Event organizing

Davao City, Philippines – Coming to this city is like coming home as many familiar faces and several friends were at the Waterfront Insular Hotel earlier today for the Sports Tourism Forum where this deadline beater was invited as one of the speakers.

There are many people who want to organize events and for every ten wannabe organizers, you probably have only one or two who would eventually get to do what he or she had planned to do.

Organizing sports events is not easy. There are so many factors to consider for the success of the endeavor.

I only talked about one of those many factors and that is the role of media in such activities.

In the course of doing my job as a sportswriter, I have been to organizational meetings, brain storming activities, press conferences, and other activities related to the conduct of sporting events that I also gained some knowledge in how things ought to be done.

To those who plan to hold events and have no idea how to go about it, here are some tips.

Since money talks, the first thing that an organizer of an event must do is come up with a budget. This way, you will have an idea as to how much money you need to raise and where to raise them from.

If you plan to do an event without a budget and you just want sponsors to come, forget it.

Once you have the budget, outline how you will get the money to pay for the expenses. Come up with sensible sponsorship packages and see where you can save by getting exchange deals or support from government.

Once you have this worked out, start working on getting your participants. The reason why I suggest you start with the funds first is so that you can pull the plug early if you realize that you cannot raise enough to do the event.

The media plays an important role in all of these steps as it would help you reach out to both the sponsors and the participants.

Some people, however, think that once they have the media support, all is well, that is not exactly the case as sponsors have also learned how to be selective in spending their limited budget to support such activities.

Sometimes I can’t help but sneer at those who say that they can get sponsorship from a company because they know somebody there. Okay, I hope you know the owner, and not somebody who doesn’t even have the power to forward the letter to the owner’s secretary.

This can be a lucrative venture if you know what you are doing especially when it comes to making the sponsors want to be part of your event.

This reminds me of somebody who approached me a few months ago asking if I know of somebody who wanted to sponsor their sporting event. I asked him for his budget, but he could not give me one and just said that if I know somebody who would like to sponsor they have an event.

Gone are the days when sponsorships were done without much thought.

Even in our golf tournaments, we find it hard to get sponsors to support us on a regular basis. Knowledge truly is power and I am glad that Charles Lim invited me to the activity as I did not only get to share, but also learned a lot from others.

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MILESTONES: Belated happy birthday greetings to Junrey Pelayo, Lesmes Garate, Noreen ‘Taki’ Davide-Salas, Leah Joy Dormitorio-Cabanban, Nanette Cavada, and Malou Ramirez-Villamala, who turned a year older last Monday.

The same goes to my mother-in-law Germiniana ‘Heming’ Gabuya-Reyes, who celebrated yesterday along with Cleofe Delfino-Claridad, Loures Pe, Anne Celine Mercado, Atty. Bennet Pongos, and Wawa Pacional-Basubas.

Today’s greetings go to our chairman of the board, Dr. Jose R. Gullas as well as to my cousin Jose Carlos Q. Miranda, Jovi Abad.

More power to all of you! - THE FREEMAN