Sponsorship and MDPCC

**MDPCC = Mixed Doubles Provincial Curling Championship

My Role in Sponsorship

Mentioned in the Stakeholder Engagement blog post, the Event Management Process (Figure 1) consists of a Stakeholder Process, which includes Sponsorship.

One of my roles as Co-Chair, with the MDPCC in 2020, is to work with the General Manager(GM) of the Lethbridge Curling Club, to plan Sponsorship and create a Budget for the event. I will have the opportunity to work with my partnering Co-Chair for the event, as well as the different committee sub-Chairs, to establish a reasonable budget, based on current and future needs.

Figure 1. 3D Model of Event Management (O'Toole, 2010, p. 166)

Experience with Sponsorship

This is an area that I have very little experience in. Although I have accumulated knowledge about Sponsorship, I have very little application of that knowledge. This will be a wide-spread learning opportunity for me!

Sponsorship ties into the budget, and will greatly influence our ability to generate new and creative ideas, attend appropriately to banquet and ceremony requests, and face less limitations.

This is allowing me to develop my skills/learn:

• Basics of event Sponsorship including: Sponsorship Package and Sponsorship Letter

• How to create an event budget

Sponsorship Process:

To help me, I am using the following areas, found in the 3D Model for Event Engagement PROCESS section.

• Identify: I need to sit down with the GM and confirm who our top Sponsors are. We will need to find Sponsor(s) for: the banquet, volunteer wear and food, and player care (ie: snacks).

• Proposal: I am learning how to develop a full Sponsorship Package. I am currently in the process of developing a generic sponsorship letter. I have been doing some research to put together a proposal and found a blog on Event Sponsorship Package Basics (Wong, 2019), which has been helping to guide me. This curling event is a smaller event, and will probably be less than $5,000 CAD, but it is a great start to help me learn these official processes. I have been a part of asking for Sponsorship in the past, but not including a package - it was always more geared towards fundraising for school trips.

• Categories (Type, Level): Currently developing the budget and Sponsorship Package, the budget is allocated at approximately $5,250. I need to confirm details with the GM and other Co-Chair, but Sponsorship may be categorized as follows: Title Sponsor, Volunteer and Player Sponsor, and Banquet Sponsor. This is something we will finalize in the next two weeks.

• Negotiation and Contact: This is still to come, and will be part of the steps after we approach businesses for Sponsorship.

• Monitoring: Although this budget is small, and we will likely have one to three sponsors, we will create plan for monitoring Sponsors, including recognition and post-event follow up.

Sponsorship: Next Steps

This is an intimidating (but exciting) process. It has been so long since I have been involved with sponsorship directly. I am excited to apply the Sponsorship Process. I am currently creating the Sponsorship Package and proposal. Next we will approach the businesses and see how they can help us! I envision this will not a hard or long process, as businesses who currently sponsor the Curling Club will most likely be happy to get involved with this event!

SV

Up Next: Evaluation & Research: MDPCC

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BLOG BIBLIOGRAPHY:

O'Tool, W. (2010). Events Feasibility an Development. Oxford: Routledge Ltd, p.166.

Lethbridge Curling Club. 2019. 'Website main page' Lethbridge Curling Club 2019. Available at: http://lethbridgecurlingclub.com/ [accessed 16 November 2019].

Wong, M. (2019). Event Sponsorship Package Basics. [Blog] How to Design an Event Sponsorship Package. Available at: URL https://www.eventmobi.com/blog/design-event-sponsorship-package/ [accessed 11 Nov. 2019].