"Iga Świątek and Friends" - charity tennis match

15,000 spectators at TAURON Arena Kraków, 1,000,000 viewers in front of their TVs, 4 world-class tennis players, 2 match competitions, 2,500,000 zlotys raised for a single goal: to help our friends from Ukraine. Lots of emotions, sports rivalry, and good-hearted people. That's how you can summarize the "Iga Świątek and Friends" project, a charity tennis match that raised funds to support children and youth in Ukraine during the war.

We were invited to participate in the project by Iga Świątek's team, the world's top tennis player, who has been actively involved in social causes for years. Led by Paulina Wolecka, Iga's PR manager, the team was fully committed at every stage of the project. With less than four months to organize the event, their extensive experience in the event industry and market knowledge allowed them to assemble a team of specialists in just one month and bring the event to life. Until the project was executed on-site, a team of 8 people worked on preparing the action plan. Except for the local venue setup, the entire process was conducted remotely through online meetings, email correspondence, and phone calls. A fully traditional, physical event was created in a practically 100% remote manner. In the end, 150 people worked on the project.

The event had a sports and entertainment character, featuring the best tennis players: Iga Świątek, Agnieszka Radwańska, Sergiy Stakhovsky, and Martyn Pawelski. The match was refereed by Elina Svitolina. The athletes played two exhibition matches, with Iga Świątek facing Agnieszka Radwańska in a singles set for the first match. Then, two pairs played against each other: Ukrainian tennis player Serhij Stachowski and Agnieszka Radwańska, and Iga Świątek and Martyn Pawelski. Despite the friendly format of the event, the tennis players committed to playing real competitive matches. The competitions were preceded by a concert by Enej, the most popular rock-folk band in Poland, and Anastazja, a vocalist who promotes Ukrainian folk culture and plays the bandura, Ukraine's national instrument. The event had a truly sporty atmosphere, with moments of stress, focus, joy, euphoria, and audience involvement.

This was the world's first sports and social project of its kind, where the proceeds were dedicated to supporting Ukrainian children at war. The organizer's primary goal was to secure 100% sponsorship funding for event production. A parallel goal was to raise as much money as possible for charitable purposes, fully financing the event and not using ticket sales (nearly 15,000 tickets) for event execution needs. Iga, along with the organizing team, decided to help through three organizations: the official Ukrainian relief fund United 24, the Elina Svitolina Foundation, and UNICEF Poland.

Numerous media partners got involved in the event, enabling it to reach a massive audience. In addition to the live audience, the spectacle was broadcasted on TV channels such as TVP 1, TVP Sport, TVP Polonia, TVP Wilno, as well as on Lithuanian and Albanian television. The event was also streamed on the website www.tvpsport.pl. At its peak moment, 1,000,000 viewers gathered in front of their TVs, with an average viewership of 600,000.

It was a very intense period, but the amount raised compensates for any inconveniences. Thanks to the team's determination, it was possible to create an important and significant global event that provides real help to Ukrainian children and youth. This was also recognized by the jury of the prestigious MP Power Awards 2023, an event industry competition. We received an award in the "CSR" category and were also recognized and nominated in the "Sports Event" category.