Blog Post - MSL & DASL Event Saturday 16th March 2019 – Exeter City v Colchester United

Words by Emilie Sewell

After what feels like months of planning, we were thrilled for Saturday 16^th March to finally come around so we could celebrate our 10^th and 15^th birthdays with some of our closest customers and suppliers. We had 40 guests on the day, some we had met before and some we had only ever spoken to on the phone, so it was a great opportunity for us to finally put faces to names. 

We decided to hold the event at Exeter City FC at their home game against Colchester United. Adrian and I are lifelong Exeter fans and knew we wanted to do something to incorporate the club into our celebratory day. Working with the commercial team at ECFC to come up with a package to suit us and our guests for the day we were given the RGB legends lounge as our hospitality suite, which was a perfect size and made our guests feel like VIP’s.

For me it was a big challenge as only 2 weeks in to becoming a full-time member of staff here at MSL & DASL I was suddenly hosting an event for 40 people! I have been planning the day since last October but only working here 2 days a week, so each day of those two weeks I was fully consumed in the event planning bubble, with what seemed like more and more to tick off my to-do list. It wasn’t until set up day when the team at ECFC commented on how great the room looked as well as Matt from the commercial team saying to me, ‘is that a hamper for the Man of the Match???’ It was safe to say that we had done a good job.

The day began with me frantically blowing up the balloons in the room as guests started to arrive earlier than expected! I dragged Gary & Rob over to help me as you can see from the below picture! But then the wonderful girls from Laser Industries, Rachel & Jess could see I needed a little assistance and came to my rescue! Within no time at all balloons were up and it was time to start the event!

Once I’d got over the initial anxiety of meeting lots of new people, I quickly settled in to the day and to be honest I quite enjoyed being at the helm of a big audience. 

Food came which was delicious as usual thanks to Rose and her catering team. This was followed by pre match interviews with some of the first-year professionals and a talk by the chairman Julian Tagg. 2.45pm was approaching and It was now time to assemble the guests in their seats whilst the group of us from MSL & DASL headed down to the pitch for the official photographs with the team captains.

Once the photo was done it was quickly back up to our seats in the IP grandstand for the start of the game. The first half was average with not a lot of chances for either side, as we went into half time at 0-0, I was starting to worry that our guests wouldn’t get to see a decent game of football let alone a good result. However, after the dash back inside to our hospitality lounge for our half time cups of tea and coffee the second half proved to be far more entertaining. With goals from Matt Jay, Lee Holmes and Nicky Law, Exeter found themselves 3 goals up earning 3 points and much to my relief the happiness of my guests!

Once back in the hospitality lounge, we celebrated the win by cutting the cake (specially made by Crafty Cakes in Exeter) followed by the post-match presentations. This is where we got to present the man of the match award to Matt Jay as well as giving him the hamper we had put together. Lots of photos were taken making sure to get a whole group shot as well as a couple in front of our sponsor banners. 

And with that the day was officially complete. It exceeded my expectations and showed me on a personal level that I could achieve things that I thought were out of my reach. On that note I must thank the commercial team at ECFC for helping me in the months leading up to the day, I had a few outrageous requests for them as naturally I wanted the day to be perfect, not only from an event point of view but the fact it was my first project to complete in my full time role, but they worked with my every request and allowed me to put on the event I had envisioned.

Here’s to the next 10 years and hopefully see you all at our next event!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<< Back