Syracuse Director of Athletics John Wildhack To Keynote 11th-Annual SVG College Summit

Former ESPN exec offers advice for succeeding in today’s wild media world

Three days full of video-production learning, idea sharing, and networking at the 11th-annual SVG College Summit (May 29-31, Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta) will be highlighted this year by a keynote conversation with Syracuse University Director of Athletics John Wildhack.

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With more than three decades in sports television and now sitting in an AD’s chair, Wildhack offers a deep understanding of where the college–sports-video landscape is, has been, and will be in the future.

Since taking over the Orange in 2016, he has overseen multiple strategic initiatives to ensure the future success of the department. Among the most impactful has been securing a $118 million investment by the university for enhancements to the Carrier Dome and formation of an in-house production unit.

Authorized by the Board of Trustees in May 2018, the expenditure enables the University to move forward with Phase I improvements to the Dome, including a new fixed roof, vertically hung scoreboard, and state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems. The Syracuse Athletics Production team was established in fall 2017. In its first year, the group broadcast 91 live events and was responsible for more than 300 hours of content for the conference’s digital platform, ACC Network Extra.

During more than 30 years at ESPN, Wildhack held a number of leadership roles and was responsible for several firsts at the network, including a live regular-season college-football game in September 1984 and live NFL game in August 1987. Prior to joining the Orange, he was EVP, programming and production, overseeing all ESPN and ABC game-, event, and studio-production work for domestic and international television and radio, as well as programming acquisitions, rightsholder-relationship management, and scheduling. He managed all league and conference relationships, negotiated all live–sports-television rights and was responsible for 50,000 hours of on-air content annually.

For more information regarding the SVG College Summit, visit www.svgcollege.com. You can also follow the event on Twitter using @SVGCollege and #SVGCollege.

For a peek at the what the SVG College Summit is all about, take a look at the highlights from last year’s show.