Three weeks ago (On Sep 4, 2016), there was an unique event in Mongolia: 20th International Steppe Marathon.
What made this unique was that, unlike other marathon taking place on the city road, this happened literally on the vast Mongolian Steppe. Also, another unique thing was awards: In several distance categories (3km, 5km, 10km, half and 100km!!), winners get something not so typical to marathon event: Camel, horse, sheep, etc.
This time, around 2,500 people participated, and I was one of them who ran 10km. Running on the Steppe for long time was such an interesting experience. Besides, there were some side events: Japanese idles cheer-up, different types of performance, and “Steppe Party” to enjoy Mongolian food and drinks after marathon. So I would say I enjoyed this as a participant.
On the other hand, however, I had another face in terms of this big event: I was one of the organizers who had prepared for this since 4 months ago. In short, being a participant was easy and enjoyable (you just need to pay and join) whereas being an organizer was very time consuming and not always enjoyable.
So why being an organizer? Let me share 7 reasons in this post.
1. Meet new people
Throughout the preparation and the day of event, you get to meet new people, with whom you would have never met otherwise.
2. Create something
I believe that organizing is creation in some way, so it’s a good way to practice your creative skills.
3. Work in a team to have better ideas
During the preparation time, you need to discuss with others and you might get to have better ideas from different perspective.
4. Serve for others
You planned, prepared and worked for the event in which other people join, so you get to have a sense of serving for others.
5. Achieve something
Seeing participants’ smile or hearing positive feedback on the event is priceless.
6. Find out about yourself
Through many different tasks from preparation to the actual event, you come across many things to do, and you get to learn what is good for you (in my case, I made a poster and logo design, and really liked working on design).
7. Learn how to organize things
Organization skill is very important not only for events but also for many other things like work or daily life. You learn how to do this by actually doing this. Also, after the event, we made a “learning document” consisting of what worked well and not so well and why.
As a conclusion, you can gain many things from being an organizer, so if you have a choice, why don’t you give it a try?
This time, I learned:
Being a participant tends to be easier and more enjoyable than being an organizer, but the latter might give you more learning experiences and satisfaction.
(Photo of the Steppe Marathon I took during the race)
