Ryan Donckers has worked in every component of the sports industry paradigm. A punter at Eastern Washington University, Donckers’ parlayed his student-athlete acumen into a job as Director of Ticket Sales at the Spokane Indians MiLB team. Donckers has the ability to share both sales knowledge on the ticket and corporate sales side, as a former corporate sales rep for Washington State University and IMGL. Now as the Director of Sports Sales for Red Lion Hotels, Doncker’s job is trying to accommodate large football rosters, as well as create the meeting spaces necessary for football operations directors to smoothly transition toward game time. Twitter: @RDonks14  

Fan experience is quickly becoming one of the hottest topics in sports business, as teams look to enhance how each customer feels upon a trip to the venue. Ruby Newell-Legner works with several teams and leisure facilities in order to improve every touch point of the customer experience through guest relations, discussing how her 7 Star Service System has increased retention for various teams. Newell-Legner talks about founding her online webinars, The Fan Experience Institute (www.7starservice.com), in order to help mentor those in the sports world at improve the product in the stands and concourses. Twitter: @7StarService

Fan experience is one of the main reasons on why people renew or decline to attend live events. Brian Crow’s Gameday Consulting helps teams such as the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, reinvest itself in fan engagement. That means from top to bottom, every touch-point of a fan’s game experience is measured for quality and customer service. As a professor at Slippery Rock, Crowd also talks about the saturation point of sports management degrees throughout the nation’s universities and the fall-out of being book smart, but not game smart in terms of the industry’s future leaders. Twitter: @GameDayBrian

Guest relations may be one of the saving graces to protect the in-stadium attendances for all professional and college sports. Guest Relations Expert Anthony Cangelosi has both a background in professional sports sales, and secret shopping at large stadiums & venues. Cangelosi talks about some of the ways that third party vendors may be damaging a team’s relationship with the fan without the franchise ever knowing it.