One Team One Dream!

Often when talking about events, especially large sporting events like the Olympics, people think it’s all about the sport, the broadcasting and the venue. Coming from a venue operations background I have been guilty of this myself, but there is so much more that goes into an event that people don’t realise.

Some of the functions that are by no means less important, in fact sometimes even more important, but often overlooked include:

Accreditation – getting everyone accredited for a big event is a mammoth job and one which requires a very dedicated team. Those passes with your horrible picture on them don’t just make themselves!

Accommodation – ever think about where all the staff and athletes/performers are staying? Probably not, but it’s a huge task to source and manage hotels for everyone involved in a large scale event.

Catering – well the food didn’t get there itself! From workforce to guests to spectator catering there is a dedicated team running it all.

Logistics – big events simple wouldn’t happen without a dedicated logistics team getting everything (literally everything!) where it’s meant to be. From tables to luggage to sport equipment, the logistics crew are the ones who have to make sure it gets there.

Overlay – temporary structures, lighting, engineering, building repairs. An expert team is needed to provide all of these things. These guys are usually first to arrive at the venue and the last to leave.

Spectator services – remember those friendly faces with the foam fingers at the Olympics!? There’s a whole team of people working day in day out to make that happen.

Transport – trains, buses, flights, taxis, cars… transport are one hell of a team!

Workforce – someone had to look after us!

These are just a few (and I mean a few) of the many many different departments and functional areas required to put on a large scale event. I didn’t even touch on Commercial, Press, Legal.. the list could go on for days! Hopefully this will help you to understand the scale of a big event like the Olympics or the World Cup and show that it’s more than just what is shown on tv.