A new event organizer is visiting your city/community to do a site-visit, review dates and discuss logistics and fees.
These are twelve (12) questions every CVB/Sports Commission should be prepared to answer:
1. What are facility rental fees and is financial support offered for a first time event? Does CVB/Sports Commission have a grant program? Or perhaps assist with securing discounts on facility rental fees? Is there a bonus paid for reaching pre-determined number of room pick-ups? For one year, or longer?
2. Has there been another event organizer/tournament on this particular weekend? If so, why are they no longer hosting an event this weekend?
3. What other large events or festivals are scheduled the same weekend (or week) that might have an effect on hotel availability and getting around the community easily?
4. Is there another established event or tournament, in the same sport, within 60 miles that may be competing against Event Organizer...
Now that we are full speed ahead into 2018, it is easy to get wrapped up in event planning, preparing bids, site tours, and tradeshows. However, it is important to look back on everything you accomplished in 2017. There is no better way to recap your 2017 than submitting an entry for an NASC Member Award. On behalf of the NASC Awards Committee, I invite you to submit an entry or nomination by the Friday, February 23rd deadline.
The Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau was honored to be named the 2015 Sports Tourism Organization of the Year (Population Under 250,000). The positive outcomes of submitting and receiving the award were much greater than we imagined. Below are a few of these positive outcomes.
Industry Recognition – Free publicity is excellent and free publicity in front of a target audience is even better. We were fortunate enough to be recognized in front of peers at NASC Sports Event Symposium, in the NASC Playbook, NASC website, national sports tourism...
I know I am a little early talking about a New Year’ Resolution---let me get through the Holidays enjoying the plethora of Sweets and endless Parties with all that delicious food. After all of that I will then come up with and announce my 2018 Resolution to shave some pounds knowing that it will be September before I will hit my goal.
My resolution that I want to announce today is that I will make it a Priority to dig deeper in my personal relationships with our facility partners.
We (Sean Robison on our staff and I), as I am sure that your destinations do as well, have turnover from time to time in our Parks and Recreation Departments. To be honest, they are not always public about the change or the new hire. In some cases, we found out through another source of the change. We have several different Park and Recreation Departments in our various communities, but they play a key component in hosting tournaments and events here in Dayton and Montgome...
Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton has made headlines lately, not just for his play on the field, but for his complaints to the NFL Commissioner off the field. Newton, a strong and mobile quarterback, has been hit hard this season, with few if any penalties called for the hits. He’s said he “doesn’t feel safe” on the field anymore, an issue he and his team have brought up to Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The continuing discussion on when, or if, football is ever played safety was brought up again in a recent article in The Atlantic. The article quotes Christopher Whitlow, chief of neuroradiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, who wanted to see how head impact affects developing brains. His team studied male football players between ages 8 and 13 over the course of a season, recording “head impact data” using a Head Impact Telemetry System to measure force, which was correlated with video of games and practices.
The findings, publ...
Community partners for you can come in many forms. They could be board members, advisory board members, universities, hoteliers, downtown alliance groups, professional teams, facility owners, volunteers, sponsors, etc. The one thing they need to have in common is the buy into your organization’s mission and vision. With this buy-in, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to understand and navigate political landscapes, fundraise, accomplish organizational goals and take your organization to new heights. Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Most of your community partners’ primary business is not tourism, but their willingness to help and understand tourism’s contribution to the community is what makes them unique.
Most sports commissions or sports tourism departments are very small staffs, which lead to lots of travel, long hours and many weekend events. All of this ...
As a rights holder or event site manager, you are very familiar with the rules and regulations of holding an event, as well as the insurance and liability coverage that you need to follow to make sure the event goes off smoothly. As a matter of course, most events are required to have medical personnel on site, in case of injury.
Often, the medical provider will also be listed as a sponsor of the event. But how do you know that the medical personnel on hand are the ones who can treat the young athlete?
According to a 2014 ESPN sports poll, more than 87 percent of parents worry about their children getting hurt while playing sports. Injuries, from a knee scrape to more serious fractures and tears, are not uncommon in youth sports. Getting the proper treatment quickly is important, both for the athlete and for you as the event provider.
In a recent ESPNW article, “Helping your athlete kids recover from injury the right way,” author (and mom) Sharon Van Epps shares a ...
If there is a universal complaint heard from many event organizers, it’s this one:
“No one ever comes to cover my event.”
You can fill in the blank as to who “no one” is—local newspaper, television stations, etc. Truth be told, it doesn’t matter who that media entity may be. There is a good chance, unless you’re holding a national or state championship or a huge community event (think marathon weekends), the media coverage is more than likely to be sparse.
Why is this?
The quick answer is, media doesn’t operate the way it used to.
The longer answer is, most media outlets have fewer people feeding more media channels. That means whatever story they’ve been assigned to do, they have to contribute a report to the ‘traditional’ media (TV newscast, print newspaper) as well as to the website and social media channels. So they’re doing a lot more with one story. That leaves little time to cover severa...
We’ve quoted from a number of articles and columns talking about how coaches can better serve their athletes. Now, there’s an article (aimed at soccer parents, but applicable to just about anyone) on how parents can better serve their own kids.
From the Institute for Soccer Parenting comes an article by former college and pro soccer player Skye Eddy Bruce, “Immediately Become a Better Soccer Parent by Asking This Question.” In the article, she talks about the ride home with her daughter after a loss. She starts the conversation by saying, “I love watching you play.” And then, the rest of the ride was filled with talk about what went right in the game, and what went wrong—talking, basically about the results.
She admits in the article that she went about the conversation in the opposite way she feels she should have. “Instead of focusing on winning (or not winning) I should have been focused on development,” she said. After tha...
With the NFL now in full swing this week, it’s a good time to highlight some of the initiatives the NFL has in place to get kids active and eating right. In fact, you may have seen one of these programs in action if you attended an NFL pre-season game this summer.
Probably the most visible is the “NFL Play 60” program, which is really the umbrella title for several youth initiatives, including Fuel Up to Play 60, an in-school program emphasizing good nutrition along with activity; NFL Punt, Pass & Kick, the long-time national skills competition for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 15; and NFL Flag Football, a youth football league for boys and girls ages 5-17.
NFL Flag Football partners with recreation commissions in cities around the country to form leagues—at last count, more than a thousand leagues across the country. The highlight of the year for many of these teams is playing at halftime during an NFL game—and many were able to do ju...
As most schools are now back in session (and on the heels of the Little League World Series), columnist Dan Shanoff on ESPNW.com offers some back to school tips for families who have student-athletes returning to the court or the field this fall.
The article, “10 back-to-school tips for sports parents,” offers obvious and not-so-obvious suggestions to help families and their students enjoy games and activities together. Among the reminders are:
1) Remember the first rule of sports parenting: Your kid isn’t LeBron James. Rec league and even travel-league play should be about working hard, listening to coaches, being a good teammate and having fun.
2) Encourage your kid to play more than one sport. Coaches, and even parents, can argue the one-sport specialist advantages all day, and there are those players who can play the same sport 12 months out of the year and not get bored or...