Major League Baseball’s fantasy jobs and partnership opportunities are now within reach for attendees of the first-ever MLB Diversity Business Summit to be held in Chicago on Tuesday, July 24 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place.
All 30 clubs will participate in this unprecedented all-day employment and procurement summit that gives job seekers and entrepreneurs unparalleled access to executives from MLB’s central office, MLB network, MLB Advanced Media and Minor League Baseball Clubs.
Wendy Lewis, senior vice president, diversity and strategic alliances for MLB, met with black and Hispanic media outlets in Chicago on May 30 to raise awareness about the summit. Lewis said that she is looking forward to welcoming students, professionals and entrepreneurs who will attend the event.
“This is the first time for anything like this — a combined job fair and trade fair for contracts for goods and services; employment and procurement will happen,” Lewis said. “Also, you will have a deeper understanding of baseball, licensing and sponsorship. As a [job] candidate who can talk the talk and have that level of conversation, this can make a huge difference in your opportunity.”
When attendees register online they can include key information about their job experience or about their company. Lewis added that registrants will have an option of seeking a matchmaker, a person who is best suited to do business with them, and that’s ideal on the supplier diversity side.
Attendees will be on the trade floor to network individually with MLB executives. Beyond MLB executives, representatives from CISCO, Dell, and Google will be on-hand with the MLB Chief Information Officer to discuss how technology has impacted tickets and fan engagement.
MLB and the Chicago White Sox will co-host the event that has the full support of baseball commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig: “… We hope that everyone involved will benefit from the direct interaction afforded by this inaugural event,” he said in a statement. Selig will give the keynote address.
After the event, attendees will board a shuttle bus and watch a baseball game in a prime seating area.
Major League Baseball has raised the bar for diversity with this initiative and Wendy Lewis is too proud for words. She has a goal of at least 1,000 attendees, 500 job seekers and 500 entrepreneurs that are ready to do business with the MLB. “If you build it, they will come,” Lewis quipped.
“The reality is that the blueprint has been out there for a long time. We’ve gone from looking at our success in compliance-driven headcounts and counting dollars … we wanted more enhancement, and we started talking about engagement,” Lewis explained. “The MLB Diversity Business Summit is the catalyst for diversity economic impact engagement and takes the focus off analytics and is more strategic. This is the ultimate engagement.”
Meals are included in the early bird registration price of $99 for job seekers and $199 for entrepreneurs. The early bird rate ends on June 15, visit MLB.com/diversitysummit for details and to register.
