Attending the SCACA Trade Show 2026

Attending the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association (SCACA) Conference during my second trip as a Daktronics Technical Sales Intern was an invaluable experience, especially when it comes to understanding the way that the high school market functions and contrasting it to the way that sales interactions occur at the college level. Also, at SCACA, I took a more active role at the show than I had previously been able to, assisting in several areas and becoming more engaged in lead gathering opportunities.

During the show hours for SCACA, I was able to increase my level of customer engagement, often being the first point of contact for potential customers and gathering basic information before passing them off to a more experienced salesperson, like Gail Olson or Matt Lundberg, so that I could focus on learning the more detail-oriented aspects of the job through observation. In addition to assisting with potential scoreboard and video board customers, I also demonstrated the All Sport Pro software on several occasions, something that was very relevant to my internship in particular as the All Sport system has been a major focus for me thus far.

Outside of the show hours for SCACA, I was tasked with creating custom content for the large display we brought to the show. For SCACA, I used Daktronics software to create content which highlights Daktronics projects in the state of South Carolina. This was an extremely effective way to demonstrate Daktronics’ presence in the state of South Carolina and caught the attention of several potential customers. Also, being given a level of creative freedom in what content played on the large display we brought SCACA allowed me to run a wide range of content at different times to maximize its effectiveness. Switching between informative content, regional custom content, entertaining content, and content which highlighted the color range and resolution of our screen proved to be an effective generator of interest, especially during less busy times at the show.

Overall, this trip has proved an invaluable experience, as I was both able to learn a great deal about high school level sales operations, as well as demonstrate a greater level of capability and involvement in the sales process.

- Haynes Whorley, Technical Sales Intern, University of Alabama, Aerospace Engineering Major