Chris worked for the Olympic Winter Games

Until March 2010 I worked for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) in the Accreditation Department as Venue Accreditation Manager. Accreditation is very specific to international events such as the Olympics, basically giving access to everybody who is involved in staging the event (athletes, press, workforce, sponsors...). Sounds easy, but doing that for 100,000 people makes it quite a complicated operation! My job was to plan the Accreditation operations for two competition venues, the Curling and Ice Hockey Arena, and manage 40 volunteers during the Games.

I am now Project Manager at Vancouver Christmas Market. The Christmas Market is open to the public for 31 days in the heart of Vancouver and is based on a traditional German Christmas Market. This is the very first time this event takes place. I do have a variety of responsibilities, such as creating an entertainment plan which includes signing various bands, ensembles, choirs etc. I am also in charge of hiring, training and managing paid staff and volunteers. During the event we will have a workforce of about 100 people, so that’s definitely a challenge. I am also doing PR, promoting the event to various communities and cultural groups in Canada and the United States.
As this is an inaugural event, I can be very creative and bring in a lot of my own ideas as well as experience from my previous jobs. I love the fact that I am exposed to a variety of different areas and can learn a lot from my colleagues. It is completely different from the Olympics where I worked for one specific department doing a very specialised job.

NHTV definitely provided me with a solid base for my career. I could apply a lot of knowledge that I gathered and I could use my experience in project management. Every now and then I still go back to my old notes or project plans if I need some "inspiration". The practical project approach definitely helped me, I came across a lot of people that have degrees from respectable universities around the world but have no idea how to work on a project and how to lead a team.
For me, I compare my university programme to marathon training. NHTV provided me with a strong training programme with a systematic approach. It is up to me though how I use this training and how well I perform in the marathon, being the business world.

“Always aim high! And build a strong network around you. Having friends in business will get you a long way!”

Chris Fischer
Graduate International Leisure Management