Cross Sports

We received a bespoke event enquiry from a project and event management company, Cross Sports, on behalf of their client Sports Direct.

The Brief

Cross Sports had been managing this event for many years for their client, but this year they were looking to make it bigger and more interactive. The event was to take place at Newcastle FC, as owned by Mike Ashley himself (the owner of Sports Direct).

This was a staff incentive event, where a select few employees from the 400 plus stores, within the UK, were invited to take part. The purpose of the event was to showcase the Sport Direct brands, incentivise the teams and to inform them on the company’s progress

Sports simulators for a company event

We were to provide entertainment that was in keeping with the company’s brands that they were looking to showcase during the event. For example Nevica, their Winter sports brand, was to be accompanied by our Ski and Snowboard simulators or Sondico which was their football brand and we provided our penalty shootout for this station. Cross Sports came up with the concept for these themes and we then guided them through the options that could and could not work for the event style and for what they were looking to achieve. Some of these entertainment options were bespoke and not “off the shelf” products.

Pre-event planning

Once the initial ideas for the event were discussed, we then arranged a site visit at the venue and a chance to meet with our contacts at Cross Sports and Sports Direct. The event was to take place over the full conference area of the stadium, with our elements split over different floors. After seeing the space we were working with and determining any issues with logistics, we were then able to finalise the ideas and put them into motion. As well as the day time showcase event, we also suggested that we ran some entertainment in the evening after the dinner and awards had taken place. The client agreed that evening entertainment would make a great addition to what would normally be followed up by a DJ or band. We had a full build up day for this event, we arrived on site during the initial stages, where the set designers were putting the back drops for each station into place. Once the designers had finished, we were able to start setting up the entertainment in their allocated locations. The final sign off was then to be made by 5pm that day by Cross Sports, and the MD’s of Sports Direct.

Final touches for the event

We arrived back on site early doors for final testing of the equipment, final touches and for the briefing of the agenda for the day. Each station also had a celebrity that related to its particular theme or sport. To name a few, we had the pleasure of working with Robson Green on the Fishing Simulator, John Barns on the Penalty Shootout and Eddie the Eagle on the Ski Jump! Once the event had commenced it was rather intense, due to the tight time schedules. The Employees were sent to each location in waves, they were to then partake in the activities for just 20 minutes, before moving on to the next room. We were required to interact and get everyone involved, encouraging them to take part in the games. Next on the agenda was de-rigging some elements of the activities to change their location, these were then to be used as the after dinner entertainment and to carry on the event theme. Again, this was another tight time schedule that we had to work with and delivered on time with little time to spare.

REVIEW

“Thank you to you and the team last week for all your hard work. We appreciate the hard work everyone put in to making the day a success. I would personally like to thank you for accommodating every request that I made onsite. We would definitely be happy to use you again in the future.” - Pamela Morton, Cross Sports

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