Posts tagged with "Events"

Events

Event Recap: How Social Media is Impacting Sports Culture

On Tuesday, August 6, the organization South Asians in Sports presented a panel discussion entitled "How Social Media is Impacting Sports Culture" at SeatGeek's headquarters in SoHo, New York. The event provided attendees with unique insights into the nexus of social media and sports through stories and advice from two accomplished professionals, Anmol Malhotra, Head of Sports Partnerships at Snap Inc. (the parent company of Snapchat), and Dev Sethi, Head of Sports at Instagram. The discussion was moderated by Jyoti Agarwal, a Lecturer at Columbia University and a Harvard MBA, who is an established strategy and marketing leader with more than fifteen years of experience leading teams to drive success. The event, which lasted from 6-8 p.m., was free and open to the public, drawing approximately sixty attendees from a range of backgrounds and walks of life, including athletes, students, career professionals, and fans.

Agarwal kicked off the event by asking the panelists about their career paths. An enlightening discussion ensued as Malhotra and Sethi narrated their journeys from backgrounds in technology, advertising, and finance to the sports social media universe. They explained that their diverse experiences had offered them transferable skill sets and perspectives, which have fostered success in their current roles in the sports industry.

Malhotra oversees sports partnerships at Snap Inc., leading relationships with leagues, broadcasters, and rights holders, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, UFC, FIFA, Fox, Turner Sports, and NBC. In this role, he also focuses on strategy for several content partnerships and sales initiatives with leagues, teams, and athletes to help them engage new audiences, experiment with innovative forms of distribution, and achieve their business objectives. In addition, Malhotra helps manage international growth initiatives with sports partners across Asia, Europe, MENA, and Latin America. Anmol is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business and resides in New York City.

Sethi oversees strategic partnerships at Instagram, across the sports ecosystem, which includes athletes, leagues, teams, and media. Before joining Instagram, Sethi was Complex Networks' first Chief of Staff, reporting to CEO Rich Antoniello. There, he was responsible for developing strategic external partnerships as well as aligning internal operations across content, business development, finance, and production with the goal of maximizing output and efficiencies across Complex's portfolio of millennial-focused brands. Dev is also a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a native of the D.C. Metro Area.

Both panelists explained that all social platforms are eventually looking to accomplish the same things within the sports industry - to consistently find unique ways to engage fans through their platforms. As a matter of coincidence, they both arrived at their current roles from non-sports positions and offered salient career advice. Malhotra explained, "There is no right or wrong career path in the sports industry. One should be flexible. I started in finance but always knew that I would want to work in sports." And Sethi added, "Sometimes, it is also helpful to take a break from work to channelize your inner self and reassess what is best for you. Be persistent and patient in pursuit of opportunities and also find ways to make yourself unique."

Audience members asked the panelists probing questions about each of their day-to-day responsibilities: "What does the social media space look like in the near future?" "What are some of the resources that they look at to keep up with the latest news within the sports industry?" Sethi and Malhotra listed the Sports Business Journal and Front Office Sports as excellent resources for staying in the loop. They also suggested that those interested in the field consult books written by people about the industry.

After the enriching discussion, the panelists participated in a networking session and interacted personally with the attendees. SeatGeek graciously provided an inviting space and ample refreshments. The event was wonderful and enlightening, offering participants new and helpful insights into the complex integration of social media and sports from two prominent leaders within the industry. Through SAIS convening this gathering, attendees from diverse backgrounds and career stages were able to meet, share, and learn.

Clink here to see more event photos.
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Vratik Sharma

Sr. Program Manager, Live Sports at Amazon Ads

Events

New York City Event Recap

On October 5th 2017, South Asians in Sports hosted a panel discussion and networking night for the South Asian sports professional community in New York City. Our event brought together a panel of successful professionals working at the burgeoning intersection of sports and technology including: Deepen Parikh, Devi Mahadevia, Ammad Sheikh, Manny Anekal and sports journalist Adi Joseph (as moderator). They spoke to our New York area members about their paths to sports, the current challenges they face, future trends in technology and what it takes to ‘break-in’ to the business of sports. From listening to their success stories, it is clear that each panelist has overcome familial pressures, stereotypes and competition to have thriving careers in the business of sports.

Our event brought together a wide array of South Asian sports professionals working in a diverse set of industries from; the media, the NBA, academia, startups, sports academies, and students. It was great to see some familiar faces and a lot of new members since our first event in March, 2017.

Check out the full event including photos here.
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Neha Uberoi

Cofounder and CEO, South Asians in Sports

NFLNBAEvents

SAIS x NFL Diwali Event

On Thursday, November 12th, 2020, South Asians in Sports partnered with the NFL APEX to co-host an event in recognition of Diwali and South Asians' contributions to sports.

Over 130 South Asians in sports attended the Zoom event, which featured Sonia Raman, the first-ever Indian-American female NBA coach and assistant coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, Olympian and professional tennis player Rajeev Ram, and WWE professional wrestler and former pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates Rinku Singh. The panel was moderated by Iwao Fusillo, SVP and Head of Data and Analytics at the NFL, and Neha Uberoi Khangoora, former professional tennis player and co-founder & CEO of South Asians in Sports (SAIS).

The co-sponsors of the event were SAIS, NBA, MLB, and NFL. The panelists discussed their experiences with an unorthodox career path, being one of the few or only South Asians in their sport, facing racism and personal doubts about being in the industry, using the South Asian identity to their advantage, and how they are leading more South Asians to enter the sports industry.

You can check out the recording of the event here: https://youtu.be/amzz26XVEy8
Neha Uberoi headshot

Neha Uberoi

Cofounder and CEO, South Asians in Sports

Events

Chicago 2017 Event Recap

On September 21st South Asians in Sports hosted a panel discussion and networking night for the South Asian sports professional community in Chicago, IL. Our panel of industry leaders: Pooja Van Dyke, Ram Padmanabhan, Rashid Ghazi, Sahadev Sharma, Vinay Mullick and moderator Payal Patel spoke about their paths to sports, current challenges and future trends in their companies and what it takes to ‘break-in’ to the business of sports. They also shared some amusing anecdotes about working in sports as a South Asian minority.

It was inspiring to see such accomplished professionals as well as athletes, recent grads and students come together to network in Chicago. We can’t wait to be back in Chicago for another event and to see the community grow even bigger!

See more about our event and some photos here.
Neha Uberoi headshot

Neha Uberoi

Cofounder and CEO, South Asians in Sports

Events

The Future of Sports Event Recap

This past Thursday, March 16th 2017 SAinSports hosted our first event, The Future of Sports, and it was huge success! We enjoyed an insightful panel discussion from four members: Priya Desai, a digital correspondent for Sports Illustrated and one of America’s first Indian-American sports broadcasters, Hrishi Karthikeyan, the Senior Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs at the NBA, Ishveen Anand, co-founder and CEO of OpenSponsorship and Akash Jain, the Vice President of International and Commercial Development at the NFL. The panel was moderated by a very humorous, Rohan Nadkarni, staff writer for Sports Illustrated.

The discussion covered a variety of topics from what it’s like to be South Asian in the sports industry, diversity in sports, hurdles women are facing, career advice for student attendees, politics, digital consumption trends, working in South Asia and how the NBA and NFL are adapting to international markets. Attendees also had a chance to ask the panelists questions, network and mingle.

To see all the photos from the event, click here.

SAinSports will be hosting and participating in a few more events this year and we will be keeping you posted right here.
Neha Uberoi headshot

Neha Uberoi

Cofounder and CEO, South Asians in Sports