Ticketing and Game Operations Internship Portfolio - Fort Wayne Mad Ants
2023 Mad Ant Birthday Bash
Imbedded in this section are the photos, resources and various elements I used in the planning, organizing and final production of the 2023 Mad Ant Birthday Bash
2023 Mad Ant Birthday Bash
Embeded throughout this section is my step-by-step organization process for the 2023 Mad Ant Birthday Bash - Including: notes, stock emails, infographics and a photo gallery from the day of the event!
Step 1: Planning
Attached are notes from the brainstorming phase of my planning for the event, here I researched local organizations with mascots, retrieved emails of marketing directors, and came up with a final list of mascots
Icy D. Eagle (Fort Wayne Komets), Johnny Tincap (Fort Wayne Tincaps), The Angola Stinger (Angola HS), Norm the Forester (Huntington University), Don the Mastadon (Purdue University Fort Wayne), Spotz the Dog (FWFD), and Stryker the Parrot (Crazy Pinz)
Boomer and Freddy Fever from the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever were also in attendance but were last minute additions and were not part of the original planning
After all this was in place I began prep for Step 2: Contacting
Step 2: Contacting
On the left is my orginal stock RSVP email in which I reached out to the organizations that I researched and informed them about the event and asked for an RSVP
On the right is my follow up email that I sent out after recieving RSVPs that includes final information necessary for the mascots and handlers about the event, this email was also attached with the product of Step 3: Invitations
Step 3: Invitations
On the left is the rough draft of the inivitation that I created using Microsft Word which was observably hard to do; However, the purpose was to create an idea for our Multi-Media Manager Cameron Smolinske so he could easily create a refined graphic on photoshop
On the right is the refinded graphic from Cameron,
it was sent out along with the stock invitation email from Step 2,
Step 4: Autograph Booklet Coordination
One idea that I fromulated through colloboration with various individuals in the organization was the 2023 Mad Ant Birthday Bash Autograph Book - an autograph booklet with a designated page in it, for each mascot that would be in attendance (The idea being that kids would take the book around and get signatures from each mascot on their designated page, kind of like Disneyland)
This took lots of planning as headshots of each mascot were needed from each organization by the intended confirmation date (as seen in Step 2) so that I could forward them to Cameron and he could design and produce the book in time
Another added bonus of this booklet is that we had the idea to get the book sponsored by local entertainment center and Mad Ants partner Crazy Pinz, which ended up making commision for one of our salesmen
Attached below are pictures from a completely signed booklet from the day of the event
Step 5: Game Day
On March 19th, 2023, after roughly a month and a half of planning I got to see my event come to life and it went very smoothly
Not only did the kids love the autograph booklet but all my mascots and handlers arrived on time, interacted well with fans, contributed to our on-court promotions and took some great photos!
The highlight of the afternoon was when Icy D. Eagle caked one of our ball boys on the jumbotron (see gallery below)
Attached below is a gallery of photos from the game
Step 6: Final Thanks to Mascots and Handlers
Although I personally thanked each mascot and their handlers as they left on game day, and we provided a Mad Ant Birthday goodie bag for each organization that included various Mad Ants items, it still felt like a final thank you was in order
Attached below is the graphic that I sent out to each organization, wishing them a final thanks for attending the event and helping it go so perfectly
Special Thanks to Ally Link, Cam Smolinske, Collin Kerschner and Dan Vance
I would like to extend my uptmost gratitude to my supervisor Ally Link for giving me this project and trusting me with the responsbility of handeling such a large event
I would also like to thank Cam Smolinske for all his fantastic work designing the necessary graphics needed throughout this process
And finally I'd like to thank Dan Vance and Colin Kerschner for their collaboration and support on the project throughout its process
This event would not have been possible without you guys