We went to the Davis Cup and we had a great time! Being an intern at such an important event was truly an exceptional experience. The four of us – Lucija Marasović, Karlo Majnić, Renata Vladić and Robert Crevar – all second year Sport Management students at Aspira, volunteered in Zagreb from November 25 to 27, 2016.
Our internship began at 11 AM on Friday at Arena Zagreb. The first order of business was a meeting with the organisers, attended by all other volunteers as well. Here we were given instructions and schedules telling us who will be doing what and when. Special attention was given to the seriousness of the task and to the fact that we were all working for the organisers of the Davis Cup. The organisation was on a very high level and all of use did our best to leave a good impression.
Our internship provided us with the experience and the insight into how complex it was to organise such events, how important even the tiniest details are, and that nothing should be left to chance. We saw how the entire organisation operates and how connected and equally important all individual parts were. At the end of each day, a short ‘briefing’ was held during which we summarised our impressions and pointed out what needed to be improved for the following day.
On Sunday, the male volunteers were in charge of preparing the ceremony of awarding the trophy. The atmosphere was very impressive – it was loud and the fans were excellent, both Croatian and Argentinian ones. In was interesting to see how elderly Argentinians were undoubtedly among the loudest fans.
We are happy to have had the opportunity to take pictures with our players and, despite being very tired after working for ten hours every day, we were thrilled with everything. This was a wonderful new experience for us and it was a pleasure to participate in such an event.
We would like to encourage all students to participate in projects such as this one in the future, it was really worth it. It is also important to point out that the organisers took care of our transportation, food and accommodations, and that we lacked nothing.
We would like to thank Aspira for growing together with us on our journey.
Lucija Marasović, Karlo Majnić, Renata Vladić and Robert Crevar