Sea Dogs Case Study Presentations

After being in the United States for just over a week our Global Entrepreneurs here in Portland, Maine are already baseball experts. They've toured the local stadium (Hadlock Field), attended a Sea Dogs game, watched Moneyball, learned to play baseball, and a few have even purchased their own balls and bats! And as of Tuesday they can all say that they have presented marketing ideas to a Minor League baseball team too.

After a couple of days of hard work and long hours they presented their research and recommendations to the Portland Sea Dogs staff. With recommendations focusing on events, tickets, and promotions each team had a different approach to the problem and to the task. Teams presented ideas for novel theme nights, ticket packages for friends, and revamped social media feeds in an attempt to attract more millennials to Sea Dogs games. Unlike projects done in the past at school, the problem presented to them by Sea Dogs managment wasn't hypothetical and the research collected will make a difference for this local team. Being able to see how their research and recommendations will have an impact on a real world business was eye opening and encouraged students to do their very best work - even giving up some free time activities to work on their presentations!

Prior to moving forward and beginning their final project each student reflected on the experience with the Sea Dogs project, hoping to find the nuggets of wisdom that will help them succeed in their pitch competition with their new teams. Key takeaways included:

• Have a clear, defined objective from the start
• Communication is key, especially in groups of 10!
• Be organized from the start, know who is doing what part
• While groups of 10 can be difficult to work in, they’re more fun if everyone is involved equally! And then the end result is better too
• Teamwork does indeed make the dream work

Our teams have started brainstorming potential business ideas for the final presentation in just over a week and we're excited to see what they all come up with!