Basketball Hall of Fame Is Ideal Setting for Marketing Alumni Event

Wed., Apr 9, 2008
“Location, location, location,” exulted Isenberg School marketing professor Marc Weinberger. “We held our alumni networking event on April 3rd at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield—at the same time that the UMass Men’s basketball team was battling with Ohio State for the NIT championship. That’s the sort of tie-in that marketers dream of. Okay, I originally had no idea that the two events would overlap, but it still felt like the stars were aligned for the event, I told the gathering.

“We owe a great deal to the Hall’s CEO and president—our graduate John Doleva ’82—for hosting the event,” Professor Weinberger continued. “John offered the Hall to us a year ago. It was an ideal setting and the department’s first event in Springfield. It drew a number of alumni who said that they had never before been to a marketing department event.”

Attended by fifty alumni and department faculty members, most guests hailed from Western Massachusetts and Connecticut, but a number came from Eastern Massachusetts, one all the way from Cape Cod.

“We couldn’t have built the Isenberg School’s new Alfond wing without alumni support,” Isenberg School dean Tony Butterfield told the gathering. “Student demand for marketing and other business courses is skyrocketing. I hope you will support our next big capital initiative: a state-of-the-art classroom building.”

As generous host, John Doleva was long on praise for his education at the Isenberg School. “My marketing and business education has prepared me for a truly rewarding career,” he emphasized. It’s been an honor to marshal those skills on behalf of such a great game and such gifted people, he said.



Pictured at top: Dean Anthony Butterfield and Basketball Hall of Fame CEO John Doleva '82