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It is still January, so Happy New Year! 2014 is going to be a big one with the start of the Volvo Ocean Race on October 4^th in Alicante, Spain. The Dutch entry of Team Brunel has made my job as Dutch Media Manager of the Volvo Ocean Race a lot more exciting. It already started with the announcement early December.

They were close for such a long time, but the green light came finally at the end of November: Sailing Holland and Brunel had come to an agreement. Team Brunel was born, which means the third attempt of the Dutch company to win the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race. Also the third try for six fold VOR veteran Bouwe Bekking to claim the overall win as a skipper.

We had only one week to prepare the press conference. Although I am contracted by the Volvo Ocean Race, I was allowed to help with the team pr as well. By the end of the day, we are all on the same course. Brunel wanted to keep its sponsorship and the location of the announcement secret until D-Day on December 3^rd. We invited the press to come to the hotel next to the headquarter of Brunel. From there they would be sent to Brunel. Google maps however doesn’t keep these kind of secrets very well… Chapeau to Ayolt Kloosterboer of Studio Sport, our national sports channel, who figured out the title sponsor and still played our game, thanks for that.

At the same time I had to invite a reporter for a media trip to the boat yard in Southampton, two days after the announcement of Team Brunel. That turned out to be another challenge. First I called Studio Sport. For them it would be too late, as the breaking news would already be covered by then. In addition, they struggled with the fact that they were asked not to bring the news about a Dutch entry in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race until December 3rd. It was obvious that this was the case, but it was not confirmed by anyone involved. We made a deal that as long as the news would not appear in the media, Studio Sport would not publish it…

Then I called a colleague at the NRC (national newspaper) to offer him the day trip with Bouwe Bekking and Gideon Messink to Southampton. He accepted it, but he found it impossible not to bring the news about a Dutch entry. By then, it was already posted by some online media, so I told the NRC journalist that he could use that as a source and that we would not confirm anything. Next morning, an article based on my information was published in the NRC... Lesson learned! The same evening on a Saturday I received a phone call from Ayolt and I knew immediately what he was going to say. That was the deal, so Studio Sport announced the Dutch entry on their website as well. But you know, we actually liked the worldwide buzz around the invitation to the press conference of Sailing Holland.

The press conference itself was very well organized by Sailing Holland and Brunel and the turnout was big. It felt like a reunion of the Dutch sailing world. The media coverage in the Netherlands was great, so first mission accomplished. More to come…

Diana Bogaards