Personal Narrative: My Internship With The Binghamton Tennis Charities

Working for the Binghamton Tennis Charities, I gained experiences working within the sports industry. The first part of my internship consisted of going out in the Binghamton area and trying to sell sponsorship packages to local businesses. This was much more difficult than I originally thought it was going to be. Since I am not from the Binghamton area, it made it even more challenging because I did not know the area and anyone who owned a business. I received a lot of no’s from people. However, I keep my head up, and preserved. I was even able to bring in a few new sponsors. After a few times going out by myself, I realized I had to become more familiar with the event and tennis itself, having little knowledge in the sport of tennis. It then became a little easier describing the event to potential customers when I meet with them. Unfortunately I did not completely understand the scope of the event until after I worked it, which would have made it easier when I was going to sponsors. I also learned along the way, it was easier to sell the packages when I was able to make a personal connection with the sponsor. For example, one sponsor and I loved the sport of hockey. Therefore, it made it easier to communicate with this person. Before the tournament, I did not have an understanding or an appreciation for …show more content…
This gives them a taste of the sales side and I believe it was one of the best experiences I had with the internship. Since the organization is so short staffed, there is no getting out of the setup portion of the internship. The whole setup and the take down portion is mostly just manual labor. However, I believe it is a good experience because interns can gain a full understanding of what it means to setup a sporting event. Even though I am not a huge tennis fan, the challengers are pretty big events within the tennis community and interns can gain a better