By Eigen Escario
The Vanderbilt Accelerator® Summer Business Immersion program lays the foundation for any student interested in leveraging business frameworks in their personal and professional development. Through hands-on consulting projects, the certificate program gives undergraduates and recent graduates the opportunity to apply their consulting knowledge and present business strategies to real-world companies. One of the projects this year was in partnership with the Nashville Predators, focusing on their mission to bolster ties within the local community.
The Client
The Nashville Predators, headquartered in Nashville, TN, is a professional hockey team that competes in the National Hockey League (NHL). Founded in 1997, the organization fosters its fan base through community events and partnerships with local charities such as the Nashville Freedom School and the Community Resource Center.
Accelerator Summer Business Immersion Project
Eight teams of Vanderbilt Accelerator students were tasked with increasing community engagement with the Predators Foundation among Millenials and Gen Z. The broader goal of expanding in these demographics was to use their distinctive assets to support the youth and families in the community, reaffirming the foundation’s mission to foster philanthropic ties throughout the community.
The Predators set guidelines for the marketing strategies, such as refraining from events that interfere with team sponsorship agreements, retaining the current manpower for event planning, and generating reasonable profits annually.
Accelerator Summer Business Immersion Presentations
The teams pitched their unique ideas to representatives from the Predators—the ideas ranged from an esports tournament to an outdoor movie night at a park, all of which give back to the community while supporting the Predators Foundation. Some teams suggested competitive events, while others focused on family-oriented approaches with kid-friendly attractions. Across all presentations, the teams adhered to the philanthropic objective of the project while exploring different avenues informed by their research in effective incentives for the Millenial and Gen Z demographics.
“The Nashville Predators project was my favorite,” one student said anonymously in a survey conducted by the Accelerator team. “It was really fun coming up with ideas for events while at the same time implementing other important aspects of business like financials, research, and presentation.”
Another student–who was a member of the winning team–said in the survey, “Our team pulled out the win and it felt like in the few days of the project I had learned more about scheduling, planning, and financial limitations than I’ve ever learned before.”
The Winner
The Predators awarded first place to Team D—Anna Souter, Alexis Barbee, Sepehr Samadi, Daniel Ravel, William Theodore, and Nicholas Bailey—at the culmination of the presentations. Team D’s project entailed an annual holiday event called Clarksville Winterfest, which would feature ice skating, cookie decorating, a market of local vendors, and the sale of Predators gear. Occurring after the holidays and before the New Year, the event would be a chance for the Predators to capitalize on the 10% of the annual charitable giving in the last 3 days of the year while providing meaningful and fun memories to the community.
To learn more about Accelerator Summer Business Immersion at Vanderbilt, click here.