
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Los
Angeles, CA – November 2017 / Newsmaker Alert / The eSportsTravel Summit
was a first-of-its-kind look at the explosive growth of e-sports and the
impact this new breed of event is having on venues, destinations and the
travel industry. Sponsored by Sports Anaheim, the eSportsTravel Summit
was held in conjunction with the TEAMS
’17 Conference & Expo, October 30–November 2, in Orlando.
TEAMS is the world’s largest gathering of sports-event organizers.
While
video games have been around for more than 40 years, a transformation is
occurring in the video-gaming space that will elevate the players above
the games. Live events are becoming the ultimate forum for skill and achievement
for players. And spectators are flocking to the live events because of
their interest in the games and the rising prominence of the players. It
is this transformation that is creating many new opportunities, including
record levels of investment in e-sports teams and the development of e-sports
specific venues.
“We
secured an impressive presenter roster for this innovative summit,” said
Timothy Schneider, founder and chairman of the Sports Division of Northstar
Travel Group, which publishes SportsTravel magazine and organizes
the TEAMS Conference & Expo. “By attending the eSportsTravel Summit
at TEAMS ’17, venues, destinations, event organizers and sports organizations
began to understand how to leverage the e-sports phenomenon to further
their business development,” said Schneider.
The eSportsTravel
Summit began with “eSports vs. Traditional Sports: Similarities and Differences
in Event Production and Operations” on October 31. With e-sports events
filling venues from Madison Square Garden in New York to Staples Center
in Los Angeles, the session focussed on the unique considerations of e-sports
events in the areas of venue selection, accommodations, security and merchandising.
The session was moderated by Nathan Lindberg of Twitch and included Ryan
DeVos of the Orlando Magic, Brian Mirakian of Populus and Lisa Neshanian
of Esports Now Inc.
The
eSportsTravel Summit also featured a session titled “The Digitalization
of Sports: How AI, AR, VR and eSports Will Affect Your Events.” Part of
one of the TEAMS Conference Super Sessions, the panel discussion was held
on November 1 and provided sports-industry professionals with insights
into how artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, facial
recognition and e-sports will transform the sports-event industry. The
session was moderated by SportsTravel’s Jason
Gewirtz and included Rahat Ahmed of TrinityVR, Manny Anekal of The
Next Level, Scott Gutterman of the PGA Tour, Tobias Sherman of Foundry
IV and Peter Trepp of FaceFirst.
The
eSportsTravel Summit concluded on the afternoon of November 1 with an educational
session that examined the launch of the NBA 2K League, which the NBA sees
as a platform for the engagement of the next generation of sports fans.
The session was presented by The Next Level, the leading eSports business
industry media company, and was moderated by Manny Anekal, founder and
CEO of The Next Level. Presenters included Josh Barney of the Utah Jazz,
Ted Dalton of the Boston Celtics, Alex Martins of the Orlando Magic, Grant
Paranjape of Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Aaron Ryan of the
NBA 2K League.
The
eSportsTravel Summit will be held again in conjunction with TEAMS
’18, October 1–4 in Louisville. For more information about TEAMS
’18, call 877-577-3700 or visit TEAMSconference.com.
Tweet
this: First-ever eSportsTravel Summit at TEAMS ’17 featured unique
track of programming @TEAMSconference @VisitOrlando bit.ly/2AV5d3G
Follow
TEAMS: Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram
For
further press information, please contact Jason Gewirtz at jgewirtz@ntmllc.com
or 720-420-9391.
Northstar
Travel Group (NorthstarTravelGroup.com)
is the owner of well-known brands including Travel Weekly, TravelAge
West, Business Travel News, Successful Meetings, Meetings
& Conventions, Travel Weekly China, Incentive, M&C
China and SportsTravel. The company produces the annual TEAMS
Conference & Expo and more than 50 face-to-face events in 13 countries
in retail travel, corporate travel, travel technology and the meetings
industry. In addition, Northstar owns Phocuswright, the leading research,
business intelligence and event producer serving the fastest growing segment
of the travel industry, online travel distribution. Northstar is also the
majority shareholder in Inntopia, the leading SaaS e-commerce software
provider serving the mountain destination, activities and specialty destination
travel markets.
Contact:
Timothy
Maxwell
Technical
Product Specialist, Marketing
310-954-2506
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