A little more than a decade ago, Las Vegas was nothing more than a bit player on the national and international sports scene. Aside from the occasional world championship prize fight or MMA event, the city was the sports equivalent of a benchwarmer.
Now? Las Vegas has firmly established itself as a bona fide superstar on the great sports landscape. And as the chief operating officer of UNLV Sports Innovation Institute, Jay Vickers has had a front-row seat to this recent — and rapid — transformation.
From that seat, though, Vickers began to recognize that even as the sports boom was occurring, the city was missing out on an opportunity to capitalize on it in a different but equally important — not to mention very Vegas-specific — way. The idea: Gather together some of the preeminent leaders and educators in the sports and entertainment industry for three days of education, collaboration, and networking, all in a convention-like setting. And if there’s some dealmaking, too? Well, that’s what often happens when you get industry leaders in a room together.
Thus was the seedling that sprouted SEICon, the Sports, Entertainment, and Innovation Conference that has been taking place this week in the shadows of UNLV’s campus at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
The inaugural event, which kicked off Monday and concludes Wednesday, is a joint partnership between the UNLV Sports Innovation Institute and Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport & Human Dynamics, as well as the Las Vegas-based guest experience company Circle.
“Part of our vision is to be a hub for all sports-related research, innovation, and entertainment,” Vickers says of UNLV’s Sports Innovation Institute, for which he has served in a leadership capacity since it launched as an initiative in 2018. “To do that, it doesn’t just take what we do here in our city; it also takes influencing others to want to work with us.”
SEICon was conceived during a late spring 2021 meeting with Lawrence Epstein, executive vice president and COO of the Las Vegas-based UFC. Vickers had approached Epstein about the UFC hosting the institute’s sports research summit. Epstein quickly agreed to do so, but during the course of conversation he suggested that Vickers consider organizing a different type of conference — one that traded panel discussions around a topic for a broader, more omnichannel approach.
Vickers says he took that suggestion as “marching orders” and spent the next three years developing relationships with Syracuse’s Falk School of Sport and with Circle (whose CEO, Shawn Garrity, is a Syracuse alum). From there, the team secured USA Today Sports as a presenting sponsor and struck sponsorship deals with everyone from the Las Vegas Raiders and UFC to the City of Las Vegas and Caesars Entertainment.
More than three years of planning culminated with this week’s inaugural SEICon, which featured nearly 200 guest speakers overseeing 44 panel discussions and keynote addresses.
Among the panelists were several UNLV faculty members; executives from the UNLV International Gaming Institute, UNLV International Center for Gaming Regulation, UNLV Department of Economic Development, and alumni from both the university at-large and its William S. Boyd School of Law.
“With SEICon, we’ve created a platform for like-minded individuals within the entire sports, entertainment and innovation ecosystem,” Vickers says. “We’ve presented them with an opportunity to be educated by and collaborate with the world’s thought leaders in this industry — with the hope that this [eventually] will equal dealmaking.”
Another of SEICon’s unique elements: Dozens of UNLV and Syracuse students were among the more than 700 attendees. Also, interns from both schools got hands-on experience helping to produce the conference.
“Students attending SEICon are gaining exposure to what the sports and entertainment ecosystem is all about as they begin to ponder their career choices,” Vickers says. “At the same time, our interns are learning what it takes to put together a large-scale event.”
Similar opportunities will await students next summer, as SEIcon was created to be an annual affair. Smaller, more focused conferences are slated for New York in October, Washington D.C. and London in spring 2025, and the Middle East in 2026.
As for the flagship event, Vickers says it’s all about exposing the world to the new reality that the Entertainment Capital of the World is now a mecca for sports, too. And UNLV is front and center, aligning its education and research programs with the city’s economic drivers and emerging markets.
“What we’re doing is planting a flag here in Las Vegas and saying, ‘We have so much more [to offer] than you think,’” Vickers says. “So don’t just come to Vegas because you want to do gaming and hospitality. Come to Vegas because you also want to be educated in all things related to sports and entertainment. Because guess what? We’re not just the Sports and Entertainment Capital of the World, we’re the intellectual Sports and Entertainment Capital of the World.”
About the UNLV Sports Innovation Institute
The UNLV Sports Innovation Institute is focused around years of academic research, product testing and development, and collaboration between faculty, industry executives, organizations, and entrepreneurs. The institute is dedicated to research in sports technology; the evolution and future of business in sports; and maximizing performance and achievement.
