397: Chris Hammond | Booking Talent for Wynn Las Vegas

A native of Lexington, KY, Chris graduated cum laude from the Duke University in 1995 with a degree in Public Policy Studies. A leader on the varsity baseball team at Duke, Chris was one of only a handful of Duke student-athletes to earn All-ACC Academic honors 4 straight years. Upon graduation Chris moved to Florida and took a position with the Montreal Expos as General Manager of Montreal’s Class A minor league team, the West Palm Beach Expos. At age 22, Chris was the youngest active GM in professional baseball. Chris left the Expos for the dotcom world in late 1997 and took a position an e-commerce software startup in Las Vegas. From 1997 to its Nasdaq IPO in 2000, Chris was responsible for sales and development in the Southeastern US for PurchasePro. From 2000 to 2002 Chris moved to Las Vegas and assumed the Director of Strategic Alliances position with responsibilities of developing and managing domestic partnerships & international distribution channels in Singapore, Turkey, Belgium and Italy. Eventually, Chris decided to get out of the software sphere and follow his two passions – Wine & Music. In early 2003, with the help of business partner Sonny Barton, Rock 'n Roll Wine® was born. A pioneer in the de-mystification of wine, Rock 'n Roll Wine has produced over 400 wine and live music events/concerts in 6 states over the past 17 years. In 2007 Chris was named one of the 40 under 40 business entrepreneurs by In Business magazine. And in 2006, the company started their own Sonoma based winery under the RnR Wine brand. The company’s Wine Amplified Festival which ran from 2006 to 2015 was the world's premiere interactive and innovative wine tasting & music festival credited with revolutionizing the way millennials perceive, taste and enjoy wine & music. In early 2018, Chris began buying talent for AEG Presents in addition to RnR Wine. Chris books shows at The Joint at the Hard Rock (soon to be re-branded as Virgin Hotel) and various properties in the Las Vegas Valley with a primary focus on the 1,480 capacity Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas. In 2019, the Encore Theater is pacing to sell over 130k tickets and generate 10's of millions in top line revenue -- arguably making it the the highest grossing <2000 capacity theater in the world -- and in the top 25 of all theaters under 10,000 capacity. Chris lives in Las Vegas, NV with his wife Dr. Kim Hammond, an elementary school principal, and their two children Chloe (15) and Kaden (12). Chris’ father, Tom, is a retired 4-time Emmy Award winning sports broadcaster for NBC Sports. Episode Highlights: Chris shares about his experiences growing up and how he got involved in the world of baseball. Discover how Bill Gates' book caused Chris to pull a 180 in his career. Hear about the genesis of Chris' wine/music business. Learn what you need to build connections. 3 Key Points: If you want a successful business, you have to create a real solution. Focus on the customer and address their concerns. Developing expertise is important to building critical relationships. Tweetable Quote: "If you establish your reputation as the expert the "who" will come." Resources Mentioned: wynnlasvegas.com rnrwine.com Visit Travis’ website at https://create.acast.com/episodes/3b48e6da-a672-4e83-9897-ddefc4e88bc7/travischappell.com (travischappell.com) Join the Build Your Network Facebook group https://create.acast.com/episodes/3b48e6da-a672-4e83-9897-ddefc4e88bc7/travischappell.com/group (travischappell.com/group) If you want to amplify your network... For information regarding your data privacy, visit https://www.acast.com/privacy (acast.com/privacy)

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