00:02:32 · Monica Ellingson, Ian Dallimore
[00:02:32] S1: my daughter, actually. Yeah. [00:02:34] S0: Oh, I love it. So is she headed down the same career path or just same school? [00:02:39] S1: She's studying industrial engineering. So, I mean, still similar in terms of, you know, always always, you know, passionate about math and science growing up and, you know, pivoted layer. I'm kind of a right... Left brain type of person, so, you know, technology comes to me easily. But, you know, I'm also very focused on really the user experience side of, you know, digital media, of course, sports fan experiences. And when I was at Georgia Tech, I started and it was actually a brand new program at that time focused on information architecture. Now it's called the Digital Media Program at at Georgia Tech. So... Yeah. Yeah. She's in a similar parallel path. [00:03:22] S0: Yeah. I love it. And what a... What an amazing... I spend my nights now, like, when my kids go to sleep deep into, like, ChatGPT and a few other LLMs. And just I've gone deep down the rabbit hole of space and atoms and what the new world of AI is going to look like in the next ten years. And it's, you know, not a bad field that your daughter's headed down. I point in telling that story somewhere to your daughter, my kids are much younger and they're 14 and 12. And I'm like, this is the path where you need to go because this is where the world is headed. So even if you have 5% of the knowledge, you're going to be ahead of most people.
00:03:22 · Ian Dallimore, Monica Ellingson
[00:03:22] S0: Yeah. I love it. And what a... What an amazing... I spend my nights now, like, when my kids go to sleep deep into, like, ChatGPT and a few other LLMs. And just I've gone deep down the rabbit hole of space and atoms and what the new world of AI is going to look like in the next ten years. And it's, you know, not a bad field that your daughter's headed down. I point in telling that story somewhere to your daughter, my kids are much younger and they're 14 and 12. And I'm like, this is the path where you need to go because this is where the world is headed. So even if you have 5% of the knowledge, you're going to be ahead of most people. [00:03:59] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I mean, it's... I'm, you know, telling everyone now it's... You know, I'm I'm really focused on AI and in terms of, you know, how we can, you know, create personalized fan experiences and call down a massive volume of data to create those experiences. But, you know, on the flip side, in terms of, you know, working with my team and, you know, we have the full gamut of people from designers and developers to project managers. And I'm like, AI needs to be a fundamental part of your day to day life and encouraging people to create proofs of concepts because you can do it so quickly now. If you have an idea, see if you can make it come to life, you know, using these tools that are available to us now. So it's it's incredible.
00:03:59 · Monica Ellingson, Ian Dallimore
[00:03:59] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I mean, it's... I'm, you know, telling everyone now it's... You know, I'm I'm really focused on AI and in terms of, you know, how we can, you know, create personalized fan experiences and call down a massive volume of data to create those experiences. But, you know, on the flip side, in terms of, you know, working with my team and, you know, we have the full gamut of people from designers and developers to project managers. And I'm like, AI needs to be a fundamental part of your day to day life and encouraging people to create proofs of concepts because you can do it so quickly now. If you have an idea, see if you can make it come to life, you know, using these tools that are available to us now. So it's it's incredible. [00:04:48] S0: Yeah. And so was for you... So your primary focus in the early days was around media and entertainment was the early days of your career was You had mentioned, and I did a deep dive into you and deeper than your presentation, and I'll label you as a futurist. It seems like you're always ahead of the time. Maybe you surround yourself with brilliant people as well, which it sounds like- Definitely. [00:05:10] S1: I can't take credit. [00:05:12] S0: Yeah. No. I... I'm in the same situation. But if... What what was that moment where you really saw like, okay, this is where I want to pivot my career over from media and entertainment? And I would argue you're still in media and entertainment. It's just your focus shifted. What... When was that moment? And it seems like you've always had that mindset as well.
00:05:12 · Ian Dallimore, Monica Ellingson
[00:05:12] S0: Yeah. No. I... I'm in the same situation. But if... What what was that moment where you really saw like, okay, this is where I want to pivot my career over from media and entertainment? And I would argue you're still in media and entertainment. It's just your focus shifted. What... When was that moment? And it seems like you've always had that mindset as well. [00:05:31] S1: Well, I think I've almost always been in in media entertainment in some capacity, and I've really, you know, been able to just feel creatively alive in that space and, you know, thinking about how you can... You know, very, very early in my career, I was actually involved in creating, you know, digital experiences for, you know, professional education and then later on even for education and educational games, actually, I was focused on early on. And, you know, how do you take something that is often a difficult concept and, you know, make it into something entertaining and fun and visually captivating? And that's something that has always really grabbed my my creative energy and just my passion as a whole. And, you know, then later on, it evolves so that I put that energy into, you know, creating experiences for sports fans.
00:05:31 · Monica Ellingson, Ian Dallimore
[00:05:31] S1: Well, I think I've almost always been in in media entertainment in some capacity, and I've really, you know, been able to just feel creatively alive in that space and, you know, thinking about how you can... You know, very, very early in my career, I was actually involved in creating, you know, digital experiences for, you know, professional education and then later on even for education and educational games, actually, I was focused on early on. And, you know, how do you take something that is often a difficult concept and, you know, make it into something entertaining and fun and visually captivating? And that's something that has always really grabbed my my creative energy and just my passion as a whole. And, you know, then later on, it evolves so that I put that energy into, you know, creating experiences for sports fans. [00:06:24] S0: And it's so interesting. So we've... We collectively have, I will say as Americans, have always had some sort of like guidance towards sports, whether you played soccer growing up, you played tennis. So participation looked a lot different as you consumed sporting events, whether it's NBA, whether it's the Masters or or US Open or whatever the sport may be, the shift now is like, yes, plus I want to participate in a deeper way. I want to know every mechanics and data around that, and and that's where your world has. But why why do you think that that shift in mindset that sports fans expect more than just watching the game, and they want that data, and they want the experience to participate on a deeper level?
00:07:06 · Monica Ellingson
[00:07:06] S1: Well, I think now it's it's definitely more possible than it ever was before. And, you know, if you think about from a digital, you know, perspective, how we've all followed sports in the past, it was relatively passive. You know, we were watching it on TV or listening to it on the radio. And it... That content was being fed to us in a very, you know, structured way. But it wasn't something that, you know, let's just say that the top player of the, you know, of of a, let's say, tennis event, it wasn't my favorite player because I'm from another country or what have you. And, you know, so everyone followed it in the same way. And the the differences are... Were basically the stage that you brought from home to that, but still the actual watching experience was passive. But now it is much more, you know, interactive. So I I, as a fan, I want to have and I need, I expect to have personalized content. I expect to be able to, you know, see in-depth stats, you know, fed up in almost real time for my favorite players so that I can learn more about the sport that I'm, you know, passionate about and learn more about these players. So it's interesting too how we're become so focused on these players. I mean, there's celebrities there. You know, we wanna know everything about them. They're part of our families. And, you know, so I think that it's that level of intimacy that we all expect with with sports, with players, with really, you know, appealing to every type of sports fan, whether it's someone more casual, like, hey, I wanna see, you know, what the latest fashions are or what have you, or, you know, I want to see all the latest, most in-depth stats for my team, etcetera. So, you know, now it's become possible, you know, either through the fact that we have so many different ways of streaming and feeding out digital content through apps, apps that are pulling content from multiple directions, whether it's live streaming, whether it's stats, even betting is feeding into this equation. On our live streaming platforms, we're, you know, seeing enhanced stats that are coming in that we don't have to dig into. So it's... We are anticipating what fans are looking for and providing that content in the context that makes sense. So not afterwards, but when the action is happening.