Harry Rogue, World executives Digest | There’s nothing wrong with sportsmanship and a little bit of friendly competition; in fact, sports events are a huge social booster, regardless of whether you’re playing with colleagues or friends. As a sports events planner, you’ll have many things on the table to consider and you’ll have to start somewhere. Here’s a brief tutorial that won’t make you a sporting event expert, but will hopefully get the gears turning and grab your interest.
Always be mindful of time
Under no circumstances should games be cut short. Not ever! On the other hand, organizing a full-time basketball or soccer match might not be such a great idea – the required endurance here is doubtlessly well beyond what the majority of the participants would be able to handle. As a rule of thumb, every game should be long enough for the players to break a sweat, but not much longer than that.
If talking about a tournament-style competition, organizing matches for teams that didn’t advance goes without saying – the losing teams still deserve attention.
Finally, always plan for an event to last for at least an hour beyond what was planned – delays are to be expected and you don’t want to be pressured into cutting the last game or set of rounds short – no one is a fan of this.
Injuries present a real risk
The fact that out-of-shape competitors are a regular thing on sporting events only increases the risk of injury. The fact that the participants might not be able to engage into high-intensity pacing and movement doesn’t mean that you can rest easier – out-of-shape people tend to get injured much easier than those who regularly engage in sports activities.
As an event organizer, you should definitely make it a standard requirement for all the participants or their parents to sign a waiver of liability when signing up for the event. Feel free to mention this during their application process, as you’re much better off losing customers than you are undergoing a lawsuit.
On the other hand, even with a signed waiver, you should still have medical personnel on standby. These experts can easily identify and treat regular illnesses and ailments, such as heat strokes, dehydration and take care of people with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes or asthma.
Organization and flexibility
As you might have already realized, planning a sporting event requires a good organization. You are in charge and you’re the one who needs to do a vast majority of, well, everything.
This being said, in addition to timing, you need to think about leaving some wiggle room. For what? Well, for whatever comes unexpectedly knocking at your event’s door. Keep in mind that everything can go wrong – the weather can go berserk, an unexpected traffic jam might prevent people from coming, some resources might fail to hold up to their end of the bargain, etc.
There is no real advice here, other than “learn to expect everything and you won’t be half as surprised”. As a sports event organizer, it is expected of you to be both organized and flexible.
Rewards
Keep in mind that your competitors will definitely appreciate some form of acknowledgement. Of course, handing out trophies and medals to only the top competitors isn’t a great idea. For example, getting creative with soccer trophies will make everyone’s day a tad brighter – “consolation prizes” for best sportsmanship, the top participant and even for having the most fun are great ideas! Make sure that you include a wide variety of rewards for various activities.
Marketing
Yes, this is necessary! Your best bet is using a combo of social media and face-to-face marketing for promoting this type of event. This means sharing the event on social media and asking people to share further, but also reaching out to professional coaches and instructors – this is networking at its finest!
These sporting event tips will merely help get you going; if you want sports event planning to become a reality for you, you’ll have to get familiarized with all the ropes – and the best way to learn is from experience! Plan ahead when it comes to injuries, be mindful of time (but always be flexible), be thorough in terms of organization and marketing, and come up with an entertaining rewards system!
