As a long-time event director in the sport of footbag, I have hosted events every year for the past 25 years! During that time I have come to a few realizations that I am going to outline on this blog, over several postings.
Promotion vs. Production...
As an event director, you will need to distinguish the differences between Promotion vs. Production.
Promotion happens on several levels, and I will be addressing each of these in future posts as well. Promotion generally happens in advance of an event, where Production mostly happens 'during' the event.
Promotion is easily broken into three parts,
1) Promoting to the athletes to get the competitors to show up.
2) Promoting to the sponsors to offset the costs and hopefully be able to make money on the event.
3) Promoting to Media to make the sponsors happy, and attract spectators to the event.
Production of the event refers to the actual 'doing' of the event, the leg-work per se. Setting up nets (and lines, etc...), sound systems, tents, banners, and all the things that make the event run smoothly, once the event gets started. Most Production items happen on the days before an event, during an event and for a day or two afterward. Some things that are always on my event production checklist are:
Having forms ready to be filled out, having equipment ready to be set up, loading the van (sometimes renting a van). Think about what you need to do AT the event and that all falls under "Production" of an event.
It is also a good idea to send a summary report to all your sponsors individually, letting them know how well the event went, focusing on how well you marketed their brand... how did that particular sponsor benefit from sponsoring your event. I'm not sure if the follow up falls under Production or Promotion, but it still is good form to complete.
Shred notes: 3/1/10
Still not at 100% but getting better. Had some great long strings. Skooled a wide variety of trix but nothing spectacularly unique. Lots of x-body rakes. Used new warm-up strings and got warm really fast.
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Monday, March 1, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Olympic Footbag Experience... '96 Atlanta (Camera Magnets)
When we were invited to Adidas Haus in Atlanta to do footbag demonstrations for the officially sponsored Olympic athletes of Adidas, we were thrilled. It turns out that it may have been the experience of a lifetime!
As the Olympics are about to start tonight in Vancouver, I was thinking about our experience back in 1996, before our son was born. Cory Current was a promising freestyler, we picked him up a few hours late in Chilecothe in the middle of a flood. Cory's uncle lived just outside Atlanta and was willing to put us up in his spare room for the 4 nights we were there. We drove a few miles to a subway each day and took the train into the city. We were surprised to see the bomb-sniffing dogs and military with machine guns as we entered from so far away, but that is what it is like at the olympics. We felt our car should be safe, even though we didn't know the neighborhood.
Oh, a side note, we had a blast at this giant bump near Cory's uncles house. Stone Mountain was the catalyst for our obsession of pin-collecting. At the top of this strange bump in the east side of Atlanta, we met a Japanese guy who was 'crazy for pin-trading' and he saw Valeria's 'Kodak Olympic 1992' pin. He traded us the Nagasaki pin for the '98 Winter Olympics which turns out to be a really good trade, especially since we have another of the Kodak pins still in our collection. We have since expanded into Disney pins, and look forward to another shot at Olympic pin trading. It totally sucks that we didn't win the olympics in Chicago 2016, but it would be nice to go to Rio.
When we got downtown we experienced 'hotlanta' at its best. We got settled at Adidas Haus, a large facility maintained by Adidas for use during the NSGA Trade show and the Olympics. I wonder if it is still there? They had rooms for VIP's, party areas, decks, group meeting rooms and a secure area with all the goods for the athletes downstairs. When we were at Adidas Haus, they would have us playing footbag in the areas where the party was going on. We were the entertainment, and the athletes loved us. The Haus provided us with Adidas clothing, all we could eat in the way of food (as food was otherwise very expensive and not-so-good at the vendors) and we really put on a show. It was where we first crossed paths with David Hasselhoff, and where we had previously held the World Cup in our hands, and met soccer greats Alexi Lalos and Hans Mueller, but that is another story.
When we went out to the public areas of the Olympics and shredded, we were met with stares of amazement from onlookers of all cultures. More importantly we were video camera magnets. I estimate we were shown on tv in over 30 countries, because every time we shredded in a public place, the video cameras from around the world would come to us and shoot from all angles, and we could see in their eyes the appreciation for the coordination and athletic prowess we showed in such a unique and unknown sport. One of the places we kicked was in front of the Swatch booth, just a day before the bomb went off.
We drove home and when we got home is when we heard about the bomb going off. What a bummer, because it was the greatest experience until then. I bet after we left, the whole vibe of international coolness was gone, not because we left but because of the unknown bomber and the thoughts that maybe it wasn't an isolated incident.
Thanks to my wife Valeria for encouraging me for all these years, to Cory Current for coming with us, to Cory's uncle for housing us, and to John Stalberger for making the Adidas contact for us in the first place.
Shred notes: 2/12/10
Tons of swirls and butterfly swirls today. Strange how some tricks are sooooo much harder than others of lower add value. Case in point, 'spinning cross body rake' is 4 adds, but soooo much harder than the 'spinning butterfly rake' which is 5 adds. A strong argument for giving add values in the tenths so we can have a 4.9 up against a 5.0 (a difficult 4 would balance better against an easy 5).
As the Olympics are about to start tonight in Vancouver, I was thinking about our experience back in 1996, before our son was born. Cory Current was a promising freestyler, we picked him up a few hours late in Chilecothe in the middle of a flood. Cory's uncle lived just outside Atlanta and was willing to put us up in his spare room for the 4 nights we were there. We drove a few miles to a subway each day and took the train into the city. We were surprised to see the bomb-sniffing dogs and military with machine guns as we entered from so far away, but that is what it is like at the olympics. We felt our car should be safe, even though we didn't know the neighborhood.
Oh, a side note, we had a blast at this giant bump near Cory's uncles house. Stone Mountain was the catalyst for our obsession of pin-collecting. At the top of this strange bump in the east side of Atlanta, we met a Japanese guy who was 'crazy for pin-trading' and he saw Valeria's 'Kodak Olympic 1992' pin. He traded us the Nagasaki pin for the '98 Winter Olympics which turns out to be a really good trade, especially since we have another of the Kodak pins still in our collection. We have since expanded into Disney pins, and look forward to another shot at Olympic pin trading. It totally sucks that we didn't win the olympics in Chicago 2016, but it would be nice to go to Rio.
When we got downtown we experienced 'hotlanta' at its best. We got settled at Adidas Haus, a large facility maintained by Adidas for use during the NSGA Trade show and the Olympics. I wonder if it is still there? They had rooms for VIP's, party areas, decks, group meeting rooms and a secure area with all the goods for the athletes downstairs. When we were at Adidas Haus, they would have us playing footbag in the areas where the party was going on. We were the entertainment, and the athletes loved us. The Haus provided us with Adidas clothing, all we could eat in the way of food (as food was otherwise very expensive and not-so-good at the vendors) and we really put on a show. It was where we first crossed paths with David Hasselhoff, and where we had previously held the World Cup in our hands, and met soccer greats Alexi Lalos and Hans Mueller, but that is another story.
When we went out to the public areas of the Olympics and shredded, we were met with stares of amazement from onlookers of all cultures. More importantly we were video camera magnets. I estimate we were shown on tv in over 30 countries, because every time we shredded in a public place, the video cameras from around the world would come to us and shoot from all angles, and we could see in their eyes the appreciation for the coordination and athletic prowess we showed in such a unique and unknown sport. One of the places we kicked was in front of the Swatch booth, just a day before the bomb went off.
We drove home and when we got home is when we heard about the bomb going off. What a bummer, because it was the greatest experience until then. I bet after we left, the whole vibe of international coolness was gone, not because we left but because of the unknown bomber and the thoughts that maybe it wasn't an isolated incident.
Thanks to my wife Valeria for encouraging me for all these years, to Cory Current for coming with us, to Cory's uncle for housing us, and to John Stalberger for making the Adidas contact for us in the first place.
Shred notes: 2/12/10
Tons of swirls and butterfly swirls today. Strange how some tricks are sooooo much harder than others of lower add value. Case in point, 'spinning cross body rake' is 4 adds, but soooo much harder than the 'spinning butterfly rake' which is 5 adds. A strong argument for giving add values in the tenths so we can have a 4.9 up against a 5.0 (a difficult 4 would balance better against an easy 5).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)