Category: Event Management

Speakers at Host City 2020 are shedding new light on how rights holders and organising committees are adapting to the impacts of the COVID-2019 pandemic.
The largest annual meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events, is being held virtually to debate the theme of “The Big Restart” and evaluate how event stakeholders can bring about “Recovery with a Purpose for the Digital Age”.
The two-day conference opened on Tuesday with welcome addresses from its supporting partners, Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events at VisitScotland, and Dr. Bridget McConnell CBE, Chief Executive of Glasgow Life.
Bush sounded an optimistic note despite the difficulties being experienced by many in the events industry due to coronavirus. He said the next few years may be challenging for everyone: “We have not lost our drive, ambition and determination for Scotland to continue to be the perfect stage for events.
“We as an industry will have to be even more focused, brave and ambitious along with seeking logical pragmatic solutions that are evidence based.”
McConnell outlined Glasgow’s rich heritage and expertise in staging international events. She noted the roster of upcoming events including holding UEFA Euro 2020 matches and the UCI Cycling World Championships in 2023, the year Glasgow is European Capital of Sport.
She spoke about the need for event organisers to remain ambitious, bolster strategic partnerships and focus on innovation and citizen engagement to deliver their visions.
Keynote addresses were given by Sir Craig Reedie GBE, a member of the International Olympic Committee, Etienne Thobois, CEO of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and H.E. Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General of Expo 2020 Dubai.
Thobois said COVID-19 had forced Paris 2024 to “review our priorities and adapt our planning… but our vision has not changed”. There was a renewed focus on promoting sports participation, using sport as a tool to change society and showing through a major public engagement program that “everyone can play a role”. He cited the Le Club Paris 2024 digital platform as one area where the organising committee was increasing engagement to maximize the social impact of the Games.
Expo 2020 Dubai was scheduled to be one of this year’s biggest international events before it fell victim to COVID-19. Al Hashimy told said that when it runs from 1 October 2021 it may be the first mega-event to take place in the wake of the global pandemic.
Commenting on the resilience of Dubai, she said the Expo was a product of extensive international cooperation and even at the height of the pandemic “work continued apace with its partners”. The bulk of construction for the Expo will be completed in the next few weeks.
In the first panel ‘Hosting with a purpose in the digital, post-Covid era’, Paul Foster, COO of the Global Esports Federation, talked about the importance of connecting with Esports audiences, athletes and the communities in a sustainable and dynamic way. The huge growth of Esports, which has triggered plans to stage the first Global Esports Games in December 2021, was an opportunity for host cities “to think about how we consume entertainment”.
Despite the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to next summer, Reedie said the IOC was confident in Japan delivering and getting crowds back to sport, encouraged by the fact that Japan was now bringing spectators into baseball and soccer matches.
The theme of adaptability surfaced again and again in conference panels related to the repercussions of COVID-2019.
In one titled ‘Preparing to deliver the greatest shows on earth’, Paris 2024’s Thobois said the biggest shift for Olympic organisers was integrating new hires into the team while adopting a working from home philosophy during the pandemic. But he said Games preparations were “very much on time and on target into terms of planning” with construction on a limited number of projects due to start in early 2021.
Ian Reid, CEO of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, said the shake-up of the 2022 events calendar to incorporate the rescheduled world and European athletics championships in Oregon and Munich respectively, together with the 2022 UEFA Women’s Championship, was one challenge.
Reid said the athletes’ village for Birmingham 2022 had “fallen foul to COVID” but led to a multiple village model welcomed by the Games family: “It has de-risked the project”. The impact of coronavirus lockdowns on office working was also being felt. Hiring through the pandemic has seen staff grow from 80 to 250; procurement had also become more difficult as Birmingham accelerates its preparations.
A panel discussion on the Black Lives Matter movement evaluated whether it was causing sports, business and cultural events industries to change for the better.
Densign White, Chair of Sporting Equals and CEO of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, said BLM had made people more aware about institutional racism and forced organizations “to rethink and re-evaluate how they do things to be more diverse and more inclusive”.
But he raised concerns about the ongoing lack of diversity in ethnic minority representation in the leadership of sport at board level and in coaching: “There’s a lot of talk but the needle has hardly moved into terms of those numbers”
“Unless there are targets and consequences for governing bodies for not making sure targets are met I don’t think we are going to see any change,” he said.
In a session on inclusion and diversity in the boardroom and playing field, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, winner of 16 Paralympic medals in a glittering career, said sports bodies needed to listen to the lived experience of disabled people and include more of them in coaching and administrator roles
On a future event delivery panels, Bruno Marie-Rose, Director of Technology at Paris 2024, said the organising committee was harnessing digital platforms to connect with the French population. Technology was also being used to contribute to the Games’ neutral carbon goal, he added.
Elsewhere on Day One, Saoud Al Ansari, Precinct Director of Al Thumama Stadium, Competition Venues, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, gave an update about progress across the project. He spoke about the organiser’s responsibilities to deliver an outstanding World Cup while aligning with the long-term legacy vision of Qatar.
Three of the eight host stadiums are finished. All venues in the compact host city plan are within 75km distance, a “strong advantage for players and the fans,” Al Ansari said.
‘How major events are contributing to environmental goals’ was an interesting panel. Georgina Grenon, Director of Environmental Excellence for Paris 2024, said the environment was a focus in early concepts of Games preparations. It had guided decisions including a sustainable procurement strategy and throughout the supply chain.
Wrapping up the day was a session looking at ‘Aligning event strategies with green city plans.’
Tim Briercliffe, Secretary General, AIPH – International Association of Horticultural Producers, said global horticultural expos “provide a great opportunity to showcase green innovation and to set the scene for the development of a city into the future”. They also provided huge economic benefits and stimulate environmental and sustainable best practices.

Event organisers today emphasised that the health and safety of athletes, spectators and staff is their number one priority in reopening for business in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
On the second day of Host City 2020, speakers from across the events and venues industry, including rights holders, organising committees, facility managers and suppliers, exchanged views about tackling the COVID challenges. They also discussed how they’ve used the unprecedented pause in event staging to rethink business models and strategies.
More than 1,000 delegates tuned in to listen to the 100-plus speakers at the largest annual meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events. The theme was “The Big Restart”, with panels over two days assessing how event stakeholders can bring about “Recovery with a Purpose for the Digital Age”.
The opening panel focused on the road to recovery, asking the question ‘What strengths have carried our sector through the storm?’.
Joe Ryan, Head of Health and Safety at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, talked about how they had dealt with COVID challenges and were well-positioned to react quickly to new public health messaging from government, the rollout of the coronavirus vaccination programme and changes in policy to bring people back to work in the office and accelerate preparations: “We need to monitor those and implement change where we need to and be very reactive.”
Michelle Hooper, Tournament Director of Rugby World Cup New Zealand 2021, said the event organisation had benefited from the government going “hard and early to stop COVID coming in at the border”. For the rugby showcase in autumn next year, the managed isolation and quarantine requirements for 12 teams was a critical collaborative effort with the government and World Rugby.
John Langford, Chief Operating Officer of AEG Europe, which operates multipurpose venues such as The O2 Arena in London and Staples Center in Los Angeles, said the sports and entertainment giant had worked hard on health and safety plans to prepare for a full re-opening of COVID-secure venues. But there were uncertainties over “what the future will look like” in terms of ticket demand, the economy and how existing business models might have to change.
He said government help was needed because commercial insurance was not available. “Without a government-backed insurance scheme we don’t believe we can open effectively. There’s so much risk about events being rescheduled or cancelled again.”
In the week when the first COVID vaccine jabs were administered, speakers were optimistic that 2021 would see a much-needed revival in the events business.
Jon Ridgeon, CEO of World Athletics, presented a fascinating case study on how track and field’s governing body had successfully staged the World Half Marathon championships in Gdynia, Poland, in October. It had been postponed from March.
He said it was “far from easy and only possible due to strict COVID protocols”. World Athletics had to “to take back control of the competition environment”. More than 100 men and a similar number of women, drawn from 53 member athletic federations, participated.
Ridgeon praised the “strong cooperation and can-do attitude” of the Polish government, local organising committee and city of Gdynia.
Athletes and officials were tested for coronavirus and accommodated in a COVID-secure bubble across two hotels. Managing the testing regime, including administering about 90 tests per hour for a peak inflow of athletes and their entourage, keeping the hotel bubble secure and understaffing of the medical team were among the challenges.
Although there were increased costs in holding the World Half Marathon amid the pandemic, coupled with significantly reduced income streams, it was deemed a major success. Ridgeon said athletics’ governing body was now better placed to upscale its COVID protocols and improve them for bigger events to come in 2021.
“We’ve got our head around the fact that the first half of 2021 is going to be compromised,” he added, saying he hoped more athletics events would be staged from summer onwards.
Tatsuo Ogura, Director of International Communications for the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, gave an update on the pandemic’s impacts and how organisers were working on a pathway to stage COVID-safe Games next summer. With 226 days to go, he said athletes were front and centre of plans and the Olympics “provides a symbol of hope, resilience and the power of humanity working as one”.
In a fascinating interview session, Sir Russell Coutts, CEO of SailGP, spoke about his transition from an Olympic gold medallist with five Americas Cup titles under his belt, to sports administrator. He has transformed sailing with the launch of what is billed as “the world’s most cutting-edge sail racing league”.
“People looked at sailing as being far away and quite slow moving. SailGP couldn’t be further from that,” he said, adding that it was both financially viable and in a format that could be neatly packaged for broadcasters and consumed by a global audience. Coutts said there was a big effort on sustainability and youth engagement programmes and ensuring a low carbon footprint.
Another topic of discussion was the convergence of digital and real-world events. It brought examples from Super League Triathlon and golf’s European Tour about how they have innovated to stage virtual sports for elite athletes as they look to learn lessons from the Esports community and integrate VR and AR into event strategies.
Michael Dhulst, Co-Founder & CEO of Super League Triathlon, spoke about the SLT Arena Games held in Rotterdam in August. Developed in partnership with Zwift, the new concept blended real life and virtual racing and offered “a new level of immersive viewing experience” for fans.
He said it was a huge hit across triathlon’s digital channels and an opportunity for the sport to extend the concept beyond the pandemic to become part of its events portfolio.
Later on the conference programme, in a session led by Katie Traxton, Chief Communications Officer of Formula E, four young ‘Gen Zers’ explained the importance of social media channels in their lives and how they engage and share content with friends. It offered some eye-opening comments for the events industry about how young people connect with each other in 2020. They highlighted the importance of being authentic and when posting on their social platforms, and of only identifying with brands that reflect their values.
In the final panel session, sports officials from Florida spoke about how they are readying to welcome the world again once the pandemic has passed.
Angela Adams Suggs, President & CEO of the Florida Sports Foundation, said the not-for-profit corporation’s goal was to continue to grow partnerships and promote professional and amateur sport to maintain its thriving sports industry and attract international visitors in 2021.
Wrapping up Host City 2020 with final remarks, Paul Bush, director of events at VisitScotland, one of the conference’s supporting partners, described the level of discussions and debate across the two days as “phenomenal”. Among the highlights, was hearing speakers say that “events will return… we just don’t know when, how and what shape they will be”.
ENDS