Keep Your Eye On The Moneyball

Pollstar Live!, in association with the North American Concert Promoters Association, is excited to announce that journalist and bestselling author Michael Lewis and Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane will present a truly unique convention keynote, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.”

So what’s baseball got to do with the concert business? Moneyball, if you have not read the book or seen the hit movie of the same name, chronicles how Beane turned a losing team with a small market payroll into consistent winners by applying a new approach to evaluating talent. Beane challenged the normal assumptions of scouting and instead focused on finding undervalued assets to create and sustain a competitive advantage.

Lewis, as he did in his other bestselling books “The Blind Side,” “Boomerang,” “The Big Short” and “Liar’s Poker,” takes a shrewd and often humorous view of the bizarre politics and greedy financial games that are part of the world we live in.

Lewis has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and worked for Solomon Brothers on Wall Street before becoming an author. He is also familiar with the music business having been married for many years to original MTV News reporter Tabitha Soren.

Dealing with high-priced talent with variable abilities to perform up to expectations is a perfect parallel to promoting concerts. The degree of risk is high and the cost of failure can be enormous. Identifying talent, whether it’s signing a pitcher or booking a band, comes with a good deal of uncertainty. The secret is in understanding the true nature of talent and being able to properly evaluate the risks and rewards.

To make sure the discussion stays focused on the personal appearance business, the Moneyball conversation between Lewis and Beane will be moderated by outspoken industry commentator Bob Lefsetz.

Pollstar Live! is being held February 1-3 at the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live.

NACPA, ArenaNetwork, SMG, Venue Coalition and several other industry-related groups will hold private meetings during the day Feb. 1 and the convention’s first event will be the Opening Reception that evening.

The keynote will be the morning of Feb. 2 and kicks off the special convention program that concludes Friday, Feb. 3, with host Chris Hardwick and the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards Party at Club Nokia.