Starting a martial arts event...advice?

[chrissyp]

I'm potentially interested in the idea of starting a martial arts event. I know this is not an easy endevor.

I was wondering, from anyone who's ever done such, is there any resources you can point me to that could educate me on how to get started?

Or if anyone has any personal advice on how to go about it? Like insurance and liability, promotion of the show, sponsership, ext.

Just would like to know anyones personal insight and advice on this.

[Tempest]

Liability insurance is a must. This is one of the reasons that many martial artists are members of an organization as many organizations offer either insurance through the group or by being a part of a group you can get a discount on policies.

I have more to say on this as we run 3-5 tournaments a year here but I am at work so I will revisit this later tonight.

[sensei8]

You're right...this will not be an easy endeavor, but quite doable. However, the one thing I learnt a long time ago was this.

GET HELP!! Get help because there are so many things that must be addressed leading up to and after the event. So many so that a loose end, just one, can unravel the entire thing.

The founder of Dell Computers, Mike Dell, knew that he couldn't do it all by himself. So what did he do? He surrounded himself with experts in the fields that he knew nothing about. He knew computers; nothing else.

You won't have to find an army, even though you might wish that you had. List everything needed, and then put a check mark next to those that you can do. Then make sure that you don't over fill your plate. GET HELP and GET HELP SOON!!

You'll want to do it all, but it's a lot for one person to tackle. You'll have to trust others and you'll have to let them do what they do the best. If possible, get your help to volunteer their time and all, or make an offer of payment of their service off the door or none if the event flops.

Advertisements, rent, insurance, and the list will go on and on. Hotel rooms, and food/catering, and the list still goes on and on.

The bigger the event, the more HELP you're going to have to get. You can do it by yourself, but it's a task beyond one person imho.

You'll have one chance to make an impression, so make it a good and favorable one!!

Good luck with it!!

[Tempest]

Ok, revisiting this now.

First of all, as always, Sensei8's advice is top notch. Getting help will be very important if you want to pull off a successful event.

But to add to it, the specific things you will need help with might surprise you.

Its the little things that tend to get overlooked. For example, make sure if you intend to give out trophies or medals for the winners that you order enough of them. If you have extras, thats ok, save them for next time. Do NOT have the trophies or medals engraved with a specific year unless you are CERTAIN it will be given out at that event.

Next, make sure you have the best referees and judges you can possibly get. Nothing will make people not want to attend an event like feeling as if it is not a fair.

On the venue, having a enough room for the competition area is a given, but the next most important is having sufficient changing/restroom facilites and making sure they are clean. Also, unless you have a pre-existing deal with the venue holder always negotiate the price of the venue, its kind of like buying a car, you both need each other.

More to come, but I have to go help wire an entertainment center now.

[kensei]

The idea to build a team is a great one. You can not market, organize, promote, work with school leaders, find medals or prize's, Find judges/Refs, book the locasion,set up, run the whole thing as one person...heck ten people may have a hard time.

find a good lawyer that does the legal points for you and insurance, find someone with a marketing back ground that can dedicate time to promoting the tournament and people for other jobs.

Also, document EVERYTHING. if it goes well you will have a road map to build off of and if not you will have a way of finding issues you did not cover. You can slowly eliminate team members if they are not required and merge jobs.

Little things like feeding judges are important to the success of teh tournament so make sure you have your whole thing planned out and about a month out get the team together and run through the day making sure every detail is planned out.

a well planned event can be come an annual or quarterly event quickly...a poorly planned event will die out quickly.

[bushido_man96]

Lots of good advise so far. My question is, what kind of event are you planning? A tournament? If so, a national, international, or just inter-school city tourney? Being your first go-around, you may want to start small with an inter-school tourney, to get the swing of organization.

Or are you planning some sort of seminar? If so, what is the meat of the seminar going to be? You'll want to have a focus of some kind, and you'll want to make sure you have enough people to help out and run it smoothly.

Next, what is your draw? Well run tourneys are their own draw, usually, so as a new tourney organizer, you may not get the pull other establish events get right away. That will come with time. If its a seminar, do you have a guest instructor or high profile MA name coming to teach for you? Or are you to be the main draw, giving a clinic on your experiences? If this is the case, how well known are you in your area, and well do you market yourself?

Once you have your event established, you'll need to get out information. Flyers is a good way to do this. Send flyers out to schools you are affiliated or familiar with, and then put some up around the local businesses. Ads in papers might be of use, as well. You may also want to speak with some of the hotels around to see if you can arrange some special packages on rooms for those traveling to your event.

Good luck to you, and let us know more about what kind of event you would be planning.