Main Event partnering Champs’ glory

BEHIND the guts and glory of the 116-year-old ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, a network aligns to make ‘Champs’ the hub of Jamaica’s international track and field prowess.

While teen stars bask in the spotlight, unsung heroes and heroines work behind the scenes, playing critical roles in ensuring Champs’ continued success as, arguably, the world’s biggest high school athletics meet. Kimberly Smalling has been Main Event Entertainment Group’s project manager for the Championships since 2017, a sponsorship her company has maintained for 14 years, providing logistics and equipment support for a world-class production televised nationally.

“Main Event manages and oversees Champs on behalf of ISSA (Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association) in many areas,” Smalling pointed out.

“Yes, we provide audio and the big screens, which most people would identify with the Main Event brand, but we also oversee branding-installation and sponsors’ execution for ISSA as well,” she added.

Explaining Main Event’s role in ensuring sponsors get full bang for their bucks, Smalling said the process starts before patrons enter the turnstiles at the National Stadium.

“We oversee and support all sponsors in the physical execution, set-up of booths and signages. We ensure they remain within their entitlement. For example, GraceKennedy, the title sponsor, sets up an entire village. We ensure there’s no other sponsor entering that space, infringing on GraceKennedy,” Smalling pointed out.

“Inside the stadium, we have a branding partner, iPrint, which assists us with branding installation. They create a map of all sponsors and allocations, such as perimeter boards, whose banner goes where,” she added.

Apart from having boots on the ground offering logistics support, Main Event also throws its equipment weight behind Champs by providing generators and sponsoring the athletes’ village at adjacent Stadium East.

“Some schools have their individual tents, others use tarpaulin. However, we sponsor a tent at the athletes village, a structure with seating under which they can have meals, a comfortable space before heading into the National Stadium,” Smalling emphasised.

“Our sponsorship comes mainly through equipment sponsorship. We provide the LED screens to go live at Stadium East and inside the National Stadium itself,” she pointed out, adding, “The scope of work is not just limited to production. We work very closely with ISSA, and everyone involved, to ensure a smooth execution of the production, an overall coming together of Champs.”

Planning, Smalling detailed, starts from the previous year, November-December, with technical meetings, sponsors’ meetings and site visits; four months’ worth of plans for the five-day meet.

“The opening and closing ceremonies, which feature parades and entertainment, require rehearsals at which Main Event plays a crucial role, assisting with the public address system and sound,” Smalling explained. “Throughout Champs, we have at least 40 persons on the ground daily, dealing with audio, media, electricians, a generator team, coordinators and field-services support. A lot goes on behind the scenes.”