The Evening Ticker: ‘Today,’ Claman, ‘Next List’

By Alex Weprin 

  • Turner Broadcasting is taking its CNN “Next List” brand and expanding it to other units. Turner Sports will launch “The Next List Summit” in Atlanta in advance of the NCAA Final Four. CNN will air an NCAA-themed edition of the weekend series to tie it together. More information below.

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Turner Sports and the NCAA to Present First-Ever “Next List Summit”

Inaugural Event to Feature Billy Beane, Oakland A’s General Manager, as Featured Speaker

CNN to Televise Special NCAA Edition of The Next List on Sunday, April 7

Turner Sports and the NCAA will present the first-ever “Next List Summit” to celebrate and showcase student entrepreneurship, creative thinking and innovation on Friday, April 5, as part of Final Four weekend of the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship in Atlanta. The exclusive, invitation-only “Next List Summit” will include featured speaker Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager who was the subject of author Michael Lewis’ best-selling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game and the major motion picture Moneyball starring Brad Pitt.

The event will also showcase five innovative college students who are standing out through their original ideas and/or use of technology in promoting social change, along with a panel including top executives who got their start in business through an entrepreneurial path. Each of the executives is a co-founder of a highly successful company which has changed the way we consume media and/or transact with goods and services.

In conjunction with the Summit, CNN will televise The Next List: An NCAA Tournament Special profiling the college students who will participate in this year’s event. The show, hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, will be televised Sunday, April 7, at 2:30 p.m. ET both days during Final Four weekend. Each week, CNN’s The Next List profiles forward-thinking individuals in the fields of technology, science and social change. It also highlights big ideas and events that will help shape the future of their respective fields.

“Turner Sports is proud to partner with the NCAA for the inaugural Next List Summit, which will showcase the innovative thought leadership of industry pioneers and current students already making their mark on society,” said Lenny Daniels, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Turner Sports. “The timing could not be better to launch the Summit, with this year marking the 75th celebration of March Madness in Turner’s hometown of Atlanta, and we look forward to collaborating with CNN on the TV special.”

“The NCAA is delighted to collaborate with Turner and CNN to connect outstanding current students with creative, forward-thinking entrepreneurial leaders,” said Jim Isch, NCAA chief operating officer. “Through the Next List Summit, we will utilize our signature basketball championship to shine a spotlight on higher education and the next generation of innovators and leaders from NCAA colleges and universities.”

“Next List Summit” Featured Speakers

“Next List” Students
§ Karina Casillas and Sabha Salamah, University of Southern California

o Innovation – “M.U.R.A.L. Project LA” (Maintenance of Urban Real Art in Los Angeles), seeking to document murals in L.A. and show the importance of public art through civic engineering.

§ Riley Ennis, Dartmouth College

o Founder and CEO of Immudicon, an early-stage biotechnology company pursuing a novel vaccine intracellular delivery technology – MacroVax – to activate the immune system against cancer.

o Innovation – cost-effective cancer vaccine technology and patient-specific therapy that teaches immune system cells to recognize and destroy the cancer within.

§ Param Jaggi, Vanderbilt University

o Founder & CEO of Ecoviate, a research and development company that focuses on energy and environmental technologies.

o Innovation – an algae-based emissions system that fits into the exhaust of motor vehicles and turns carbon dioxide into oxygen.

§ Jean Sack, MIT

o Innovation – alternative power source for autonomous underwater vehicles.

o Jean is also an NCAA Division III Oarswoman and two-time Ivy League champion.

“Next List” NOW
§ Dave Finocchio, co-founder of Bleacher Report, a leading multi-sport online destination for sports fans and the creator of the five-star rated Team Stream app.

§ Jeff Fluhr, co-founder and CEO of Spreecast, a social video platform which connects people through video conversation. Fluhr is also the co-founder of StubHub, an online marketplace which provides a variety of services buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater and other live entertainment events, which he sold to eBay in 2007.

§ Alexis Maybank, a former Harvard student athlete and co-founder of Gilt Groupe, an innovative online shopping destination offering its members special access to high-end merchandise and other experiences at insider prices.

§ Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of reddit, a social news and entertainment site in which registered users can submit content in the form of a link or a post. Other users can then vote on the content to determine the post’s level of exposure on the site.

“A One-on-One with Billy Beane: How Innovation Through Big Data Changed the Game(s)”
Beane has earned a reputation as one of the most progressive baseball executives in the game. Under his leadership, the Oakland A’s have won five American League West titles (2000, 2002-03, 2006 and 2012) and his teams have won 90 or more games seven times in the last 12 years. Beane’s approach to the game, stressing plate discipline and pitchers who command the strike zone, has been chronicled by author Michael Lewis in the best-selling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which was also a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt.

About Turner Sports
Turner Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is an industry leader in multimedia sports content including championship-caliber events televised on TBS, TNT and truTV and a portfolio of properties featuring some of the most popular sports destinations across all platforms. Turner Sports’ television lineup includes the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, NASCAR and professional golf. Turner Sports expanded its digital media assets with the acquisition of Bleacher Report, one of the most popular multi-sport sites among fans and its five-star rated Team Stream App, in 2012. Digital partnerships also managed by Turner Sports include NCAA.com and NCAA March Madness Live, PGA.com and a compilation of mobile web sites and connected device apps. Turner Sports and the NBA jointly manage NBA Digital, an extensive collection of multimedia properties including NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, NBA Mobile, the NBA Game Time App, NBADLEAGUE.com and WNBA.com.

Visit the Turner Sports online pressroom for additional press materials; follow Turner Sports on Twitter at @TurnerSportsPR.

About the NCAA
The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.ncaa.org and www.ncaa.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes. The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions—AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola—and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners—Allstate, Buffalo Wild Wings, Buick, Enterprise, Infiniti, LG Electronics USA, Lowe’s, Nabisco, Northwestern Mutual, Reese’s (Hershey’s), Unilever and UPS.

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