I’ve been fortunate to work a handful of conference events while at Michigan, McNeese and now Utah State. I’ve worked the Big Ten Field Hockey, Women’s Gymnastics and Men’s Swimming tournaments, the Southland Conference Softball tournament, the MRGC Gymnastics meet and in a few days the Mountain West Track and Field Meet.
The opportunity to work a conference event is one I’d highly recommend to anyone who has the chance to do so. It’s different than working a regular sporting event your school hosts in several different ways.
Your school is the host site but it needs to be transformed into a neutral site. In terms of music, PA’s, promos etc. it all needs to be conference themed and not your institution.
Hosting conference meets also gives you the opportunity to meet and network with other industry professionals who work at other schools and at the conference office. After exchanging emails with some of these people it’s nice to have the opportunity to put a face and voice behind the emails you’ve been sent.
With Utah State hosting the Mountain West Track & Field meet next week I’ve gotten to be exposed to a lot of the work that goes into making these events run smoothly. There were bi-monthly meetings that turned into weekly meetings with our staff who’ll be involved with making sure that the meet runs smoothly. Additionally there have been conference calls with the Mountain West office.
Since Track and Field is one of my sports for marketing I’ve been busy the past few months putting together a marketing plan to promote the event to our fans and creating a marketing plan to execute during the actual meet.
After enjoying my previous experiences working conference events it’s been really neat to have my role and responsibilities increase for the upcoming Mountain West Track and Field meet to help make it run smoothly.