Inside Mariana Coelho’s Internship: Research, Demos and Live Event Operations

Internships are where ideas start to feel real. They’re a chance to move beyond lectures and theory, take on meaningful work, and see how things actually come together in a professional setting.

During her internship at Focus BC, Mariana Coelho had the opportunity to do exactly that. With a strong interest in sports and event operations, Mariana joined the team to support the development of Virtual Venue, our event management and venue operations platform for large scale sports events.

Mariana Coelho at Focus BC office space

While with us, she worked on demos across different sports and event formats, helping us show how Virtual Venue can support a broader range of scenarios beyond football. From researching the operational logic behind sports like golf, rugby, cricket, and Formula 1 to building demos that could support commercial conversations, Mariana’s internship was a mix of analysis, creativity, and continuous improvement. In this interview, she reflects on what drew her to Focus BC, the challenges she faced, what she learned along the way, and what she’ll take into her next chapter.

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1. What motivated you to apply for an internship at Focus BC, and what were your expectations going into it?

To be completely honest, the internship initially came from a practical need: I needed to complete an internship to finish my master’s. Focus BC came up through personal contacts rather than through a traditional job search, and what immediately caught my attention was the connection to sport, especially through Virtual Venue, which is the product I ended up working with most closely.

I had never come across this kind of product before. I knew there were companies working in mapping, but I had never seen a platform like Virtual Venue applied to sports venues and event operations in such a practical way. During my degree, I had a course entirely dedicated to sports venues and event management, but it was very theoretical. Seeing a product like this made it possible to connect that knowledge to something concrete. That was probably the most exciting part for me.

I’ve always wanted to work in sports events, and this internship gave me the chance to understand not just the event itself, but also all the behind-the-scenes elements that need to come together to make it happen. It was a world I didn’t fully know existed in this way, and that made me even more curious about the thinking behind creating a product like Virtual Venue.

2. What did a typical week look like for you at Focus BC, and how did you organize your work?

My weeks were not always the same, especially at the beginning. In the first phase of the internship, a lot of my time was dedicated to research. The first challenge was to understand which sports would make sense to explore and why. That meant looking at team sports, individual sports, multi-sport contexts such as the Olympic Games, and even sports that are expanding internationally.

That first stage was very analytical. After that, once I became more familiar with the platform, my work shifted more towards building demos inside Virtual Venue. At that point, a more typical week would usually involve starting a new demo or improving one I had already been working on.

“It was a real pleasure to work with Mariana. Coming from a business background and stepping into a highly technical environment like Virtual Venue, she quickly found ways to connect both worlds. That helped us explore new ideas across different sports and event contexts, while bringing a fresh perspective to the team. Now she moves closer to live event operations, and I’m confident she’ll put everything she learned here to great use.” Sandro Batista, Managing Partner

Whenever I began a new one, I would align with Sandro Batista, Managing Partner, and Cristina Gordo, GIS Specialist, to understand the direction, the sport we were focusing on, and what made sense to include. Cristina also supported me with the CAD files and helped guide me on what was possible and what would be most useful for each case. From there, I worked quite independently, building the demo, testing ideas, raising questions when needed, and continuously improving what had already been done.

3. What was the most challenging part of your internship, and how did you handle it?

I think the most challenging part was building the first real demos. The first one was a bit easier because I had some reference material to guide me, so I could follow an existing logic. After that, the real challenge was creating demos for sports or venues with very little information available, and sometimes for places I had never visited and didn’t know how to visualize spatially.

That was probably the hardest part, trying to create something realistic when you don’t fully know how the space works in practice. Google Maps sometimes helped, but it doesn’t always give you enough interior detail. So a lot of the work involved critical analysis: finding useful references, filtering large amounts of information, and making thoughtful assumptions about what should be included.

It was very much a process of continuous improvement. Each new demo helped me think more clearly about what kinds of spaces, rooms, flows, and operational areas might also make sense in another context. Even when the sports were very different, there were still some patterns I could use. Over time, I became much more confident in adapting that knowledge and building from it.

4. What’s one moment during the internship when you realized you were truly contributing to the team or the company?

Probably at the end of the internship. Since my work involved building demos over time, it was sometimes hard to measure the impact immediately while I was still developing and refining them.

But on my last day, Mário Sobral, Technical Manager at Virtual Venue, told me he had used one of my demos in a meeting with Major League Cricket, and that the client had understood the idea straight away and responded very positively to it. That made me really happy. It was the moment when I realised the work I had been doing was not just an internal exercise, but something being used in real conversations to help communicate the platform’s value.

I also felt that when I presented more of the demos and received feedback from Mário, especially because he has strong knowledge of sports contexts. That was the point where I really felt I had done meaningful work.

“Working with Mariana was a great experience. She showed strong curiosity and an analytical mindset, always trying to understand how each demo would resonate with the end client. She also had a clear ability to put herself in the user’s perspective, making sure what we were building was meaningful and aligned with each sport’s reality. Mariana was proactive, autonomous, and always looking for ways to add value.” Cristina Gordo, GIS Specialist

5. When you explored golf, rugby, cricket, F1, and others, what were some of the most interesting operational differences you discovered, and how did that shape the way you built the demos?

One of the most interesting things was seeing how different the operational logic can be from one sport to another. Rugby and cricket, for example, still fit within a stadium-based logic, so there were similarities I could work with. I started with rugby, where I had a lot of information available, and that made it easier to adapt some concepts when working on cricket afterwards.

Formula 1 was a completely different case. Instead of thinking in terms of a stadium with multiple internal floors and rooms, I had to think on a much broader, more open scale through satellite maps, circuit layouts, fan zones, parking, transport, first aid points, and all the surrounding infrastructure. In that sense, it was a very different way of building.

Demo Screens: Cricket, Rugby & Formula 1

However, Formula 1 also had a lot of information publicly available, which helped a lot. For circuits like Silverstone, there are detailed fan maps showing grandstands, facilities, entrances, exits, hospitality zones, and more. That gave me a strong base to work from. Jeddah was especially interesting because it is a street circuit built specifically for the event, which adds another layer of complexity. It made me think not just about the venue itself, but about temporary structures, event-specific planning, and how much of the environment is created just for that one occasion.

All of that shaped how I built the demos. It made me think less in terms of copying structures and more in terms of understanding the operational reality of each sport.

6. Which demo are you most proud of, and what makes it a strong story to tell someone seeing Virtual Venue for the first time?

I’d probably say the Formula 1 demo. It had so much information available that it became one of the clearest examples of how much you can actually show inside Virtual Venue.

It allowed me to highlight lots of different layers: the grandstands, garage areas, access points, security and control zones, fan areas, concert spaces, parking, shuttle services, food areas, and more. Altogether, it gave a very complete picture of how a large-scale event can be structured and understood spatially.

I think that’s what makes it such a strong story to tell. It’s very visual, so someone seeing it for the first time can quickly understand how the platform helps organise and communicate a complex event environment. It shows the platform’s detail, flexibility, and practical value in a very clear way.

That said, I also think a rugby stadium demo can be very compelling, especially because it shows the logic of a more traditional venue across multiple floors. But if I had to choose one demo that really brings the platform to life, I’d go with Formula 1.

7. What do you think causes the most friction in event planning and venue operations, and how can Virtual Venue help?

A lot of friction comes from the fact that different teams need different types of information, often about the same venue, but from completely different perspectives.

Someone working in security may only need to focus on access points, perimeter control, crowd management, or queue flows. Someone in hospitality is more interested in VIP rooms and guest areas. In a large venue with several floors and multiple functional areas, it becomes very difficult to keep everyone aligned if there isn’t a shared visual reference.

That’s where Virtual Venue becomes useful. It helps centralize information in one place and makes it easier for different teams to work from the same environment, while still focusing on what matters most to them. For a venue with many levels, many zones, and many overlapping responsibilities, that shared structure can make planning and coordination much more manageable.

"It was the moment when I realised the work I had been doing was not just an internal exercise, but something being used in real conversations to help communicate the platform’s value." Mariana Coelho, Intern at Focus BC

8. What’s one insight from your internship that changed the way you think about sports events or venue operations?

What really changed for me was understanding just how complex sports event operations actually are. I already knew, in theory, that these events involve a lot of planning. But once you start working through the details, even just in the process of building a demo, you begin to realize how many moving parts there really are. There are timelines, teams, dependencies, checklists, changes, communications, and endless small operational details that all need to connect properly.

At university, we talk a lot about the broader process, the bidding, the organizing structures, and the event from a strategic point of view. But going deeper into the operational detail is something else entirely. This internship gave me a much clearer sense of what it actually takes to manage a venue or a live event successfully, and it was definitely eye-opening.

9. Looking ahead to your next role, what’s one thing you’re taking from Focus BC?

What I’ll take with me most is a much stronger understanding of the complexity behind event planning and operations, especially through the lens of Virtual Venue.

As I step into my next role at Sporting Clube de Portugal, where I’ll be working more closely with matchday operations and the planning process around live events, I know this experience has given me a much stronger foundation. It also reinforced the value of continuous improvement: building something, reviewing it critically, improving it, and learning as you go.

That mindset is something I’ll definitely carry with me.

10. If you could attend only one live event this year, football, tennis, or F1, which would you choose?

I’d choose Sporting CP’s title celebration. I remember very clearly what happened two years ago when Sporting became national champion. People were ready to celebrate immediately, and I was fascinated by how something like that gets planned when no one knows for sure whether the title will actually be won that day. At the time, I hadn’t even started my master’s yet, but I was already amazed by the logistics and coordination behind an event like that.

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Mariana’s time at Focus BC was a great mix of learning, curiosity, and practical contribution. Through her work on new demos and sports research, she helped us think more broadly about how Virtual Venue can be applied across different event contexts, while gaining a much clearer view of the complexity behind live sports operations.

It was a valuable experience on both sides: a chance for Mariana to turn theory into practice, and a meaningful contribution to the way we continue to explore Virtual Venue’s potential.

Looking for an internship where you can learn by doing? We’re always open to spontaneous applications from people who want to be part of what we’re building at Focus BC.