Adam Taylor: Behind the Scenes of the Central Florida World Cup (Comprehensive Recap + Transcript)

Behind the Scenes: 

Organizing a World Archery Event with Adam Taylor

Coming up on the Archery Parent Podcast, we sit down with Adam Taylor of Aimwell Events to discover what it takes to bring a World Cup event to life.

Have you ever wondered what goes into organizing a major Archery competition? In this episode of the Archery Parent Podcast, we chat with Adam Taylor, Director of  Aimwell Events and former Team Ireland Archer. Adam pulls back the curtain on the exciting world of international Archery events.

From Spectator to Competitor to Event Director

Adam's journey in Archery began almost by accident. 

What started as a joke turned into a life-changing passion after watching the London 2012 Olympics. He went from newcomer to representing Team Ireland on the international stage, and now directs Aimwell Events, organizing some of the world's most prestigious Archery competitions.

"What kept me hooked was the gamification aspect of Archery," Adam shares during our conversation. "You're constantly setting goals, achieving them step by step, and competing at different levels worldwide.”

Even while managing major events, Adam continues to nurture the next generation of Archers by teaching beginner courses and sharing his love for the sport.

The Central Florida World Cup: A New Challenge

Adam's latest venture? Bringing the World Archery Series to Central Florida for Stage 1. 

While this marks Aimwell Events' first World Cup, they're no strangers to high-profile competitions. In 2023, Adam and his team hosted the World Archery Youth Championships (WAYC) in Limerick, Ireland - an event that earned them two wins at the 2024 Global Eventex Awards.

"The amount of planning and paperwork is incredible," Adam laughs. "But there's something thrilling about the intensity of it all.”

From submitting international bids to coordinating with tourist boards across continents, Adam walks us through the complex but rewarding process of bringing a world-class event to life.

Why Florida? It's All About Location and Support

Choosing Central Florida wasn't random. Adam explains that the excellent connectivity through international airports made it a practical choice, but it was the enthusiastic support from local tourism boards that sealed the deal.

"Visit Central Florida has been amazing," Adam tells us. "They've gone above and beyond with logistical planning and hosting support. Their commitment to making this a memorable event for everyone involved has been incredible.”

Creating an Experience, Not Just a Competition

The Central Florida World Cup is designed to be more than just targets and arrows. Adam describes the delicate balancing act of meeting athletes' needs while creating an engaging experience for spectators.

"We've scheduled the Finals alongside a city festival with live music and food trucks," Adam reveals. "We want to create excitement that draws in both dedicated Archery fans and curious newcomers.”

How You Can Get Involved

Want to experience a world-class Archery event from the inside? The event needs volunteers! From helping with logistics to enhancing the spectator experience, community involvement is crucial to the event's success.

"We welcome individuals, families, and clubs to participate," Adam emphasizes. "It's a unique opportunity to experience the behind-the-scenes magic and see top-tier athletes up close.”

Building a Sustainable Future for Archery

Sustainability is at the heart of Aimwell Events' approach. Adam shares their efforts to minimize environmental impact by reducing transport needs and using sustainable resources as much as possible this first year, in the hopes of increasing sustainability over the next two years. 

Looking ahead, Adam hopes the Central Florida World Cup will inspire the next generation of archers. "I want young attendees to watch these incredible athletes and think, 'That could be me someday,'" he says.

Join Us for This Exciting Event!

The Central Florida World Cup showcases not just competition among the top Archers in the world, but a community coming together to celebrate and advance the sport we love. Whether you're a parent of an Archer, a coach, or simply an Archery enthusiast, this episode offers valuable insights into the global stage of Archery.

Don't miss our full interview with Adam Taylor, coming soon on the Archery Parent Podcast!

Want to Get Involved?

If you'd like to be part of this exciting event or learn more, visit  Archery World Cup America or contact volunteers@aimwellevents.com for opportunities to contribute. For tickets to the Finals events, visit the Archery World Cup America website to purchase. 

Together, let's make the Central Florida World Cup a memorable celebration of Archery excellence!

TRANSCRIPT

Manisha (00:01) Hello Archery Family, it's Manisha of the Archery Parent Podcast. I am here today with Adam Taylor, former Archer for Team Ireland and the director of Aimwell Events. Adam, how are you?

Adam (00:16) I am good. so thank you very much for having me. I'm really excited to be on this podcast.

Manisha (00:21) Thank you! We have so much to talk about. Let's start about your career as an archer for Team Ireland. When did you start archering?

Adam (00:30) So yeah, it started out unfortunately as a joke with my brother. I was watching the London 2012 Olympics and I was like, I should go to the Olympics. And he's like, no, you're currently sitting on the couch, not doing anything. I was, of course I can. 

So I Googled sports and "A" for archery and I went along to my local archery club. honestly, I fell in love with the people. I fell in love with the sport what I loved about the sport, believe it not, was the kind of the gamification of like: shoot this score, get a little pin, shoot this score, get another little pin, and that kind of step by step. 

And so I just kept on going back and back and back. And then I got more and more involved. And then I started taking it really seriously. And I worked my way up to being on Team Ireland. I ended up going to a lot of international competitions. 

To say I was mid-table mediocracy is an understatement. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thoroughly enjoyed representing my country. And I thoroughly enjoyed the kind of, seeing Archery at the different levels from club to national to continental to world. was just, it's eye-opening the scope and spec that this has around the world. just that's my career. 

I'm still involved. I still do the beginner courses, the six-week beginner courses for kids. And I teach in a local school down the road from here. I'm involved in every aspect of it. It's a lot of fun.

Manisha (01:48) Can you just share how old were you when you were sitting on that couch saying, I think I'm going to do that to competition? Can you give us some ages there?

Adam (01:51) Yes. So 2012 would have been -  I would have been 30-something, know, so like, I'm 40-something now and I don't know what the something is, but it was late-thirties. And that's what I thoroughly enjoy about Archery in the sense that you can be six or 60 and taking it up and be in competitive in the level that you want to be competitive in. 

So, it’s - that’s what I like about it, because I was sitting on the couch going, I'm not about to go start running on the streets for three hours a night. So I quite liked it. But unfortunately, Archery is, as you know, you do need to have some level of fitness to it because there's a lot of walking as I discovered. So cardio is important. But, you know, it was 30-something. And, know, I kind of I stopped kind of 20 - 23, competitively and I still do the occasional club stuff.

But 2023 is roughly when I was like, there are a lot of young people coming up here taking this very seriously. So I'll get out of the way, you know.

Manisha (02:54) Can you share how accessible Archery is in Ireland with clubs? How many ranges are there? Because in Canada, it's fairly far and few between. If you don't have space of your own, it's hours potentially to go to a club.

Adam (02:59) Yeah. Yeah. Well, we are lucky in some areas in Ireland, lucky in other areas, unlucky, you know, and there are a number of ranges, permanent ranges.

There’s only about three, you know, in Ireland and maybe four. But most clubs have access to an outdoor range that will be set up for an hour. So we are all very used to carrying targets and setting them up and then bringing them down at the end.

To be fair, we have a very good system of a university network. So like every university has an Archery club, which is running competitions that people can go to. And then there are clubs in local areas, obviously the more populated areas. even in rural Ireland, there are clubs, there will be a club within an hour's drive, definitely somewhere. But in Dublin, you can nearly go each night to a different club. They're only open for two hours in the evening time, mainly.

If you are like me who works myself, free on a Tuesday at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, you're like, you've got to go an hour to find the local range and then you can kind of go there. So it's accessible. Yes. In terms of disability and in terms of age, yes, very accessible, but the time is limited to evening times and weekends. That seems to be the kind of the most accessible places.

Manisha (04:30) Thanks for that. So let's talk about an upcoming event that is just a wee tiny, tiny event. is your first time organizing such a tiny, tiny event. Let's talk about the Central Florida World Cup, which is Stage 1 of the World Archery Series. How did you get involved with that?

Adam (04:36) Just a small event, yes. Yeah, yeah.

So what happened was I was involved in the - when I was a volunteer, I was involved on the low level. Like, I was the guy driving a minibus for the World Field Championships in Ireland. I think it was 2015. I was literally the guy driving the minibus around the hotels, picking Archers up. And I loved that thoroughly I then, I volunteered as a team manager for our youth team who went to Madrid in Spain.

And I was sitting there and I saw all these kids shooting. was like, this is a huge event. I didn't think it was going to be massive. was huge. And the Spanish guys ran a really good event. Heat was unbearable. 

As a ginger man, I struggled. But it was -  I talked to World Archery and I talked to Archery Ireland and I said, I think we can do this event in Ireland. And we put a bid in and it took - and that's the thing that's kind of unknown is these bids take years. 

And that is the problem where national governing bodies can't do it because obviously, I don't know what it's like in Canada, but in Ireland, there's a lot of volunteerism, which means there's a turnover, and naturally, as there would be. So it's very hard to plan seven years down the road, six years down the road. 

So I went to Archery Ireland and said, you know, I run an events company and a marketing company. We could put a bid in to run the 2023 World Archery Youth Championship. this would have been, so this would have been two youth championships before it. So that's how far back you're going.

You've got to plan these things in. So we did that. We ran it. Lost - my receding hairline started really kicking in about then. And then at that event, we were talking to World Archery about other events and the possibility of doing other stuff. they're very clear and very honest. There is a requirements. There are lots of paperwork that needs to be done. And there's a huge bidding process.

I remember I had put in a very, very large bid when we heard that there were a number of things open. And  - we put the buddy bid in for central Florida. And I remember being in a hotel in Germany because I was at the, was shooting in the German indoor, there was an indoor open in Germany, in Berlin. And I was sitting in the lobby of the hotel like this on the laptop.

presenting my bid to World Archery. And it was very nerve wracking as people are of coming behind you and stuff like that because it just, that's when you get the call, the meeting's next week. And I was like, I'm going to get that competition crap. So it was very, very, very, very stressful. And we put in for a number of bids. We didn't get some of them, but we did win the Central Florida one. And that has been what we've been working on now since I think '23 is when we first started us, the paperwork.

We're now '25 and while I'm living in Ireland, I'm very much on American time and meeting people at midnight Irish time and trying to be like, oh yeah, it's really early and just struggling to stay awake. there's a lot going on. And yeah, so that's the kind of the process on how it happened. And to be fair, and I think this is the great unknown, the amount of paperwork that World Archery require, which is right, they have to check stuff. It's just so much. There's so much pre-planning before you even get to it.

It's quite frightening, you know, and I will put anybody off, I would recommend.

Manisha (08:10) How did you choose central Florida? How did you choose the city of Auburndale?

Adam (08:16) Yeah, so what it was and that comes into we met with a number of tourist boards in throughout America. And one of the big things was connectivity. It has to be an international international airport. You know, and you know, there and you're once you once you think international, it's not just Mexico, Canada to America. It's, you know, Poland to America. There's you have to have much larger connectivity.

So that limits the number of hotels. And to be fair to visit central Florida, they are they were super on the ball from the get-go. They were there, they were helping with the bid document, they were helping with the gathering information. And to be fair, I never forget, I had to fly over there and we had to visit, don't know how many hotels they had to bring me around and introduce me to them all. And we had to have the same conversations with them all. very, God love them, very repetitive. But for me, it was the same thing over over again. And I made the same joke at every hotel. But it was...

It was a lot of groundwork and they were very much willing to put the effort in. So Visit Central Florida really, really staked their flag in the claim and said, we want to help and make this happen. So that's how we ended up there.

Manisha (09:25) And how is the process of organizing an event, you said you're in Ireland, how is it putting an event together in a completely different country?

Adam (09:31) Hmm.... Having been involved in my previous guise of the marketing and stuff like that I was aware of differences and things that you have to be careful of it's proven slightly more difficult in some sense because obviously things like permitting and you know regulations in terms of fire and health and safety and all that stuff are slightly different and - but we just you just need to go eyes wide open and not be afraid to ask what might be a really stupid question, but it's because we're so used to doing it one way in Ireland, it's completely different in another way.

And I'll give you a really boring example that, I know it's like in America, credit card payments are a lot more acceptable than in, when I say acceptable is that they're more preferred than bank transfer, whereas bank transfer would be much more preferred in Europe. So it's just, it's that kind of system where I'm paying for a lot more things on credit card than I am bank transfer. It's just, and that's just alien to me. I'm like,

Okay, you this is a very large item that I'm putting on a credit card, but it's okay. So it's just little things like that are a bit quirky. And but I have to say, the people again, of, of Auburndale, central Florida have just opened their arms and have been bending over backwards to help. And again, for them, it's very interesting because they're a sports venue, but they do baseball, soccer, that kind of stuff. Archery is different.

And for them, it's like, even the conversation I had literally an hour before this podcast was with the guys who line the pitch. And they're used to doing baseball with diamonds or soccer fields. But I'm like, no, it needs to go up and down. And then you have these little dashes where the athletes have to stand. it's just, and we obviously, archery, as you know, deals in meters. Americans deal in feet. And that conversion has been entertaining, to say the least. So there's a lot of that going on. we had nearly a stencil that was way too big. anyway, so yeah, it's been a lot of challenging.

Manisha (11:13) I'm sure.

Adam (11:22) It's been a lot of fun, I'm not gonna lie to you.

Manisha (11:24) Myself and my archer, Reece, have gone into the US ever since 2016, and sometimes we go into the US six to eight times a year for tournaments, I have to say the US, they know how to host an event. Their facilities, the people that go into putting these events together, it's really remarkable. The facilities.

For example, we go to the Lancaster Classic in January of each year. This 2025 was our eighth time and watching that event grow and now into Spooky Nook in Mannheim, Pennsylvania. What an exceptional facility and the Lancaster Classic team has it down pat. It is really phenomenal to watch this go on and...

Adam (12:12) 100%.

Manisha (12:17) ...anywhere in the US that we've gone to events for USATs or anything. It's just fantastic.

Adam (12:24) No, no, no. And that's one thing. It's a huge burden on my shoulders to understand that there's the element of the show is big and beautiful in America. And it's just if I can get even 10 percent, as you said, like a show that they put on, I call it a victory. it's a lot of pressure, lot of pressure.

Manisha (12:43) And how are you handling that pressure? What you do?

Adam (12:45) So a lot of walks have happened late at night, just going for walks. And in Ireland, of course, it's raining all the time, which doesn't help.

But no, I have to say the community that is helping us, the volunteers that are there and the people that are involved, be it World Archery or my crew as well, and even the Visit Central Florida guys, everyone is working towards a common goal. And it's nice to see and it's great to see.

Manisha (12:50) Right.

Adam (13:13) We're hopeful, as I said, it's a three year, as you know, it's one every year and I think it's gonna grow every year. Once we put on a show, we hope that people go, yeah, let's go back next year and let's make it bigger and bigger and bigger.

Manisha (13:25) So a lot of Americans and Canadians, they're familiar with the USAT series of archery tournaments, which SoCal, Arizona Cup, Gator Cup, Buckeye, the Nationals, and JOAD. They're familiar with that, but what makes this World Cup different? And this is acknowledging that, like you said, it is a three-year contract in central Florida.

And people may recall that World Archery did host events in Yankton, South Dakota, as well as Salt Lake City in Utah. So how is this event different?

Adam (14:04) I appreciate asking this question because even when we ran the World Archery event in Ireland, the youth event, there's a common misconception that it is an open tournament. So we have been getting requests for people to sign up and go.

Unfortunately, as it's a world event, it's team Ireland versus team Germany versus team Mexico. You have to be selected to be on those teams. it's not that I, as an individual archer, can just sign up and go. have to be selected by my country to represent my country to go to the competition. So each country has its own selection criteria. Some are purely who's available.

Some are you have to do a thousand different trials to get there. Some are like, I don't even know half the hoops that you have to jump through in some countries to get there.

So it's, that's the kind of the most, heartbreak, the heartbreaking part of my job is I have to email back people saying, you know, you can't go to this. You must talk to your local federation to go on.

Particularly you can always tell there's one or two parents that are trying to sign their kids up, particularly at the youth event. And I'm like, no, you need to go talk to your local federation. I know you want to go because you've got a parent or a family member in the country you want to visit while bringing your kid to the archery event. They can't do that.

So that's the horrible part of the job is giving bad news. So the difference here is this is an international event where it is country V country.

It's not individual v individual. Now, as I said, there is individual and team events, but it is mainly team Ireland versus team Germany, I wish it team Ireland versus team Germany. We're never quite there yet, but that's the hope one day. But yeah, that would be the massive difference.

Manisha (15:46) Yes, so World Cups, we know them as Shanghai and Korea, Turkey, this year Madrid. So we need to help people equate the Central Florida World Cup. It is the same. It's just only different in that it's being held in North America, opposed to Europe and different parts of Asia. So it is a high performance event. It is one that, as you said...

Adam (16:03) Yes. Correct. Exactly.

Manisha (16:16) ...countries create this team. It's not an open, which in archery, we are very fortunate in that you don't have to qualify for events like nationals or provincials or state. It is very open sport, this is a World Archery World Cup event. And that is the difference. But being that this is such a high performance...

Adam (16:27) Mm. Yeah.

Manisha (16:39) ...event makes it so much more exciting because you're going to be able to see if you choose to volunteer and be involved in it. You can see the top athletes in the world competing, you see them on World Archery or Archery Plus TV or YouTube and you don't get to see them up front and up close, which is really exciting. We haven't had that opportunity in North America in years.

Adam (17:05) Yeah, no, and what I like about this is you can get really close to the athletes and you can actually what I as an archer myself and I imagine your listeners would like as well as you see them on YouTube doing the actual shot, but there's the process before the shot, how they prepare for the actual competition or the head to head there.

 You can actually see they are they are very much zoned in and focused on what they are doing. It's incredible to see the ones that are hyper focused and are very clear, like, I reckon there could be an earthquake and they wouldn't notice. They're just so laser focused on the actual competition.

So it's great to see that and the level of stress and pressure that these guys are on because quite often some of them, and I know it's horrible, some of them are their national team. If they don't perform, they're out. Some countries are ruthless. If you do not perform, you're gone. Someone else is in. And if you're on an Olympic run, you can't miss a beat. You have to be on it. You have to learn from everything and keep growing with it.

And you have to work with your teammates and you know, there's often as well as, know, yourself, like these guys are traveling all over the world. Like there is a rule in World Archery. It's the block dates that these events are on that therefore there can be no other World Archery event on to give the athletes a rest because otherwise it is literally week after week after week after week. So they have these block competition weeks. Then they have these blocks off just purely so they can get back, regroup, retrain, focus on something and go back to the next competition.

So, they're going April, it's in Central Florida, then May, it's in China, then it goes Turkey, then Madrid, or something along those lines. But they're going to one. It's a lot of air miles, put it that way. It's quite a lot of grueling traveling. And as someone who hates flying, I can tell you it's grueling. But yeah, I think if your listeners are thinking of coming down and they'll get to see...

Manisha (18:41) Yes.

Adam (18:59) ...professional athletes at their best because they're competing to win, you know, and they're benchmarking themselves against other teams to see how they're doing so they can best prepare themselves for other events. So it's, it's a lot, a lot of pressure.

Manisha (19:13) Can you just share, so if people do decide to come down, if people want to get involved, what are the different opportunities for people to get involved and not only parents, but archers themselves and perhaps a club if they wanted to.

Adam (19:26)  Arms wide open. We welcome all, you know, so there is if you want, there's the website, which I'm going to make sure I spell it right. It's the - it's ArcheryWorldCupAmerica.com. You can go there you can volunteer - as a volunteer. And there are day - you want to do one day. You want to do five days. We would love you forever if you want to do seven days. You know, there's a load of work there available and it ranges from.

You can be the ticket scanner person all the way to moving targets and everything in between. Now, one of the most exciting roles is the during the finals is making sure the athletes who are in the practice field are on the bus, the shuttle bus, only a two minute drive, but they are on the bus to get to the finals because the finals are live television and there is you get on that bus and if you don't, you're gone. You're so there's a lot of pressure. That's quite an exciting role. And but again, on that website as well.

If you scroll to the bottom, there's tickets available. So you can buy for the morning session. You can buy the fan ticket, which will get you into the elimination side. And that's like up close during the qualification and elimination stages, which is where all the athletes are going. So there's a lot of scope.

And we have a trade show happening with a number of brands there as well. So if you want to come along and actually meet the actual brands, like I was on the phone too, won't make it with - you know, some Korean suppliers, shall we say, who are currently packing their bags to ship it across. there's a lot of stuff coming over and they want to get in front of archers, explain how to set up equipment better, what equipment to get, all that kind of stuff.

So really excited to have that. And it's going to be small this year, but we hope with the success, it's going to ramp up and ramp up. that's the goal, that by year three, this is a monster of an event.

Manisha (21:08) Can you just give that that website again?

Adam (21:09) The website, yeah. It's, I make sure I get it wrong. So it's ArcheryWorldCupAmerica.com. So ArcheryWorldCupAmerica.com. And it's a lovely blue color. So you know you're in the right one.

Manisha (21:24) And if they wanted to email, who can they email?

Adam (21:27) Yep, there's email addresses are there. There's loc at aimwellevents.com or volunteers at aimwellevents.com. Both of them will go to the various people in here and we'll make sure we answer your question fairly quickly.

Not going to lie, don't email today. It's the chaos today because the closing date only happened a couple of days ago. So all the teams have got a thousand questions, which I'm just fielding right now. So we will get back as quick as we can to you.

Manisha (21:52) And we'll make sure that all of that information is in the show notes so that people have access to that readily if they missed it.

So you're talking about putting on a show, putting on a great event. What kind of balance do you need to strike between providing athletes the facilities and the format that they're familiar with, but also balance that with...

Adam (21:58) Brilliant.

Manisha (22:17) ...putting on a great show to get people excited, to get spectators informed and really be a part of it. How do you strike that balance between archers and the spectator?

Adam (22:26) So yeah, there's kind of actually the way I look at this, four stakeholders. There's the archers, your spectators, then there's the TV production, and then there's the world archery side of things as well. And each of them have their own wishes.

If you want one or the other, like what the athletes want, world archery might not fit with the TV production or various things like that. what we start off very clearly was like we obviously have very strict guidelines from World Archery of what can I cannot do. Then we have to look at like, what can we do around that?

We then have to look at the TV production side of things and the requirements there. But then we talk to the city and how we can make this show. So what we're doing is a couple of things. the way I would find is the show is pretty much Saturday, Sunday, which is the two days of finals. That's where the big thing is all about.

On Saturday night from three o'clock to nine o'clock the city are hosting a city festival, which is live music and food trucks huge thing The whole city is coming along for that. So that'll be just as the finals are coming to an end.

Then there'll be the whole thing so the athletes can stay watch the finals and they can go across and have this, you and to be fair live music in the stage they've got is of dwarfs my stadium, but we're not going to go there.

There's jealousy kicking off. It's so and - it's literally you can see from the final, if you are sitting in the stadium watching the finals and look right, you will see the stadium for the concert that that's being built.

So it's we're putting a lot of effort in to put a show. But again, it's that kind of element of, you know, we have to make sure that the athletes are finished the competition that they want to do. So we can't redo much during the week, but we have, you know, for athletes get knocked out, we are saying, look, there's available....

They can come up to our office and we will arrange trips to, you know, the various theme parks, because again, one of the reasons again for the Central Florida is because it is such a huge tourist draw of activities. There's Legoland, which is a stone's throw from the venue.

So as you can see from my some Lego that's behind me on the big Lego fan as well. And what we're trying to do is facilitate that for the archers.

And when spectators come, there's not just archery, there's the trade show, there's the music festival to do.

And then there's ample opportunity to meet the archers as well, the practice field is very close and you'll able to see it.

And then what we're trying to do as well is we're just trying to put on for the athletes to make them feel extremely special. So what we're doing is we're working with a couple of TV production companies to interview them, try and interview as many of them as we can so that when, if heaven forbids, are - they make it to the finals or they get knocked out in stage one.

They still know that they are valued as an athlete because they have put in horrible amounts of work to get here. Like the hours, you know yourself, the training regime that archers have to do is just insane. I did it. You know, you're waking up, you're training, you're going to bed, you're training. It's a whole thing. So we want them to understand that they are not just turning up for an archery competition. You know, they're turning up and they're being made feel special. So we'll have interviews with them. We'll, you know, engage with them as much as possible.

get them to the touristy stuff if they want to do that, just generally look out them as best we can. It is a balancing act to say the least, you know, and there are conflicting issues definitely, there is, as I said, the TV schedule is the number one thing we have to focus on. So everything has to be built around that. And that kind of just balloons into its own monster of a thing as well.

Manisha (25:47) Amazing how you are creating this international event, but you're really embracing the local flavour and the city is coming together to assist with showing and showcasing talents and what they have to offer. That's amazing. And I'm sure as it is a three-year contract, I'm sure it'll build and the nuances will get sorted out and it could be very, very unique, right?

Adam (26:12) Yeah, the simple thing like the I know it sounds really silly, but when you when you see when you turn up, you'll see that the practice field is incredibly close to the finals fields. But we're like, no, get the shuttle bus because they don't know where they're going because it's just just get them gone.

So it's little things like that. And like the city is, to be fair, extremely helpful. Like they are putting on this really big festival. You know, we said to them when we were pitching this whole thing and we need something to draw the non-Archer's in to see it and go, this is archery. We'd like to take it up. We'd like to learn about it. we're just trying to get more of the community involved.

Manisha (26:49) And can you share how technology is being brought in to enhance that experience and get people involved?

Adam (26:57) Yes, yes and no.

So the technology is this a lot of this is on the World archery shoulders and honestly, I don't know how they do so many of them because you have to they're they'll finish with me fly home, probably get new clothes and fly off the next one.

So they are honestly, I don't know how they do it. And I'm tired thinking about what their schedule is like. But they there's equipment currently en route slash being delivered as we speak to and I think that we actually had to rent extra storage space yesterday because all the equipment is arriving and it's just, there's just so much technology of stuff that I'm just like, yes, just make it happen, like, I don't, so there's an element of like all the scoring will be live, the TV production stuff that this year is happening and we're the first event of it's been traveling around.

So I don't want to say what it is because I'm not a hundred percent sure yet, but again, I've just been told to make sure I have this much stuff for them and that is in the process of being got, but it is, they are putting a lot of effort into TV production. So I take my hats off to them. It's going to look spectacular. I just really hope the weather isn't all like Ireland and it is sunny. That's my only hope.

Manisha (28:05) And let's talk about environmental impact What kind of considerations are taken on your behalf from Aimwell events and World Archery that are contributing to sustainability environmentally?

Adam (28:17)

Yep. So there's everything from little stuff to big stuff. And we'll talk about the big stuff is we try and get the hotels. There's a lot of factors when looking at official accommodation, one of which is proximity to the venue.

And what we try and reduce the number of buses. Because the bigger buses, obviously, they're as best as we can. We get them as green as possible. But they're still buses at the end of the day. We're trying to reduce the number of buses.

We've got one or two hotels that are very within walking distance. So that makes life easier as well. And then simple little things like, again, for those who go to international competitions, quite often one of the things you get is a water bottle that you fill up with the water thing. So one thing we do is we're not providing, in some competitions, it'll just be pallets of plastic water bottles. So that's not happening. So we've got water, but we are encouraging athletes to bring their own water bottles or we have recyclable water bottles, know, so there's, there's, we're not just kind of more plastic here, there, that kind of stuff. we're, we're, which we look at where we can reduce and that's kind of what we're doing.

We're - but we're miles away from where I want to ultimately be, but we are working towards it. And we're looking at where can we save? What can we do, particularly when it comes to things like branding, if we can reuse, recycle, that's what we do.

So like we're trying, there'll be a lot of branding this year that won't have the year on it because then we can use it next year, which means we're not printing these plastic things that are huge, that they can get used over and over again. So little things like that.

Now, it does mean that the print is more expensive and then you've got to store it, you know, which has more expense to it. But it means I'm not reprinting this unbelievably large plastic sheet three, four times, you know. So it's - it is very important that we do this right. But we're there's a lot more to do to answer your question.

Manisha (30:11) And what do you think your role in shaping archery for Florida and the United States on a high performance level? How do you feel your role fits in there?

Adam (30:23) My role is what can be discussed -  what's the smallest cog in the smallest machine? I am, I am an insignificant person, but what I hope that I am doing is I have an event that will showcase to the future generations of kids. go along and be like, and be impressed and be like, I want to go to this type of event.

And then that encourages them to go back to their coach and want to train harder, want to get on the national team. So. I know it's cliched in the sense that all I'm trying to do is put on a really exciting show that gets kids excited to do more archery. That's it.

That's like, if three people join their national team because they saw my event, it was like, that's really cool. I'd love to be on that stage. Victory. That's all that is. know, I'm not, know, the coaches and the teams have a plan that they're working towards and I am just an event for them, if that makes sense. my hope is that I'm encouraging future people to look at this and be excited for the future. That's what I, as I said, smallest cog in the greatest machine, know, so that's where I fit.

Manisha (31:28) What sort of advice would you give younger archers or archers that are just beginning as an archer yourself? What kind of advice or what would you tell yourself if you were younger about archery in general?

Adam (31:42) Yeah. So a couple of things as an archer and as an organizer, there's a couple of things. Be okay with being uncomfortable because, and I found this when I went to Shanghai for the first time and I was doing my qualification, I was doing my qualification effectively for me at three o'clock in the morning. And I was like, what is going on?

So being acceptable of uncomfortableness, you know, that is a huge thing because it's not always going to be perfect. you know, when I go to my own competitions, have Oh, I like to be C in an ABCD line. You know, I like to be C, but like, no, be A, because it's awkward and puts you out and it's annoying, you know, and so you get used to uncomfortableness.

The advice I would give is don't be afraid to go to competitions. Don't be afraid to kind of ask, how do I get on a team and how, and go that route. Don't go trying to go to the Olympic step one or to a world cup. Do your club stuff, do national, do continental.

That's a, that's a hugely untargeted market of where people can go to because quite often you can go as an individual or there are easier requirements to be on the team if you can go to your continental ones.

For also over here in Ireland, it will be World Archery Europe, you know, and I know you have the the World Archery Americas where you can go anywhere and there are smaller competitions that are still to be honest, they're still pretty big, you know, but they're and you get a flavor for what the the the international competitions are.

So I would, my advice would be, don't be afraid to be uncomfortable and just go out and try new things, you know, and try, try the competitions.

Manisha (33:14) Yes, and actually just as we are recording this, last week was the qualifier for the Youth Pan Am Games. So that was just in Argentina last week and it was an opportunity for countries to send their youth archers up to U21, I believe. They were out and they were qualifying their team and qualifying spots as well.

So that is going to be very exciting. And it is one of those events that people, like you said, they do overlook it. They just assume that they're going to jump to the Olympics or a continental. no, if your archer has those opportunities to take these other little steps, the experience that they're going to gain of international travel, time zones, food, discomfort...

Adam (33:49) Yeah.

Manisha (34:08) ...is really going to assist them when they move into the higher ranks, so to speak.

Adam (34:14) Yeah, and even it comes down to simple things like how you pack your bag for travel. That's a huge thing.

You know, and how do you have like I was always have my finger tab in my carry on or a different suitcase because whatever about getting it, like if your bow gets lost, you can cobble together one if needs be from your teammates or other people, which to be fair, the archery community will always band together. But having the finger tab that matches your hand like that, that's one less thing to worry about. You know, so yeah, and that's a look at all levels of competition. You'll be surprised there are some really good ones to go there that aren't publicized that well.

Manisha (34:50) Yes, and just to add to your travel tips there, my archer, Reece, he, yes, does travel with his tab. in his personal bag, and he always travels with his scope with him. He never checks his scope, And as well, he uses an app for time zone changes.

So he will actually start acclimating three days before he leaves. And you're right, those things are very important to take into consideration. If you're fortunate enough to go to an international event within your own time zone, great, but rare. But yeah, adjusting to discomfort is going to take you very, far, for sure.

Adam (35:28)

You're so lucky. Yeah, very rare. Yeah, very much so. I hope my event isn't that discomforting for the archers that go. hope they kind of like it's because, again, you know, time zones, food, it's all very different.

Manisha (35:53) Yes. And now you've mentioned earlier you coach as well. For parents, what can you tell parents about the archery experience, say from beginner and moving into high performance? What kind of feedback can you provide parents of what to look out for or how to support their archer the best that they can their archer is really taking on such a passion, how can they help support that?

Adam (36:20) Yeah, it's quite challenging in the sense that I've seen the good parents and the bad parents out there. I suppose that the most advice I can get is, don't be afraid to ask questions, but understand that the answers will probably not come to your liking because you're like, they have to be selected to be on the team.

Yes, if you want to go, you need to get a different pass. There's lots of reasons for things like that any around security and just the volume of people that can be in a certain area.

But the advice I would give is understand that you're not the athlete. You're there as I know it sounds ridiculous, but you are the Logistical Support Officer. You know, your job is to make sure the planes are booked, the accommodation is booked and the less exciting things are sorted out. you know, let the archers go off and make horrible mistakes and learn and all that kind of stuff and be independent because they're on the line themselves.

They're going up to do the scoring themselves and that kind of stuff. you know, be supportive because you, think there was a famous line and I'm going to, Brady said it better and I'll get it wrong, but it was like, you're going to fail more times than you are going to succeed. So let that happen. You know, like you can't always be banging in 300s indoor.

You can't always be, you know, on top of your game, and I've seen it a hundred times and it's happened to me. You go away, you're tired. Work has been, or school or whatever, has been super stressful. And then like the food's not right.

And it just turns into just a terrible, horrible experience. Like, it's just to let that happen and learn from it how can you improve? As you said, you started acclimatizing to the time zones a couple of days earlier, might make things easier.

But from a parent's point of view, understand that you are a Logistical Officer, You are the best supporter in the world, but sometimes your job is to carry the bag and make sure the plane's booked in time. And that's, and that's literally it. And let the person go off and do their archery stuff.

My advice, I suppose, to be cheeky, you know, get the parents involved as volunteers, because then they can help run the competition. And therefore they're not bothering the archer too much, but they're also there and they are involved. And I think that's a really good way of getting involved and understanding the sport. And I think this is a failing on me and on other people in the archer community is possibly communicating what is the type of competition.

Is it too junior or too senior or why would they do that over this? And I've seen this particularly in Europe, where parents had booked their kids into multiple competitions, but they were treating them all equally.

And I was like, that's a small club one and that's an international one. You know, it's almost they didn't know the difference because and just to understand that there are different requirements of different competitions and like international competitions are rough.

You can get knocked out day one and you've bought the seven-day hotel and you're gone finished finito Day One. So just to understand that scenario can happen.

So do not be afraid to ask questions or organizers like ourselves. We might not reply quickly. Our emails might be too short and not explain them, but we will attempt to reply as best we can. And we will be understanding, you know, so just ask the questions. That's all we can say.

Manisha (39:22) From my point, I have always said a parent's role is to feed, water, transport, shelter, and pay.

Adam (39:28) Yeah, pays you first. Yeah, no, but it's the Chief Logistical. That's why I give them the title of Chief Logistical Officer because it's like some sense more important. But yeah, they are literally that's what they are.

And just let the archer have fun, particularly at the youth level. I think it's incredibly important. And I've seen this when I've run the more back here in Ireland, the youth kind of side of things. Let them just have fun, you know, and make more friends. And then if they love the sport, they'll get involved more in it, you know.

Manisha (39:58) Adam, is there anything else that you would like to share that we didn't cover, either about the Central Florida World Cup, about events in general for parents or archers? Is there anything else that you would like to share?

Adam (40:10) Yeah, I a couple of things. Thank you for the opportunity. First of all, thank you for, again, having me on the podcast.

You know, it's the - it's, I suppose, the kind of the big thing I want to say is I want to say thank you mainly to the volunteers. Like, again, without volunteers, all of these sports die. And I think as well, even a lot and an awful lot of the the big international events are being staffed 100 percent by volunteers. You know, they are they are mission critical to running these events around the world.

And both the requirements and the pressures that they are on to put on a good event is so important and particularly when it comes to the more the the level of the competition goes up the more requirements that are external to archery so you might go to the Central Florida event you might go to the one in Shanghai you might go to their local archery club down the road the competition is still the same the thing.

It is 70 meters away and they're all laid out roughly the same, but the back end requirements are incredibly different like from the Internet requirements that are for the live scoring, but also media publications. That means that the media stuff is going out around the world at the exact same time. The TV production requirements like I cannot tell you how much I've talked about car parking and routes of people. And it's to you, you'll rock up your parking car. You'll go to the field. That's it. But there has been five people having multiple meetings about such a thing. You know, so there's - there's a lot that goes into an event.

And I would encourage everyone to get involved at the local club level. Help out there and you can be the person who brings out the clipboards. And that is a hugely important job. It's like, but without that, nothing happens. It's there basically where this rant is going from is just to say thank you to all the volunteers.

Please encourage to be volunteers more and just understand that everyone is human and trying their very best.

Manisha (41:57) Can you share a rough number of how many people you're hoping to have as volunteers? How many people helped put this all together?

Adam (42:03) So we've had about five or six people working on this full time for two years. We are then going to have approximately 50 people every single day being volunteers. And that is literally from, field crew to security and everything in between. It's so we need people, you can never have enough volunteers, put it that way, like there's no such thing as like, we're full.

That's not going to happen ever because the more people you have, the more you can do. Yeah, it's that simple. Like we, like I know when we were in Ireland, we had a load of volunteers, but we didn't have as many as we wanted. So we couldn't do a lot that we wanted to do. there's always, there's always room for people. Do not worry.

Manisha (42:44) So just an additional call for volunteers. The event runs from April 8th to the 13th, but if people are able to help before, when would they be needed?

Adam (42:56) Yeah.

So basically from effectively the 3rd or4th of April onwards, like we're all - most of us are arriving on site from the first and that's when the stuff's all arriving. So we're building the targets, we're putting things in place, but from generally the 3rd or 4th onwards, there will be roles to be done.

I know it sounds bad, packing goodie bags all the way up to like, you know, making sure that the internet is working and you need to have three people aiming a dish at each other. So it's all that kind of chaos that has to happen. So, and yeah, so a call out would be if they want to come down early, they are more than welcome.

Manisha (43:31) And so we want to just stress this is a super unique opportunity for families, for clubs, for archers themselves to get involved and to really see behind the scenes and be part of something huge and something new and really make an impact on the success of an event that's going to be running for three years.

I just want to encourage people and as you've said, you want to encourage them, but encourage them to do something different. You've talked about discomfort. You know, this could potentially be uncomfortable, but it would give such an interesting sense of community and really just getting involved in something so, so different that the United States hasn't seen in a...

Adam (44:07) Yeah.

Manisha (44:19) ...quite a while. So what else would you like to say to the volunteers? So from the 3rd of April, potentially to the 13th or the 14th, I think is the Monday.

Adam (44:28) Yeah, yeah, the Mondays that that will be we start packing up on at 4.45, hopefully on Sunday the 13th. And we hope to be finished on the 14th. But there's a lot to put away.

Like there's, as I said, we needed to get more storage because more stuff is arriving. But yeah, no, I just I just want to say like, you know, whatever your skill set, whatever your ability is, there is a home for you. And we welcome all with open arms.

And just to say thank you again in advance, because I'll be stuck in an office getting yelled at, I'm sure, for something. So I probably won't see them for a while.

So I just want to say thank you to everybody. And again, thank you to you for hosting this podcast, for putting the message out there. But again, it's just, you know, the archery community is small, but it's a mighty community. And we just want to see things move forward and it to become a bigger and bigger sport.

Manisha (44:59) Great. Is there anything else before I go on to my sort of signature ending? Is there anything else you would like to share?

Adam (45:25) No, think, course, I think if I mentioned thank you to the volunteers one more time, I think they'll me tune off. But no, I just want to say again, it's particularly as well to the city, if they are watching, they should be. I want say again, thank you for them for really trying as many different things to make this a memorable event.

Manisha (45:42) Alright, so I'm going to go into what I like to call the Archery Parent Podcast joke to close out the episode. Now, please note, these are worse than dad jokes, so I don't expect you to laugh. A grimace, you know, disgust is fine too. But I, yeah, I don't know why I started this, but...

Adam (46:04) I'm worried now.

Manisha (46:10) I get a lot of comments and people actually like it, so it's kind of funny. But my joke for you:

So why did the archer... sorry. See, I'm also the worst person to tell jokes. So it goes hand in hand really strangely.

What did the archer do when he got cold while painting his shed?

Adam (46:35) I have no idea.

Manisha (46:39) He put on another coat.

Adam (46:42) Okay, okay, okay. There's so many leaps of faith you have to do there in that sense. So bad. So bad it's actually, it's on the other side of the spectrum. It's brilliant. We love it. We love it.

Manisha (46:47) I know. So bad. So bad. So bad.

I appreciate that. Adam, Adam Taylor of Aimwell Events, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the Archery Parent Podcast. And for those of you just out there, get involved.

This is your opportunity, if you happen to be in Florida, if you want to be part of something bigger, to do that. And with Aimwell Events, who knows what else we're going to see from them.

And as Adam mentioned, he's put in a number of bids and so we could be seeing him more often.

Adam (47:29) Hopefully, hopefully, yeah.

But I will say this, if not, if you can't make it into Florida, I know that Canada, we are all based, they're hosting the youth event this year. Ring them, get involved. The guys running that, they were over in Ireland looking at it. They are the super nicest people I know. So I would support them any way I can. So get in touch with them as well. I'm sure they'd be delighted to have you.

Manisha (47:51) Yes, so the director there is Kelly Taylor. He is organizing the 2025 World Archery Youth Championships, and that's going to be in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. And I think, is it August?

Adam (48:06) I think so. I would not have to look my head but it's around about that time, yeah.

Manisha (48:07) Yes. Yes. So if you can't make it to Florida, maybe Winnipeg, maybe Manitoba.

Adam (48:12) Go, yeah, 100%. Yeah, exactly. No, thank you, thank you.

Manisha (48:17) Thank you so much, Adam. This is Manisha, that is Adam, and this is the Archery Parent Podcast. We'll see you again soon.