20A - Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert- Finding a domain expert for the business activity I am trying to do is nearly impossible to get in contact with. Jason Licht is the general manager of the Buccaneers which is what I would like to do. Despite trying to make contact with him, he was unavailable. Having the opportunity to speak with him would be amazing and very helpful for me down the line.

Market Expert- The market expert is a woman who works for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their marketing department. She attended FSU as a business administration student whose goal was to work for the Buccaneers. My mother worked with this woman in the past when she worked at her old company. Last year, I interviewed her for my sports management class and she gave me a tour of the Buccaneers facility. She introduced me to different people in the organization and told me how to go about applying to be an intern.

Industry Supplier- The industry supplier I talked to was a distributor for Coca-Cola who sells all of the Coke beverages to Raymond James Stadium. He was an industrial systems engineer out of college and worked his way up in the company to work with the Buccaneers organization. He was also a previous associate of my mother when she worked at her company located across from the stadium. He discussed his job title and the roles he has to fulfill to get their products throughout Raymond James Stadium. This is a valuable connection because if I can;t work for the Bucs, maybe one day I can work with the Bucs for another company.

Reflection: This experience makes me more confident in participating in future networking events as I am more comfortable talking with professionals. This experience was much easier than previous experiences because I wasn't as nervous talking to them.