Olympic Bid

In this essay I am going to clearly outline how I would use event/design management, academic theories and concepts to produce a successful Olympic bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. I am going to critically analyse why I have chosen certain theories and concepts over others.

A successful Olympic Games is dependent on an extremely good planning process that will result in a successful bid. It is widely appreciated that the Olympic Games are seen as the biggest sporting event all around the world. According to the Olympic Charter its main purpose is to "contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating the youth through sport. The Olympic spirit requires mutual understanding, friendship, solidarity and fair play". Getz, D (1997) believes that event management is the process of planning, organising, producing and marketing an event.

The bid file is a document that is put together by each bidding city, which proposes why they should be awarded the games. There needs to be twenty copies of the file produced in both English and French which is then distributed for public viewing and for the Olympic committee members, the International Sports Federation and the Olympic Study Centre Library (Master man 2004)

When submitting the bid file you need to be convincing stake holders that the benefits will out way the cost. The media also drives the bid forward using communication tools, such as public forums, presentations, press liaisons and launches. The internet can be used when it comes to reveal event strategies, feasible studies and other important information, (London 2012, 2003).

Along with experienced executives, bids also need to be fronted by leaders and figureheads. Key figures are often used, for example Bobby Charlton and Geoff Hurst helped to secure the 2006 World Cup bid for England. David Beckham, Tony Blair and Matthew Pinsent were all used to help secure the London 2012 Olympic bid (Masterman 2004) Research shows that using a figure head to front a bid, increases the chance of winning. (Emery 2001)

According to (Gratton, Shibli and Dobson, 2000) the Olympic Games falls into their description of "Type A" of a major sporting event. This is one that is irregular, a one off, major, mega, international spectacular event which generates significant economic activity and media interest. The Olympic Games bring a range of different athletes from many different countries together to see who the best at their individual event is. A successful Olympic Games could have a massive impact on the host city. The city could be permanently transformed and the political, economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits felt by the city's entire population for many generations. The Olympic Games are referred to as a "hallmark" or "mega" event (Gertz 1991) the whole Olympic and Paralympics movement could be energised as a result of a well planned, thoughtful successful bid.

After careful deliberation, I have decided to follow the "Event Management Process" (Allen et al, 2002) to produce a successful bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. There are six steps to this process and in coming to my decision I felt that this process was the most suitable and thorough. For example when I looked at "The Event Planning Process" (Masterman 2004) I personally felt that it did not go into enough detail in each category to ensure success.

The first step of the "Event Management Process" (Allen et al 2002) is called "Scope of Work". In this section I will have to give a full and comprehensive account of the amount of work that will be needed. I personally felt that this was a vital step in ensuring the success of the bid and was one of the reasons I chose this theory over others that I considered. I felt happy with the amount of detail that was needed.

Secondly "Work Breakdown". Here all the categories that would be involved in the Olympic Bid would be identified and divided into clear workable units. I felt that this was essential as attempting to complete the work would be impossible otherwise and could run into all sorts of difficulties. Thirdly "Task Analysis" I agreed when I read about this section, that this was very important and also played an important part in me choosing this theory over others. Here categories such as communication, the venues, equipment, legal issues, financial matters, control marketing, services and health and safety would all be analysed individually and in depth with a view to have clear ideas on how they would be resourced, meaning the costs involved, the time needed and how many people and supplies would be needed. The fourth section is "Scheduling" here; tasks are put on a time line with all deadlines clearly indicated. The benefits of this are that all the tasks can be seen at a glance by all those involved and can be considered in relation to each other. Progress can be checked or monitored at various points and strategies can be put in place to keep all planning on track. It cam also indicate any delays and therefore permit mitigating actions to be put in place.

When Athens won the Olympic bid for 2004, the press not only in this country but all over the world were very quick to pick up and publicly criticise when venues seemed to be running behind schedule or when the workforce took industrial action such as striking or working to rule. With a mega sporting event of this type everything almost becomes public knowledge from day one.

The fifth step is "Critical Path" In this section a Gantt chart is produced. I felt when I was analysing the various theories and concepts that this can be a very important planning tool. It allows all tasks to be prioritised; network analysis is applied to determine a critical path to follow. Crucial deadlines are identified and tasks completed to specific dates. Also if equipment is late arriving on sites or does not arrive at all, the impact that this would have on meeting the deadlines will have been analysed in advance and other measures would be in place to compensate. The final step is "Responsibility allocation" This also helped me choose this theory above others because it turns all the tasks into areas of responsibility and these areas then have