The event environment

International events such as the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, World Championship in Athletics, Americas Cup, Commonwealth Games and many other mega sporting events continue to grow in size and investment. Most importantly, this growth is matched by the almost exponential growth of the television audience that watches these world-class competitions. So much so, that the organizers of opening and closing ceremonies will freely admit that these ceremonies are no longer designed for the audience seated in the stadium, even if these spectators have paid thousands of pounds for their tickets. The ceremonies are designed with every camera shot in mind, and CAD designs are used to visualize the on-screen effects from the various camera positions well in advance, most particularly those from high vantage points above the stadium. Major sponsors want to know beforehand how their logos will appear in the footage of the ceremony – how they will be positioned and how long they will appear on screen. There are also all sorts of

political pressures brought to bear on the design of the ceremonies programme, with the host country branding itself according to the images portrayed. There are athletes, performers, players, entertainers, ushers, security staff, police and a multitude of other staff, including volunteers, working behind the scenes and many others performing on the stage or field of play. Managing the interests of everyone involved, meeting deadlines on a multitude of projects that are codependent and immutable in their timelines are just a few of the challenges of this environment. The 2005 Live 8 Concerts were held in 10 cities, including London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome and Moscow, and played to hundreds of thousands of people. A TV audience of several hundred million was watching the gigs. In this case, the event was not a sporting event but a social justice initiative to eliminate poverty in Africa. This example further illustrates the challenges of producing an event on such a large scale, with specific political and economic aims in mind. The workforce for mega events is similar in scale and composition, Beijing Olympic Games for example recruiting 70,000 volunteers for the Summer Games and 30,000 for the Paralympic Games (primarily students). However, it was reported that an additional 400,000 municipal volunteers provided other services outside of the venues and a record 1,125,799 people applied to be volunteers! The London Olympic Games recruited a similar number (70,000) but with a more diverse profile having received 240,000 volunteer applications. Rio’s diversity manifesto is as follows: ‘we demonstrate appreciation of human diversity. It strengthens friendship among all, welcomes and respects the participation of each individual in this collective movement, emphasizing the principle that we all belong to one single world’. The volunteers are however the friendly face of an event which is staged by a multidisciplinary team. There is the paid workforce of the organizing committee and the project management team to consider and they are the core staff carrying overall responsibility for a successful event.