CHOSEN WORK
This project is included as it is one of the greatest achievements of my educational career and demonstrates many high-level skills I've obtained for my dream career. Every year in the Algonquin College Sports Business Management program, the biggest assignment of the year is a Major Games Bid Simulation, and the program works with a real sports organization. Most years they work with a National Sport Organization based in Ottawa, but my year, we worked directly with the National Hockey League.
Being the Class Representative, before the second semester began, I met with the new Program Coordinator. We had already known we'd be working with the NHL to do the bid project, bidding on an NHL Outdoor Game. During the conversation, I told him my idea was to do a game in Munich, Germany. He took the idea to Steven Mayer, Chief Content Officer of the NHL, and they decided to make the theme for all groups to be European Cities.
SKILLS & EXPERIENCE REPRESENTED
Our group consisted of 5 guys from our class, and I was the group leader. We each took turns leading projects for our group, and being this was my idea for the city and my 2 favourite hockey teams, I promised The Boys a win if I lead the biggest project of the year. This is a great example of all the skills and experience I have gained throughout my educational and event promoting career.
First of all, I deigned the entire document and presentation. The document has select pages shown here, but that's just a sample, as it is a 56-page document. And the presentation was 59 slides, presented in just under 1-hour with a half hour question & answer session following it. We presented to Joe Fitzgerald, Senior VP of NHL Events, our professor from Sports Tourism Canada, and our past and present program coordinators. My team won the bid, beating out 3 very impressive and deserving other teams from the post-graduate program.
It shows off my graphic design skills, as I had some experience before but to this point, this is the most proud I've ever been done of my design work. It was all designed on Canva, and doing this is what inspired me to apply for the Media Arts Fundamentals program to upgrade my design skills be learning the Adobe programs and basic fundamentals of design.
It speaks to my communications skills, both for the presentation and leading a group for a monster project like this to victory. A couple of the teams we were facing in the competition came from much more impressive educational and sports backgrounds than myself and my group, and we were able to still come out with the victory in the end.
Then there is the actual content of the assignment. Being the group leader and designer, I was also the editor and ensured everything came together and made sense in the end. Some of the items I focused on included the Introduction & Motivation to Host, Host Organizing Committee, Event Schedule & Proposals, Sponsorship Strategy, Local Advertising, Licensing & Merchandise, Highlight Marketing Campaign, Poster & Social Media Samples, Host Competition Venue & Major Partners, Other Venues, Financials Highlights, Forecasted Revenues & Expenses, and Economic Impact.
HOW IT SUPPORTS MY GOALS & ASPIRATIONS
Being a person who is targeting to get into digital marketing and event management, obviously winning an award like this is a big step in the right direction. The 2 industries I would specifically want to work in are sports and music, and the NHL is the organization I have followed more than anything else in my life. Obviously, this is a huge honour.
The funny thing about my dream of getting into sports and music is that we did this assignment in April 2022 and suggested The Black Keys for the musical performance at our event. The NHL participates in these types of projects literally to get ideas. And who was the intermission concert for the 2023 Winter Classic in St. Louis? The Black Keys. Obviously, I can't say for sure they took my idea, but I would like to think they did.
Working for the NHL in some capacity, whether for the league itself, a team, or a partner to the league or team, would be a dream scenario and something that I will pursue once my educational career ends. Without a doubt, this will be a highlight of my portfolio when I submit my application to those jobs in the future, so this directly supports my goals and aspirations.
CONCLUSION
Up to this point in my life, this is one of the achievements that I am most proud of. It was a dream come true to be awarded a trophy at an NHL arena and get to go out on the playing surfance (with no ice at the time since it was summer unfortunately) and get to meet members of the Ottawa Senators front office. The Ottawa Senators donated The Crystal Cup to the Sports Business Management program when it started to award to the winning team of the Major Games Bid Simulation every year. And now, my name is engraved on that trophy.
