by Andrew Mefferd

More than 100 students from 10 universities across Canada converged on the Maritime Plaza Hotel last weekend for the fifth annual Concordia Sports Marketing Seminar. The theme was how the media had changed sports into entertainment.

The Concordia Sports Marketing Seminar is a club affiliated with CASA and the Concordia Marketing Students Association, and the seminar is funded entirely by the participants.

Most of these students have spent two or more years in a business or marketing program, and came to the seminar for a chance to meet professionals in the sports entertainment business.

Not all are actually planning to go into the field, like Concordia second-year marketing student Adam Kertesz. “Many people came just for the experience.”

Speakers included Pierre Ladouceur, vice-president of marketing, communications and sales for the Montreal Canadiens, John Gilman, CEO of FieldTurf Inc, who is a graduate of Sir George Williams University, and played quarterback for the Alouettes from 1962-64, and Jock Climie is a crown prosecutor in British Columbia who is a Alouettes receiver and studied for his bar exams during the 1998 season.

The seminar included a case competition on how to break into the market with a slogan, symbol, demographic and marketing ideas for new “XFL Football.” This challenge elicited off-the-cuff slogans like “This ain’t your grandpa’s football.”

The students had some fun, too, including a tour of the Molson Centre and a Canadiens game, restaurant meals and a pub crawl through Montreal.