Survived my first Emirates Western Force Game

I was recently given a great opportunity as marketing intern at RugbyWA (Western Force) for the 2012 season. Working alongside the branding manager and partnerships team for each home game, the first being Friday 9^th March. Following two days in the office preparing for the game, it came to start preparation at NIB Stadium at 12pm. It was all new exciting but something needing to be completed every hour until kick off, this included setting up promotional activity, signage in change rooms, grandstands and corporate areas and navigating my way around the field with headsets to communicate with all employees associated with the game.

Throughout the game my role included:

·         Meeting junior captain, getting him ready for the coin toss and showing him around the field while The Western Force and The Hurricanes warmed up.

·         Organising access passes and jerseys for the competition winners at half time Emirates promotion

·         Helping out with flag bearers around the field

·         Setting down of promotional activity at one of the gates

·         Preparing players for signing at the end of the match with balls and textas for ‘fans on the field’, also continuing handing out promotional activity (on this particular day – Nathan Sharpe masks for his 150^th game)

The audience and all the players go home leaving an empty stadium, to my unbelief that’s not where the job ends for the RugbyWA employees. All sponsorship and promotional activity needs to be bumped out of the stadium including corporate rooms and tents. All other relevant signage and event paperwork all packed up to go back to the office. One very long day…I had nerves throughout at not knowing the complete progress for the game to be a success but enjoyed the activities, learning new things constantly and working with a lot of different people.

I hope you enjoy reading about my first hand event experience but the portrayal of fun parties and glamour is definitely not the case preparing for a Super Rugby game…Its hard work and preparation across the event staff, commercial team, coaching staff and operations unit.

BRING ON GAME NUMBER TWO on 31^st March.

Added some pictures below;