Live: Blogs With Balls 3, Chicago, IL

Today, I’m at Blogs WIth Balls, a sports blogging conference taking place in Chicago, IL. Below, I’ve included the streaming video from Justin.TV as well as a live blogging/Twitter stream that will be updated throughout the day.

To WomenTalkSports members/fans – please note that Dr. Nicole Lavoi from the Tucker Center (One Sport Voice) will be speaking on a very interesting panel from 2:40-3:40 CST: You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right…to Blog?: A Legal and Ethical Primer to Sports Media. Should be interesting. Make sure you participate in the conversation and be sure to use the #bwb3 hashtag.

Watch live video from blogswithballs on Justin.tv

Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day!

National Girls and Women in Sports day is today; a time when female athletes are honored. Check out this totally awesome slideshow compiled by the WomenTalkSports.com contributors! To see events and conversations going on throughout the country today, visit this page on WomenTalkSports.com.

In New York City? Check out Girls, Inc. on Thursday to see womens sports leaders

For those of you who may not know this, Wednesday (Feb. 3) is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. To celebrate, women’s sports bloggers throughout the WomenTalkSports.com network will be posting about local events and activities.  This is an awesome example of how online communities can  support a social movement for female empowerment (through sports).

If you’re like me and you live in the New York City market, there’s a great being event held the day after (Thursday) with Girls, Inc., which might be worth checking out (or at least promoting). Below is the press release.  Some cool sports chicks will be there!

Girls Incorporated of New York City to host National Girls and Women in Sports Day

New York, New York

Based on research conducted by the Women’s Sports Foundation showing that females who participate in high school sports are more likely to attend college than those who did not participate in sports, Girls Incorporated of New York City will hold their 2^nd Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day event on February 4, 2010 in partnership with The Urban Assembly.

Seven outstanding women leaders including Phaidra Knight, a USA National Rugby Team member, Amanda Kraus, founder and Executive Director of Row New York, Kristina Marchitto, founder of the Yoga Project, Erika Mehalick, head softball coach at The Stevens Institute of Technology, Crissy Van Meter, Associate Editor for ESPN Action Sports, Kim Puntillo, the first woman to run a marathon on every continent, and Agatha Wasilewska, action sports writer for Transworld. The speakers will share their experiences, promote careers in athletics, and encourage a healthy lifestyle with the girls.

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Best of ’09: Forming a community, WomenTalkSports.com

This post is the start of a series this week in the WomenTalkSports.com network titled “Best of ’09.” Throughout this week, our community will be posting about their favorite moments in women’s sports in 2009.

There’s no doubt, 2009 was an exciting year in the women’s sports world, and I’m excited to see more posts. For me, though, hands down, my favorite moment was creating the WomenTalkSports.com blog network. It’s the first time in history female sports fans have come together and taken action as a community online.

We launched WomenTalkSports.com in February of 2009 with a mission of increasing attention, awareness and coverage of women’s sports. We felt that traditional media was doing somewhat of a disservice to female athletes by not focusing and covering women’s achievements in sports. For example, when was the last time you picked up the sports section of a newspaper and saw the headline of a female football player, swimmer, ice hockey player or gymnast? It doesn’t happen often.

In the spirit of citizen journalism, we took matters into our own hands. I, along with two of my like-minded friends, Jane Schonberger and Ann Gaffigan (and later joined by Lesley Higgins) decided to start a network of bloggers who take it upon ourselves to cover the achievements of female athletes. We knew there were quite a few of us out there, so we started reaching out and asking if we’d like to come together as a community.

In 2009, our network was born. We now have over 70 contributors to the site, and a community of engaged advocates. We cover local events, discuss the hottest trends in the media, digest cultural and gender issues, conduct interviews, do research and simply do our best to promote women in sport in every possible way. Here are just a few quotes from our members and friends:

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Audio interviews: Women’s Sports Foundation’s red carpet event

Check out some of the interviews from the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports red carpet event last night… (Click links below pictures to listen to the interviews).

Apologize in advance for the lack of “depth” in my questions (interviews are very short). Please understand I was being trampled upon by other media personnel and didn’t have enough time to prepare. However, that said, there are some great quotes here and definitely worth listening in.

Jessica Mendoza Interview
Softball left fielder and Women’s Sports Foundation President Jessica Mendoza discusses the importance of social media in female athletics.  Jessica is an avid member of WomenTalkSports.com and is responsible for inviting me to the red carpet event.

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Nancy Lieberman Interview
Nancy Lieberman, ESPN women’s basketball analyst/Olympian discusses the “family” of female professional athletes and the importance for women to continue to support the Women’s Sports Foundation.

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Photos from Women’s Sports Foundation red carpet

Check it out (click through to Flickr to see descriptions)…

Ok, so I’m not a professional photographer. But I did my best. Very cool to meet such neat people who have “moved the needle” from multiple generations of women in sport.

Live Blogging from the Women’s Sports Foundations’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports!

Tonight, I’m going to be live blogging from the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports event at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Stay tuned below around 6pm ET for some live coverage from the Red Carpet!

Tonight’s evening hosts include Bob Costas, Mary Carillo, and Billie Jean King, Women’s Sports Foundation’s founder. Honorees include Annika Sorenstam, legendary golfer and philanthropist, Dick Ebersol, Chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, and Pat Summitt, University of Tennessee head women’s basketball coach  and all-time winningest coach in NCAA history.

Follow me live over at WomenTalkSports.com. Or, follow me on Twitter: @mhueter

Womens Sports Foundation Annual Salute to Women in Sports… Here I come

This week, I’m going to do something I’ve been waiting to do for a long time.

I’ll be attending the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Annual Salute to Women in Sports event in New York City as a member of the media and co-founder of WomenTalkSports.com. I’ll be covering the event on WomenTalkSports from in the red carpet and the media room (hopefully in real-time).

Right now, I have 1) no idea what to wear, 2) no idea what to say, and 3) no idea what I’m in for. But I’m not at all scared, and I’m really excited for the opportunity to meet some of the people I respect the most.

Appreciate any tips/advice/interview questions you can give me.

If you’re interested, tickets are still on sale here. If you have a blog, I highly recommend you promote this event, since it’s an important one for our industry. Two thumbs up to WSF (esp. President Jessica Mendoza) for recognizing the women’s sports blogging community as a valuable member of the media.

Check out the recap from last year:

NCAA career development program for women

The NCAA is holding a career development program that’s targeting women, announced today. It’s going to be held on December 17 in conjunction with the women’s volleyball championship at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida.

Here’s the kicker: Registration is limited to 35 participants and is currently open to female students and student-athletes from any division and sport.

Ok, so you’re targeting women. But only 35 of us? How exactly is that intended to make a realistic impact in getting women involved in college sports careers?

If you’d like to voice your opinion (or get more information), contact Karen Morrison, NCAA director of gender initiatives, at kmorrison@ncaa.org.

How to increase attendance to women’s basketball games

The other day, I received an interesting question from a reader of WomenTalkSports.com. The individual, a college student, said:

“I’m working on a project to increase attendance at a women’s basketball tournament. Because this is your specialty, I was hoping you could offer any available tips or resources you’ve encountered on the best way to achieve this.”

To be completely honest, I didn’t know a good answer to give him. My personal feeling, as an ex-college basketball player, is that it’s a complex issue that involves many social, cultural, athletic talent and (obviously) financial factors.

Stumped, I crowdsourced the question to my fellow bloggers of the WomenTalkSports community and tweeted the question via twitter.com/womentalksports.

Below are some of the responses I received. What are your thoughts? Interested in continuing this conversation, as many of my friends found it worthwhile to answer.

Question: What are some ways to increase attendance to women’s college basketball games?

Answers….

@loisheilig: “That is a tough question. But if there were more games on TV someone might
watch & decide they would like to go see one. And keep the prices down.”

Sports Girl Kat: (speaking from her personal experience): “Giveaways such as such as iPod Touches, a pair of Red Sox tickets, gift certificates, and a semester’s worth of textbooks.” “T-shirts, free popcorn and soda, as well as competitions between students.”Have a student DJ spin between warm-ups and the game. Dare really popular students to bring as many friends as possible – if they bring 15, they get a coupon for several pizzas. Find out what your non-sports fans will come out to an non-sporting event for, and offer that inconjunction with a basketball game.”

Jayda Evans: (speaking with WNBA perspective) “I would have thought the W’s Live Access would helped, but only a few games aired without constant buffering. If you can’t get coverage, you have to see the product to develop some sort of connection that pulls you to the arena. I’d also say more weekend matchups and probably day-time starts during true summer months. More families can attend games without disrupting kids’ sleep sked. Lastly, I’d say drop some prices down or offer more perks with the ticket. Even college ball in some areas are trying to entice and people love free stuff or the feeling of getting a real good deal.”

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WNBA playoffs begin September 16

Great video from the WNBA. Watch the playoffs!!

Inspiring women and an inspiring league

This past week, I traveled to Chicago for a wedding and a work trip. Just as I pulled out of my place in DC, I tweeted my status, “En route to Chicago.” Among responses from friends wishing me safe travels came an email from one of my WNBA contacts inviting me to their Inspiring Women luncheon in downtown Chicago the next day, should I have time to swing by.

The event was great. One of the major accomplishments of the event is that it provided an opportunity for the league’s sponsors to come together for a nice lunch. Watching the WNBA President, Donna Orender,  greet everyone (including me) by name with a smile is quite an experience.  It exemplifies how the league tries very hard, despite criticism, to make everyone feel like family. The event also shows that the league supports inspiring women in society, too.

The WNBA honored Cokie Roberts, senior news analyst for NPR News, political commentator for ABC News, and best-selling author.

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