FFA National Coaching Conference - Case Study
<strong>The Brief</strong>
In early 2008, the FFA (Football Federation Australia) appointed Sporting Spectrum to manage their inaugural National Coaching Conference, planned for May 2008.
The Coaching Conference was briefed as a national event, which, via a mix of keynote, breakout, theory and practical sessions, was designed to impart valuable coaching tips and strategic thinking from some of the world’s leading football coaches and industry figures, to Australian coaches on a national, state, regional and local level.
Attendance was anticipated at 350 delegates from around Australia (65% from NSW) and the event programme was to be funded in part by revenue drawn from delegate conference attendance fees.
<strong>The Event Concept</strong>
The event was held over 26 & 27 May 2008, and timed to coincide with the FIFA Congress, which commenced in Sydney on 29th May 2008, making this an exciting week for Football in Australia.
A world-class venue – the Olympic Park Sports Centre – was chosen to house the event, and the multi functional space was utilised and transformed to house the different conference space requirements.
A strong event branding was designed to create a recognizable ‘look and feel’ for the conference which was carried through and used for merchandise, signage, collateral and marketing purposes.
<strong>Planning and Execution</strong>
The event team consisted of an Event Producer – Alexis Vaughan, and an event Coordinator – Alice Pavey, from Sporting Spectrum, working closely with an internal team at the FFA to manage the overall conference.
A conference information page was created on the FFA website and linked to an online registration which captured personal and marketing details, and breakout session preferences.
Merchandise giveaways from Nike and Coca Cola Amatil were negotiated in conjunction with the event, and conference specific merchandise and collateral was designed to be distributed to all delegates, including a delegate satchel with sponsor inserts, a conference T-Shirt and various educational and nutritional resources.
The Hall of Legends at the Olympic Park Sports Centre was draped from floor to ceiling and divided into two sections to house delegate registrations and merchandise dispatch in one half and the main plenary session in the other. The main arena was also draped from floor to ceiling, concealing the stadium seating and transforming the space into a multi purpose exhibition and banquet area. An FFA information stand, a gaming zone, an internet café and a viewing lounge complete with 14ft LED screens showing some of football’s most exciting moments surrounded the delegate buffet and banquet seating area, creating a fun and interactive networking environment for the delegates.
Various breakout rooms were utilised and the main hockey pitch was transformed into a football field for junior and senior demonstration sessions with delegates viewing looking on from the grandstands above.
World renowned speakers from the football industry were flown into Sydney to attend the conference from interstate and overseas and housed at the Hilton in Sydney, and former Socceroo Craig Foster acted as Master of Ceremonies throughout. A dedicated speaker manager was allocated to the role of assisting the speakers with all their presentation and other requirements while on site, ensuring that the content was presented seamlessly.
A team of 25 people managed the event each day, including an Event Producer, various Conference Managers (allocated to registration, speakers, main arena etc), Room and Session Monitors, Runners and Set Up and Pack Down teams.
<strong>Results & Feedback</strong>
The conference resulted in being a great success in its inaugural year and surpassed registration targets considerably, resulting in increased delegate revenue and a genuine vibe of excitement surrounding the conference from the Official Welcome through to the Closing Address. Delegate feedback indicated that next years attendance could indeed double given the widespread success of the 2008 National Coaching Conference, and follow up feedback has been indicative of a widely positive response to the conference concept and execution throughout the industry.
Riding on the back of the excitement and positive responses generated by the inaugural coaching conference, the 2009 conference will go to market in September, and it is anticipated that FFA National Coaching Conference has great potential to grow in size, content and sponsor participation for future years.