Organising a sports tournament for the office: A few basics that won’t let you down
It might be your own office, or you could be a professional event planner trying to put together an office tournament in a hurry. Either way, the job can be daunting if you are relatively new to sport event management. A few pointers that we have for you today have been collected from people who have that all-important experience. Hopefully, these will help in making that learning curve a bit less steep.
Your Planning Should be Led by the Cause
People do not always play for trophies and medals, but at times they most certainly do! Office tournaments could be held for fitness, charity, sponsorships, marketing, rivalry, and sometimes, just for the spirit of the game and tradition. More often than not, an office sporting event is likely to uphold all of the above reasons.
From the perspective of an event planner though, the more causes there are, the more complicated it gets for them to plan, organise and manage the event. Nevertheless, a good sports event manager considers all of the relevant reasons as to why the tournament/event is being held, and then decides on strategies that take all of those factors into account.
While it may make things much more complicated initially, the chances of unmanageable situations popping up in the middle of the tournament are reduced as a result of that earlier effort. Speaking of planning, don’t forget about buying and renting essential sports equipment. This includes jerseys, footballs, golf balls, a few general golfing kits, football shoes and shin guards, among other things.
Be Careful with Prize Selections - Consider Budget and Headcount
While working under a budget that’s not exactly affluent, managing for everything else, alongside 1st 2nd 3rd place awards, trophies and medals, can become quite challenging. To avoid making any mistakes, jot down the following first:
- How much of the allocated total tournament budget you are allowed to, or have decided to spend on awards, trophies and medals?
- How many of those prizes will you be needing?
- Do you have the budget to allow for consolation prizes?
Discuss these pointers with the client/boss and jot down confirmed numbers regarding both the allocated budget and the headcount.
Buy It All from One Place for Heavy Discounts
Now that you have both of these numbers, you can use a site like Joblot Trophies to choose what you need and customise them. Do be sure to wait for winners to arise before putting in the trophy engraving requests! Joblot Trophies offer next-day delivery in the UK, so getting them in time should not be a problem, but you’ll need to arrange the prize distribution ceremony to be on a different date than the day of the office tournament. Joblot Trophies is a rare online trophy store where you will find everything including trophy cups, golf trophy cups, engraved trophies and medals among various other types of prizes. Contact them directly for information on bulk discounts.
Depending on the magnitude of the event and how many people will be attending it, there may also be a need to pay attention to other details that are not related to the sport directly, such as security, surveillance, portable toilets, an announcement system and seating arrangements for everybody. While you are at it, don’t forget about hiring the sports officials either - namely the referees, umpires and scorekeepers.
