After a years’ worth of preparations and a week of fun filled activities, it was time to say goodbye to the Olympians and Coaches who took time out of their busy schedules to be with us here in Tiffin for a week. We couldn’t be more grateful !! I exchanged contact information with Dr. Francis Dove Edwin, a Sierra Leone native who competed in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games in the 200 dash. A very knowledgeable man who provides a lot of insight on business dealings in Africa so maintain a relationship with him was key for me as I hope to one day establish an athletic business adventure in Ghana. I was exchanged contact information with Dean Greenaway who competed in the 400 meters at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. A native of the British Virgin Islands. I was very intrigued and drawn to Mr Greenaway because of his current role and work projects as a sports writer/journalist and photographer. A career field that interests me for the future so I knew he would be a vital contact in providing me with advice, skill development and how to enter the industry. Lastly, It was my responsibility to drive Barbra Higgins, a Fencer from Panama who participated at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and Jon Koncak, an American basketball player who won gold with team USA at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and an incredible career in the NBA playing for Atlanta Hawks and the Orlando Magic. The ride to the airport was a chatty one but I loved it ! It was an intimate setting where we all shared stories, aspirations and laughter. What a week it has been and how inspiring ! This week has added smoke to my fire in terms of future aspirations, finishing my collegiate journey and attaining my MBA, my excitement to enter the professional world and showcasing my skills and knowledge in a working environment and most importantly, being a part of a great cause that will enhance and develop people of all ages in today’s society either within sports or outside of sports. Special thanks to Dr Bonnie Tiell for implementing such an unbelieveable vision and allowing all of us involved and the public experience what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity. The schedule for today was as follows:
WEDNESDAY- CHECK YOUR ITINERARY AND NOTES FROM OWEN FOR MEETING DRIVERS/OLYMPIANS Cynthia - 8:10 at Hampton Inn - follow schedule with Francis and Marlon in Fostoria - back by 1:45 (late lunch) Leanne - 8:45 AM at Hampton - meet Barbra Higgins and new driver (finished by lunch - classes all day/night) Luke - AM with Rick Goeb (Stepf Pierce) ...Liston and Sebastian at the Middle School Next: with Park Pardi (driver) to Terra --- Presentations at 11:15 & 1:15 --- lunch between Back by 2:45 PM - Liston meets Dean Joyce Hall Yates in Hayes Art Center at 3 PM Markella - 9AM and 1 PM session with Mary Wineberg (LeAnne Smith Driver) - Finished @ 2:20 Nick - Kayla Elks (driver) - Khadevis Robinson 9:00 Calvert and 11:50 Old Fort -- Back by 1:00 3:00 Cynthia - Markella - Luke Help set up Loft - 25 S Washington (Meet Bonnie) Take over left over beer and wine - may have to pick some up from McCartens Cut up cheese …. etc….. set up music …. fire place …. liquor from closet School visits were a success! The Olympians were informative, inspiring and educative for the youth. It is great to have such a large amount of Olympians and Coaches in a small town like Tiffin. Providing cultural adversity, olympianism and personal stories. Later on in the day, Cynthia and I went to the loft location to make sure everything was set and took care of any little things that needed to be arranged for the hangout location for the Olympians later on in the evening. I attended the Ribbon Cutting for the new Tiffin University , Wrestling facility. After that i attended the Art Gallery Exhibit showcasing Dr Liston Bochette's art work. Everywhere I went, I was constantly taking pictures and videos for our social media awareness on twitter, Facebook and Instagram. TODAY IS THE DAY!!
Finally we have reached our main event of the week! The morning of the event I had commitments with the Women's Soccer Team. I have been working as an operational director with the team on game days so I was unable to set-up the Heminger Center in the morning. Once the game was over, I went straight to the location. I met with the director of the Crew who held a meeting the yesterday to discuss logistics and how the night will be run. Placements of equipment, time management and cues and who needs to be where at what time. As time neared closer, I began with interacting with the public arriving and interacting with Olympians who were also arriving. We set up a room on the 2nd floor for the Olympians to hang out, with light refreshements before the event begins. I transported them to the room as they were arriving. Below is the Activity (Tentative) for the night: 3:45 Pick up Olympians at Hotel 4:00 Arrival of Olympians 4:30 Hospitality - Meet & Greet : Gold & Silver Patrons May Enter 5:00 Doors Open to Public - Waiver Tables Open (some stations open) 5:20 Parade of Nations and Olympians to Stage 5:35 Emcee Introduces President Lillian Schumacher (Welcome) 5:40 Emcee Introduces Sunil Sabharwa (International Fair Play Committee) 5:50 Sunil presents Award # 1 to Tiffin University and Tiffin Community 5:55 Mayor Montz or TBD - Brief Comments 5:57 Sunil presents Award # 2 to __________________ 6:02 ____________________ - Brief Comments 6:05 Emcee invites Youth Medalists on state with Olympians (stations open) When Ben Sandrock arrives, we went through my moderator role, he provided me with the website to have on hand on my smartphone as I walk around the Heminger Center. I split my time upstairs in the balony with jacob and the production team as a moderator of the live feed and also parading around the facility taking pictures and videos of the public and the olympians, ensuring I use the #ESCweek hashtag on social media The schedule was as planned: FESTIVAL TIME Markella Social Media Monitor Nick - 4:00 - Help set up flags with holders - With Leslie Felter (Personal Friend) 6:00 - Assemble Monitor Autograph tables after program ends Luke - 4:00 - Floor Patrol with Judy Hafley and Bev Buckley -- sitting VIPs, youth, etc. -- RESERVED area. 6:00 - Official Photo station - Cynthia 4:00 - Line up Cheerleaders -- Matt Campbell & Jon Ott line up Kids and Special Olympians 6:00 - Official Photo station - (Luke helps!) LeAnne 4:00 - Whatever Sue needs - then get your concession people READY 5:30 - Make sure concession hot dogs and chips are ready for 6:15 Today Leanne and I were tasked with collecting a total of 800 Ballreicks chips and transporting them to the Heminger Center for storage in preparation for the Festival of Champions. The storage room will eventually consist of 200 backpacks, 250 water bottles, 1000+ drawstring bags, 925 commemorative programs, hats, easels and1100 logo cups.
We were assigned core work team duties all pertaining to Elite Week especially the main event, the Festival of Champions. The following present our schedules moving forward: BACKPACK VOLUNTEER CAPTAINS: GIVE OUT MONDAY NT (13): Cynthia, LeAnn, Markella, MONDAY - Blow up Twitter and Instagram Cynthia and Markella - 200 Flags taped up in Heminger Cynthia - Bring stand up banner from Gillmor Center and Banner from YMCA to lobby of Heminger LUKE & NICK & CYNTHIA - 5pm - HELP unload trucks and set up + walkthroughs for Tuesday (Pizza @ 6) LeAnn - stop in Monday night and give out backpacks and say meet Sue (let her know you will help her Tuesday all day) Today Cynthia and I were asked by Bonnie to meet with Christopher Caldwell, a committee chair to test run and discuss the logistics of the Kahoot gaming activity.
The practice of the Kahoot was a success, we viewed and went through a number of the Olympic-theme trivia questions. We discussed how to measure the winners, the total number of rounds, estimated number of participants, types of usernames etc. So overall, the trivia contest questions have been formatted for Kahoot over the summer. Prizes and format are being arranged (one Olympian per team if available and if possible. The event will be held in the Marion Center lead by Chris Caldwell and Kayleigh Tschanen. This final week of Question of a Mention will feature Khadevis Robinson, Katie Smith and Barbra Arana.
Another part of responsibilities today was to prepare 'the loft' location in downtown Tiffin. A beautiful hangout spot we decided to use as an evening closing get-together for the Olympians and the coaches after the event and for those who are still around by the end of the week. The loft was renovated and built by the owners to make it seem as a hangout bar location, the view was pretty, decor and furniture was very impressive! Plans to stock the kitchen were made, including alcoholic drinks, various beverages, light snacks. The loft also had a fireplace, big screen TV and surround sound system powered by Alexa ! Next my objective was finding volunteers to fill the positions of bartenders and maybe someone to be in charge of the music for the night as they socialize with the Olympians and Coaches. Beautiful Location ! After crafting a mass email to be sent to students on campus and having it applauded and accepted by the steering committee, I had Dr Rick Goeb, a committee chair and professor send out the mass email. It read:
THE 20+ OLYMPIANS WILL BE HERE IN 9 DAYS !! We are creating a #HASHTAG# for Elite Sport & Culture week #ESCweek WE WANT YOUR PHOTOS🤳& VIDEOS SO TAKE THEM & TAG #ESCweek !!
🔴Show us how you’re gearing up for the Event/Olympians 🔵Who’s your favorite Olympian? ⚫️What’s your favorite Olympic Event? ⚪️Which Olympic Host City would you most want to visit?
If you haven’t heard about Elite Sport & Culture Week , Get to know!! Facebook: /ESCweek Twitter: elite_week - Ask Olympians Q’s & they will Mention you in their answer!! Website: https://www.tiffin.edu/about/elite-sport-culture-week/athletes Furthermore, once the email goes out, Alyssa will post the message on the Sports Management Facebook & Instagram pages and Ben will do the same with the Tiffin University Facebook page. Today consisted of taking care of logistical things pertaining to various areas of the overall event.
Firstly, I attended the sports management club and provided an update on our plan with the social media wall and the plan to have contributors and pushing out the hashtag for the event. I reached out to Holly Bigg, the Athletic Events Coordinator and NLI Administrator about going live on social media during the Festival of Champions. I needed her input on the idea of having access to live screens in order to go live from Tiffin university or Go Tiffin Dragons. Bonnie and I discussed sign-ups for various roles, and this brought our attention to having photographers during the event. We both knew of Rikaz, another graduate student and a personal friend of mine that I knew. Reaching out to them was part of my tasks in the next couple days to ensure their attendance and picture taking ability for the event. Additionally I plan to compose a draft email to send out as a mass email to students and faculty on campus to inform them about the event, the social media platforms and the ESCweek hashtag. Today marks a week since we invested in a paid advertising so after deliberating with Ben, our next course of action was informing Bonnie and asking her is she would like to proceed and continue pumping money into the promotion of the Festival of Champions.
In regard to the Paid AD for the Festival of Champions – Results:
This week in my Question for a Mention showcased Olympians, Butch Reynolds, Mary Wineberg and Jessica Kooreman. New week ! My tasks for today included reaching out to our sponsors via Facebook and encouraging them to follow our social media accounts and preparing for our 'Big Wednesday Push' whereby we want to emphasize sharing our content this coming Wednesday as a way of overloading our content and event to as many people as possible. I direct messaged Mercy health hospital, Tiffin City Schools, Terra State National Machinery and the YMCA. I made sure I provided a link to our main event that way it was readily accessible for them once they read the message.
In an effort to increase exposure and overall attendance, I decided to reach out to various other sponsors who were categorized as a Bronze or Silver. These sponsors included, Webster Industries, Reineke Family Dealerships, Mayor Montz, Seneca Daily, White Fund of the Tiffin Community Foundation, Platinum Technical Design & Management and Badass Meetings & Media (BAMM). Later on in the day I met with Ben to discuss my role during the festival of champions in regard to the social media role. My role will be acting as a moderator whereby I am constantly refreshing and checking the content being posted for anything unacceptable or vulgar. In addition to this, Ben and I discussed a suitable hashtag that students and community members could use that will be linked to our social media wall. The hashtag had to be unique, easy to remember and clear enough to distinguish as our hashtag for our event. After researching some options and making sure it was not used by other clients or organization, we settled on #ESCweek. It was also my job to inform the sports management club and form a group that will act as contributors. Their role will be to take as many pictures as possible and post them. |
Markella SukaOverview of daily activities and tasks of TU Marketing Dept. Mentorship Archives
October 2018
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