I am currently heavily involved in the build up to WTT Manchester but at the recent Senior National Championships someone ask me, “what do you actually do?” So here is a two-week diary of a Technical Operations Manager in the build-up week and week of the actually event.
Both weeks offer significantly different challenges and are the culmination of six months of planning while also looking way ahead at the next two events, these being the Star Contender and World Team Championships in London.
Week 1
Monday 14th – leave home at 4.30am and spend all day on site in Manchester running a series of light checks and adjustments.
Tuesday 15th – standard office hours doing final checks on equipment deliveries, hotels, people, schedules etc
Wednesday 16th – Leave home at 6am to drive to Milton Keynes to pick up various branding items. Bring back items and sort and re pack.
Thursday 17th – Deliver a van load of branding items to Manchester. Assist with the unload of Table Tennis Equipment. Then stay in Manchester for a Local Organising Committee meeting for the Star Contender event later in the year. This links people from around the globe together in the planning process.
Friday 18th – Bank Holiday but final racket testing and call room items to plan, print and load into the van.
Saturday – rest day hopefully!
Sunday – deliver sports specific item to Manchester, unpack and check into a hotel for the next week. Maybe eat an Easter egg!
Week 2
Monday 21st – Arrive on site at the Velodrome at 6am to meet the flooring, seats, internal buildings and electrical contractors. Supervise the build until 4pm when we should be in a position to start the build of the table tennis practice hall. Leave site at 9m.
Tuesday 22nd – Arrive on site at the Velodrome at 6am to continue the build of flooring, seats, internal buildings and electrics. 12pm start the build of the competition hall. Practice starts at 4pm when the players start to arrive. Leave site at 9m.
Wednesday 23rd – arrive 7am to run a full day of practice with various system testing taking place throughout the day and a umpire meeting later in the day. Leave site at 9pm
Thursday through to Sunday are competition day. Arrive 7am and stay until 10pm. This involves overseeing the smooth running of the event with my Field of Play and Back of House teams. The more I am sitting down the smoother and more to plan things are going!
Monday 28th – Check out of the hotel, pack my van up and go home.
Total Hours – 108
Total Miles – 800
Of course, there is a huge amount of details missing in the write up but I hope this gives a little insight into the time and items I work on at a major event.