New leagues and sports properties are being built with different assumptions about media, capital, and fan engagement. This session examines what it takes to launch and scale a league in today's fragmented attention economy. It also explores how governance, ownership, and global strategy are evolving in modern sports.

In Partnership with the American Cancer Society: Athletes and leagues are increasingly functioning as public health platforms, with the ability to influence awareness, behavior, and funding at scale. This session examines how partnerships between leagues, teams, and nonprofits translate into measurable outcomes rather than symbolic campaigns. It also explores how authenticity, storytelling, and community engagement drive sustained impact.

Capital is beginning to flow into segments of the sports economy that were long overlooked—from women's leagues and emerging media platforms to technology shaping how fans engage with athletes and teams. This session explores where investors see the greatest opportunity in sports today, why women's sports are emerging as one of the most compelling growth markets, and how shifts in media, data, and athlete economics are creating entirely new categories of investment.

20-minute networking break for attendees to connect.

Athletes live publicly by design—social media presence, brand deals, travel schedules, and business partnerships are all part of the job. But that same visibility creates a detailed digital attack surface that sophisticated threat actors actively exploit. This session examines why athletes require a fundamentally different cybersecurity posture than the average executive, and what personal digital protection looks like when your identity is your most valuable asset.

For decades, college athletic departments have run on a simple equation: boosters and donors fund the program, ticket sales and media rights fill the gap. That model is breaking. The House settlement, revenue sharing, and the maturation of NIL have transformed athletic departments from programs into businesses—and the ones that adapt fastest will define the next era of college sports. In this fireside, Nick Lord, founder and CEO of Nocap Sports, breaks down what it actually takes to restructure an athletic department for sustainability—from rethinking revenue models, to operating like an enterprise, to navigating the biggest financial shift the industry has ever faced.

For decades, women's sports have been treated as a niche—under-covered, under-distributed, and under-monetized by a media industry built around men's leagues. That's changing fast. Record viewership, surging investment, and a new generation of athlete-led brands have made women's sports one of the most compelling growth stories in sports—but the media infrastructure to serve it doesn't yet exist. In this fireside, Allyson Davis, founder of Allez! Sports, breaks down what it takes to build a media company purpose-built for women's sports, why legacy playbooks fall short, and where the real commercial opportunity sits for operators, investors, and athletes ready to move first.

Elite athletic performance is built on systems—discipline, repetition, and data-driven improvement—that increasingly map to business leadership. This session explores how those systems translate into executive decision-making, team building, and resilience under pressure. It also examines how former athletes are redefining leadership frameworks across industries.

Athletes are increasingly building companies while still competing, compressing what used to be a post-career transition into real time. This session explores how mindset, discipline, and brand equity translate into early-stage execution and company-building. It also examines how players are redefining risk, balancing performance windows with long-term ownership bets.

Josh Kampel, CEO of Worth, moderates a conversation on the expanding optionality available to today's athletes—from launching companies and investing in startups to partnering with founders building in their space. Robert Smith (NFL Vet, Fan Huddle) and Gary Forbes (NBA Vet, Sole Survivors) share how athletes are turning short careers into generational wealth.

Founders pitch their companies to the room in a fast-format showcase.