Registration opens 9/12/2025

My Career in Sports Media

Conversation with Marc Appleman

Marc's career in sports media featured early adaptation to emerging technologies and new media. Along the way, he met many interesting sports personalities, reporters, broadcasters, league and media executives and entrepreneurs. This presentation will include anecdotal memories of groundbreaking launches, interactions with interesting sports figures and behind-the-scenes details from major games and events. 

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Marc started out out as a sportswriter at the Los Angeles Times and went on to hold high-profile positions at ESPN, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Fox Sports, AOL’s Sports Channel, and he served as the CEO of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). He also authored two books: Dad, Are You Pumped? A Father-Son Baseball Odyssey, and Joe Montana, a Sports Illustrated for Kids biography. 

Questions? Email Michael Sobol.

Registration opens 10/11/2025

Economic and Market Forecasts 

Michael Farr – President/Founder, Farr, Miller & Washington; Chief Market Strategist, Hightower Advisors; CNBC Contributor

Michael Farr will deliver his insights into current market conditions and a forecast of the probable, plausible, and possible paths forward. The economy has changed dramatically, and investors are presented with new opportunities as well as new threats. Michael's message is that Discipline, Diversification, and Patience are the watchwords as you forge your investment future.

Questions? Email Michael Sobol.

Goodbye Walter Cronkite

The Media has Changed

Registration Opens 11/08/2025

It is not just your imagination.  The media has gone through a dramatic transformation since the days when Walter Cronkite was widely considered “the most trusted man in America” and when Simon and Garfunkel sang: “There’s no times at all: Just the New York Times.”

Gail MarksJarvis, who has been a prominent journalist in newspapers, TV and radio for more than four decades, explains what has changed and what hasn’t, how journalists make decisions and grapple with personal opinions when covering the news, the angst within newsrooms that is driving change, and what to expect in the future as old media appears headed into its twilight years.

Questions? Email Michael Sobol.

Registration opens 12/12/2025

My Career as an NFL Referee

How I got to the NFL, a typical week for a referee, equipment we used, highlights, stories and videos from my career, as well as comments on the recent SuperBowl.

Ft. Myers attorney Jeffrey Rice, who has been moonlighting as an NFL referee for 25 years, hung up his whistle for the final time after last Sunday’s Pro Bowl.

Over the past 25 years, Rice has officiated more than 400 NFL games and been granted 24 postseason assignments, including four Super Bowls and four Pro Bowls. Postseason officiating crews are considered the league’s top game officials. Rice is one of only 105 officials to work a Super Bowl game, and one of just 16 who have worked three or more Super Bowls, including two of the closest championship games in NFL history.

Questions? Email Michael Sobol.

Electric Vehicles:

The Road Ahead 

Registration opens 1/8/26

Dr. Peter Michael

FGCU Emergent Technologies Institute

Hear from an expert about the current status and what the future holds for electric vehicles. Learn about EV technology and capabilities, research and development, government regulation, and the economics of electric vehicles. 

Learn also about FGCU's Emergent Technologies Institute, a research and development complex opened in Fort Myers in 2016 to support interdisciplinary research, graduate education, and technology development.

Peter Michael is an Instructor and Research Associate at FGCU's Emergent Technologies Institute, specializing in renewable energy development. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida.   He moved to Florida following a long career at Science Applications International Corporation (SIAC) and its successor company, Leidos, where he held positions as a Solutions Architect and Principal Engineer.

Cancellation Policy: No refund if cancellation is within 7 days of the event.

Questions? Email Michael Sobol.

 The Nobel Prize and its many Jewish Awardees 

Registration opens 2/16/26

MCA Member Steve Yussen

Swedish engineer, entrepreneur, and inventor, Alfred Nobel, set up an endowment to recognize outstanding contributions to mankind, with the first awards conferred after his death, in 1901, in five different fields, and more awards conferred in a 6th field (Economics) since the 1960s. 

As of 2024, it is estimated that over 200 Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish. This number represents approximately 20% of all Nobel laureates, despite Jews constituting less than 0.2% of the world's population.

Steve considers those outcomes, the award itself, its history, controversies, and the impact of some of its prominent Jewish awardees in different fields.

Steve Yussen earned his bachelors degree in psychology at Swarthmore College, his Ph.D. In developmental psychology at the University of Minnesota, and had a career spanning 48 years as a Professor,, teaching, conducting research in cognitive development, memory, and reading, and serving as an administrator at 3 universities, UW- Madison, U of Iowa, and the University of Minnesota, where he retired in 2020. 

Cancellation Policy: No refund if cancellation is within 7 days of the event.

Questions? Email Michael Sobol.