March 15 - 16, 2023 | Colorado Springs

SportsTravel Road Trip

THE EVENT

Organized by SportsTravel magazine and sponsored by Louisville Tourism and the Louisville Sports Commission, the SportsTravel Road Trip is a by-invitation-only networking and education event for chief executives and event directors of sports governing bodies.

AGENDA

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

5 p.m. — 6:30 p.m.

Networking Reception

Join your fellow SportsTravel Road Trip attendees for a networking reception and drinks on the second level of C.O.A.T.I. in downtown Colorado Springs.

C.O.A.T.I., 514 S. Tejon St., Colorado Springs

Thursday, March 16, 2023

8:45 a.m. — 9:15 a.m.

Networking Breakfast

Ed Robson Arena Concourse, 849 N. Tejon St., Colorado Springs

9:15 a.m. — 9:30 a.m.

Welcome to the SportsTravel Road Trip

Attendees will be welcomed by Jason Gewirtz of Northstar Meetings Group, and representatives of Louisville Tourism and the USOPC. First-time attendees and newcomers to the NGB community will have the opportunity to provide self introductions. An update on planning for the Olympic and Paralympic SportsLink and NGB Best Practices Seminars at TEAMS ’23 in The Palm Beaches will also be provided.

Ed Robson Arena Chapman Meeting Room

9:30 a.m. — 9:45 a.m.

U.S. Olympic Endowment Update

The United States Olympic Endowment is an investment endowment that provides grants to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee to support America’s athletes. The program allows USOPC member organizations to pool their endowment funds with the USOE, which acts solely as an agent for the investment of the USOPC member organization funds. In this update, hear from the endowment’s new executive vice president on opportunities that may be available for your organization.

Presenter: Alex Lugo, Executive Vice President, U.S. Olympic Endowment

Ed Robson Arena Chapman Meeting Room

9:45 a.m. — 10:30 a.m.

Fundraising Best Practices

Fundraising is a key component of any nonprofit organization, especially the national governing bodies of Olympic and Paralympic sports. In this session you will learn about the best practices that your NGB or sports organization can embrace to make sure you are maximizing fund development opportunities from your membership and outside supporters. Come with your questions on what your organization should be doing to start professionally fundraising, or if you already are, what your organization could be doing differently to take your fund development program to the next level.

Presenter: Patrick Sampson, Chief Executive Officer, Cogeo

Ed Robson Arena Chapman Meeting Room

10:30 a.m. — 10:45 a.m.

Networking Break

Ed Robson Arena Concourse

10:45 a.m. — 11:30 a.m.

The Collegiate/Olympic Connection

Never has the importance of a collegiate pipeline been more important to the Olympic and Paralympic movement. In this session, hear from the USOPC, university leaders and national governing body leaders on the latest issues affecting the collegiate landscape and how NGBs can work more closely with campus leaders to ensure programs not only maintain themselves but thrive in the future.

Presenters:
Sarah Wilhelmi, Senior Director of Collegiate Partnerships, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee
Tim Yount, Chief Sport Development Officer, USA Triathlon
Phil Andrews, Chief Executive Officer, USA Fencing
Justine Square, Assistant Athletics Director - Administration and Operations, Colorado College

Ed Robson Arena Chapman Meeting Room

11:30 a.m. — Noon

Optional Tours of Robson Arena

Robson Arena is the latest project to be funded by the Colorado Springs “City For Champions” program and is home to the Colorado College men’s Division I hockey team. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the venue and see firsthand the capabilities of the arena to host sports events of all kinds.

Ed Robson Arena

PRESENTERS

Phil Andrews

CEO, USA Fencing

Phil Andrews was named CEO of USA Fencing in July 2022. Before than he served as CEO of USA Weightlifting, where he transformed the sport’s governance and reputation, attracting record participation levels and sponsorship. There, he took on an interim leadership role of the IWF (International Weightlifting Federation) and PAWF (Pan American Weightlifting Federation) during crisis years. Born and raised in England before moving to the United States, Andrews has a global perspective and a vast array of experience in sport and business. He has worked in professional ice hockey for British Champions Coventry Blaze; the FTSE 250 student hospitality business Unite Group PLC; and David Lloyd Leisure.

Greg Fante

President and CEO, Louisville Sports Commission

Greg Fante has been a leader in the Louisville hospitality industry for nearly 40 years. He currently serves as the vice president of sports development for the Louisville Sports Commission where he has worked since 2007. Prior to that, Fante served as national sales manager and senior sales manager for Louisville Tourism. He has been an integral part of a team of professionals who have helped lead Louisville’s strategic planning, marketing and sales efforts for sports event attraction and creation for the region. Since the inception of the sports commission in 1999 he has helped attract and support more than 800 events that have generated nearly $1 billion in local economic benefits for the community. He started his career in the Louisville hotel industry before joining the convention bureau in 1999. In 2002, he helped co-found Team Kentucky, which is a statewide consortium of DMO’s focused on attracting inbound sporting events and activities across the Commonwealth. He has served on the board of directors for Louisville’s lodging association, Louisville's hotel sales association, the National Association of Sports Commissions and Team Kentucky.

Jason Gewirtz

Vice President, Sports Division, Northstar Meetings Group; Executive Editor and Publisher, SportsTravel

Jason Gewirtz is the vice president of the Sports Division of Northstar Meetings Group and the executive editor and publisher of SportsTravel. Gewirtz joined SportsTravel in 2008 as managing editor and has served a variety of roles since, overseeing editorial coverage of SportsTravel and content at the Sports Division’s events, including the TEAMS Conference & Expo and the EsportsTravel Summit. A veteran daily newspaper journalist and editor prior to joining SportsTravel, Gewirtz worked for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where he started as a city hall reporter and was promoted to executive city editor in charge of city and business coverage. He also worked as a reporter at the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado, and at the Broomfield Enterprise in Broomfield, Colorado. He is a member of the board of directors for the Sports Events & Tourism Association. Gewirtz graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has won numerous awards as both a writer and editor.

Gen Howard

Director of Sports Market Development, Louisville Tourism

Gen Howard is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and has over 20 years experience in the hospitality industry. She is currently the senior sports manager for Louisville Tourism and is responsible for leading the strategic sports initiative for the city and region. Howard works closely with the Louisville Sports Commission and together they have grown the sports tourism segment into the largest room-night generator and economic driver for the city. Howard attended Western Kentucky University and received a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in marketing and dance. She currently serves as a board member of Sports ETA and New Roots Inc, a nonprofit that fights food justice and insecurity in Louisville.

Alex Lugo

Executive Vice President, U.S. Olympic Endowment

Alex Lugo has over 17 years of financial experience. He has recently taken over running operations at the U.S. Olympic Endowment (soon to be renamed the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Endowment), and before that was the director of finance at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. He received his MBA from the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs and his undergrad in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, he serves as the board treasurer for COS I Love You and is a board member of the Springs Rescue Mission.

Patrick Sampson

President, Co-Founder, CEO, Cogeo

Patrick Sampson is the president, co-founder and CEO of Cogeo, a for-profit firm that specializes in organizational development and fundraising for 501c3 nonprofit organizations. From 2010–2012, he was a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with Sampson Investment Management. There he co-managed $60 million of client investments and was tasked with performing client financial planning services. In 2012, he co-founded Cogostar, an online crowdfunding and social media platform for individuals, companies, foundations and nonprofits to collaborate. In 2013, Cogostar pivoted into a more comprehensive consulting company and was rebranded Cogeo. Since its founding, the company has attracted individuals collectively with over 80 years of development (fundraising) industry experience, raising over $1 billion for more than 200 nonprofits globally. He is also the president and executive director of the Philanthropic Expansion Fund, which provides 501c3s more equitable access to capacity building services. An avid soccer player and fan, Sampson was a Division I soccer goalkeeper and team captain for Loyola Marymount University.

Justine Square

Assistant Athletics Director - Administration and Operations, Colorado College

Justine Square was named assistant athletics director for operations at Colorado College on August 5, 2021. Square came to CC from the Mountain West, where she was director of championships and served as the sport administrator for volleyball, cross country, track and field and men’s tennis. Square joined the Mountain West staff full-time in July 2019 as assistant director, administration. Prior to her tenure at the MW, she was the head girls basketball coach at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, and an event director with Triple Crown Sports.

Matt Traub

Managing Editor, SportsTravel

Matt Traub is the managing editor for SportsTravel, focusing on the magazine's content, digital and social media strategies. Before joining SportsTravel in 2019, he worked in sports departments at several newspapers across the United States, most recently as the assistant sports editor at the Salt Lake Tribune. Under his leadership, the organization grew digital audience around the region’s most-loved topics: the Olympics, the Utah Jazz and college football. He also was in charge of sports departments at newspapers in New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina that were repeatedly recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors as a Top 10 section nationally with coverage of everything from the Little League World Series to Southeastern Conference football.

Sarah Wilhelmi

Senior Director of Collegiate Partnerships, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee

Sarah Wilhelmi has served as the senior director of collegiate partnerships for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee since 2016. Wilhelmi oversees initiatives and strategies related to USOPC collaboration within the collegiate landscape and is charged with supporting and aligning mutual interests among core stakeholders including, but not limited to, national governing bodies, the NCAA and higher education (e.g., institutions, conferences, coaching associations). In 2020, she convened the USOPC College Sports Sustainability Think Tank, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, to identify solutions to help sustain Olympic and Paralympic varsity programming within college athletics. This work resulted in strategic partnerships with the NCAA and NGBs to pilot sport-specific customization efforts to ensure sport stability and growth. In 2017, Wilhelmi launched the USOPC Collegiate Advisory Council, to engage collegiate leaders in driving shared priorities to support Team USA student-athletes. Wilhelmi was previously the associate commissioner for governance and institutional services/senior woman administrator at the West Coast Conference. She also served as assistant director of compliance services at Stanford University and handled interpretations, investigations, eligibility and amateurism.

Tim Yount

Chief Sport Development Officer, USA Triathlon

Tim Yount is USA Triathlon’s chief sport development officer. USA Triathlon’s longest-tenured employee having celebrated his 32nd year with the organization in August 2022, Yount has managed or been engaged with nearly every major program within the organization since joining the national office staff in 1989 as an intern. He was named USA Triathlon’s first Chief Operating Officer in 2011, a position he held until the shift to Chief of Sport Development in 2019. Yount has managed, or helped manage, the U.S. delegation at more than 85 International Triathlon Union World Championships and served as Team Leader of the U.S. Olympic Team for triathlon’s debut at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney. He has played a lead role in numerous programs, including the push to create women’s triathlon as an NCAA sport, as well as the new structure for various USA Triathlon National Championship events. In his sport development role, Yount oversees USA Triathlon’s high school, collegiate club, and Age Group Team USA programs, and leads recruitment efforts for colleges and universities to add triathlon as a varsity sport as part of the NCAA’s Emerging Sport for Women program.

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