Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com Internship - Part 2: The pre-tournament experience

Week after week, I started to get used to the new environment and familiarize myself with the executive staff. The best part of the internship was learning about the different sides of building a tournament. I was working on different aspects such as financial services, marketing, sales, and especially medical fundamental for the tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic. I, of course, faced challenges, especially in sales: due to the pandemic was not easy to sell tickets, and on top of this, sometimes you also have to be lucky when you call people.

A significant aspect was interning while terminating my undergraduate studies at Lynn and applying what I learned in class to the internship and vice versa. I think that it is one of the main goals of an internship. For example, during my Sports Seminar class, I had to submit an assignment on sponsorship packages. At the same time, I was creating similar materials at work for tournament sponsors. Also, for my Sports Governance class, I had to make a sales presentation, and my sales managers within the tournament organization helped me with some helpful advice.

Generally, I also became more comfortable with my duties, especially sales, as I have made special sales and progress while making phone calls. I have also started to understand what I enjoyed doing and what not. For example, despite being pleasant to talk to people over the phone and the feeling of making a sale is terrific, calling people all day was not the most enjoyable experience. On the other hand, working in the back office with a variety of duties, being multitasking, and work on projects on tickets, marketing, and finance was super exciting.

After the first months of adapting to the new job, and for the entire staff to plan a different tournament during a pandemic (much more complicated than usual), it was in December that something crazy happened: the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open in Melbourne, got postponed due to the virus, and the tournament in Delray Beach could not happen at the exact dates as every year. Therefore, the event got moved to January as the first tournament of the male professional tennis season. The Delray Beach Open staff had just three weeks to organize a game that was supposed to happen more than a month later. Nonetheless, the team stated that the team could have done it, not only planning an event during a pandemic but with almost no time to plan it. Things were getting challenging but very interesting. I canceled my flight to go back to Italy for the winter break, and decided to help out with the tournament. Every staff member of the organization was vital to make the tournament happen, us five interns included.

The pre-tournament experience was fantastic but crazy: we worked from 9 am to 8-9 pm non-stop, eating and working simultaneously, but always with motivation and excitement for the tournament. I also had school assignments and an on-campus job at that time. It was not easy as a student at his very first full-time work experience. Still, overall I had a blast and tried my best to help out a small organization planning an important professional tennis event, which was also the first one of the 2021 season, and during a state of emergency. Did we make it? Did the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com happen? Stay tuned for the following article. To be continued...