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On this lovely evening of Friday, the 13th (don’t worry, nothing happened), we had the pleasure of hearing Tim Lister from NASCAR speak as part of an incredible evening. I happen to not know very much about NASCAR, which is why I payed extra close attention to Tim. One thing I’ve learned from our speaker series thus far is that you must try to know everything: know your co-workers, research people who you’re interviewing with, get to know a potential client, and understand a potential markets. I wanted to know more about NASCAR, and I was definitely blown away.
Tim is a Senior Manager of Business Development with NASCAR, where he brings in new corporate sponsorship partners. Corporate sponsorship is definitely an area of the business in which I’m interested, so I was extremely captivated hearing about the ins and outs of that aspect. The neat thing about NASCAR is that its sponsors basically fuel the entire system, being very visible all around the sport. Tim had an amazing presentation for us that really brought it all together and made me think, “no wonder this is the most popular sport in America!”
The number of Fortune 500 companies mentioned in this presentation absolutely astounded me. Everyone wants a piece of the NASCAR bar mark, a team, a driver or a track. Because of all this visibility, and the fact that NASCAR has about 1,200 races a year worldwide, there was no doubt in my mind that NASCAR is a dominant entity in the industry. I am officially a huge fan of the sport and the business, and on behalf of the whole MSBA family, I want to thank Tim Lister for educating us.