Dr. Lou Marciani is the Director and Co-Founder of the Innovation Institute for Fan Experience. The Innovation Institute’s purpose is to build a global alliance to lead the NEXT great leap in fan experience, on steeped in safety, security and service. The Institute is bound together by passion and the incomparable skills of visionary thought leaders throughout the international community, who along with our technical and subject matter experts, are innovating new ways that address critical safety and security challenges, and change the world’s sports and entertainment fan experience for the better.

Dr. Marciani has led the development of the FANCENTRIC concept, which focuses on innovating an immersive, memory-making fan experience at each step of the fan journey.  The Innovation Institute has created the FANCENTRIC International Conference & Expo, the FANCENTRIC TECH Expo, the COVID TECH Playbook and other podcast series, town halls, the Xperience Consortium, and other FANCENTRIC forums for the sports and entertainment industry.  

Dr. Marciani co-chaired the national Return to Work, Play, and Spectate Task Force, comprised of 98 thought leaders, experts, and advanced practitioners to find ways to help the sports and entertainment industry reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic.  He oversaw the publication of the Principles to Guide the Return to Work, Play, and Spectate.  The IIFX Xperience Consortium has also published Enhancing the Fan Experience: Optimizing Operations with Technology Solutions for Sports & Entertainment Venues.  

Prior to co-founding the Institute, Marciani served as the first director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) at the University of Southern Mississippi since 2006.

Under Dr. Marciani’s dedicated leadership, NCS4 has evolved into a highly respected national and international academic leader in the sports, entertainment, and school safety and security industry. His vision, passion, and keen insight has created a global center that serves academic research and scholarship, education, training, industry best practices, and innovative advancement in technology and professional development.

NCS4’s genesis emerged from a 2006 doctoral dissertation about the standards required for effective security management at university sport venues. Building upon this fundamental research, NCS4 is now an international research and education center for sports safety and security. NCS4 collaborates with professional sport leagues and venues, intercollegiate and interscholastic athletics, marathon and endurance events, and international sporting events along with professional associations, private sector firms, and government agencies. Since 2006, Dr. Marciani had attained more than $13 million in federal grants for homeland security.

Dr. Marciani had the world stage envisioned when he expanded USM and NCS4’s global reach by establishing a formal relationship with INTERPOL and its Project STADIA program. Established by INTERPOL in 2012, Project Stadia is a 10-year project to build police capacity for managing international sporting events. INTERPOL Project STADIA selected NCS4 to serve as a research and academic pathfinder to help create police capacity building programs in sports safety and security for INTERPOL’s 194 member nations. Dr. Marciani has lectured at universities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He is a coauthor of the Security Management for Sports and Special Events: An Interagency Approach to Creating Safe Facilitiestextbook.

Under Dr. Marciani’s leadership, NCS4 developed a curriculum to teach police commanders and incident management leaders around the world how to deal with safety and security challenges they face when hosting a major international sporting event. NCS4 has the distinction of creating the first course ever accredited by INTERPOL. NCS4 has taught 131 police commanders from 58 nations since 2017.

Dr. Marciani remained on the cutting-edge of technology through his tenure and proved this by recruiting Fortune 500 global technology corporations to create a Technology Alliance, whose mission is to be the driving force for identifying innovative safety and security solutions. The Technology Alliance members sponsor research in safety and security technologies that will transform sports and entertainment venues and schools for generations to come.

Prior to his academic role, Dr. Marciani had extensive experience in managing several intercollegiate athletic programs and serving the United States Olympic Committee. His sports management experience offered real insight into addressing issues posed by potential and actual threats and risks to the security

Dr. Marciani has dedicated his life to the improvement and evolution of sports management education, safety and security. His groundbreaking efforts reached across the globe and will help shape the future of the security industry.