As noted in this space recently, the 5th Annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was held in Boston this weekend. The conference’s mission is “to provide a forum for industry professionals (executives and leading researchers) and students to discuss the increasing role of analytics in the sports industry.”
A sold out conference found 1,500 attendees listening to an astounding array of panelists—including our own Michael McCann sitting on a panel discussing Sports Labor Issues. Some of the more interesting speakers included Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Cuban (sporting a “talk nerdy to me” t-shirt), ESPN’s Bill “The Sports Guy” Simmons, and Brian Burke of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
To get a sense of the conference, which not surprisingly did a wonderful job using social media, you can check out the Twitter feeds at this link.
Serving an academic purpose, the conference had a MBA Sports Case Competition (MIT was just announced as the winner so several attendees and I will be asking for a recount) and accepted over 100 research papers. The authors of these papers were around to share their insights but the papers themselves can be accessed online at this link.