Hosting a successful CIS Championship
(Based on the 2011 men’s and 2012 women’s CIS soccer championship)
Submitted by Ali Lee - Communications Officer, University of Victoria Vikes
PREPARATION
 Create a Marketing and Communications document outlining your target audiences, tiered by
priority, and how you are going to communicate and engage those particular groups
 Build campaigns to start spreading the word out, for example:
o Splash pages on your website that count down to the event
o Timed, feature profiles on your starting players
o Advertorials in local newspaper outlining the entire event
o Build a landing page with an easy URL that you can direct all traffic to
o Have social media contests for tickets and prizes
o Start a community campaign that has the athletes coaching and handing out tickets
 Test and plan for all technical issues:
o Test your camera, audio, webcast, internet, etc. at least one week in advance
o Have a back up for if your camera dies, internet fails, batteries die, etc.
o Set up all statcrew games, rosters and stats in advance
o Plan for everything to go wrong and for it to all go wrong at the same time!
 Staffing
o Staff you want at championships should be used in regular season to train them and
get them to be pros by the time the championship comes
o Have a back up ready for each of your technical positions (commentators,
announcers, statcrew inputers/callers, filmers, etc.) – Plan for no shows!
 Communication
o Make personal contact with your local media to confirm their attendance at games
o E-mail fellow SIDs with what requirements you need 3 weeks in advance (photos,
write ups, rosters, etc.) – sort and store them for easy access.
o Remind SIDs 1 week in advance of what your communication schedule will look like
during the championship, as well as locations on the FTP where they can find things
(how/when/who will be sending releases, who to contact, where photos are being
saved, etc.)
o Start collecting material for all potential teams and build your programs, media
guides, etc. so that all you have to do is drop the qualified teams/rosters in at the last
minute
o Let your SIDs know WHO to go to for what – if you have different people running
social media, statcrew, webcast, etc. Make those contacts available in an e-mail in
advance so that if you are busy running around, they can find another person to get a
hold of!
DURING THE EVENT
 Free yourself up as much as possible by having other people managing specific areas (social
media, statcrew, writing, etc.)
 Every morning, prepare for that day’s games/events as best as possible in terms of preparing
statcrew files, rosters, webcast naming strategy
 Have a cheat sheet on the wall of your media booth with key contacts, naming schemes for
statcrew for consistency, templates for writing, twitter handles for all participating schools,
etc.
DO:
DO NOT:
Advertise

A quick link to all the important
information/results

Social Media

Follow all the potential qualifiers in advance so
when you tweet them at the event their name self
populates
Come up with a standard hashtag for the event
and tell people early
Tweet and post photos as much as possible to
facebook
Give coverage to more behind the scenes things…
Film from a clear vantage point
During in active time like anthems, zoom in and
show the players closer up
Pan the scoreboard every now and then
Ad graphics to highlight important events like
“GOAL” so that when you scroll back through
footage you can see key moments!
Have a consistent video staff so the filming quality
is consistent
Make your sure web commentators are in a sound
isolated area
Find a back up plan for video, photos, stories,
storage of any data, staffing, etc.
Communicate early to media and other SIDs about
how and when your communication is going to
come out
Have a media/SID package ready to go with Wi-fi
access codes, cell phone numbers and email
contacts of important people, schedules, etc.
Prepare all your statcrew rosters and game files in
advance and double check the formatting
Test all game day protocols in advance with your
staff and technology ie: test camera, timing of
moving from game to game for writing, posting,
reporting scores, etc.
Be at your event early to set up even if it means
you can do nothing for the hour before the game
starts
Try and be consistent with your branding and
marketing throughout social media, splash pages,
ads, programs, digital screens, etc.
Tell people in advance about your twitter hashtag,
where to find the webstream and scores, etc.



Video /
Webcast







SID Work




Game Day


Marketing &
Branding











Send people to a generic link that
makes it hard to find the
championship information
Tweet without linking users or
using hash tags
Give a play-by-play on twitter
without linking users or writing
the players names
Allow too many people to have
control of your accounts so that
messaging is consistent
pan in and out or back and forth
too quickly
film from behind a window or
other obstructions
have your camera microphone on
with fans or commentators
around
rely on one person to run the
video, camera and webcast – you
need extra bodies to troubleshoot
Rely on students to do
everything!
Rely on the internet – have hard
copies of important information
ready to go!
Assume that SIDs all information
correct about jersey numbers,
positions etc. on their stat crew
rosters!

Have NEW staff running
scores/stats/video – always
buddy them with someone who
has done it already

Rely on just the material the CIS
provides you with ie: resize CIS
and team logos in advance for
your webstream scoreboards