MVP Interactive Podcast

To kick-off our 2024 Live Podcast Series, Brandy Thigpen, Vice President, Events Marketing for City National Bank will join James Giglio, CEO and Founder of MVP Interactive. Brandy brings more than 20 years of experience in hospitality focusing on sports and entertainment. In her previous role as Director, Client Services for the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, Brandy specialized in managing logistics for conventions and mega sporting events like the 2017 NHL All-Star Game, 2022 Super Bowl, 2022 MLB All-Star Game, and much more. Brandy was also instrumental in the bid process for Los Angeles to secure the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Djorn Buchholz, Executive Director of the National Soccer Hall of Fame joined our podcast to discuss the latest in marketing, promotions, operations, communications, sponsorship, partnerships, and a whole lot more in US soccer.

Djorn Buchholz has spent the last 20+ years in upper management of professional soccer in all areas from marketing, operations, administration, communications, customer experience, promotions, sponsorship and partnerships, media relations, public relations, sales, general management, as well as CEO for the 2011 championship winning and 2012 runner-up North American Soccer League team, the Minnesota Stars FC/Minnesota United, Director of Fan Experience for the 2013 Major League Soccer Champions Sporting KC, President of Louisville City FC of the United Soccer Leagues, Chief Commercial Officer for the Austin Aztex of the USL, Venue Operations Manager for the 2016 Copa America Centenario at NRG Stadium in Houston, Venue Manager for 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Venue Manager for 2019 Gold Cup at NRG Stadium in Houston, Venue Manager for 2021 Gold Cup at AT&T Stadium and the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, as Owner/President of Djorn, S.O.S., a company which has provided emergency and traditional soccer operational needs to high-level matches and professional soccer clubs, and as Executive Director of the new National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Tune in, as Ryan Chenault, VP of Marketing for the Columbus Blue Jackets discusses all things fan experience, technology, and the launch of the Fan Zone with James Giglio, CEO, MVP Interactive.

Tyler Stewart, VP, Brand + Experience for Warner Bros. Discovery, Sports is a creative executive with a long history in the sports, entertainment & media industries. At WBD Sports, he oversees brand and experience for the WBD Sports portfolio of brands including the likes of Bleacher Report and House of Highlights. Some areas of focus include: brand marketing, experiential, merchandising & e-commerce, and Web3 Innovation among others.

Tune in as Christina Heller, CEO of Metastage share her insights on her the evolution of volumetric capture and where we are today. Metastage specializes in volumetric capture studio that creates high-fidelity 3D captures which can be integrated into holograms for AR, VR, and other interactive multimedia applications. Since its founding in 2018, Metastage has completed over 150 productions with major brands and award winning projects, including two Emmy nominations. Metastage is the first North American partner for the Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture technology. Prior to leading Metastage, Christina was the CEO of VR Playhouse, an immersive content company with immersive projects featured at SXSW, Sundance, and Festival de Cannes. She is a recipient of the Advanced Imaging Society's Distinguished Leadership in Technology Award and was named in the Huffington Post as one of 5 women changing the virtual reality scene. She is currently on the board of advisors for the Real Time Conference, University of Rochester, and the Television Academy's interactive Peer Group. Her writing and research on volumetric video has been published in the textbook, Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media (2019), and What is Augmented Reality? Everything You Wanted to Know Featuring Exclusive Interviews with Leaders of the AR Industry (2019).

Our MVP Interactive Podcast is back! Join CEO James Giglio on this month's podcast as he sits down with Tinus le Roux, founder and CEO of Fancam and CrowdIQ. A generalist, with an academic background in engineering and theology, Tinus has spent the past 10 years exploring ways in which technology can be used to better understand the composition and behavior of crowds.

When he's not grappling with pixels, product development or parenting he likes to disappear into wilderness areas in search of birds to add to his list of a 1000 species seen and photographed.

In this month's podcast, we host special guest Tracey Tague! Tracey is the Director of Business Development for Learfield IMG College, UCLA and Rose Bowl Sports Properties. She has extensive experience in the professional sports and entertainment industries, and has worked with companies such as Fox Sports, Mark Cuban Companies, Linkin Park, AT&T, and multiple sporting and entertainment organizations. Listen in to hear Tracey discuss her career in the business and sports industry, including how she ended up as the Director of Business Development for The Rose Bowl. She also discusses the impact of digital marketing and social media in the sports industry, and how it has changed over the years. Tune in now!

We hosted an all-star webinar this month featuring experts from CAA, Intel Sports, Satisfi Labs, SponsorUnited, and Zoomph. Check it out to learn best practices in AR and AI to increase consumer engagement.

MVP Interactive CEO James Giglio hosted Bobby Basham, Director of Player Development for the Chicago Cubs. Bobby has been a member of the Cubs front office since 2012. As Director of Player Development, he manages the Cubs Minor League System with a focus on internal innovation, business development, and technology exploration efforts for the baseball operations department. Prior to the Cubs, Bobby had both a seven-year minor league baseball career and worked in the healthcare industry as a product manager. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Richmond and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Bobby is a mentor for Stadia Ventures and has served on the Sports Innovation Lab’s Athlete Data Leadership Board, Northwestern University’s Center for Bio‐Integrated Electronics Sports Advisory Board, and USA Cricket’s High Performance and Pathways Committee, among others. He has been a speaker at various sports conferences, including SXSW.

MVP Interactive CEO James Giglio hosted SVP of International Projects, Dan Rutstein on this week's MVP Podcast. Dan Rutstein is SVP of International Projects at Orange County Soccer Club of the USL, the fastest second tier soccer league in the world. He is a former diplomat for the British Government, serving in Berlin and Los Angeles, and previously served as president of immersive technology company Laduma. In his first career, Dan was a journalist, working as a news and sports reporter for newspapers in England and Bermuda. He currently hosts three podcasts – United States of Dramerica, Screaming into the Hollywood Abyss and America the Beautiful Game.