Sports
Leadership Discussion: Sports and Social Media15 Oct
Sports and Social Media – Roundtable discussion with Anthony Caponiti.
Tonight’s guest conversation is with Anthony Caponiti and was interviewed by Donald Ball. Anthony is a passionate entrepreneur who seeks to combine his life-long love and knowledge of sports with social media and web technology. The focus of the Leadership Discussion is how the new media space is impacting athletes and how social media can be used to spotlight and brand them.
As a Partner at Activ8Social, he works with professional athletes, entertainers, teams, and Fortune 500 brands, assisting each client in understanding niche audiences and consumer behavior across the Internet. His company Activ8Social engages consumers and inspires word-of-mouth communication through Social Media Marketing, Blogger / Influencer Outreach, Digital Publicity, and Social Network Property Management services. Alongside Activ8Social, Anthony founded StarBurbs, Inc. which focuses on developing platforms and applications that help facilitate an authentic conversation between a digital brand and its fans/consumers. StarBurbs first product is currently under development aiming to launch before the end of the year.
Prior to his entrepreneurial journey, Anthony worked for two years as a Strategy & Change Consultant for IBM’s Global Business Services. Anthony has a BBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, GA with a concentration on venture management consulting, business law, and communications. Anthony is also an avid student of entrepreneurial leadership.
Anthony’s companies and blog:
http://www.starburbs.com/login/
Please login for the full interview.
Leadership
Thank you to Summit Attendees13 Oct
Thank you for all who attended the Catalyst Summit on October 3, 2009 at Georgetown University.
To view the recorded presentation from the Catalyst Summit visit: Catalyst Summit Videos.
We are actively planning our next summit and would like to hear what you personally got from the event and how you will be applying the shared knowledge to advance your personal and professional life.
All comments and feedback can be sent to info@globalcatalystgroup.com
Interviews
Member Spotlight: Stephen McMullin13 Oct
Stephen McMullin and Srujan Linga at Yankee Stadium
Fortune Favors the Bold.
In this member spotlight, Stephen McMullin, Founding Member of the Global Catalyst Group shares his stories of earning acceptance into Georgetown University and his resiliency through the arduous hiring process of Goldman Sachs. Stephen’s reflection shows us that through tenacity and perseverance, goals can be attained and ambitions quenched.
Stephen also shares his insight into how Rugby taught him to “leave it all on the field” and to pursue a “common sense of teamwork and resiliency.” Through rugby, he acquired attributes that have been applicable to both his personal and professional life; most notably “playing smart as well as hard.” Stephen says that “everyday I try to make the smartest decisions I can, to be as productive as I can, and to rely on my team to fill in the holes that I cannot fill.”
Finally, Stephen reflects on simple human limitations with a wise and unique account of the success and failures of Wall Street. He speaks of the fearful reality that no one particular person is omnipotent and that life is full of unknowable variables. However, Stephen contends that this reality, when viewed from the proper perspective, can be the source of an overwhelming sense of empowerment. Stephen’s states that we “all have an opportunity to set the agenda, to define the world around ourselves, and to engage others to join us in our respective visions for the future.”
Sports
Catalyst Conversation: Winning the Olympics…is it worth it?12 Oct
Catalyst Conversation: Winning the Olympics…and is winning worth it?
On October 2, the IOC will announce which city – Chicago, Madrid, Rio, or Tokyo – will be the host of the 2016 Summer Olympic games. Naming a host city occurs 7 years before a games event is to occur, but bidding cities begin their proposals, fundraising, and recruitment of support for several years before the bids are awarded. Emile Chin-Dickey and Andrew Verstain lead a GCG discussion around how hosting the Olympic games, whether summer or winter, is a big endeavor, which easily translates into big money-and big controversy.
Big Money:
Hosting and bidding on a two-week olympic games event isn’t cheap. For instance, Athens spent $15B and China spent over $40B on their respective games towards infrastructure and event facilities. Even bidding for games comes at a price too (much of the bidding money is raised privately): London spent $25M on its successful 2012 bid; Chicago has spent $75M to date on its 2016 bid.
Whether these expenditures are worthwhile largely depend on how advanced a city’s infrastructure is and how big it is relative to it and its country’s economy.
Controversy:
Hosting an Olympics is not necessarily all the glitz that a Beijing Opening Ceremony may have you believe. Here just a few of the controversies:
This discussion was a thoughtful debate over the reasons a city should or should not pursue the hosting of an olympics.
The roundtable included answering:
- What does the Olympics stand for, and does it still have a point?
- Who stands to benefit the most from the olympics?
- Should Chicago want the Olympics?
- Do developing countries stand to gain more from hosting games over developed countries?
- Can social media further the objectives of the Olympic movement? “Another example of social media and the Olympics is from computer manufacturer Lenovo, which has created blogs for about 100 Olympics athletes.”
- Should Obama take time off from the Health Care debate to go to Copenhagen to appeal to the IOC? This sportswriter thinks the olympics in Chicago can have a bigger impact on health care than the bills currently being debated
Leadership
Catalyst Summit Recorded Presentations09 Oct
Catalyst Summit: Issues and Opportunities in a Dynamic and Ever-Changing World
Session One:
Presenters:
Megan Yonke: Creating Entrepreneurial Communities
Liam Cleaver: Transforming Our Workplace: Enabling Collaboration in Complex Organizations
Session Two:
Presenters:
Brad Hargreaves: How the changing venture landscape is revolutionizing collaboration in startups.
Elizabeth Nugent: The Failure of Iran’s ‘Twitter Revolution’: New Media and the Iranian Election
Brett Staron: From Kalamazoo to Kinshasa: The Future of Interconnectivity and Economic Development at Home and Abroad
Interviews
Member Spotlight: Donald Ball10 Sep
“Dream big and take risks.”
In this Catalyst Spotlight, Don reminiscences about his study and travel to Hong Kong. For Don, this was an experience of a lifetime and one that was a game-changer. During this talk, Don sets the stage for group members to connect and converse about their experiences. Don articulates a key theme that inspires his listeners to, as Don states, “dream big and take risks”.
While in China, Don finds that relationships are forged during new and challenging circumstances; his experience in China and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong creates deep and meaningful relationships with his colleagues, including GCG founding members, Stephen McMullin and Justin Tsang.
Don has been shaped and influenced by his experience in China by witnessing firsthand, the miracle in Asia and corresponding economic boom. Traveling gave Don an opportunity to not only share his story with his colleagues, but also to build a new and exciting story with them.
Listen to the podcast here:
Leadership
Presents:
Summit: Opportunities in a Dynamic World05 Sep
Global Catalyst Group in partnership with Georgetown Entrepreneurial Organization
Presents:
The Catalyst Summit:
Issues and opportunities in a dynamic and ever-changing world
DATE: October 3, 2009
TIME: 8:30 AM- 12:30PM
LOCATION: Georgetown University
Free for Students, Non-Members and GCG Members
Join us for a half-day Catalyst Summit that explores the opportunities that exist in a dynamic and ever-changing world.
Creating Entrepreneurial Communities: How do we utilize entrepreneurship to promote economic development in deteriorating communities?
Due to recent economic downturn, municipal government revenues have declined in parallel. Given an inability to provide traditional local stimulus programs, community leaders are exploring alternative economic development models based on endogenous entrepreneurship. Frameworks that have been developed range from subsidies for anchor companies to create a local multiplier effect, partnerships with research educational institutions to encourage high-tech spin-offs, and local “enterprise facilitators” to formulate strategic partnerships amongst community members. This presentation will focus on practical examples of various community economic development models and facilitate discussion on the pros and cons of each model. Participants will be encouraged to discuss the applicability of these models to other community examples in the United States and internationally.
About the Presenter:
Ms. Megan Yonke is a Global Catalyst Group member and currently works at a consultant at a Fortune 100 consulting firm as a Federal Government Consultant in Arlington, VA.. She graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and Economics. Her researched has focused on international community economic development topics, ranging from the role of entrepreneurship in emerging industries to the impacts of foreign direct investment and trade. She has worked extensively with Michigan State Government officials, as well as local governments and civic associations.
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How the changing venture landscape is revolutionizing collaboration in startups.
Venture capital as it has been known for the past forty years is dying — and it’s being replaced with a new and distinctly different financing model which will have profound impact on the way young companies are run, raising questions such as: How should an entrepreneur with an idea today go about starting their business? How will founders and employees collaborate within companies? How will strategic partnerships between young companies look in 10 years?
About the Presenter:
Brad Hargreaves a Global Catalyst Group member and is a leading innovator in the casual gaming world. Currently, he is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of PickTeams, the creators of the GoCrossOffice teambuilding program and GoCrossCampus gaming network. Since founding PickTeams in 2007, Brad has been featured in the New York Times, MTV News, Sports Illustrated and CBS News, where he was recognized as a creator of some of the most popular and fastest-growing games for 18-24 year olds. Prior to founding PickTeams, Brad attended Yale, where he helped create Yale’s first university-run entrepreneurship initiative.
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From Kalamazoo to Kinshasa: The Future of Interconnectivity and Economic Development at Home and Abroad
The concept of the network is as old as the dismal science itself yet has been one of the key — and often overlooked — drivers of economic prosperity ever since its inception. With the creation of a smaller, flatter planet thanks to the Internet, mobile technology, and other means of collaboration that are as widespread as ever, both small and large communities around the world stand at the brink of an unprecedented spiderweb of “clusters” that give way to novel and lucrative competitive advantages, as well as economic advance for those communities well-positioned enough to exploit them. This discussion will explore these connections, how communities of all shapes and sizes have leveraged unique local, national, and international networks, and the brave new world created by this concept of economic development.
About the Presenter:
Brett Staron is a Global Catalyst Group member and is a consultant at a Fortune 100 consulting firm in Washington, DC. He graduated with High Honors from Michigan State University in 2008 with dual bachelor degrees in International Relations and Economics, with a specialization in Political Economy. Brett has led and conducted several research projects with a focus on higher education, family structure, and political systems and their influence on the standard of living in both industrial and developing economies.
The Catalyst Summit is FREE to Students, Non-Members and GCG Members thanks to our sponsors, Global Catalyst Group and Georgetown Entrepreneurial Organization but registration is required.
Tech
Catalyst Conversations: Andrew Verstein and the Future of Technology27 Aug
In a recent Catalyst Conversation, Andrew Verstein offered interesting insight into the evolution of the web and what is next. Andrew shares with us his idea of Twitter-Fritter and the developmental theory of technology. Will people abandon existing technology for the newer cutting-edge work? Or, are the early adopters learning new tools while others are mastering other types of technology? The fax machine is and will remain a part of our culture. There are people who communicate very well via a fax machine and others who can communicate effectively via Twitter or IM. The key is to build the platform and enable technically comfortable people to better cooperate with their non-tech peers.
Economy
The State of the Global Economy: Cheap Credit and the Housing Market09 Aug
The State of the Global Economy: Cheap Credit and the Housing Market
Prepared by: Stephen McMullin and Srujan Linga
The Global Catalyst Group examines the relationship between cheap credit and the housing market. Further, GCG discusses the implications of a post-cheap credit society in the United States.
Questions include:
- How important is the health of the housing market?
- How important is the velocity of money (The ability for easy lending/spending)?
- What will the changes in the economic landscape do to the political landscape?
The following materials were discussed to support our conversation:
The 2009 Outlook: Nouriel Roubini (NY Stern School of Business)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51SxmcaKJIw
Libertarians: A third party? *Please excuse the political undertones (feel free to skip the last 1min and 30 seconds)
