IART Announces New Speakers and Sponsors for 2014 Symposium
The IART symposium has picked up several new sponsorships for the 2014 event with Head and Tecnifibre being the most recent to join the event. “Tecnifibre USA is proud to partner with the 8th Annual 2014 IART training symposium. (Dave Dorsey, National Sales Manager) 
“Tecnifibre believes this is one of the premier training events for those in the racquet service industry. As a leader in the racquet and stringing industries and the official racquet and string provider of the ATP World Tour, Tecnifibre sees this partnership with the IART as simply the beginning of a long-standing relationship between two industry trendsetters. Head has been a sponsor in the past and IART is happy to have them back on board once again. Ben Simons, Senior Business Manager at Head stated “HEAD is excited to be a part of this year’s IART Symposium and to support the continuing education of racquet technicians. We look forward to getting more involved in such a vital piece of the racquet sports industry”
Recently, the IART event picked up yet another sponsor, Viking. A leading manufacturer in Platform Tennis, Viking will be launching a Pickleball line in late summer, just in time for the symposium. Viking General Manager Ben Porter will be hosting seminars on both sports at the symposium. “Pickleball is the fastest growing racquet sport in America and Viking expects to be on the cutting edge when it comes to equipment. Our experience at expanding Platform Tennis should translate well into doing the same for Pickleball”
Babolat also announced that Lucien Nogues from Lyon, France, will be joining the lineup of speakers at this year’s conference. Nogues, a long time fixture at Babolat, is widely known for his diverse background in racquet sports and has a stellar career as a tournament stringer with the Babolat team. He will speak Monday , September 22nd.
USRSA Executive Director Dave Bone will be on hand to offer certification testing on Wednesday, September 24th and as a prelude, he will present a “Certification Review” class on Monday evening, prior to the certification testing session. “We have had a superb pass rate from those who attend the symposium and then take their USRSA certification test at the conclusion of the event” (Strawn, IART Executive Director) “Having the advantage of several days of training with top professionals has proven to be a winning scenario for those who test at the symposium”.
Comments (6)
Great additions Tim, its good to see that more and more companies recognise the importance of stringers to the various racquet sports.
Tim,
Couldn’t agreed more with Davids statement. Great additions to the sponsorship levels just goes to show you that the industry is waking up to the importance of both the organization as well as its members to the masses of the racket sports participants. Can’t wait to get there this should be the best Symposium ever!!
Looking forward to seeing you again this year Randy. Was disappointed to hear that Mantis couldn’t make it but I have managed to fill the void with 4 new sponsors. See you in September.
Just contacted by another potential sponsor yesterday. Hopeful that they join us and will announce as soon as any commitment is made!
Tim,
Awesome job! Thank you for all the hard work you put in to this year after year, it shows. The connections we can make with the vendors are very worth while for them and us. The symposium has previously opened my mind to brands I had never considered, it has also helped me to give companies 2nd chances. I think a company that is serious about tennis would be very foolish not to have a presence at the symposium
Tug
Our sponsors have increased in number over the last several years and we have several that are on the list of “usual suspects” each year. I always encourage everyone to offer their full support for the sponsors during the event to show our appreciation for what they do. This year we have several newcomers that are going to add a completely different spin to the symposium and I predict that there will be some nice surprises from the new kids on the block!