Mike Hauben’s family runs a business that puts on trade shows and special events. Not too long ago they were looking to branch out into something new and Hauben, who had trained in mixed martial arts in the past had an idea that he pitched to his family, “Let’s do an MMA event.” And with that, Fight Summit was born. Well, maybe it wasn’t that easy, but that was the impetus behind what would become Fight Summit.
Bleacher Report MMA recently spoke to Hauben about the second Fight Summit, which will take place at the Rio in Las Vegas, NV on December 1-2. The two-day event gathers leaders of the MMA business world for a series of seminars and workshops that provide MMA businesses with the knowledge to grow their company.
Hauben said the idea for the Fight Summit came about because “Nobody ever attempted to do a business to business Mixed Martial Arts Expo,” he said. “We wanted to be the first show to offer a platform for all the businesses, all the gyms, the managers, the promoters, up and coming apparel companies where they could all get together for a few days, learn from each other and the experts in the field and kind of see where the industry is headed, network with each other, see the latest technologies.”
MMA fans are more than welcome to attend the event, but the focus of Fight Summit is clearly on the business owner.
“We have 25 to 30 workshops this year and every single one is a business workshop,” he said. “Our whole platform is, yeah fans can come, but we’re really for the businesses and if you’re a business in MMA, chances are you’re completely self-taught.”
With that, Hauben brings up a good point, the world of MMA business is full of hard luck stories of start ups that were never able to make it to the next level, something that Hauben thinks the Fight Summit can change.
“A lot of guys are like ‘Hey, I love MMA, so I must be able to run a business in mixed martial arts.’ Hauben said. “And they invest a ton of money and lose it all because they realized they had the passion, they really wanted to be involved in MMA, but they were completely self taught. So, we definitely wanted to be able to offer people tangible education, tangible tools that they could leave the event with and understand what they were doing wrong and learn the right way to do it.“
However, Fight Summit is not just for the start up, it’s also for the established business.
“It’s great for both,” he said. “If you’re just starting out, you have no idea what you’re doing in this industry, despite what you may think. It’s a very niche market so if you’re just starting out, this is invaluable to you. You’re going to learn, step by step, how to run your business, how to market your business, how to make money with your business and how to do it all by spending the least amount of money. If you’re established already, if you’re already a big brand, that’s great, because nobody knows everything and even if you’re a big brand you may pick up a couple of tricks that your competitors are doing that will work for you.”
Hauben closed the conversation by saying;
“My biggest thing to tell anybody is that you really owe it to yourself to come to Fight Summit,” Hauben said. “Take a couple of days off, it’s two days, it’s a Thursday and Friday, but there’s something really big going on in Vegas that Wednesday before our show and there’s also something really big going on that Saturday after our show, so if you’re involved in MMA, especially from a business standpoint, you’re going to want to be in Vegas for that Wednesday through Saturday.
“It’s going to be an awesome time and you owe it to yourself. If you’re an MMA brand, spend a little money, spend a little time and just drop the ego and learn. How valuable is it that you can listen to all these experts and learn from their mistakes. Instead of you making these stupid mistakes you could listen to them, how they got over those hurdles.”
Fight Summit takes place at the Rio in Las Vegas, NV on December 1-2, some of the guests that will speak include Greg Jackson, Tiki Ghosn, Mike Dolce, Mark Pavelich, Ryan Loco, Ed Soares, Ken Pavia, Lex McMahon, ‘Stitch’ Duran, and Mike Mersch from the UFC.
For more info check out the Fight Summit website: http://www.fightsummit.com/
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