Marketing Summit to Focus on New Fans

Edited press release

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Marketing Summit, to be held Sept. 21-23 at Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa in Las Vegas, will feature a special 90-minute session on Sept. 22 called "Reaching a New Generation". The workshop will be moderated by John Della Volpe, founder and president of SocialSphere Strategies and director of polling at Harvard's Institute of Politics, and will focus on tactical strategies that racing can employ today to engage and retain new fans.

Joining Della Volpe in his presentation will be five members of a newly created NTRA online marketing task force: Dana Byerly, 42, from New York City; Jessica Chapel, 34, from Brooklyn, N.Y.; Patrick Patten, 30, from Matawan, N.J.; Troy Racki, 26 from Loma Linda, Calif.; and Kevin Stafford, 30 from Hanover, Penn. All are active bloggers, handicappers and online contributors.

"The presentation will be a living, breathing Web 2.0 collaboration with some of racing's best fans," said Della Volpe.  "We have scoured the Internet for racing's most ardent supporters, then we created an online community and gave them an assignment: Develop a plan to market the sport to a new generation of fans. Over the course of about six weeks, the group will be spending dozens of hours meeting, debating, and challenging each other's assumptions -- the results of which they will present to the industry at the NTRA Marketing Summit."

The three-day conference will also include a Monday, Sept. 22, luncheon speech and Q&A session with NTRA President and CEO Alex Waldrop; a Tuesday roundtable presentation by the NTRA's Horseplayers' Coalition; and updates on several NTRA programs and initiatives, including advertising and marketing, the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship, the NHC Tour, legislative/regulatory issues, promotions, television, public relations and NTRA Advantage.

The Summit will begin with a private handicapping tournament for attendees on Sunday, Sept. 21. Following a full day of sessions on Monday, the Summit will conclude with a half-day session on Tuesday. 

"We look forward to a lively and provocative gathering sure to provide many timely and relevant strategies for the year ahead," said Keith Chamblin, senior vice president-communications and industry relations for the NTRA.

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