10/15, Wednesday.
Seattle Business School's Sport and Entertainment Program (wow, didn't think there's such an academic program) hosted Chris DeAppolonio, CEO of Evil Geniuses, for a discussion on Where Esports meet Business.
It's interesting for me, because I know nothing about the gaming industry, let alone multiplayer video game competition, which apparently is very popular.
Seems most of the competitions in US are in L.A. (more popular in Asia).
I'm not sure why, since these are online. Maybe due to regulation?
One advantage of esport is that it's easier to organize, can be scoped to one community.
Income is from sponsorship and ads.
Accoridng to one audience member who asked a question, seems a significant veteran participate esport within the veteran community. It helps to treat (maybe only mitigate) post traumatic disorder.
10/17, Friday, another "Founder Fridays" event at Seattle Univ. I really like this series: real local enterpreneurs talk about their experience.
This afternoon features Tom Thomas, CEO of Votegrity. I was late, so only heard Q&A. Seems so far, only adopted by HOA-like small organizations. The users have much higher participation rate, cheaper to run, minimizes paper/mailing waste and other overhead. Hope platforms like this can be adopted by wider organizations.
10/29, Wednesday. Business School's Executive Speaker Series features Dan Wall, CEO of Expeditors. Dan has worked in every part of the organization, started from 0. Be humble, visits each office every few years. Talks to employees and their work. He emphasizes work ethic, emphasizes that he cares about the company and his people. He also started a training program for "undesirable youth", and then hire some of its graduates. In the era of high tech, this is very rare. He seems very genuine. I like the guy.
