[Ro]
31 Mai 2015, Bucuresti.
Am batut cale de 400 de km pentru un meci de fotbal, finala Cupei Romaniei. Dupa un drum foarte lung si cateva ore petrecute pe strazile capitalei momentul mult asteptat se apropie. Simti ca ai un nod in stomac si vizualizezi momentul de maxima bucurie de la fluierul final. Tot timpul te roade intrebarea – oare care va fi deznodamantul?
Se face ora meciului si mii de oameni se indreapta spre stadionul national unii poarta inscriptii alb negre, altii ros albastre, dar toti trec prin stari similare.
Asa pasim si noi, destul de nesiguri pe treptele stadionului. Urcand treptele simti tumultul, ritmul tobei, pulsul incepe sa creasca, fiori incep sa iti treaca pe spate si in momentul cand pasesti in peluza ti se face pielea de gaina, incepe imnul. Urmatoarele 90 de minute intri in transa si traiesti sportul, iti incurajezi favoritii sa dea si ultima picatura de energie pe teren. La sfarsit nu mai conteaza scorul, castigatorul sau adversarul – ce conteaza este sa simti ca atat tu cat si cei din teren au dat ce au avut mai buni din ei.
In seara aceea asa a fost, nici acum nu stiu cine a marcat, ce stiu insa este ca echipa favorita si miile de spectatori s-au bucurat de un spectacol la care nimeni nu se astepta.
25-26 Mai 2019 Cluj
Sute de km au batut si ateltii prezenti la Transylvania Throwdown zilele trecute si eu am simtit din nou aceleasi emotii ca in 2015. In proba 3 cand am vazut cum se doboara PR-uri peste PR-uri, cum toti atletii dau ce au mai bun de oferit, resurse de care nici ei nu erau constienti sunt puse la bataie intru-un ritm sustinut de spectatori - efectiv mi se ridica parul pe mana. Probabil de acolo vine si vorba ca atunci cand nu mai poti, mai poti un pic.
Am simtit ca fiecare persoana prezenta – organizatori, voluntari, atleti si spectatori au dat si ultima farama de energie ca totul sa iasa bine. Daca la atleti acest lucru a fost vizibil, la organizatori s-a vazut spre Duminica seara cand s-au stins luminile la The Box.
Povestea Transylvania Throwdown a inceput in Noiembrie 2018 cand la Cluj printre antrenamente si cateva pahare de bere am pus impreuna cu Alex, Radian, Florin si Tamasz bazele colaborari noastre. Atunci am agreat ca vom face concursul si am visat. Am visat la un eveniment grandios, desi nu stiam pe atunci exact de ce vom avea nevoie pentru a-l implementa.
Dupa euforia formarii echipei si dupa ce a trecut weekendul, am inceput incet, incet sa lucram pentru prima etapa: Fittest in Cluj. Atunci au aparut primele provocari si semne de intrebare legate de organizare.
Cele mai mari 3 provocari pe care le-am avut pentru organizarea concursului au fost:
1. Sponsori
Plecand din bula corporativa si privind organizarea de evenimente din exterior mi-a ramas intiparita ideea potrivit careia aducerea sponsorilor este usoara- toate evenimentele au o gramada... Ca trebuie numai sa lansezi un eveniment, ca si cu o undita si sponsorii vor veni sprintand spre tine. Tocmai de aceea primul buget pus pe hartie pentru concurs era cu multe zerouri. Nimic mai gresit.
Nu dupa mult timp am realizat ca nu vom reusi sa adunam sumele de care avem nevoie si asa ca a trebuit sa ajustam. Am ajuns la concluzia pe care organizatorii de evenimente o aveau de mult cu siguranta si anume ca sponsorii nu vin cu una cu doua. Ce am invatat este ca in prima faza este important sa dai, sa aduci valoare si apoi se poate pune problema de o sponrizare.
In acelasi timp activitatile si costurile trebuie trecute prin multe filtre si trebuie sa ramana doar ce este imperativ necesar. Desi a fost un efort considerabil, am ales sa mentinem pool-ul de premiere la un nivel cat mai ridicat deoarece sa faci sport nu este ieftin si sa faci performanta cu atat mai putin.
2. Jurizare si probe.
Una dintre valorile in care noi credem ca si indivizi cu tarie este transparenta, asa ca am incercat sa aducem asta in realitatea TT. Ca si probe, obiectivul lui Bogdan a fost sa testeze intr-un mod cat mai unitar si complet fiecare atlet. Cu etapa concursului de la Cluj am vrut sa diversificam cat mai mult probele si sa iesim din tiparele unui concurs standard de crossfit. Am testat forta si conditionarea atletilor.
In acelasi timp am vrut sa ne asiguram ca avem transparenta totala la modul de punctare, motiv pentru care leaderboard-ul a fost actualizat live, dupa fiecare heat. O alte regula impusa a fost ca nici un arbitru sa nu isi arbitreze atletii proprii. Am reusit asta datorita faptului ca organizarea este facuta de 4 sali diferite, ceea ce ne ofera destul spatiu de manevra.
Pot sa va asigur ca transparenta si fair play-ul vor ramane una din principalele valori Transylvania Throwdown in ani ce vor veni.
3. Comunicare
Comunicarea, in general, poate fi problematica si intre 2 persoane , ce sa mai zic cand vorbim de o echipa de organizare de 10-15 persoane, 60 de atleti si peste 100 de spectatori.
Am avut un plan de comunicare discutat si destul de bine pus la punct din momentul in care am lansat inscrierile. Am tinut legatura cu ateltii si am confirmat inscrierile, plata si mai apoi am incercat sa trimitem cat mai multe detalii despre eveniment inainte sa ajunga lumea la noi. Cu siguranta nu ne-a iesit 100%, dar invatam si noi pe parcurs.
Cel mai complicat a fost sa identificam canalul de comunicare prin care putem ajunge la voi cel mai eficient, dupa incercari pe social media, am ajuns la concluzia ca sms + mail sunt o solutie mai buna.
In incheiere as vrea sa felicit castigatorii si mai ales pe restul participantilor. Scopul concursului este sa impingem lumea sa faca miscare.
Din punctul acesta de vedere vreau sa ma orientez spre cei care au venit la concurs nu neaparat pentru a castiga, ci mai degraba pentru a se infrunta pe ei insisi, pentru ca ei sa devina mai buni si mai puternici.
Iti trebuie mult curaj sa iesi din zona de confort si sa mergi la o competitie la care stii de la inceput ca nu esti cel mai bun. Pentru voi toti, noi Transylvania Throwdown, ne scoatem palaria. Voi sunteti cei care ii inspirati pe altii sa se apuce de sport.
Pot sa zic ca impreuna am reusit! Avem cel putin 5 oameni care nu faceau sport, care au fost la competitie si acum au inceput sa vina la antrenamente.
Va multumim pentru asta. Incet, incet vom convinge din ce in ce mai multi!
Ne vedem saptamana viitoare la Arad!
P.S. sa stiti ca energia concursului inca se simte la The Box
[En]
May 31st 2015
I drove 400 km away for a football game, the Romanian Cup Final. After a very long way and a couple of hours spent wandering around the capital, the kick-off moment is getting close. Your pulse is going up as you start visualizing the joy brought by the final whistle blow and your favorites winning.
Thousands of people are merging towards the stadium wearing black and white T Shirts, while others wear red & blue ones, but all are going through the same feelings.
We do the same, anxious we go into the stadium. Going up the stairs you start feeling the vibe, the drum rhythm, you pulse goes even higher, cold chills go up your back and the chanting starts. For the next 90 min you are in a different world, you shout and cheer for your team, while they give everything on the pitch. In the end the score doesn’t matter, neither who wins or losses, what it really matters is whether you and the team gave what was best in you during those 90 mins.
In that 2015 evening that was the case, to be honest I do not know who scored, what I know is that the thousands of fans enjoyed a great show that no one expected.
May 25-26 2019 Cluj
The athletes competing in Transylvania Throwdown drove a couple of hundred kilometers as well just a few weeks ago, and I got to feel the same emotions as in 2015 again. During the 3rd WOD when I saw them breaking PR after PR, as they were giving all they had, resources that not even them were aware they posses... I got the chills again.
During the event I felt that all the people involved – staff, volunteers, athletes and spectators gave up every last drop of energy to have a great event. If this was very visible for the athletes, in the organizing team this was only felt by the end of the day on Sunday when the lights at The Box went out.
The Transylvania Throwdown story started in November 2018 when between some training sessions in Cluj and a couple of beers, we put the foundation of our collaboration with Alex, Radian, Florin and Tamasz. At that point we agreed that we will do the Throwdown and we started dreaming. We dreamed about a grand event, even though at that point we had no idea what would it suppose to implement it.
After the euphoria of that weekend passed, we started to slowly work on the first competition: Fittest in Cluj. Soon we started encountering the first challenges and started having some doubts whether it would actually work.
The biggest 3 challenges we had were:
1. Sponsors
Leaving the corporate bubble and looking from the exterior towards the event management industry I got the feeling that getting sponsors is very easy, that you only have to launch an event and sponsors will run towards you, just like going fishing – only that it is not. The first budget draft had many zeros, but that was so wrong.
Soon we realized that we will not be able to gather those money so we had to chop it down. What we’ve learned is that, first you must give something, bring value and then you might be able to discuss about sponsorship. In the same time the costs have to go through many filters to make sure that only the important ones remain. Even though it was a great effort, we chose to keep the prize pool just as in the first budget draft as we know that is not cheap to train, and is even more expensive when you want be competitive.
2. Jury and the WODs
One of the core values in which we trust as individuals is transparency, so we tried to reflect that in everything that TT means. Bogdan’s objective was to test in a unitary and complete way every athlete. For the Cluj competition we wanted to have very divers challenges and get away from the baseline of crossfit competitions. We have tested the strength and physical condition of each athlete.
In the same time, we wanted to be sure we offer total transparency towards how points are offered, so we updated live the leaderboard after each heat. Another rule was that no judge will rate an athlete that is training in his gym. We managed to do this as we can rely on 4 gyms when organizing a competition.
I can ensure you that transparency and fair play will remain one of the most important values for Transylvania Throwdown in the years to come.
3. Communication
Communication can be problematic even between 2 persons, what about when having to communicate with 10-15 people in the organizing team, 60 athletes and more than 100 spectators.
We had a clear communication plan in place from the moment when we launched the registrations. We kept the athletes informed about their sign-up, payment and then we tried to send them as many details about the event even before they got into our box. For sure this wasn’t 100% efficient, but we are still learning.
The most difficult part was to identify the best communication channel to use. After several tryouts on social media we realized that sms + email is the best one.
In the end I would like to congratulate the winners and especially the rest of the participants. The objective of this competition was to convince more people to start being more active.
Therefore I would like to focus on the athletes that joined the competition even though they weren’t targeting the first places, but they were looking to challenge themselves to become better and stronger.
You need a lot of courage to get out of the comfort zone and go to a competition that you know from the start you cannot win. For all you that had this courage, we Transylvania Throwdown, we bow our heads. You are the ones that inspire the others to start doing sports.
Together we succeeded! I know at least 5 persons that started doing sport after seeing you here.
Thank you for this! Slowly we will convince more and more people to be more active.
See you next week in Arad!
P.S. just so that you know the energy from the competition can still be felt at The Box