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What Can Sports Teach Us About the Future of Business? · November 12, 2026

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What Can Sports Teach Us About the Future of Business?

Sports and big business have always been intertwined. But the way value is being created in the industry—and who gets to capture it—is changing.

Athletes have more ways to monetize their audiences, live experiences have more economic weight, and fan loyalty is attracting new forms of investment. None of these forces are new. What’s changing is their scale and convergence.

So, what can the rest of us learn as these forces evolve?

On November 12, Forum@535 brings leaders from sports, media, marketing, and business together to explore where these shifts could lead, and what they might mean for anyone competing for attention, loyalty, and value. The goal is to turn what’s happening in sports into ideas we can put to work well beyond it.

Sports Is Just The Starting Point

Connecticut has long had a front-row seat to the business of sports, helping shape how games are produced, distributed, marketed, and experienced. That makes it a fitting place to ask a bigger question: What can the forces reshaping sports tell us about where business is headed next?

Because the most interesting ideas coming out of sports may ultimately have very little to do with the game.

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Featured Speakers

Check back as we continue to add new voices.

Carol Stiff

Founder/President, Stiff Sports Media Consulting

Amanda Rodgerson Devitt

Associate Vice President for Athletics and Recreation, University of Saint Joseph

André Swanston

Co-Owner, CT United FC

Bob Lynch

Founder & CEO, SponsorUnited

Christopher Salem

CEO & Co-Founder, EFA Movement

Freddie Vargas

CEO, Tater Baseball

Gordon Hay

Co-Founder, ALINE Systems

John Roe

Founder, Chairman, President, SportsBug

Norris Scott

Vice President, Global Sponsorship Sales & Player Marketing, Major League Baseball Players Association

Steve Wasik

CEO, VKTRY Gear

George Stella

Founder & CEO, BIGtoken

Brought to Life By

The leaders who made this event possible

Bryn Tindall

CEO & Owner, Rebellion Group

Nick Duda

Founder, Rootline Advisory

Cindy Cornell

Vistage Chair, 
Vistage Worldwide, Inc

Guy Ragault

CEO at Northern Lakes Sales Leadership, Sandler by Northern Lakes

Kris Kaplan

Partner/Sr. Consultant, Crews & co.

Neill Sachdev

Partner, Sachdev 
Real Estate Development

Eric Lopez

Chief Executive Officer, Arrowhead Leadership Consulting LLC