Sports, entertainment exec now in Festival spotlight

Josh Ripple has been around the sports and entertainment block. You might say he’s done a few laps.

Ripple is a former college tennis coach and pro tennis agent who later became president of the Women’s Tennis Association. His résumé also includes producing live TV figure skating and beach volleyball events and a sports agent reality show before serving as an entertainment executive for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on the Strip.

Now at 55, Ripple, of Las Vegas, might have his most intriguing position of all — chief operating officer of Life Is Beautiful, the three-day music/art/culinary/learning festival in downtown Las Vegas set for Oct. 24-26.

In some ways, his new post is an amalgamation of his previous jobs, such as negotiating sponsorship deals, hiring talent, identifying revenue streams and creating high-level viability for an event.

“It touches everything I have done in my career. The nuance is being able to have exposure to a new set of visionaries,” said Ripple, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native.

He’s reunited with with his former Cosmopolitan pal, Rehan Choudhry, founder of Life Is Beautiful. Zappos CEO/Downtown Partnership guru Tony Hsieh is also a Life Is Beautiful partner.

Ripple’s new work culture differs vastly from what he knew on the Strip. There are no suits or fancy conference rooms; it’s jeans, T-shirts and an office in the funky Medical Arts Building above The Beat coffeehouse on East Fremont Street downtown.

“It’s the biggest risk departure, frankly, but it offers a different perspective I haven’t had,” Ripple said. “This posed a different twist to it all. My job at The Cosmopolitan was great. I could probably have stayed for a fairly long time in a high-profile entertainment job. They were very fair and good to me, but it lacked that entrepreneurial gritty texture that this offers.”

Question: Are there any lessons you learned while serving as president of the women’s tennis tour that you are applying to your job as chief operating officer of Life Is Beautiful?

Answer: Yes, there are many, but there is probably one best comparison between the organizations. When I arrived at the WTA, it was going through a bit of internal turmoil. They had a great brand, but their structure was challenged by a diverse set of interests — both business and political — as well as a variety of international cultures and priorities which paralyzed them more times than not. Initially, I was very successful in calming and communicating the importance of transparency and trust. That fundamental approach brought us together quickly and attracted new partners to sponsor or create important alliances to catapult the WTA Tour as one of, if not the largest women’s sports entities in the world at that time.

Life Is Beautiful, as a startup, has a smaller, yet similar, situation. Our team and our partners are quite diverse — age, business acumen, strategic focus, etc. I was hired to help take an upstart brand with a team of passionate individuals and build a company around this great idea of inspiring people through vehicles such as our festival.

Question: Both you and Life Is Beautiful founder Rehan Choudhry worked on entertainment deals for major properties on the Strip. What did you find at Life Is Beautiful that you think was missing from your work experiences at a place like The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas?

Answer: The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas was a great place for me to work. For an entertainment person, there’s nothing better than being surrounded with support at all levels, working with really smart people, having a sizable checkbook to build a platform and being a part of arguably the best new brand in Las Vegas. I learned a lot, and I believe they learned from me.

The major difference, and I’ll speak for Rehan as well, is that a company like The Cosmopolitan is large and corporate, and a company like Life Is Beautiful is tiny with a very large heart and opportunity everywhere.

Question: Downtown Las Vegas is in transition and the home to Life Is Beautiful. Why is downtown a good setting for it?

Answer: Downtown Las Vegas is a producer’s dream canvas. You start with a community of individuals and businesses, the city of Las Vegas and congressional representatives that want Life Is Beautiful to be successful. Layer on top of that a physical footprint that affords us the chance to create just about whatever we want. It lends itself incredibly well for stages, art murals, etc.; a historic setting and a destination market that outsiders want to visit; an ownership group that is committed to support the infrastructure and identify new opportunities for us to create event experiences, and the result is a great setting.

Question: How does your Life Is Beautiful work culture compare with those in your past workplaces?

Answer: Life Is Beautiful is a small startup, and with that the work culture is less evolved than in many of my other job experiences. Luckily for me, I have been involved with a few startups, so the flexibility someone must have to stay focused and succeed is already in my DNA.

Question: You’re a George Washington University grad — do you miss the East Coast? What do you miss most?

Answer: I am a Colonial at heart, and I do miss Washington, D.C., a lot. I have said to friends that if I ever moved back East, I’d probably only look at a few cities and D.C. would be one. And I’m a New Yorker, so the first 32 years of my life was primarily rooted East. I came to Los Angeles in the early ’90s, and other than my stint with the WTA, I have stayed in L.A. and Las Vegas.

Question: Do you still play tennis? Who was your favorite tennis player when you were growing up?

Answer: Unfortunately, I really don’t play, and that’s a big bummer. Recently, I’ve been talking big about getting back on the court, but I fear not being able to walk for a few days afterward. As for favorite players, I was really lucky not only to watch many of my idols but work with them in business or at least have an actual interaction with them. Arthur Ashe will always be one human being — both on and off the court — who I will never forget. He made an impact on me. His generation of stars and the Davis Cup team of those days, headed by my ex-boss Donald Dell, that included Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors a few years later, were guys I enjoyed.

Question: Life Is Beautiful offers so many diverse elements. When you pitch companies on sponsorship deals or negotiate agreements, how do you describe the event?

Answer: We’re different from the comp set. As my old Cosmopolitan boss, John Unwin, would say at every staff meeting, you have to “stand out in a sea of sameness.” So, you obviously have to give credit to the guys like Rehan, the team and partners that conceived this festival event not being the same as all other festivals. From the pure festival standpoint, our offering is much different and authentic than other similar category events. People buy tickets because they actually want to experience music, food, art and learning. However, I think our message is most compelling from a core values and mission perspective, and that’s where our value and differentiation resides — we are about making a difference in a person’s life. We believe it, and we attempt to walk the walk in everything we do at Life Is Beautiful. We are one of those privileged businesses that are very for profit but approach our work from a nonprofit perspective.

Question: Life Is Beautiful burst on the scene last year in its debut. Is there pressure to raise the bar this year, especially with the extra day?

Answer: Of course, but the pressure is placed on us by ourselves more than anything. Festivalgoers will participate more in 2014 than last year, and with that it’s guaranteed that the overall experience with be enhanced. For us, it’s all about the experience. Tony Hsieh in his quiet way pushes many of us to remember that nugget of importance. If we can touch someone’s emotion and enhance their lives if only for one or three days during the festival, then we have performed. One of my former colleagues and the founder of the WTA Tour, Billie Jean King, would say, “Pressure is privilege.” If you think about it, Life Is Beautiful has a tremendous privilege to impact lives, and with that I accept the pressure.

Contact Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @BicycleManSnel on Twitter.