Sport Management Alumni professional development event
In August, the Deakin Sport Management Alumni Chapter hosted its second professional development event for 2015, featuring two established Alumni sharing their career stories and global experiences in the sport industry.
Held at Niche on Bridge in Richmond, the event was attended by over 70 alumni, spanning a breadth of national and state sport organisations, government, event and athlete management agencies, brands, venues and education partners.
Speakers Ben Crowe and Carissa Harris reflected on their time since Deakin and shared insights on their career development as well as the latest trends in the sport management industry.
Making your mark
Crowe, co-founder at Unscriptd.com, who previously also worked with Gemba and Nike in Australia and overseas, and spent some time with the Hong Kong Jockey Club (the largest sport organisation in the world at that time) spoke fondly of his time at Deakin.
He noted his transition from Deakin included the realisation that he ‘had a real passion to help the sports industry do better, and be better for it’.
Central to Crowe’s message was the importance of storytelling in the sport industry. He expressed the significance of understanding the story of a brand and how to communicate it. In reference to his current enterprise with Unscripted, he spoke about the power of compelling content, and its ability to ‘move mountains’.
‘Get good at compelling storytelling, and you can open up a whole world of opportunity,’ he mentioned.
As part of his presentation, Crowe challenged attendees to consider the impact their Deakin and career journey can have on the industry and to position it as a fragment of their own story and motivation.
‘Ask yourself what the one thing is you really want to add value to that will be your legacy – that’s what keeps you going,’ he said.
Be passionate about what you do
For Carissa Harris, current Event Director (International Cricket) at Cricket Australia, the journey from Deakin to her current role brought a diverse and comprehensive range of event experiences.
Starting from her early sport experiences and memories, Harris presented key takeaways on a voyage that included the 2015 Cricket World Cup, 2010 and 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, 2006 Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and the Australian F1 Grand Prix.
She delved into the nature of the events business, including the high points and a range of unique experiences and compelling behind the scenes memories. Alongside this the audience heard about career learnings such as: ‘Listen, learn, fail, then do it all again’.
‘Whatever you do in life, you need to be passionate about it.
‘My love for sport, and my time at Deakin, got me to where I am today,’ she said.
Closing the presentations, Chair of the Deakin Sport Management Chapter, Dr Adam Karg touched the success of the event and the continuing development of the Chapter.
‘The Chapter continues to extend and engage our network and Alumni and we are seeing a great connection between both our Alumni as a community and their continued engagement with the program. What is particularly pleasing is the wide range of representation of different sectors of the industry we are seeing at our functions.
‘We’re looking forward to the future events, and building the connection between our established Alumni network and the program even further.’
The Sport Management Alumni will hold their final event for 2015 on 19 November at Honey Bar in South Melbourne. A further three events are planned for 2016, beginning with the annual awards night in April 2016.