I am SO excited to share this podcast episode, where I had the great pleasure and opportunity to speak with the CEO of Fanatics Events, Lance Fensterman.

Lance was the president and founder of ReedPOP, which helped produce some of the biggest conventions, such as New York Comic Con, Emerald City Comic Con, Complex Con, Star Wars Celebration and PAX. Since becoming CEO, Fanatics Events created WWE World at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, WWEW World at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, and the inaugural Fanatics Fest at the Javitz Convention Center last year.

Avid listeners of this podcast know that I like to go long form and go down rabbit holes and tangents, but for this one, we only had 20 minutes and so I did my absolute best not to do that this time!

However, in the beginning of the conversation, we learn that Lance is an avid Minnesota sports team fan, and we talk about how one of the differences he has noticed with attendees of Comic Cons and Fanatics Fest is the inherent tribalism that occurs within sports, which does not necessarily exist in the worlds of Pokemon, Star Wars, etc.

These 20 minutes just went by so quickly, but I had SO much fun with this one and I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Lance!