During the Spring 2021 semester, I completed my senior Capstone on location at the Nashville Sports Council and TransPerfect Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee.
As an events intern, I helped plan and execute major sporting events in Nashville, highlighted by working in person at the 2021 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena.
COVID-19 had a major impact on my Capstone experience, however, I was lucky enough to move to Nashville in January 2021, and stay through May, working in the office a few days a week.
Many of the Sports Council’s events were canceled or postponed, or had reduced capacity, such as the SEC Basketball Tournament being limited to a 20 percent capacity.
Despite COVID-19 limitations, I learned so much about the inner workings of planning a major sporting event, from volunteer recruitment to creating production schedules to setting up on-site fan engagement and sponsorship activation zones. I gained valuable experience organizing and facilitating a new virtual speaker series and events, including a Zoom speaker series with Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, and ESPN’s Holly Rowe.
I assisted the Nashville Sports Council with various assignments, including membership sales and social media postings to engage the Nashville community. My Capstone was truly amazing and allowed me to gain on-site live event experience in a year when so much shifted virtual. This Capstone built upon my event planning and game-day activation skills that I will take with me as I begin my post-graduation career.