This guide is for beginners wanting to know how to cover an event for the first time.

This one however was geared towards a friend and fellow writer of mine. But I am sure it could still help others as well.

The objective of this is to help manager a reporters time and keep them focused on the job at hand when attending an event.

With this guide you will not have any task you cannot complete. Which in turn will make your coverage of an event top notch. So, come next event people will be flocking to your site to view your coverage first.

NOTE: These steps can be taken in any order, this is my personal order.

Step 1: Scope out the venue a week prior to the actual event. Try and obtain a floor plan and study the lay out so you know your way around. Many a person has gotten lost/turned around at an event and had to spend 10-15 minutes finding their way back when they could have spent that time interviewing teams or taking pictures.

Step 2: Most organizations will give their writers an itinerary or a list of exactly what they want; interviews, pictures, scores etc. If not ask for one, or make one yourself.

- If they want interviews/pictures of specific players try contacting the managers before hand and setting up a time and place. If that isn’t possible but they don’t reject the idea of iview/pics then ask where they might be (general vicinity) and track them down during lunch or dinner.

Step 3: Another thing to look into before going is obtaining a press pass. Ask if you just sign for one at the door or if you have to reserve one prior.

Step 4: If your time isn’t already planned out for you. Plan it for yourself. Create a neat schedule to follow, it will save you time and allow you do cover more.

Step 5: At the event do things as you planned and instead of planning ‘picture time’, take all of your needed pictures when you are moving from task to task. Just ask players politely; ‘Hey can I get a quick shot of you?’ and you are done.

General Tips: Take pictures on the way to task as I previously mentioned.

- Have a big breakfast, chances are that you wont have lunch or supper until late that night when you are uploading your days work.

- Try and badger teams during lunch/dinner. They aren’t moving around and its just plain easy to do it then.

- Bring a laptop if you can and are experienced. Schedule a time mid-day and upload that half of the days work so you are on top of things. More people will come to your site if they know they will be updated faster then others.

- You wont have time to ask a lot of questions in your interviews so keep them short. 4-5 of your best questions. And NEVER ask the same generic questions. Keep things new and interesting.

- Be polite, I cannot stress this enough. As a writer you will come off as rude most of the time. But if you are polite in asking for interviews and pictures, people will understand that you are just doing your job and they will become more open to you. Its better for you and your relationship with players and event organizers.

This should get you started if you are new to covering events or maybe it will just give you a few new secrets to shove up your sleeve. Irregardless this should help, this isn’t everything there is to know. I would like to make that very clear. As you go along you may find this style does not work for you or you will just pick up other secrets as you go along in your career. But the guide is always something you can fall back onto if you run into a very demanding schedule. I hope all of that helps!