CASE STUDY: School Games National Finals

Event Travel Management (ETM) contract with School Games National Finals was to deliver regional hubs around the UK to and from Loughborough for athletes and officials.

ETM worked closely with the Games Services team to ensure that their travel plan was fully integrated with arrangements for arrivals at the School Game village and departures at the end of the event for up to 1800 people.

Read on to find out how.

Overview

An ongoing contract to ensure athletes competing in the School Games National Finals gain a positive experience from start to finish. The contract for the event travel management services was to manage all transport for up to 1800 people. ETM provided travel from regional hubs throughout the UK to and from Loughborough. This included coaches and flights plus airport transfers for athletes and officials travelling from Northern Ireland.

Also, the management of the local coaches for athletes competing offsite, accessible minibuses onsite to support athletes with disabilities throughout the event plus all the logistics vans and electric bikes for the crew.

Challenge

The covid-19 pandemic resulted in extra precautions being implemented to ensure travellers’ safety. Planning team travel for the four-day event consisted of multiple points of contact across 10 sports. ETM worked with more than 80 Team Managers all with unique travel requirements. Due to the management of COVID testing hubs, ETM used coaches rather than trains for the national transport programme which were all scheduled to arrive within a four-hour window. Alongside this flights and airport transfers from Northern Ireland needed to arrive within the same window.

Solution

ETM worked closely with the Games Services team to ensure that their travel plan fully integrated with arrangements for arrivals at the School Game village and departures at the end of the event. One member from ETM was appointed as the Transport Manager to oversee all the travel arrangements for the event with five staff onsite to support and manage any onsite changes and coordinate the local transport for those sports operating offsite and athletes requiring accessible transport.

Coach manifests were produced for every vehicle to ensure duty of care was maintained.

Following Covid-19 measures, ETM provided private testing stations at each pickup location. All athletes and staff were asked to test twice before departure day. A medical team was also onsite in Loughborough providing rapid PCR testing services if anyone displayed symptoms of COVID, they were isolated, tested immediately and dedicated covid transport was available to take athletes home if required.

Results

Within the agreed budget ETM created a schedule for approximately 45 coaches from all over the country to collect the teams at the designated covid testing sites, taking athletes to the event within a window of four hours. ETM also arranged 180 flights plus airport transfers for the Northern Ireland teams.

Onsite ETM managed all the offsite travel and provided accessible vehicles for campus support. A National Transport help desk was manned daily to manage any changes and general enquiries.

Testimonial

“We have been working with our account manager for over seven years now and for good reason. Year after year she continues to deliver a great service of the highest level. Her attitude is a great attribute and she is a pleasure to work with. Our event takes many months to organise and can often present demanding scenarios. However, this doesn’t faze Karen as she continues to deliver at the highest standards and with a fantastic attitude.

- Attendee Testimonial -

Our account manager is a great asset to have on our event team and we look forward to many more years working together.”