Cardiff welcomes yet another major event to the city. Eager to join some of the excitement, TeamKinetic visited Cardiff and the front line volunteers of the event. Take a read of how volunteers at major events in Cardiff are managed by Sport Cardiff and the experience one of our team whilst at the event.
Volunteers in Action
Cardiff a Sporting city of Success
In the last few years, Cardiff has successfully hosted several major sporting events. From the Champions League final, a Heavyweight Boxing unification fight, and most recently the Volvo Ocean Race. Cardiff is quickly becoming a popular choice to host world-level sporting events.
Responsibility for organising some of these events has fallen to Sport Cardiff, the city’s sport development team a partnership between Cardiff Council and Cardiff Metropolitan University. Using TeamKinetic volunteer management software, Sport Cardiff recruits volunteers for sports events and opportunities across the city. TeamKinetic wanted to take the opportunity to visit such a prestigious event and to experience some of the thrills of front-line volunteering.
Volvo Ocean Race – Tell me more
The Volvo Ocean Race sees seven teams compete against each other across eleven legs around the world’s oceans. The ninth leg brings the competitors to Cardiff, in which they spend fifteen days in the port, included in this time are several port challenges which contribute points to the leaderboard. Amongst the excitement is an entourage of pop up stands and stools from partners, sponsors and charitable organisations which provide visitors with entertainment and education. The volunteers assist with the running of the event and the various stands through their enthusiasm, knowledge and approachable smiles.
Recruiting Volunteers and Managing Volunteers
The responsibility of recruiting volunteers from the local area fell on Gareth Power, Sport Development Co-ordinator at Sport Cardiff. As Sport Cardiff uses TeamKinetic volunteer management software to power the volunteer website Gareth was eager to ensure opportunities were shared across the portal.
In a brief interview, Gareth reflected on how the recruitment and management of volunteer had benefited from the use of TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software.
“It’s been a really positive experience and a great event so far. We have needed hundreds of volunteers who collectively have worked over 8 thousand hours for this fourteen consecutive day event. It has been quite intense and full on, but the volunteers have just been great.
They really have embraced the event. They come from all walks of life with different interests, backgrounds and motivations for volunteering. Whether it’s their first time volunteering or their hundredth it’s great to find a cause that brings them all together. The fact that everyone has decided to be here really helps to create a different dynamic and a positive vibe for the event.
For us at Sport Cardiff, it is important that we don’t just look at a singular event but also think about how we can keep the engagement of these volunteers in the future. This is just one of the reasons TeamKinetic volunteer management software is so valuable to us because it enables to promote future events to the volunteers who have previously signed up. This helps us to create a legacy, grow the pool of volunteers and increase the number of returning volunteers in the future.
For events which last so long, it can be challenging to manage such a high number of volunteers and their availability. The TeamKinetic software has helped us to overcome this challenge by allowing volunteers the flexibility to swap shifts on the volunteer portal without the need of going through the administrator.
Another aspect that makes the software so valuable is its automated and customisable communication features. Using TeamKinetic we know that all of the volunteers who sign up through the portal will receive the necessary information. It also is the perfect platform for us to collect feedback from volunteers following the event. This is made possible through the events survey functionality. “
If you would like to read James’ experience volunteering at the event check out his blog here.
Or if you’d like to learn more about TeamKinetic volunteer management software, please get in touch with one of our team:
Call 0161 914 5757
Email james@teamkinetic.co.uk
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