Speed Networking - National Sporting Goods Association

Consistently rated an attendee favorite, Speed Networking packs months of targeted, high-value partner introductions into a single, high-energy forum for fast-tracking direct retail and dealer relationships.

NEW THIS YEAR

Ranked Choice Pairings

This year, Speed Networking introduces Ranked Choice Pairings, allowing participants to submit a ranking of the retailers, team dealers or manufacturers you want to meet most. While specific pairings are not guaranteed due to high demand and rotation limits, submitting your choices significantly increases your alignment with relevant decision makers.

Questions? Submit A Conference Inquiry Form

What is Speed Networking?

Speed Networking is the NSGA Leadership Conference’s premier business development forum – engineered to replace the uncertainty of traditional expo floor encounters with guaranteed, high-impact commercial dialogues.

Rather than leaving crucial business connections to chance, this fast-paced session gathers decision makers from sporting goods retailers, team dealers and manufacturers in a dedicated room for a series of focused one-on-one meetings.

Why Speed Networking Works

In an industry shaped by fast-moving retail trends, seasonal ordering deadlines and shifting policies, senior leaders rarely have the bandwidth for open-ended introductory cold calls.

Speed networking removes the friction of calendar coordination by consolidating an entire quarter’s worth of introductory meetings into a single afternoon.

Save the Date!

What Attendees Are Saying

Steve Vogelsang

Gill/Porter

Speed networking is the most important element of this conference for us. It is the event that really brings us here. It is an amazing opportunity to see a lot of guys that I don’t get to see as often and have meaningful conversations in a short period of time.

Steven Kelly

Cover Sports

Speed networking is just an awesome way to get in front of people. The people want to come, they want to sit with you, they just want to talk to you and have an open conversation. The conversations are just free-flowing and you can uncover opportunities or just chat about what’s going on in the market.

Pat Weber

Game One

Speed networking is great. We love speed networking. It is a really great way to get a high level understanding of what each of these vendors are doing. In turn, we can share the high level of what we are doing as a company. We have actually incorporated it (speed networking) into some of the things that we are doing (at Game One).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Who is eligible to participate?

Participants must be registered attendees of the NSGA Leadership Conference and designate that they will be participating in Speed Networking.

How many meetings will I get?

Speed Networking participants can expect between 13-15 meetings based on a nine minute session length.

What is Ranked Choice and how do I participate?

Registered Speed Networking participants will have the ability to rank the top 10 retailers/team dealers/brands they would like to meet with. While specific pairings are not guaranteed due to high demand and rotation limits, submitting your choices significantly increases your alignment with relevant decision makers.

Ranking survey will be emailed to registered Speed Networking participants (date TBD).

When can I submit my rankings?

Rankings must be submitted by deadline TBD. NSGA reserves the right to begin creating pairings after the deadline, so submitting your preferences by the deadline gives you the best opportunity to have them considered.

Can more than one representative from the same company attend together?

Absolutely! There is not a limit on the number of representatives from the same company. Each representative must be registered individually to participate in conference programming.