JAmie Patrick, MAdison Area Sports Commission

Jamie Patrick:

• VP of Convention Sales, Sports and Services at Madison Area Sports Commission

Takeaways:

• The purpose of sports tourism: to bring sports to an area to enhance the quality of life in the community
• Sports tourism is great for boosting opportunities within communities and can allow businesses to have a great year
• You find out quickly that there's something for everybody
• It's equally as important to find out what you don't like as what you do like
• Have to be persistent and resilient, but you must understand collaboration and trust within a team first
• Being persistent can open up opportunities down another path that you might end up enjoying more
• Wherever you work, it's key to have coworkers who are going to pick you up when you are down and vice versa
• Nothing is ever easy and if it gets easy, you've stopped caring about what you're doing
• You'll spend 20% of your job doing things you won't want to do but make sure you still do them well, especially when you're first starting out
• It comes down to taking the extra step and showing you care
• The best part of working in sports is that each day is filled with a lot of variety
• Problem-solving skills are essential in sports since you aren't fully in charge of the product