Helping a student
Passing on knowledge and experience is something over the past couple of years that has become frequent. Maybe that’s what happens the older you get! Anyway, the social media platform for professionals (LinkedIn), appears to be the go to way to contact me for students seeking internships or general advice. I take it as great privilege when some reaches out to me, such as Callum did below in late January 2021.
Good evening Alistair hope you are well, Sorry for not getting in contact with you earlier, I have had some toing and froing with the university over a placement for next year.
With this taking too long to come to a decision I have decided to drop my placement for next year. However, with one of my modules this year I have been asked to try and get 72 hours worth of work placement but the university have said not to worry if we cannot as they understand the whole situation with covid kicking about which as we know, isn't ideal.
So instead we could chose a contact and see if it was ok to ask some questions regarding the business and what it is they do! I was wondering if it was ok if I could ask some questions regarding things like what your job role entails, what sort of objectives the IMMAF strive to achieve and what values they expect from people within the company.
No worries if not and thank you very much in advance for any help!
Many thanks,
Callum - Student
1) As a director of international events, what sort of management skills are you required to have on a general day to day basis in the job?
“Communication is the number one skill. With various stakeholders (internal and external), involved with events, it’s critical that everyone is aligned to what the expectations are and what needs to be done. Events are fast paced, involving 100’s of moving parts over multiple of events. Leadership is crucial. This means being accountable to ensure the projects are completed to the brief and the team are pulling together at all times. “
2) What strategic objectives are set by the IMMAF and how are you currently working towards them?
“In short, for the events department. The objective is to produce a calendar of continental and world championship events for ages 12 plus. This could work out to around 18 events a year. This forms part of the overall business strategy to become recognised as an Olympic sport. “
3) How has directing huge international events helped improve your skills and if you have gained any new skills since working in the job?
“If I’m not learning something new each week, then I look at that as a failure. The number one learning outcome for me so far, is delegation. I have a great team of individuals that do not need to be micro-managed and I trust them to crack on. It was a challenge in the early years of producing events as the team was very small and I more or less had to do everything. This isn’t a bad thing as I became an expert in most areas. I realised I needed to build a team and pass on this knowledge by creating more leaders. On reflection, my skills are now strategy based and ensuring the team have all the necessary resources to do their job effectively, based on my own prior experiences. My skills have improved in governance, sports politics and policy creation. Something that is inherent with an international non for-profit organisation. These areas have huge implications on executing events. When I started producing events globally, I had no knowledge of Anti-Doping, from implementing it at events to why it’s need for fairness in sport. Now, let’s say, my knowledge of this area is far greater than 6 years ago. I’m also in my final year of my Sports Business, Management and Policy MSc. I chose this subject to underpin my on-the-job knowledge with a relevant academic qualification. Without being a director of international events, I don’t think I would have been able to undertake this degree.”
4) Other than international events, what are your other day to day jobs that need completing in order for everything to run well?
“Working alongside IMMAF’s other functional heads that are not involved directly with the events team. I need to be aware of what other departments are doing, as this strategically may impact where and when events could be staged, depending on the strategy.”
5) What restrictions has COVID had on your job role and the IMMAF?
“COVID 19 has stopped events happening. Being international and competitors having to travel around the globe to attend events has made staging events practically impossible. We have a duty to keep the competitions fair and the only way to do that is to not stage events until it’s safe to do so. COVID 19 is fluid and complex for sports organisations to manage as it impacts areas such a s logistics, movement of people and financials. The upside to not staging any events has meant we have had time to review all of our policy documents and do the administration jobs that sometimes get left on the to do list due to not having the time to complete. Individually, noting much has changed in my working environment. I’ve always worked remotely covering all time zones with colleagues, so as long as I have a phone, laptop and internet, I’m good to go! The only real restriction is visiting potential new venues for future events. This may become problematic if travel restrictions are not lowered globally over the next few months.”
