Webinar: Lessons from the Big Stage

Every year, the national governing bodies of Olympic sports host championships that bring together thousands of athletes, coaches, officials and fans. These events are often in a new city each time, with tight budgets and high expectations. Behind every smooth opening ceremony and sold-out session is a planning operation that has been refined over decades.

In this webinar, SportsTravel brings together event leaders from national governing bodies to share how they do it. They will talk about what works, what they have learned the hard way, and how they handle the challenges every organizer faces, at a scale that leaves little room for error. Whether you run a regional tournament or a national championship, you will come away with ideas you can put to work at your next event.

When: Tuesday, November 10, 2027
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET

Sign Up to Watch On Demand Here

What you’ll learn:

• Venue logistics at scale: How NGBs plan multi-day, multi-venue competitions and keep them on schedule.
• Housing and room blocks: Strategies for negotiating blocks, managing attrition, and keeping athletes and families housed where they need to be.
• Officials: How to recruit, schedule, house, and keep the officials your event depends on.
• Fan experience: Turning spectators, including parents, into fans who come back and bring others.
• Sponsorship acquisition: How NGBs find, pitch and keep sponsors, and how that translates to events of any size.

Participants:

Miranda Rivera
Senior Manager
USA Volleyball

Miranda Rivera is a senior manager in the USA Volleyball Events Department, where she serves as a liaison between host cities and convention centers to support the continued growth and expansion of USA Volleyball events across the country. In her role, she has overseen two of USA Volleyball’s premier national championships: the Boys Junior National Championship and the Girls 18s Junior National Championship.

Christine Strong Simmons
Managing Director of Operations
USA Taekwondo

Christine Strong Simmons serves as the managing director of operations at USA Taekwondo. Her role includes oversight of governance, domestic and international events as well as member services programs. She has over 28 years’ experience in sport management, budget preparation, contract negotiation, logistics, strategic planning, leadership and project administration.

Moderator:

Ted Keith
Managing Editor
SportsTravel

Ted Keith is the managing editor of SportsTravel, which he joined in January 2026. Keith previously spent 15 years at Sports Illustrated as a reporter, writer, associate editor and senior editor across the SI franchise, including as a staff writer for SI.com and a senior editor at the iconic weekly magazine. He then spent more than seven years as an assistant managing editor at Sports Business Journal where he oversaw all editorial coverage related to pro football, baseball, hockey, soccer, the Olympics and more. He has twice been nominated for Best American Sports Writing and has appeared frequently on television, radio, podcasts and documentaries. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Chapel Hill with his family.
 

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