Networking a focus at Sports Business Expo

On Saturday, Buffy Filippell, president of TeamWork Consulting and a former tennis player, told the Carolina Sport Business & Fitness Expo how athletic skills can easily translate to the business world.

“You want to win the game,” Filippell said. “Use all the athletic skills you learned and use them for the next part of your journey.”

The Carolina Sport Business Club hosted the third annual expo at the Blue Zone in Kenan Stadium.

This year, Filippell and Shamaree Brown, director of student-athlete programs and compliance for the ACC, were invited to speak.

“Buffy is super dynamic as far as people she knows in the sports world. Barely anyone compares to her as far as connections go,” CSFE President Christopher Donaldson said.

The speakers talked about their entrepreneurial experiences and the lessons they learned while working with professionals in the field. Both Brown and Filippell stressed the power of networking.

“It’s all about making sure you have people to speak up for you when new jobs come up,” Brown said.

Donaldson said the event started in 2013 as a way to introduce students to the world of sports business and allow students to make connections with different professionals in the field.

“There were a lot of career fairs on campus but there was a trend that we noticed that sports and fitness groups were highly underrepresented,” Donaldson said. “There wasn’t a good ‘in’ or expo that was available to students who wanted to get into the sports industry. Carolina being such a big sports school, we kind of saw that as a great place to start an event like this.”

Now in its third year, the expo is still working to adapt to students’ needs.

“It’s still changing. This year we added the (auction) as just another thing people can check out. We had two keynote speakers this year instead of just one, so we are getting to hear more from some of the high-level people of the field,” Donaldson said.

First-year Rachel Brittain said the event was informative and helped her meet like-minded people.

“I was interested in a career in the sports and business industry and it looked like a great opportunity to network and get involved and meet other students in Carolina that were interested in the same things that I was,” Brittain said.

“The speakers all bring something new and interesting to the industry and I think it is really cool to hear the different sides of the different jobs and all the opportunities there are for people out there.”

In her speech, Filippell provided motivation and advice for students entering the profession.

“If you tell me what you want that doesn’t tell me what you bring to the table,” she said. “Tell me what you deserve.”

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