This is shaping up to be an exciting year – professionally and personally – and sport is the thread that runs through both halves of my life. Which is pretty ironic, given the lengths I would go to in order to avoid taking part in any sport at school!
Thankfully, my nine-year-old daughter didn’t inherit my aversion to exercise, and she has been selected for the Great Britain inline hockey team, travelling to Los Angeles in the summer to represent her country in the roller hockey World Cup.
Proud mum went into overdrive last weekend, at the first GB training camp, watching my feisty little lady settling in as the only girl on the under-10s team.
It occurred to me, how like Connect PR she is – not the biggest player, or the most well-known, but she more than holds her own against the competition. She demonstrates amazing focus, she is shrewd and adaptable, and her determination to succeed for her team mates means that, no matter what opposition they face in the USA, I just know she’ll be a winner.
Meanwhile, back in the office, we’re in a whirlwind of darts, rugby, golf, superbikes, football and cycling.
We look after sports sponsorship activation for an extraordinary number of clients – including managing the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy campaign with its spectacular Paint Pot Challenge, supporting the WD-40 team at the Revolution cycling series and nurting future talent in the Velocity WD-40 youth and junior cycling team, running the half-time entertainment for Selco Builders Warehouse at the London Broncos, and promoting the Speedy Hire UK Darts Open.
That means a packed schedule of media liaison, video production, copywriting, prop buying, social media management, photoshoot scheduling and people herding. Luckily, we’re experts at all of that – and more!
Our team includes a number of experienced sports journalists (even me, the girl who used to hide in the bushes rather than tackle the cross country course!), incredibly imaginative and creative campaign planners, terrific tweeters and a visionary leader who inspires and encourages us all.
There is, of course, no “I” in our team. We know we can be bigger than the sum of our parts, and that by bringing together our diverse collective of PR directors, managers and execs, we can achieve amazing results for our clients.
Oh, and we’ve been known to win the odd trophy or two, too.
Go Team GB. Go Connect PR.
Caroline – Account Director
@tygerprCal