Athletic departments attending NACDA26 will experience firsthand how Impulse turns live event moments into first-party audience relationships, sponsor deliverables, and measurable engagement at scale.
LAS VEGAS — Live events have always been one of the most direct ways colleges and universities connect with recruits, donors, fans, and alumni. What has historically been harder to capture is what happens after the event ends. Impulse is changing that.
The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and Impulse today announced a partnership for the 2026 NACDA & Affiliates Convention in Las Vegas. Impulse will power the NACDA26 Photo Hub, delivering real-time event photos directly to attendees throughout the Convention while demonstrating how the platform can support audience engagement, sponsorship activation, and first-party data capture across collegiate athletics programs.
Attendees will receive personalized event photos through a frictionless mobile experience that requires no app download. From the moment a guest registers, Impulse matches them to every photo captured throughout the event and delivers them via SMS and Instagram within 60 seconds. The result is an instant, branded content moment that drives organic sharing while capturing consented first-party data that syncs directly into any CRM.
"We're always looking for ways to help attendees better experience, relive, and share the moments and relationships that make NACDA events so special. The NACDA26 Photo Hub creates a simple and engaging way for attendees to access and share their experiences while helping us continue to elevate the overall event experience."
Pat Manak, Chief Executive Officer, NACDA
The NACDA Convention brings together thousands of athletics administrators from programs at every level of collegiate athletics. For many of these organizations, the activation at NACDA26 will be the first time they experience what real-time engagement infrastructure looks like in practice: instant photo delivery, branded content, live messaging, sponsor integration, and audience data captured in a single unified platform.
For athletics departments, the applications extend well beyond Conventions. The same platform that powers the NACDA26 Photo Hub supports recruiting events, donor experiences, game day fan engagement, NIL initiatives, and campus brand activations. Programs that have historically relied on impressions and anecdotal feedback now have access to verified opt-in data, measurable engagement, and real-time content delivery tied directly to their audience.
"Collegiate athletics is one of the most relationship-driven environments in sports, and yet most programs still leave their biggest events without meaningful data or a direct communication channel with the people in the room. NACDA26 brings together exactly the people working to change that, and we couldn't be more excited to be part of it. We built Impulse to help organizations turn every live experience into a persistent audience relationship, and we're looking forward to bringing that to the administrators who shape how those moments happen across campuses and game days nationwide."
Brandon Berman, Co-Founder, Impulse
The platform consistently captures first-party data from more than 70% of event attendees, including contact information, consent, and CRM-ready records from people who are actively engaged, not passively present. Guests who receive their photos instantly are three times more likely to share them, turning every delivery into organic social amplification at the moment excitement peaks.
About NACDA
Now in its 61st year, NACDA is the professional and educational Association for more than 24,000 college athletics administrators at more than 2,300 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. NACDA manages 19 professional associations and four foundations. In addition to virtual programming, NACDA hosts and/or has a presence at seven major professional development events in-person annually. The NACDA & Affiliates Convention is the largest gathering of collegiate athletics administrators in the country. For more information, visit www.nacda.com.
About Impulse
Impulse is an experiential technology platform that transforms live events into measurable performance marketing engines. The platform combines AI-powered facial recognition, instant photo delivery, multi-channel messaging, CRM integration, and real-time analytics into a single infrastructure layer that connects live experiences to owned audience relationships. Impulse has supported events for Pro Sports Assembly, Campari, LVMH, Heineken, Rare Beauty, Shoptalk, and the Genesis Invitational, among others.
Media Contact
Brandon Berman, Co-Founder
Impulse
brandon@impulse-interactive.com
