ISM intent on being world research leader

BY SCOTT HADDOW

Laurentian University has given the green light to the Institute for Sport Marketing (ISM), and it's full steam ahead for the new research centre.

Norm O'Reilly, director of the School of Sports Administration and Director of ISM, made no bones about how ambitious the research centre wants to become.

"We're really going to try and become a world leader in sports management research," said O'Reilly. "We're ramping up and growing. The future is exciting and the sky's the limit with this program."

ISM was founded in 2001 by former director of Sports Administration Robert Wanzel. The ISM is currently working on a variety of high impact applied research projects that seek to support sport management practice and further knowledge in the field. The ISM has partnered with Lakeshore Properties of Elliot Lake and TrojanOne, a Toronto-based marketing agency, on two major research projects.

Lakeshore has acquired Crown land in Elliot Lake to improve the declining economy by building a cottage community on pristine, undeveloped lakes.

Lakeshore is enthused about working with the ISM. They exist as a three-person office, which is already stretched to the limit in dealing with clients.

"This is a multi-million dollar project aimed at anchoring an economy," said Wayne Wilcox, CEO of Lakeshore Properties. "We had to go outside our small resources to get the level of sophistication we need to diversify the economy. Norm is a remarkable human being...he has a tremendous depth of thinking. It's a natural marriage of needs and talents."

The Sports Administration program is celebrating 35 years of excellence, and has graduates working in top jobs across North America. Graduates from Laurentian are fully prepared to tackle the world upon leaving the school, which sets them apart.

"The classes are small and students get an incredible experience," said O'Reilly. "The classes are hard to get into and it's full of smart people who love sport and want to do business. The students complete a challenging curriculum of commerce with operations, finance, stats, accounting...something a lot of other sports management graduates don't have."

Nick Hodge, 20, is going into his third year of Sports Administration. He has been working this summer at the ISM doing market research for Lakeshore. He's also eagerly doing studies on getting men's hockey back to Laurentian along with establishing women's hockey. Men's hockey was eliminated in 2000.

"We just finished a research paper on the benefits for the community, not just Laurentian, of having hockey here," said Hodge. "We have to convince people why they should bring hockey back, not just because we love hockey in Sudbury. It could be a success...there's a chance we could see it in a few years."

Hodge is getting the experience of a lifetime at the ISM.

"It's given me the opportunity to get my face out in the industry and get real world experience," said Hodge. "It's definitely going to help my career."

The ISM also introduced new staff - Dr. Ann Pegoraro, the Associate Director of the ISM and Dr. Xiaoyan Xing, the Associate Director of International Research for the ISM.

"The industry is growing and things are happening," said O'Reilly. "We've been able to attract number of top faculty members who are world renowned...and it will only help the students."

Originally founded to work with government, professional sport and amateur athletics to find better ways to resource sport in Canada, the ISM celebrated the completion of five years of work with a summit meeting of industry partners and stakeholders in May of 2006. Building from these roots in applied research, the ISM continues to work with industry partners and concurrently develop its academic research components.  The future of the ISM is to fulfill its mandate to expand the knowledge base related to sport marketing in Canada.

The ISM has also partnered with the Canadian Sponsorship Forum, an important annual business conference where ISM researchers will be presenting their research to an audience of top industry professionals.