My wonderful experience at the Palermo Ladies Open ended yesterday. Since I have no idea how to sum it up for my CV nor LinkedIn, I thought I might just enumerate here everything I have done during these 10 days (plus a month and a half of preparation) of tournament:
- I have participated in the organisation of the first tour-level post-lockdown tennis tournament, which managed to exceed expectations with respect to health concerns and the mere quality of the event;
🏆🏆🏆
👋🏻 See you in 2021!#PLO20@WTA pic.twitter.com/ty3Qk7XpwU
— Palermo Ladies Open (@LadiesOpenPA) August 9, 2020
- I have carried out 22 post-match on-court interviews in English and Italian (in the majority of cases translating the answers to English) to be broadcasted live in around 160 countries;
😁 A big smile for a big win
Tutta la felicità di Sara #Errani al termine dell’incontro vinto in rimonta contro Kristyna Pliskova.#PLO20@WTA pic.twitter.com/IyL6qDRHxp
— Palermo Ladies Open (@LadiesOpenPA) August 5, 2020
- I have been the announcer of Centre Court, and I was given the name of “L’urlatore di Palermo” (“Palermo’s screamer”) by the Italian national television while in this role;
- Along with Alex Prior of the WTA – one of the best professionals in communications I have ever met – I have moderated and organised Zoom press conferences (which were, surprisingly, a huge success!) in various languages;
- I have written and helped writing Press Releases in Italian and in English, not only related to tennis yet also to situations of risk and with potentially heavy legal implications, such as having to announce a positive case of COVID-19 of an athlete;
- I have learnt so much by working with two masters of journalism and communications such as Nino Randazzo and Giovanni Mazzola – the both of which I thank for the opportunity;
- With them, I have created and managed a new, English-based social media strategy for the tournament, generating an immense value for the organisation in terms of interactions, followers and engagement (almost 3 million views solely on twitter in just a month);
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I’m sorry, this seat is taken. It’s for my trophy 💁🏼♀️ 🏆 #PLO20 @wta
- We have also made one of the things I love the most – a magazine. Among other things, I wrote an article about Camila Giorgi, Giovanni Mazzola and I interviewed Mary Pierce and I translated all the texts from Italian to English;
- I have been the communications office’s spokesperson with the WTA;
- I have been in charge of holding relations with the international press for a global event;
- I have been told “I’ve never seen someone doing as many things as you’re doing”;
- I have coped with the stress the previous point implies;
- I have walked about 60 km, and worked for around 14 hours a day;
- I have done simultaneous translation from Italian to English for prizegiving ceremonies – again, for 160 countries in the world;
- I have made a few mistakes and I have learnt important lessons from them;
- I have watched a lot of tennis and enjoyed from close distance the spectacular runs of players such as Fiona Ferro, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Anett Kontaveit, Petra Martic, Sara Errani, Melania Delai, and many more;
- I have aged a couple of years in 10 days.
It was the first time I did the majority of these things and it was a wonderful surprise to receive an enthusiastic feedback from many stakeholders. Needless to say, although there are many “I” in this post, nothing of this would have been possible without my team and colleagues. You made me learn immensely more than I expected.
This has been an intense yet extremely rewarding experience I look forward to do again.
