While Play the Game travels on and
will start looking for a host in 2011,
students and teachers in Coventry
look back at a learning experience
"Students rise to a challenge if you trust
them and give them one. This week they've
learnt that stories matter."
John Mair, a former BBC reporter
and senior lecturer of journalism at Cov-
entry University, earned the right to boast
a bit about the achievements. During and
after the conference, the journalist stu-
dent's web reporting on Play the Game
at cutoday.wordpres.com received over
25,000 hits, far more than usual.
In more than 100 postings at the site,
the students give an extensive cover-
age of the conference, its speakers and
participants. The video, audio and text
material is still available to the public.
"The product and its appeal has
shocked even hardened hacks like me
and my fellow lecturer Andrew Noakes",
John Mair writes on the blog, concluding:
"Whatever the platform, whatever
the technology, it's the stories, stupid. No
stories, no content, no audience. It's a les-
son we have all learned quickly."
The dozen of hard-working journalist stu-
dents were not alone in supporting Play
the Game. The conference would have bro-
ken down quickly if it was not for another
45 student volunteers and their lecturer
Ian Webster from the university's Centre
for the International Business of Sport.
They left the sweat of the books and
the gym for a week to engage in setting
up chairs and tables, acting as local guides
and drivers, bringing water around and
solve unforeseen problems on the spot.
"A successful conference is built on
many important elements, but not many
as important as having the energetic par-
ticipation of so much youth," says con-
ference director Jens Sejer Andersen.
"They add vitality, humour and a fresh
feeling to the atmosphere, apart of course
from solving indispensable tasks. We, in re-
turn, offer a unique learning environment
and equal rights for the students to join the
sessions, events and networking. And we
hear from the old and the young genera-
tions alike that the encounter is inspiring
for both."
Coventry was the first city outside the
Nordic countries to host a Play the Game
conference, but probably it won't be the last.
"In the autumn of 2010 we will
launch a bidding process, and judging from
the informal declarations of interest we
have heard from more than a handful of
countries in three continents, our next
challenge will be to professionalize this
part of our work. There will always be a
subjective element in such a process, but
we owe the applicants to make it as ob-
jective and transparent as possible."
Coventry
rising
to the
challenge
A rare view during Play the Game: Student volunteers resting on the stairs
between the new cathedral and the ruins of the old one