After studying travel and tourism, it was a stroke of good fortune for Sinead Mulloch when, in the latter stages of her time at college, she was introduced to event marketing.
It opened the door to her as she stepped into the role of event marketing coordinator at Shrewsbury Town Foundation, and despite the challenges posed by the arrival of Covid, after two years in the job she is in no doubt she “loves it with a passion.”
“My job now is to look after the social media platforms and to put together all the programmes we do here on a day-to-day basis,” said Sinead. “I monitor all the social media pages, put together design graphics for articles which we put out and at the end of the year I write a report showcasing what we do here.”
Sinead, whose two brothers and partner all play football, said she had always had a link with Shrewsbury Town as her partner used to work for the Academy at the club and she is a keen football fan. She had always been enthusiastic about sport, she said, as she played football in her younger days, as well as netball and rounders.
“But my present job meant going down a different path for me to work for a charity at a football club,” she said. “I came just to do fundraising events and then got more of a passion for marketing.
The four-strong department, she added, organised between six and eight major fundraising events in a year and the main focus was to encourage families and businesses to become involved with the club.
“We organise programmes and events to get more participants involved and any funds we raise can go to specific areas or to the charity as a whole to be reinvested. It helps staff with training and goes towards providing better facilities and kit.
“A big part of my job is to make sure word is out there about what we do so that we can get more participants on board and arrange more fundraising events.”
They stage a variety of major events throughout the year, she explained, the two most recent of which were a 120-mile bike ride to MK Dons and a golf day at Hawkstone Park.
They also worked with other local fundraising organisations and had been involved with Ultimate Events, which organised the Shrewsbury 10K race recently.
Among the many programmes they organised, said Sinead, the player days were among the most popular, particularly when players were able to go into the local schools.
“It is a platform for us to get people to see what we do and to get involved with the community.
“We are a charity, and it is a big focus of the team to ensure that it is a way of the football club giving something back to the people who support us.”
An important part of their role, she added, was that they worked very closely with the club’s media team.
Sinead described herself as a perfectionist and said it was a little stressful when things didn’t go according to plan. “It is then a case of turning things around, but the rewards are massive here.
“It was a real challenge when Covid arrived, and we did really well in coming up with ideas to change the way in which we deliver the things we do. All our programmes instantly went online as we really wanted to continue doing what we did before Covid.
“The situation changed overnight and it was crazy. I started working here in January 2020 and Covid came along in March. I worked a lot from home before we could return to thinking of new ways of changing the delivery of what we do. It was a challenge, but we got through it.”
Sinead said that in the latter stages of her time at college she spent some time on work experience at a local events company, Shropshire Festivals, and worked for them for two years afterwards.
“I have been learning along the way and came here to work with Alex, Rhys and Jack in the social media department.
“We all have a passion for Shrewsbury Town, and it is a really good team to work with. I love my job here now. Every day is different, which might be quite stressful for some people.
“You are always thinking about different situations and what you can do about it,” said Sinead. “But I love it. It keeps your mind fresh!”
