The Week that was Uni Games!

The week of Uni Games was extremely fast paced testing my organisation skills, communication, and management of social media platforms.

It was a busy week trying to cover all 29 sports Curtin was entered in and being able to stay on top of where everyone was, what events were on and where I needed to be. Good communication I found was definitely key to staying on top of all the tasks that lay ahead for the week.

The main source of communication we engaged in was Team App. Before this internship I had never heard of this App but I can tell you now it is one I will recommend wherever the tasks fits.  On this App I had set up event reminders for all competing athletes such as the opening ceremony, team dinner and closing ceremony so they were reminded during the week. The App has several sections such as a “News” section where I would post relevant articles for staff and students, along with daily wrap up articles of the Games. This App also has a “Chat” section where conversations were set up prior to the week between Team Managers, Photographers and Staff, Team Captains and Physios, Team Captains and Staff etc. so any problems could be communicated through these channels. We also had a results chat where all results were posted allowing me to conduct the end of day wrap up articles based on this information. The App contained a “Team Selection” section where I imported the team list, fixtures, results and transportation methods for all teams to have easy access.  Essentially everything relating to the week of Uni Games was found in this app!

Team dinner on Thursday night was held at the Curtin Tavern, which got everyone involved, all athletes came together to celebrate how their teams had gone over the carnival. The team dinner really showed the team spirit that Uni Games had created with all sports coming together and supporting each other, which was great to see.

Throughout the week I also ran all the social media channels including Snapchat with a live feed each day of the events. Instagram was continually updated with team photos and results allowing followers to know how teams were going and further promoting people to get on board the Snapchat. Like mentioned in my previous blog post twitter posts were already pre scheduled which saved me a lot of time during the week as I then only had to focus on posting results as they occurred. Facebook was the other prominent media source used apart from Team App as we had a Curtin Uni Games group created where everyone communicated, sharing team photos and updates. The hashtags for the carnival were #CUatUniGames and #CarnTheCarnabys which were heavily used over the week, promoting Curtin and really allowing teams to get in the spirit of the Games.

Curtin came away with 9^th place out of 41 universities, which was an outstanding effort by all participants. It was eye opening to see how many people it takes for a big event to run like this and how crucial all your tasks prior to the event are along with your organisation skills to make everything run smoothly. It was an exhausting week but I am so thankful that I got to be apart of the experience and for all the friendships I made!

Photo: The Men and Women's Hockey Team