One hundred school girls went behind the scenes at Wembley Stadium as part of a unique event to promote the role women play in sport media.
The Women in Sport Media day, hosted by UCFB Wembley and Sky Sports, aimed to show off the number of job roles available within sport media and how women in those positions are influencing the way the industry is moving forward.
On the day, the teenage participants were able to try their hand at a number of different disciplines, including workshops on television presenting in UCFB’s state-of-the-art studio, how to run a successful social media campaign, and how to perfect their interview technique.
The workshops were run by a number of established professionals from the world of sport, including Sarah Brookes, communications and marketing director at Fulham FC; Gemma Nash, presenter and sub editor at Sky Sports; Andy Watkins, multimedia manager at QPR FC and Maggie Alphonsi MBE, rugby world cup winner with England and now popular television presenter.
The event came on the back of a government initiative to create greater gender diversity and equality in sport media.
Running one of the workshops on the day was Brogan Kay-Jessop, a social media journalist at Sky Sports. Commenting on the day, she said: “I found the day really good fun and really rewarding, and it was great to be at UCFB to try and inspire the next generation of female media enthusiasts.”
Maggie was part of the interview workshop, where she was the subject of the interview by students. “It was a great day with lots of enthusiastic students in the interviews. Their job was to go away, do some research, come back to me and fire some really interesting questions. It was enjoyable, challenging and overall very worthwhile.”
Neil Silver, UCFB’s head of Complementary Curriculum, helped to organise the day. He said: “UCFB was delighted to showcase its media programmes, and I know that it stirred the interest of many who attended.
“Having high profile representatives involved from the likes of Sky Sports, Fulham FC and QPR FC helped to highlight the variety of roles available to women entering sports media. The government has placed the need for greater gender diversity and equality in sport media high on its agenda, and we are happy to do whatever we can to help.”
