NFL Draft 2015

This was my 2nd year to manage our NFL Draft program at work. This year, the Draft moved to Chicago for the first time in years. There was a lot of extra planning work for me and my team, but I was excited to visit Chicago in the spring. The city was pumped for Draft to be in their town and the NFL introduced "Draft Town" in Lincoln Park (across the street from the theater where the Draft would take place), which was a free space where fans can interact with teams and watch picks happening.

I got in town on Wednesday night in enough time to do my space walkthroughs and then we went to the pre-Draft party that the NFL hosts. The NFL loves to host a party! Jason Derulo was the musical guest. I have to admit that I had no idea who he was, but I did recognize some of his songs. :)

Once again, I coordinated a hospitality program for nights 1 (Thursday) and 2 (Friday) where local customers were invited to attend our pre-Draft dinner and then head to the Roosevelt University Theater. We chose a beautiful space at the Chicago Symphony Center that was walking distance to the theater and had an awesome balcony view of Draft Town and Lake Michigan. The cater did an awesome job with the food and our entertainment of Matt Forte, Brian Urlacher and ESPN's Mike Golic (Mike & Mike) also did not disappoint!!

Views from our event space balcony!!

Check out Matt's crazy socks and shoes!
Those shoes prolly cost more than all of my shoes combined!

After our event wrapped, we walked our guests to the theater and got settled in for the picks. I chose to only go to Draft on Night 1 and stayed surprisingly until the last pick of Round 1. The Roosevelt Theater was stunning, but it was quite a bit smaller than Radio City. That is the main reason the NFL did Draft Town...the team tables that used to be located inside the theater for negotiating picks was outside in the fan space, with limited access of course.

Devante Parker heading to media after being picked.

I took a video of all the hometown excitement on Night 1 when the Bears made their 1st Round pick...



Friday night (Night 2, Rounds 2 and 3) was a little more low key...our event was in the same space, so we were pros there. And we had less guests and no executives. I choose to do a little shopping Friday night and order Giordano's (my fav Chicago deep dish pizza) and enjoy it in my room! Of course, I could only manage to eat 1 slice before I wanted to be sick, but it was worth it!

I did manage to squeeze in a little time for me, but not much. I walked a few blocks up and had makeover at Sephora on Thursday morning...I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket from Christmas! It was colder that expected (even for Chicago) so I hit up Nordstrom Rack afterwards and got a fabulous Michael Kors coat for a steal, too. I even got to finally meet sweet little Major Morton and his dear Mama Carol who live in Chicago on Friday for lunch! He is almost 1 and is a complete doll!!

I had some other Draft things going on besides the hospitality, too. We introduced the 1st Air & Ground Players of the Draft awards that were awarded to the 1st QB and RB drafted. Marcus Mariota and Todd Gurley were the winners and FedEx made a donation in their honor to the American Red Cross chapters in their new hometowns in their honor.  We also held a social media sweepstakes where fans could enter to win a trip to the 2016 Draft if they correctly picked who the Air  & Ground Players of the Draft. The Thursday before the 1st pick, we had Matt Forte help us with some NFL media to spread the word about the contest and the charity component.

It was definitely a busy few months at work planning all of this. Needless to say, I am happy it was all a raging success but glad it is over! :)