Big Top Sports & Entertainment Panel

Jakub Kryzostaniak- Director of Fan Engagement and Digital Media at Forward Madison FC 
Liz Kern- Vice President of Big Top Sports and Entertainment
Tyler Isham- General Manager at Madison Mallards Baseball Club

Why have you spent your whole career at Big Top?
LK: Excellent benefits, flexibility and they do a great job in helping to sustain people at their current position.
TI: I'm still learning everyday about my position and how to put my own spin on the organization. It was appealing to be able to have my own control as opposed to the control I would have at a larger team. 

During the offseason what are you typically working on? 
LK: Planning for the next season. Selling, budgeting and preparing for the next season. Especially planning and producing what are sales plan is going to look like for our next season. 
TI: Ticket sales are the lifeblood of our business, the offseason is focused on segmenting for different consumers and figuring how to get them to the park. My personal responsibility is to sell corporate advertising with the team. 
JK: Working on thirty different things rather than a paced out schedule of one or two games a week. 

How do you collaborate with other baseball teams in the organization?
LK: There is a very open dialogue with a lot of sharing ideas to help all of the teams within the organization to succeed. 
TI: It helps us to leverage costing and keep prices lower because of all the teams that we have. 

What opportunities would you suggest for people wanting to get into the business?
LK: Volunteering and working with as many teams I could at school and then eventually working with the Mallards. I got my hands involved in as many different things as I could to see what I was interested in. 
JK: Learning the skills necessary to be useful on the digital side. Including social media and photoshop. Having those skills make you useful and unique.