Need pricing help? What about social media? Finding sponsors?
The lineup for this year’s PRI Education program is bound to include a seminar that can offer ideas to launch your business into 2025.

Shiny new racing products that fill the aisles of the PRI Show may attract tens of thousands to Indianapolis every December for the annual motorsports trade show, but there is so much more available than solely adding new product lines and services. In fact, tailored business advice from industry experts—which could cost hundreds of dollars per session outside of the Show—is available free of charge to PRI Show attendees. Take a look at this thoughtfully curated lineup of PRI Education seminars for this year and make plans to add some of these to your Map Your Show itinerary, or on the PRI App, to bring home fresh ideas to quickly implement into your business.

Sponsorship Guidance

Just the word alone—sponsorship—piques the interests of both racers and marketing professionals alike. PRI will present two seminars this year to guide racers in their quest for sponsor dollars and how to form lasting relationships, plus offer tips for those on the receiving end of those sponsorship requests.
To guide racers as they convert their requests into monetary support, sponsorship expert Ken Ungar of CHARGE will present, “Customizing Sponsorship Decks: Dialing in the Perfect Pitch to Find Sponsors.” He will lead an engaging seminar on Thursday, December 12, that focuses on the crucial skill of tailoring sponsorship decks to attract sponsors in the motorsports industry.
This dynamic session will equip attendees with cutting-edge strategies to create compelling, personalized sponsorship decks that resonate with target partners. Ungar will share his sponsorship experience, offering invaluable insights into topics including decoding sponsor expectations: identify the critical elements sponsors seek in your deck; strategic alignment: master the art of researching and aligning with sponsors’ objectives; and value proposition refinement: learn techniques to reframe your deck, personalizing the value proposition for each potential sponsor.
“You probably wouldn’t visit a restaurant with only one item on the menu,” said Ungar. “Just like you want choices that suit your appetite, sponsors want solutions that address their exact needs. That’s why customizing a sponsorship deck to a sponsor’s objectives is so important.”
This seminar is perfect for motorsports professionals seeking to secure new sponsorships, experienced teams looking to refine their sponsorship strategies, and marketing managers aiming to enhance their proposal techniques.

Returning to the PRI Education lineup is marketing and sponsorship guru Alex Striler, who will present “Sponsorship 101: Why Brands Sponsor and What They Want” on Friday, December 13. He will share what drivers and teams need to know about the business of sponsorship. This session is one of Striler’s most popular seminars at PRI and covers why brands sponsor and what they expect from representation.
Striler will explain how to meet new sponsors, when to send a deck and when to send a proposal (and what the differences are between the two), how companies measure ROI, and how you and your team can generate value for them—even when you’re not racing.
If you’re wondering how to find sponsors and what to offer them, or if you have ever sent out a deck or proposal and didn’t get a return call, then this session is for you. It starts with the basics of how sponsorships have changed today and covers everything you need to know about finding, retaining, and renewing sponsors.
Social media coach Megan Meyer will join Striler at the end of the seminar and will outline the latest best practices for creating value through today’s rapidly changing social media platforms. This session is intended for racers, but always draws marketing directors who want to learn new ways to work with teams. Arrive early, as this session fills quickly and has been standing-room-only for the last three years.

Best Practices

Learn online advertising best practices and tips from Bryan Robb, who is a 20-plus-years veteran in digital advertising on Thursday, December 12. During “Online Advertising Lessons Learned & Best Practices,” he will show what his company, Digital Throttle, has learned from the major digital platforms such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and more. This will be a detail-filled seminar with downloads, handouts, and examples from specific and recent online advertising campaigns.
You can expect to learn about how to set up reporting, conversion tracking, audience ad targeting, keyword research, and ad designs. Robb will also show real examples of using AI (artificial intelligence) tools like Chat GPT and Copilot in your online advertising.
This is a tactical session where you will leave with several action steps you can immediately apply to your marketing plans.
Digital marketing has so many choices and technologies. Unfortunately, all these choices can lead to a big time expense while you learn or experiment. Robb’s goal is to save you time and money by helping you avoid common digital advertising mistakes.

Another important business topic is pricing, so PRI Education veteran presenter Rich Barsamian of Advanced Clutch Technology and Eugene Zelek Jr. will offer “Pricing Policies: Everything You Wanted to Know but Didn’t Know Who to Ask.” This Thursday seminar will provide an in-depth look at how to effectively protect your company’s investments in R&D, engineering, sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support by implementing the right pricing policies. Attendees will gain valuable insights into strategies that help prevent resale price erosion and foster stronger relationships with distributors and resellers.
Three key takeaways for attendees include effective methods to prevent or combat resale price erosion, understanding the flexibility allowed by the law in pricing strategies, and identifying which pricing alternatives work best in specific business scenarios.
Friday’s Education programming kicks off with the return of Women in Motorsports. Moderated by Jeanette DesJardins of CarChix, this year’s panelists include Megan Meyer, who will share her insights about social media and sponsorships, which she has learned over the years with her drag racing career; Victoria Thomas, co-owner of Kelly-Moss Motorsports, the winningest team in Porsche history; Madison Conrad, EFI calibration technician at Roush Yates Engines; and more to be announced.

Social media, and how to navigate those ever-changing algorithms, are always hot topics at the PRI Show. Jennifer Cario returns with “Facebook & Instagram 2024: Work Smarter, Not Harder.” Join her on Friday, December 13, when she will reveal how you can spend less time on your social media marketing and see a higher engagement. Really, it can happen.

Tech Help

Tech-focused presentations are also on the docket, including Dan Agnew’s “Using Multi-physics Simulation to Optimize Your Camshaft,” on Thursday. Agnew will show how modern computer simulations can speed up the development process, save you money, and increase your understanding about what’s going on in your engine. These CAE tools can be applied to most anything, but this seminar will focus on camshaft development, where he will simulate hundreds of dyno runs in a very short time, then carry that information forward to an engine calibration that must manage a variable timing camshaft.

Dan Begle and Randy Neal will return for their ever-popular tech presentation on Friday, and will be joined by Kevin Feeney. In “Shake, Rattle and Roll 2.0,” they will bring new data/illustrations on fastener clamp load effect on clamping components. Engine bearing seizure data, internal oil flow from bearing/ bore distortion, along with block and crankshaft harmonics will also be covered. Plus, they will end their session with a Q&A panel discussion that also features Jon Kaase and Tim Wilkerson.
Two tuning seminars are on tap this year with The Tuning School’s Bob Morreale returning to share “Unlocking Power with Modern Tuning Techniques” on Friday, and Elite Tuned School’s Mike Carnahan presenting his “GM Gen 5 LTX Tuning Seminar” on Saturday.
With the rapidly growing popularity of sim racing, Asetek’s André Eriksen will lead “How the Right Simulator Setup Can Give You Advantages On Track,” which will take place Saturday morning.
Crossing the lines of technology and business, motorsports PR expert and SAE Southern California representative Dean Case will be joined by BOOSTane’s Ian Lehn for “SAE: Building the Future of Motorsports via Business-Academia Collaborations,” for a Saturday lunchtime session.

For the complete PRI Education schedule at the 2024 PRI Show, visit here.