As we head towards the later stages of 2021, we hope we have made it through the other side of the pandemic, it was certainly a difficult period to say the least.
At the time of lockdown, in my household I would hear: “When will we get back to some sort of normality?”, “When will we get back to some shows?”, “How will you get a job?”.
Well… I was extremely lucky to land on my feet with a job at JB Promotions as a Junior Account Executive at the start of June. Straight away I gained the opportunity to work at my first event – helping run the Media Centre at the Bicton International Horse Trials supported by Chedington. Then the Chedington Bicton Park 5* Horse Trials alongside my colleagues Charlotte and April last weekend.
Behind the scenes
I was extremely excited, especially as Bicton was right on my doorstep. One could say I have spent a huge chunk of my childhood at Bicton attending pony clubs, academy camp etc. To begin with I was quite nervous as I hadn’t ever worked behind the scenes at an event like this before.
For both the 4* and the 5* the process of running a Media Centre was fairly similar, we began by setting up on the first day – making sure the Media Centre was up and running, complete with refreshments, Wi-fi and the correct checking in procedures to comply with NHS Covid guidelines whilst on event.
As part of JBP it was also our job to keep up with social media posts and stories. This meant we were able to go out and take snazzy photographs and videos to take back to the JBP team in the media centre. These were then published onto their very popular social media channels! This was great fun as we could be creative.
We also spoke to and interviewed many riders, organisers, volunteers, judges, scorers, groundsmen and many more! This really opened my eyes on how many people it takes to run such an event and it was so nice to see all of them so happy to be there, whether they were volunteering or not.
It was great to see CCI5* sport return to England for the first time since 2019, congratulations to Gemma Tattersall on her fantastic win and to the Bicton Team for putting on such an incredible event for all involved. To say the least I have learnt a huge amount, and I cannot wait to do it all over again!
Asha Smith
Charlotte, April and Piggy
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