SportsEvents is edited for those who plan tournaments or other sports events.
Issue link: https://sportsevents.epubxp.com/i/80957
Home In Their OWN WORDS what keeps themin the game We asked. They answered. Event planners representing a variety of sports dish on the most compelling aspects of their jobs and why they stay in the game. BY ALISON MITCHELL ZUNKLEI Thom Meredith President, Independent Management Firm Thom Meredith Inc. Organization: Thom Meredith Inc. is a niche event management company. Meredith works as a consultant to professional and amateur sports-related companies, such as the North American Soccer League (NASL) and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA),and handles specific adminis- trative and/or operational functions for those organizations. What is the best part of your job? That no day is ever the same as the previous day. In addition, as a consultant who sets his own office hours, I can quickly alter my daily work schedule, which allows me to be nimble since I can do a quick specialized project for one client and then do something that might have a longer timeframe attached to it on behalf of a second client the next day. What's the greatest challenge you've ever had to overcome in planning or executing an event? I've been fortunate to stage events in a variety of different-sized stadiums in 26 different states and in countries as varied as Germany, Haiti, El Salvador, South Korea and South Africa. I would say the biggest challenge I've faced across those different venues is to get the individuals who run the build- ing to understand that while many of their rigid, cast in concrete "This is the way we always do it" processes might work for their NFL game days or for their one-off concert events, they sometimes don't work for us. It's very often a challenge to get that stadium manager and/or his staff to at least consider a slightly different but reasonable approach. Typically, those requests are not over- bearing or that tough to implement in any way, but it might help the two teams offer the paying specta- tor a better product. ■ Jeff Bowyer National Wrestling Sales Manager, Brute Wrestling at The Henson Group Bowyer is also co-founder and executive director of R.E.A.C.H.E.S. (Rewarding Educational Athletic Choices Helping Each Sport) Organization: The Henson Group provides products to sporting goods dealers in North America and distributors in Central and South America. It also sup- ports R.E.A.C.H.E.S., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2007 that pro- vides athletic opportunities to amateur ath- letes of all ages and abilities in a unique environment with the profits of each event earmarked for specific needs in that sport. Events: Brute owns the annual Brute Nationals folkstyle wrestling event, which draws more than 1,400 wrestlers, more than 400 coaches, and about 2,500 fans and parents. Brute sponsors many other events and camps throughout wrestling season. What has prepared you for your current roles? I was a wrestler and a Division I college coach for 15 years. (Bowyer wrestled at James Madison University in Virginia. He became head coach at James Madison in 1988 and led the Dukes to 112 wins, two Colonial Athletic Association titles and a Virginia Collegiate Team State Championship.) I was also the director of operations and annual giving for the National Wrestling Coaches Association from 2002 to 2007. What's the best part of your job? The diversity of it. Sometimes I'm in strategic planning, some days I'm with athletes and coaches and some days I'm traveling. ■ Want to share your insight & best practices on planning sports events? E-mail info@sportseventsmagazine.com with your ideas. 12 August 2012 www.sportseventsmagazine.com Subscribe Contact S.P.O.R.T.S. 2012 ▼ Jeff Bowyer All profits from our R.E.A.C.H.E.S. program are used to support specific needs in each sport to ensure future generations of athletes, fans, parents and coaches will continue to learn from valuable lifelong athletic lessons.