By Kevin Hall, Business Development Manager

Working at the club I have supported as a youngster is a dream come true for any football fan. I'm lucky enough to have that privilege after joining Reading four months ago to work on the sponsorship, advertising and hospitality sides of the business.

I'd not been involved directly in a football environment before. I used to work for Channel 5, selling advertising and sponsorship and that was a very different environment.

I first started supporting the Royals when I was about six, my dad used to take me to Elm Park. So I've been a fan for a long time. When the opportunity came up to work here, it was my dream job.

I watched last season as a fan and it was special. One of my stepdad's friends had hospitality with the club and I'd been behind the scenes with that and seen what was on offer.

But I didn't know what to expect because it was a different environment to come into. It's been quite surreal in many ways, working behind the scenes at something you enjoy anyway.

A lot of people think that Premier League football just sells itself, but in lots of cases it's not as simple as that.

There are lots of ways in which we want to continue pushing the club forward and attract long-term partners. It's a continuing challenge because not necessarily everyone will know of Reading in the way people from the local area do.

In the corporate sector I get a lot of people surprised that we are not automatically at full capacity in terms of hospitality and sponsorship. People sometimes don't come forward because they don't think there is availability.

When we do get in touch with people about hospitality for Premier League games, they tend to bite our arms off to get in. So that's why we decided to do an email marketing campaign to inform fans and partners of the availability for the rest of the season.

I sent an email out to all our members and season ticket holders. The message was 'Watch Torres, Fabregas and Owen in style'. The idea was to get the point across that for these big games coming up against Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle we aren't sold out of the hospitality yet and that there are some great packages available.

And the feedback was that people replied saying that they were just as interested in seeing Kitson, Doyle and Lita as Owen and Torres. I think that's a great thing for us to hear because they are players people can get to see here every week, so I'm looking forward to a good response on the take-up.

And the emails seemed to do the trick because we sold a lot of packages last week on the back of it and took lots of orders. Again, one of the responses we heard time and time again was that people were surprised they could buy games like Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal packages. It was a phenomenal response.

One of the good things about Reading is the wide range of packages and offers which can appeal to all types of business, from a local tradesman to a big international company.

Some of our suites are full for the season, but we do have availability in others, even for the big games. The 106 Suite lets you enjoy a three course meal with wine before the game. It was refurbished recently and feels very new.

The atmosphere is buzzing on a matchday and it's quite busy. You can watch the other games on TV before the match and it's a great way to get ready for the match. You can also relax in there at half-time and afterwards there's a bar so you can let the traffic go down.

The Kennet Room is similar, and has also been refurbished, looks great and holds 70 people so it's a bit smaller.

Our new Premier Suite in the West Stand has created a big buzz this season - the guests so far have been very complimentary in their praise about it. The club has invested quite heavily in the best facilities possible.

In many ways, it's not a traditional suite for a football ground, there are marble toilets and a sweeping bar area. It shows how far the club has come in recent years and is a pointer of the standard the club are looking to achieve in terms of level of service.

In terms of sponsorship, we are always on the lookout to develop new relationships with business while keeping our current customers happy. We need a balance between the long-term friendships we might have with a local tradesman to the big relationships with the likes of Kyocera and Puma.

The reach you can get from advertising in the Premier League is huge. And obviously the club needs to continue to develop this. For example, other clubs in the Premier League have LED perimeter advertising and that tends to be a global message as the Premier League is watched all over the world.

That's something for the future. It's a different model but it could be something you could see in the future as we continue to expand and develop.

Kevin is available on khall@readingfc.co.uk / 0118 968 1303.

If you would like a closer look at our hospitality areas, we highly recommend our Virtual Tours for a superb interactive 360-degree view.