Work related tour of Manchester Aquatic Centre
16 March 2011
Students from LJMU’s Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure studying on the BA (Hons) Sport Development programme recently got a behind the scenes tour of the British Gas Swimming Championships being held at the Manchester Aquatic Centre.
The second year students got the opportunity as part of their Events Management and Sports Marketing option after the Brokerage Team at the Graduate Development Centre arranged the initiative.The flagship event in the British Swimming calendar was in its final preparations for the first day of competition on the 5 March, which allowed the students to see all aspects of the event set-up from pool side to media, to more technical aspects such as the specially installed cameras. Module leaders Ian Beattie and Louise Williams accompanied the students.
Louise commented:
"This was such a fantastic opportunity for the students to gain a real-life example of what it takes to set up and run a large scale sports event. The event organisers gave us a great insight into many aspects of event planning that you may not initially consider, the students were so engaged in this as a learning experience. It helped them to put the theory they had learnt into a practical situation – the size and importance of the event just added to the value that they put on this".
Student Mel McLean added:
"The overall experience was great. From being shown how such an event is run with the amount of time put in to set up as well as the necessary considerations such as accommodating sponsors.
The students all valued gaining a practical understanding of the level of planning that is required to stage such an event".
Student Mark Passfield commented:
"Fantastic experience being able to get a back stage view of such a major sporting event. The events team there were brilliant and really helped us to get an insight into just how much work actually goes on in order for sporting events like this to take place".
As the students study the marketing aspects of events, such as sponsorship considerations, the tour provided an opportunity to see how sponsors brand themselves. This was of particular interest to Teifi Jones who commented:
"I learnt a great deal from this hands-on approach to marketing and event management and enjoyed seeing everything implemented. I could really see how effective the sponsorship brand positioning was through the examples of Speedo, British Gas and Kelloggs".
Pictured: Event organiser Jessica Randall (British Swimming) with LJMU staff and students
