Last week saw our first entry into live events under the joint banners of The UK Sports Network and FundSport.  It has been a dream of mine for the last couple of years and it was a great feeling to make it a reality.

The idea was to create an event that would benefit those whose full-time job is not in sponsorship sales and cannot afford the £200+ fees for sponsorship events.  Those who run grassroots sports clubs, semi-professional teams, are athletes or associations further down the food chain.

Yes, they still need to raise sponsorship to keep themselves or their teams in sport but how much knowledge have they got and where do they turn to for advice?  I have seen proposals from teams and I knew what they would look like before I got there.  One page of A4 which basically said ‘please give me some money’. 

This is a widespread problem at a time when sponsorship is harder to get and sponsors are wanting more professional approaches.  It is their hard earned money at the end of the day which they want to use to further their business.

Did we achieve what we set out to do?  Yes, I think so.  There were representatives from a diverse selection of sports bodies primarily from the Ipswich area but also some came from Somerset, Bristol and Birmingham to show there is a widespread interest in the field.  Over 2000 hits on the webpage backed this up and although the numbers who attended were not large this was a first event…. and in Ipswich.

The main section of the night was a presentation by Fiona Green, one of the top sponsorship sales people we have, has worked properties including the ECB, AEGON, FIFA, Glamorgan CCC, Cardiff City FC and Manchester City.  She took everyone through the sponsorship process step by step; from inventory assessment to calling prospective sponsors.  Rather than me taking you through what great tips she gave, why not take a look yourself by watching her video in full… 

Round-the-world sailor Alex Alley gave a great insight into how he came about his idea for the ‘People’s Boat’.  An example of how you can set yourself apart from the rest and use creativity to help with the objective of raising sponsorship.  There are a lot of people chasing the same goals so if you can be different and professional in your approach then you improve your chances significantly.

Highlights will be shown on the Your Sport show on the Community Channel in the next few weeks.  We will also be adding them to our facebook pages and websites as we look to help as many people as we can.

A final thank you to Team Ipswich and Karen Pickering for stepping in to host the event and being so supportive.  Also thank you to Sport Suffolk, Suffolk FA, Schport, Jim Cowan and many others for helping promote it and Ipswich College for filming the occasion (look forward to seeing the edited version soon!). 

Planning for event number 2 is already underway…… hope to see you there!

Fiona Green Sponsorship Presentation – Ipswich 2010