Blog #2- Week 1!

 Although I have only just begun my project, I have already learned so much and really enjoy what I am doing. I did my own research on the Cleveland Sports Commission prior to diving in with my mentor or anybody else, so I already had a strong basis to go off of. I got to have an awesome conversation today with Mr. Gilbert (my mentor) and get really in depth about the organization. 

There are many sports commissions in cities around the country, and although the Cleveland Sports Commission only has fifteen full time staff members, they are one of the three biggest in the country. One of the most interesting things that I got an overview of today were bids, which are how the Commission gets events to come to Cleveland (as they compete with approximately 200 other cities to do so). It entails the financial side of things, how much they are willing to pay to get the event to come, as well as many other specifics depending on each event, such as facilities and services that can be provided. This really spoke to me because considering that the Cleveland Sports Commission hosts approximately 8-12 events a year and there are over 200 other cities trying to get the same events, the bids they put together must be extremely powerful and persuasive. I have a meeting this Thursday with VPs of Business Development for the organization, the area in charge of bids, where I will get to dive even deeper and actually analyze real examples of bids that got accepted and rejected. This is one of the main things I am looking forward to this week!

Although I learned many more things during my call today, one more thing that really stood out to me was the commitment to the organization's mission. While they exist to attract people from outside Northeast Ohio in order to generate dollars for this area, they care about the lasting impacts they can make within an event. The organization has created many new programs for events that have come to Cleveland that still go on annually today, including "Tri for Change", a program for inner city youth to receive training as a part of the Triathlon National Championship. Mr. Gilbert even said they were perfectly okay with losing a bit of money on an event if it means that their mission was able to be carried through. 

I had an awesome time learning more about the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission today and I am looking forward to the rest of this week where I will learn more in depth about each specific area of the organization and its role. 

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