Ahmad Nassar remembers walking through the 2.6 million net square feet of exhibit space at CES last year and being hit immediately with a rush of emotion.
As a first-time visitor to the annual high-level business event that drew over 180,000 attendees in 2017, Nassar – the President of NFL Players, Inc., since 2014 – was instantaneously awestruck and amazed and wondered why it had taken so long for him to arrive in such a valuable space for the first time.
Nassar knew that NFL players had participated in CES for years and had created invaluable networking relationships with the world’s top business leaders and innovators that have made the yearly global conference a priority for pioneer thinkers.
But admittedly, Nassar admits he was also skeptical. In a good way.
Given the number of conferences and seminars worldwide that NFL Players, Inc., has access to each year, Nassar – who, as the head of the organization that oversees the marketing and licensing arm of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) – began to consider what made CES a must-attend event.
It wasn’t long before he got his answer.
Inside the confines of the conference space and green rooms he spent time in earlier this year in Las Vegas, Nassar found himself surrounded by Fortune 500 business icons like Dan Gilbert – the owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and the founder and chairman of Quicken Loans. He also rubbed elbows with executives and athletes alike, such as former NBA star and current Turner sports analyst Shaquille O’Neal, who, like many of his fellow professional athletes, have become regulars at CES.
At that moment, Nassar realized he had to return in 2018, breaking away from a long-standing tradition of not attending a conference more than once.
As CES 2018, produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), approaches next month – held from Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas – sports technology is taking on a bigger role. From smart products that enhance athletic performance to state-of-the-art venues and next-gen sponsorships, the new CES Sports Zone incorporates exhibit space with four days of powerful programming. You can discover the themes that will disrupt the industry, influence executives and impact the business of sports, on and off the field.
Like many of his fellow executives, Nassar has come to understand how much technology is disrupting the business of sport. That’s especially true within the NFLPA’s membership as technological advances as simple as wearables to more advanced performance-based analytics that monitor workout patterns, recovery and sleep are now driving how players train in the offseason.
And with pro athletes more accessible than ever before, especially through social media channels like Twitter and Instagram, the interaction Nassar’s client base has with technology leaders has never been so vital.
More and more, NFL players are taking an active role in determining how they will allow technology to become part of their training regimens. While global brands like Nike, Under Armour and others are maintaining their long-standing relationships with the NFLPA, Nassar said that CES offers players access to smaller companies and start-ups that could help produce meaningful results.
And never before have face-to-face interactions been more important, said Nassar, who is constantly reminding the NFLPA’s membership that they are much more than mere athletes that are paid handsomely for playing a game for a living.
“I’m constantly telling them, ‘You are businessmen in the business of football – and it’s a big business as we all know,’” Nassar said. “Our goal is to help these businessmen get more out of football than football gets out of them.
“Whether that’s from a health standpoint or a financial standpoint, or from a business and second career standpoint, by virtue of the fact that they all get to work in the NFL they are certainly blessed and lucky people. But we want to make sure that they are not chewed up and spit out on the back end of that wondering what to do with the 40 or 50 years of their lives that are left.”
CES, Nassar insists, affords athletes that head start.
But it also does more. Given the variety of companies that the 3,900 exhibitors and thousands of high-level executives will represent at CES 2018, Nassar said that the annual technology and innovation showcase allows the NFLPA to move outside of the sports bubble his organization traditionally operates within.
CES also allows the NFLPA’s membership to use its platform to become part of important on-going conversations on topics such as diversity, which will be among the front-and-center issues discussed at CES 2018.
CES also gives players a front-row seat to the innovative changes that are taking place as sports and technology intersect on a daily basis. At a time when technology is impacting the business of sport like never before, Nassar has watched as NFL players have become much more involved in how they use technology.
While usage varies from player to player, Nassar insists that inserting technology into training is no longer an option, but instead, a necessity.
“There are guys that swear by it and there are guys that think it’s all Voodoo,” Nassar said. “Some players feel like they got to where they got without some wearable on their wrist and so why do they need one now?”
“But they’re all pretty much doing something – some may be more into it than others, but they’re all going to be doing something. But here’s what keeps our members up at night – ‘What is the other guy doing? And am I missing out if they have something that I don’t have?’ Some of it may be a placebo effect, but technology is certainly part of that search for an edge.”
As a big believer in sustainability, Nassar believes that a vital part of CES’s staying power – at least when it comes to participation by NFL players – is its timing. The event falls just after the NFL regular season has come to an end and as players whose teams did not make the playoffs begin to consider how they will prepare for next season.
And as quickly as technology continues to evolve, Nassar believes that being able to remain at the forefront of innovation provides value to his organization’s members.
“To be able to walk through CES with that timing is really a perfect storm,” Nassar said. “They walk out of there and they have these different ideas.”
He added: “There’s probably a bit of the feeling of the Wild, Wild West out there (with technology) and probably 5-10 years from now, we’ll have more of a handle on it and we will have separated some of the noise from the actual signal.”