My first month of my internship with the Boston Cannons is officially completed and it already feels like a whirlwind of experiences. With two game days under my belt and a consistent office schedule, I truly feel settled and a part of the “team” - minus my retired lacrosse career. Most importantly, June offered some unique outside marketing experiences that let me escape from the office and reach out to the general public. With hopes of expanding the already growing lacrosse world, I represented the Boston Cannons at both the Special Olympics at Harvard and the Health and Fitness Expo at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Both events yielded very different experiences, yet both offered the opportunity to expand my current marketing and sales skills - as well as a chance to become more in touch with a diversified target market.

The Special Olympics, which took place on June 20th, was an experience that I will never forget. Along with two other fellow interns, I set up a Boston Cannons tent in the “Olympic Village” where ticket and camp pamphlets were distributed. In addition, we had our “inflatable” (a blown-up lacrosse net for shooting contests) which sparked significant interest amongst the crowd - many who had never even heard of lacrosse before! Every individual that visited our tent also filled out a “capture card” - a form which not only aids our marketing and segmentation, but also allows randomly selected individuals to win tickets. Yet, what made the day most memorable was the interaction with the Special Olympics participants - a set of individuals unlike any other. One boy I met (who was merely a young teenager) had just finished his first event upon visiting our table, articulating that he was a runner and had beat his record mile time - 5:15! This was amazing to me, and it absolutely impacted my thoughts on one’s capabilities - they are endless. It was a truly inspiring day, and I hope to volunteer at the Special Olympics again someday.

The Health and Fitness Expo, which took place on June 26th, was another exciting event that captured the local community. After ironing out some logistics (yes, my fellow intern and I originally thought it took place at the Bayside Expo Center.. oops!), we found our way through the crowded convention and set up a table in the Liberty Mutual Athletics Zone beside the New England Revolution representatives. Amongst the chaos of free health tips and exercise techniques, our table created a lot of buzz (thanks to the ever-popular spinning wheel!) and we generated a significant amount of capture cards from an extremely diverse audience. On the spinning wheel, individuals have a chance to win tickets, player bobbleheads, posters, yearbooks, and playing cards - of course, everyone was aiming for the set of tickets to our next game (which will be next weekend - July 18th!). At the end of the day, we managed to award ten individuals with tickets - some were fans, some had never heard of us before; nevertheless, they were thrilled. It was exciting to be part of an event such as the Health and Fitness Expo because it not only allowed us to get our name out, but connected us with individuals that DO care about their well-being (and, consequently, respect athletes of any kind). In addition, I was able to pick up a few of my own health and fitness tips throughout the day (I even found a new fondness toward Zumba!) - I hope to visit the expo again next year to learn even more, since I will be a retired college athlete by then.. eek!

And now I am here at the office, continuing to work on the revised master database and starting a new sponsorship project. I am currently researching potential sponsors in the fields of banking, insurance, and local restaurant chains. First, I am documenting all of the sponsors for the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics, and then I am moving on to small-scale teams such as the PawSox, SeaDogs, Lowell Spinners, etc. Throughout the next few weeks, we hope to contact and capture a few more sponsors in these different fields, specifically start-ups and businesses that are not already targeted by the major sports clubs. In addition, we are continually working on selling tickets to our next home game (July 18th) - so far, we have ranked 42 tickets on individual sales in the office.. but I know that we can do much better throughout the next week!

-Lindsay

“Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” - Mike Singletary