[Source: Association of Global Event Suppliers (AGES)] With the increasing demands on infrastructure, the limited lead-time and the ever louder call from an increasingly sceptical public for cost effective and sustainable solutions, temporary event infrastructure – often described as event overlays – has become an indispensable factor for event organisers and city authorities.

And yet, the event suppliers’ industry has been challenged by respected commentators suggesting that “organisers often do not understand your business”. In March 2019 AGES stepped forward to take up that challenge with the publication of the “Practice Guide for the Planning, Procurement and Delivery of Temporary Infrastructure for Major Events”, Part I General Information. Development of the response has continued, and AGES now releases a second volume to the Guide, Part II Technical information.

This latest volume has been elaborated by a group of authors and overlay professionals, each with profound international experience in their field, coordinated, guided, and supervised by AGES.

The Guide, as a whole, provides an inclusive, encyclopaedic reference for event organisers, building authorities, governmental bodies, students, educators and educational establishments; in fact, all those involved in event infrastructure. It offers introductory and contextual information, general information, and technical information, to become the international advisory document.

In particular, this 300-page volume includes the sections, Products, Services and Regulatory Framework, providing technical and illustrative information and references and deals with the large majority of the temporary works categories and technical services used by organisers of large events.

Each volume of the “Practice Guide for the Planning, Procurement and Delivery of Temporary Infrastructure for Major Events”, Part I General Information and Part II Technical Information is now available, at  https://www.ages.international/shop/ which also offers informative previews of both publications.

About AGES

The Association of Global Event Suppliers (AGES) is a none-for-profit organization based in Switzerland which was formed 2014 to become the label for quality and reliability for temporary and demountable infrastructure works for major events.

The worldwide members are market leaders and front runners in the development of new products and services; each has a unique track record and outstanding work experience. Together they provide services worth over EUR 2 billion each year.

AGES wants to address the capabilities of the industry to organizers of large sports events, governmental bodies and building authorities to enhance and expand opportunities for hosting to a wider pool of venues, cities and nations; to facilitate interactions between hosts and industry, and to improve the viability, sustainability and cost- effectiveness of solutions through the creative use of temporary infrastructure.

For more information visit  www.ages.international contact Daniel Cordey, Chairman at info@ages.international or by telephone +41 79 407 06 06.

Beijing 2022 has been hailed for setting new standards in engagement by Ivo Ferriani, President of GAISF (Global Association of International Sports Federations).

“Following 19 days of exciting winter sports action, I would like to congratulate the IOC, Beijing 2022, athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers for delivering a successful Olympic Winter Games and inspiring millions of people in China and around the world to engage in winter sports,” he said.

“I understand that the Opening Ceremony was the most watched broadcast in China in a decade; this is fantastic news for the future of ice and snow sports in China.”

Worldwide, the Opening Ceremony attracted achieved more viewers than any previous Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony.

Throughout the Games, more hours of broadcast coverage were made available than at any previous Olympic Winter Games edition. In China, broadcast coverage of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 reached over 600 million people through TV alone.

The IOC said the Games also achieved record coverage through digital platforms, with “billions of engagements across digital platforms, including Olympic and Rights-Holding Broadcasters’ properties”.

Ferriani said: “With more than 2.7 billion comments about the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on the IOC’s social media platforms, I have no doubt that millions more people will participate in winter sports activities as a result.”

More than a thousand journalists were accredited for the Games, in addition to close to a thousand other accredited members of the press from 520 organisations, plus 3,607 accreditations granted to representatives of rights-holding broadcasters.

The Games was delivered in the most challenging of circumstances amid the Covid 19 pandemic.

 “I can speak from experience and say that the closed-loop system was very successful and there was a fantastic Olympic spirit throughout the Games,” said Ferriani. “This would of course not have been possible if it wasn’t for all the hard work behind-the-scenes and everyone coming together to deliver a safe and secure Olympic Winter Games.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the GAISF Members of Olympic winter sports for your hard work and efforts to provide the best possible support for your athletes.”

At an thank-you event organised at the Big Air venue in Shougang Park in Beijing, the IOC’s Beijing 2022 Coordination Commission Chair, Juan Antonio Samaranch, thanked the thousands of Beijing 2022 workforce and volunteers.

“You and all your teams have done incredible work to tackle the different challenges. You have always been responsible, responsive and efficient to all our requests,” he said.

“Thanks for your strong commitment and dedication. You ensured that these Olympic Winter Games were memorable.”

With 45 per cent of athletes being female and 55 per cent male, Beijing 2022 also set a new standard as the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games.

Cai Qi, president of the Beijing 2022 Organising Committee, said: “As the first city to host both summer and winter Olympic Games, Beijing 2022 will go down in history. We will continue to work with the IOC to spread the Olympic spirit, enhance inclusiveness and mutual understanding, promote friendship and solidarity, and jointly shape a better future.”

The way sport content is consumed is changing dramatically, and this is changing the business of sports events. PwC’s Sports Survey 2021 revealed the top “key market force” in the sports industry to be the transforming media landscape.

“We want to invest around the change,” George Pyne, Founder & CEO of Bruin Capital told SportsPro Activision conference. “The pandemic is accelerating the adoption of all things digital, which if you’re investing in technology is a good thing.”

The pandemic has presented challenges as well as opportunities.

“Portfolio companies are having a hard time hiring people and not meeting with clients – and there are supply chain issues. But strategically we feel good about the long-term technology change that’s taking place today.”

Bruin bought data-driven sports marketing agency Two Circles before the pandemic. Other recent acquisitions include Deltatre, TGI and OddsChecker. Bruin also bought golf simulation technology Full Swing, which experience mixed fortunes due to the pandemic. “Home simulators sailed off the charts, but golf was one of the sports that people could still do as it was outside.”

But Bruin’s investments have generally been well placed at this time of transition. “All our companies had a good tailwind. It’s working for us, being in the tech space – tech is disrupting life and for sure will disrupt sports.

“When I started Bruin we wouldn’t have been so tech focused. Our focus is growth, so where in the sports ecosystem can you find returns? We find the best place is in technology. We’ve landed on technology because of the growth credentials.”

High risk threshold

Pyne offered an insight into the needs of startups.

“When you’re looking for capital, you need capital that’s patient, easy to work with and can help you grow. When you are a startup you need to be able to pivot, to adjust, to be nimble and adapt to what’s going on around you.”

Investing in startups is a high-risk business. “In the startup space, most don’t make it. If you have 10 companies, about three are going to make it. It’s about investing in technology and people you believe in.

“Your threshold for risk is quite high. We don’t expect all to be successful – it’s the level of success you’re looking for.”

Pyne empathises with the disappointments that everyone in business faces from time to time. “I’ve been fired by a client, I’ve missed a budget, I’ve failed. Every day isn’t a sunny day. We are good to be around when things go bad – that’s the Bruin secret sauce. If you’re not a people business, you can’t be successful.”

From 2006 to 2014, Pyne was President of Sports and Entertainment and Board Member of IMG. “Having the experience of running a company, we are way more empathetic to CEOs. If you’re a CEO or management team, we are able to open doors. And equally importantly when things don’t go well, we understand. Those things are important to CEOs and CFOs.

“What works for me is three-year plans. It’s not just about money, but ideas. Check in once a month on strategy and numbers and you’ll never really fall apart. We have great CEOs, they run the businesses, we’re just here to help; we’re on their side.

“It’s based on trust, integrity, doing what you say you’re going to do – and how you handle it when things go wrong. Nobody’s perfect, we try to address our mistakes in the best way possible.”

New and emerging technologies

Technologies are emerging at an unprecedented rate – but which ones are here for good?

“NFT is probably here to stay. Cryptocurrency and the blockchain looks pretty sticky too.

“Sport reflects life and is going to follow the trends – all those trends are being enabled through global technology and sport will follow, which is good. I embrace innovation.

“If you look at Microsoft and Activision and the impact of the metaverse – that is the new frontier. There are going to be big winners and big losers and a lot of value created. There are going to be some big enterprises that come out of those categories.”

“NFTs and crypto is very exciting, but I’m more into the data and lifetime buy of the consumer. There are so many ways to interact with consumers through data and there are so many opportunities to be great in that area.”

“The relationship between club and consumer will define success in the future.”

Which perhaps brings us to the real reason that technology is such a huge growth area – it connects people with their passions.

“Golf is a passion point and Full Swing is satisfying that passion point – we love a good passion point in a partner.

“Our focus now is on TGI and Full Swing, helping them to do well. Somewhere along the way this year we’ll probably find a new technology platform to invest behind.

“It’s all about people. Technology without people is nothing.”

This article is based on the live Q&A by SportPro’s Editor-at-Large, Eoin Connolly

Alibaba Cloud, founded in 2009, is a global leader in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, providing services to thousands of enterprises, developers and government organisations in more than 200 countries and regions. Committed to the success of its customers, Alibaba Cloud provides reliable and high security cloud computing and digital technology capabilities as part of its online solutions.

“We are focusing on sustainable development and innovation,” Kevin Li, Head of International Sports Industry Department, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence said at Host City on 7 December 2021.

According to IDC and Gartner, Alibaba Cloud is the number one public cloud provider in China and APAC, and number three in the world.

In January 2017 Alibaba Cloud became the official cloud services partner of the Olympics.

“Since then we have been continuously supporting to drive the digital transformation of the Olympics,” said Li.

In 2018 Alibaba unveiled the cloud data centre for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and OBS Cloud with Olympic Broadcasting Services. In 2019 Alibaba Cloud became the official partner of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games and helped to support the first Asian games on cloud. And in 2020, Alibaba Cloud announced its support of Le Club Paris 2024 to enable fans to interact and engage with the Olympics. And in 2021, the most important milestone was to support Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which was delivered for the first time on cloud.

“Our teams are working to provide cloud technology support to Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, which will take place in February 2022. As a worldwide Olympic partner we share a vision with the IOC of using cloud technology and digital intelligence to improve the decision making of Games operations and create unique digital journey experience of Olympic sports fans.

“We believe technology will make the Games more inclusive and accessible to people of different genders, races and age around the world, all united by the Games."

Breakthroughs at Tokyo 2020

“When we look back at Tokyo 2020, breakthroughs in digitalisation were made at every moment fuelled by leading cloud-based technologies through Alibaba Cloud in partnership with IOC,” said Li.

“Alibaba helped IOC to integrate official digital channels of the Olympic games into the new olympics.com platform.

“Alibaba and the IOC released the cloud press conference platform, enabling the media to easily watch all press conferences on the cloud.

“We launched the cloud intelligence heatstroke prediction system with the Tokyo organising committee, to reduce the probability of a heatstroke.

“Alibaba Cloud supported OBS to launch the Olympic broadcasting cloud for the first time, using cloud technology to fully support ultra high definition and high dynamic Olympic broadcasting services.

“Through the digital cloud cheer platform, Make the Beat, we can cheer on the cloud and encourage athletes from all countries.

Digital operation, competition, communication and experience

“When we overview all these digital innovations based on practices by Alibaba Cloud in the Olympic Games, we can identify four domains in more general sports digitalisation. The four domains are: digital operation, digital competition, digital communication and digital experience. Each domain is composed with corresponding business solutions for specific stakeholders respectively.

“Digital operation will improve the operational efficiency of organising committees to make the events more sustainable. Digital competition will strengthen the position of athletes are at the heart of the Olympic movement both on and off the field of play.

“Digital communication is aimed to reorganise accounting workflow through digital technology. Olympics.com is one of the fruitful achievements. The converged media channel has delivered extended engagement for all fans during the Olympic Games, which will reinforce and promote the Olympic values which are more important and powerful than ever.

“Digital experience will establish the seamless Games journey experience to improve fans’ engagement before, during and after the Games.”

More value to host cities

“As TOP partner, Alibaba Cloud keeps collaborating with stakeholders of Olympic Games from Pyeongchang, Tokyo and Beijing to the coming Milano-Cortina, Paris and Los Angeles Games to support IOC’s digital strategy to facilitate the successful Games delivery and strengthen the uniqueness and universality of every brilliant Olympic Games.

“These practices could deeply involve the TOP Partner’s expertise and resources into the programmes and activities of the Olympic movement.

“Alibaba Cloud stands with the IOC, organising committees, IFs, sponsors and other partners to make digital technology – especially the cloud, which is hosting all core Games services – as a powerful source to enable the events to be more connected, more efficient, more secure and more engaging.

“It will be helpful to establish dynamic sports games with unprecedented experience and a reduced carbon footprint of the Games.

“Digital solutions rely on cloud technology that bring more value to the host cities of Games. From the faster sports industry development to more efficient city operations it is expected that host cities will witness the smart capability, building and developing of transportation, touring, medical, governance and many other aspects.

“Alibaba Cloud can work such digital magic into our cloud products and services, the comprehensive cloud solutions will create value and be the enabler of sports industry digitalisation. Cooperating with other sports partners, fans and stakeholders globally, I believe we can seize opportunities of digitalisation and contribute to shaping the post-pandemic world by working together with the sports community to strengthen the Olympic values.

“Stronger together: let us send our best wishes to all athletes and fans of the coming Beijing 2022 Olympic Games.”

This article is based on Kevin Li’s presentation, The digital transformation of the Olympic Games, at Host City 2021

I was fortunate enough to produce several fantastic international conferences in 2021 with incredible speakers highlighting huge challenges and opportunities for the major events and technology regulation sectors.

The biggest challenges both sectors faced in 2021 will keep rolling through 2022. For the major events sector, recovery from the pandemic continues to be unpredictable and hugely variable from one country to another.

Big Tech continues to grow: Apple is now worth more than the GDP of all but four countries. Governments are taking different approaches to managing the size and influence of these companies and the technologies they own.

Both these challenges – the pandemic, and tech regulation – are being tackled on a national, or at best regional, level. And yet they are global challenges. Neither viruses nor technology can be fully controlled by national borders, and even if they could, would we want to live in a world where ideas and people cannot travel?

The rapid rollout of vaccines in 2021 was an incredible feat that has enabled many economies to get back on track. But many populations still have next to no immunity, and this gives Covid scope to mutate. If 2021 was the year of local recovery, 2022 must be the year of global recovery, with wealthier nations increasing their support for global vaccination programmes. The international major events sectors will be one of many to benefit from a world where Covid is managed globally.

Similarly, regulations to tackle technology came on apace throughout 2021. With various Acts moving through Washington, Brussels and Beijing, 2022 will no doubt be a big year for such legislation. But as technology transcends national borders, only a coordinated global approach to the Regulation of AI, the Internet and Data (RAID) will be truly effective in making it work best for humanity.

Perhaps the most significant event of last year was COP21 in Glasgow, tackling the biggest threat of all: climate change. Never has global alignment been more challenging and more critical. Climate change of course raises huge questions for the international events sector, and technology is playing a vital and fascinating role in the evolution of travel and the experience economy.

As overwhelming as the challenges to our industries and societies might seem, I am extremely optimistic. If there is one thing that makes humans unique, it is our ability to communicate and collaborate, and we have it in our power to apply this skill with the level of urgency required. International major events would be impossible without global governance structures – perhaps governments could learn from sports.

We look forward to more world-changing conversations at Host City and RAID events in 2022. Let’s make it a year of global recovery.

Expertise, values and innovation were decisive factors in the appointment of Sunset+Vine to provide event production, live broadcast and programme distribution for E-Bike Grand Prix (EBK GP).

EBK GP is the world’s first international E-Bike race series which will be delivered as part of a robust sustainable transformative mobility programme in each city. The concept is owned and developed by Cube International. Due to begin in late 2022 with a showcase event in Dubai, the series will take place in 10 cities around the world across 2023. Each Grand Prix will highlight iconic landmarks and cultural sites in host cities as part of a high-speed, thrilling sporting spectacle.

All EBK GP races will be free for public viewing, and coverage of the events will be broadcast internationally via television and digital media through the series’ partner, Sunset+Vine.

“Sunset+Vine provide the E-Bike GP Series with the perfect solution for event production, live broadcast and programme distribution, drawing upon their diverse and considerable expertise in live events and their major sport experience,” Andy Moss, CEO of Teams & Franchise at EBK GP and founder and chairman of Cube International told Host City.

“The team demonstrated real commitment to our core sustainability programme and offered the exciting development of second screen technology, two winning ingredients.”

“Our broadcast and media programme is a crucial asset of the EBK GP Series,” Judith Rowan, Global Host Cities Director with EBK GP and International Project Director at Cube International told Host City. “It not only offers a platform for engaging with and entertaining a global audience, but importantly it also allows us to tell the stories of our host cities through the inspirational lens of a major sporting event.”

Second screens

“As this is a new event, we have a chance here to start with first principles,” said Andrew Preece, Executive Director of Sunset+Vine told Host City. “We have innovative ideas about AR & VR and how we link together the first and second screens in real time.”

The first screen is the TV or device where audiences watch the primary coverage, with the second being another device such as a phone or tablet where they watch surrounding content such as social media at the same time.

Sunset+Vine first had the opportunity to trial some of these techniques during the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in October 2019, when Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to achieve a sub-two-hour marathon. The wide range of content they produced included a gallery of photos of training during the live event.

“When watching a live sporting event, quite often it’s good to have a deeper insight into the players and the equipment, which you can’t really show as part of live coverage,” said Preece. “We can show it to them on another device so they can get a deeper insight without compromising coverage of the sporting event, and to link it events that are happening within the race.” 

360-degree services

Another advantage of working with a new event is the infrastructure can be designed with content production in mind.

“When the event company is designing the race track, we’ve got an opportunity to integrate with them on elements that work for broadcast and to incorporate the camera plan,” said Preece. “For example, we can mount a camera on a turn on a place that it would be otherwise dangerous to film. This way, we can design the coverage without distracting the players.”

Unusually, Sunset+Vine’s output extends far beyond the broadcast feed, acting as a one stop shop for all content, from live to news to social and digital.

“We are unique in the sector in offering 360-degree services – rights sales, programme distribution, live production, shoulder production such as highlights and previews, news on TV and digital, general digital and social and audience development, for example building fan bases on social platforms.

“As events like this are being viewed in more ways on more devices our 360-degree service is increasing useful to organisers, as they don’t have to employ lots of different agencies.”

Zero carbon

In keeping with EBK Grand Prix’s mission to help create cleaner, greener healthier cities, Sunset+Vine are minimising the footprint of their work.

“We are looking at zero carbon in terms of how we are doing production, including looking at options for remote production. We are considering that in terms of how we deliver the production, and we will also look at how we integrate that into the editorial,” said Preece.

“Sport has the power to inspire and motivate,” said Rowan. “Media broadcast multiplies that impact. EBK’s mission is to effect change towards sustainability around the world, and our partners Sunset+Vine have the experience and prowess to harness broadcast’s full potential to help us do that.”

Following the confirmation of Dubai as a host in October, South Korea was announced as the second host country in December 2021. Global sports and entertainment company Collinder Holdings will work closely with the South Korean government on delivering the race series there.

EBK GP’s hosts commit to a three-year Sustainable Transformation Mobility (STM) programme, with delivery and support provided by a sustainability partner.

“We are very excited to join the E-Bike Grand Prix series, promoting technology and sustainability,” said Sara Kim, Chief Executive Officer of Collinder Holdings. “South Korea is one of the global leading battery manufacturers and the EV market rapidly growing E-Bike is just the right fit for Korea”.

I am very proud to see the achievements of Super League over the last three years.

In 2019 we decided to grow the organisation, build out a team in London and, in arguably one of the hardest times for the event industry, we have truly established ourselves as an organisation that has substance.

We have extended our content offering, added a second series with the Arena Games and put together our best ever Championship Series in iconic venues featuring a new team concept.

Looking back and reflecting on 2021 as I am, I feel I also really need to take into account 2020 given the way the world has gone.

When you look at the triathlon landscape it makes me very proud. To deliver three Arena Games events – an entirely new concept – during COVID times was exceptional, as well as delivering our most exciting Championship Series since we launched in 2017.

To put it into context within our sport, the PTO has done many great things but in terms of events it also has a new concept and in three years have partnered on one event with Challenge and delivered one themselves. Many Ironman races have been cancelled including Kona and even World Triathlon’s schedule has been impacted.

Iconic locations

We brought the Championship Series back in iconic venues: London, Munich, Jersey, Malibu. We had the best in the world racing for four weeks back-to-back and the Series for both male and females was won on the last run of four weeks of racing!

Over the last two years SLT has grown from a great concept to a brand, and a league that has substance, a solid fan base, broadcasters invested in it and athletes committing to it.

Any organisation, even if the idea is the greatest and the team is strong, needs maturity to show substance, and without substance even a great idea and a strong team can fail.

Big things to come

For the Arena Games we are now partnering with World Triathlon to drive this into the next Olympics.

What does that mean? That a young, dynamic organisation can deliver a concept that is considered even by a traditional organisation such as a governing body as part of the future of the sport. Also that the Super League as an organisation has enough substance for World Triathlon to jump on to the boat with us.

It adds kudos and credibility and enhances the offering for sponsors, partners, hosts and investors that want to come on board.

Behind all of this sits an organisation that not only delivered these events, but has never failed to deliver.

From a media perspective the Championship Series was deemed thrilling to the last. The broadcast feedback was unanimously positive and in terms of PR and digital we have continued to grow substantially and can now claim to be the most engaged triathlon property.

It’s been a challenging couple of years for everybody, but Super League has emerged from it far stronger and ready for a very bright future, which is an incredible achievement.

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, unveiled at Apsara Conference 2021 Premium DingTalk for Sports Games, a digital solution aimed at streamlining the organization and communications for large-scale sports events. The new solution will be used for the 2022 Asian Games, to be held in Hangzhou next September, serving over 100,000 participants from across the world.

Leveraging DingTalk's established cloud-based enterprise collaboration platform, the new sports solution provides a one-stop collaboration tool to connect stakeholders at all stages of the event hosting lifecycle – from organizers and suppliers to volunteers and venue operators – enhancing the operational efficiency of sports events.

"Alibaba Cloud's ambition is to transform the experience of sports in the digital era. As part of our continued efforts to achieve this goal, our new DingTalk solution is designed to help users manage and operate large-scale sports events in a more structured manner, leveraging DingTalk as an enterprise collaboration tool as well as utilizing our cutting-edge cloud technologies and infrastructure," said Selina Yuan, General Manager of International Business Unit, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

"Following our success in delivering technological solutions and services to digitalize the Olympics Games Tokyo 2020, we are excited about the opportunity to support the upcoming 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou."

This solution allows different groups of event participants to join the platform through a single gateway, from anytime and anywhere. Organizers can manage these groups individually through a back-end platform, streamlining workflows while facilitating effective communications within and between groups.

To help event participants including volunteers and venue operators from across the world better communicate with each other, the platform also provides instantaneous multi-language translation, remote video conferencing and many other functions to ensure smooth and real-time information exchange.

"At DingTalk, we are aiming to facilitate the digitalization of organizations and corporations. With the launch of Premium DingTalk for Sports Games and our upcoming cooperation with the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, we are ready to provide the latest in digital platform services to global sporting event organizers," said Alex Li, Vice President of DingTalk.

Other sports solutions unveiled during Apsara Conference 2021, held from October 19-22, include an AI-based simulation training solution for volunteers, which can provide virtual training for event volunteers in a cost-effective manner.

Based on AI algorithms, robots create an immersive training environment by simulating scenarios in the real world and generate insights into trainees' achievements using a standardized and systematic ranking system. By analyzing training insights, these AI robots offer real-time feedback to volunteers and provide tailored retraining sessions to help them improve performance.

Moreover, Alibaba Cloud launched a cloud-based ticketing system to optimize digital ticketing services at sporting events. This was adapted from a customer service system that was previously used by Alibaba Group marketplaces such as Taobao and Tmall. When a game needs to be rescheduled, the system, backed by Alibaba Cloud's conversational AI technology, automatically informs ticket holders and handles refund requests.

Alibaba's innovative AI technology and rich business scenarios make it a pioneer in the industry. Alibaba was named a Major Player by International Data Corporation (IDC) MarketScape, in its worldwide conversational AI 2021 vendor assessment. Alibaba is included in the analysis for the first time for its strong and capable conversational AI capabilities and industry expertise.

Alibaba Cloud has been committed to promoting the digitalization of sports in recent years. It also launched various cloud-based solutions and services to support the digital transformation of the Olympic Games during Tokyo 2020. These included Alibaba Cloud Pin, a cloud-based digital pin that enables media professionals to engage with each other in a safe and interactive manner, and an intelligent ear-worn device that helped onsite staff reduce the risk of getting heatstroke during the summer in Tokyo.

About Alibaba Cloud

Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, management and application services, big data analytics, a machine learning platform and IoT services. Alibaba Cloud is China's leading provider of public cloud services by revenue in 2019, including PaaS and IaaS services, according to IDC. Alibaba Group is the world's third leading and Asia Pacific's leading IaaS provider by revenue in 2020 in U.S. dollars, according to Gartner's April 2021 report.

Watch Kevin Li, Head of International Sports Industry Department, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence presenting at Host City 2021 on “The Digital Transformation of the Olympics” here

[Source: Global Esports Federation] The inaugural Singapore 2021 Global Esports Games is proud to be supported by a slate of partners that includes Singapore Airlines, MyRepublic, Samsung, Razer, and Flare Networks, signalling the strong backing that the event has received from organizations across the APAC region.

The GEG, the flagship event of the Global Esports Federation, is a global, multi-title competition. The inaugural edition features Dota 2, eFootball 2022, and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, with participation from esports athletes and players from over 50 countries and territories. At the World Finals, over 100 athletes from 40 countries and territories will compete in Singapore in front of a LIVE audience and multi-channel broadcast. The event runs from December 18-19 at Resorts World Sentosa.

This is Singapore Airlines’ first esports partnership, and the national carrier is the GEG’s Official Airline Partner. The GEG’s other official partners in their respective areas are MyRepublic (Telco), Samsung Neo QLED (Technology), Razer (Esports), and Lazada (E-commerce). Joining them are community partners TikTok and GosuGamers, and venue partner Resorts World Sentosa.

In a tangible demonstration of its deep commitment to the esports community, Flare Networks, GEF’s Global Partner for Blockchain Ecosystems, is making a grant of their Songbird Tokens ($SGB) to every athlete and team heading to Singapore and helping the global broadcast reach the entire world.

Chris Chan, President of the GEF said: “We are thrilled by the support from world-class brands for the first-ever Global Esports Games. We are now in the final phase of preparations for the GEG. The entire team remains focused on staging a prestigious international competition as planned despite the challenging circumstances. We are grateful to our partners for their commitment to sharing and supporting our #worldconnected vision.”

GEFcon, the GEF’s international convention of esports thought leaders and idea creators, takes place virtually on December 16. Visit www.gefcon.org for panel information and sessions details. You can register on https://tinyurl.com/GEFcon21Registration to access the sessions. A Keynote Panel debating the current and future state of esports will be staged LIVE from Resorts World Sentosa (Singapore) on Friday, December 17 at 2.00pm. The panel will feature discussions with the GEF President, the GEF Chief Executive Officer, and leaders from the Istanbul 2022 and Riyadh 2023 Global Esports Games Organizing Committees.

The GEFestival, meanwhile, is staged between December 4-18, brings together esports and gaming, music, art and technology. As a prelude to the Global Esports Games, GEFestival offers a series of community esports competitions and the premiere of a specially curated documentary, music, and art showcase that celebrates esports and youth culture. View all key events of the GEFestival on YouTube and Twitch.

Viewers around the world can watch live streams of the GEG on Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, Huya, and GosuGamers.

The 8^th Host City conference took place online from Glasgow, Scotland on 7-8 December, bringing 85 incredible speakers to a global audience of more than 500 to “Refresh, Regenerate and Reconnect” the events industry.

In his opening address, Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events, VisitScotland said: “Across the spectrum we are having to rethink out of necessity across a range of areas –  bidding, commercial viability, sponsorships rights, legacy impacts in a Covid-19 world, content distribution, media rights, the re-ordering of calendars due to postponements and cancellations.

“This climate of consistent uncertainty has once again accelerated us all to work in different ways, developing a range of resilient responses, innovation, spirit, and adaptation.”

Dr. Bridget McConnell CBE, Chief Executive, Glasgow Life said: “One of the most heartening aspects of the last few years has been our sector’s capacity for creativity, adaptation and innovation. The events’ industry is fundamentally rooted in a solution-focused approach, and that has never been more in evidence than over the last two years.

“The other heartening aspect has been the ongoing hunger for live events and the speed which audiences have both returned.”

Sir Craig Reedie GBE, Honorary IOC Member said: “Sport has shown great resilience. Sports events and their host cities have overcome a long list of difficulties.

“The International Olympic Committee, the IOC, managed to refresh, regenerate and reconnect with Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Games in July this year and will do so again for a second time in Beijing next February.”

Anita DeFrantz, IOC Member and LA28 Board Member said: “The greatest challenge going into Tokyo 2020 Games was trust. We needed the trust of the athletes, the organising committee and the Japanese people because there was great fear of being in a pandemic. I was so amazed at the joy of the athletes in the village. The trust was well placed; the Olympic movement did not create a super spreader.”

Looking ahead to 2028 she said, “The beautiful thing about Los Angeles is we don’t need to be transformed – we have all the venues we need.”

Ivo Ferriani, Executive Board Member, IOC and President of GAISF, IBSF and AIOWF said: “When I was introduced to the Host City brand by my collaborator Dr. Marco Mazzi, Vice-President, International Sports Travel Agencies Association (ISTAA), I was immediately impressed.

“Sport is one of the most important pillars to restore stability to the tourism industry and support society during this difficult time. Sport helps us to move forward.”

In his keynote presentation, Etienne Thobois, CEO, Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games said: “Our vision is a mix of the Olympic agenda, where the new norm provides cities with an increased flexibility in designing the Games to meet long term development goals; and then it’s about what we want to do with those Games. For Paris, it’s very important that these Games become a unique opportunity to enhance the role of sport in society.”

In his keynote presentation, Vincenzo Novari, CEO, Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games said: “We have to create events and attention and engagement not only for one month of competition, but for a time of four years. We cannot think that the attention and the commitment of our major sponsors could be only for one limited time.”

In her keynote speech, Katie Sadleir, Chief Executive, Commonwealth Games Federation said: “It’s going to be a spectacular event in Birmingham next year. This will be the first multisport carbon neutral event.

“We’re really keen to make sure the Commonwealth doesn’t just take place in our major nations. We want to see the full members having the opportunity. So we are encouraging people to looking at co-hosting in cities, countries or regions. We’re looking for creative solutions. We’re also working with the Global Esports Federation on an esports strategy. “

In a keynote Q&A Mikaela Cojuangco Jaworski, Executive Board Member, International Olympic Committee said: “The Olympic Channel is handling a side of the Games which is more vibrant, creative and attractive. Our approach has attracted a lot of younger audiences.”

Presenting The New Approach to Selecting Olympic Hosts, Octavian Morariu, IOC Member, Chair, Future Host Commission for the Olympic Winter Games, International Olympic Committee and President, Rugby Europe said: “The host election process needed to change because, in the past, cities trying to outbid each other resulted in excessive expenditure. Lobbying sometimes led to ethical issues. In the words of the Olympic president, there were too many losers.

“The sweeping reforms of Agenda 2020 were designed to reflect the modern priorities of the Olympic movement.”

In his keynote address, Lord Sebastian Coe KBE, President, World Athletics said: “This is the right moment to harness the power of our sport to bring positive change.

“It is not just what happens to a city or community during an event, but what is left behind that helps communities choose healthier lifestyles and create partnerships for years to come.”

On the opening panel, the scale of the impact of the pandemic was summed up by IOC Member and Finance Commission Member Dagmawit Girmay Berhane, who said: “Every aspect of life will never be the same, personally and professionally. That’s why our President took the bold step of taking the Agenda 20+5 roadmap.”

Andrew Ryan, Executive Director, ASOIF (Association of Summer Olympic International Federations) said “The biggest impact has been the way the pandemic has acted as a catalyst. IFs have been slow to adapt but one of the few positives from this period is that it has accelerated the way IFs look at how they should be placed for the future.

“In the past my members were approaching cities with the same model, now it’s much more of a partnership and a willingness to take an innovative approach.”

Paul J. Foster, CEO, Global Esports Federation said: “We spent this period with one foot on the accelerator, the other and the brake and both hands on the wheel! We thought we could do more than stage just prestigious events. We realised we had responsibilities around health and wellness, our connection with education and youth as we think about the future of work and how we can contribute to the development of cities – and also societal impacts such as bringing down unacceptable barriers to inclusion and prosperity.”

Jon Dutton, Chief Executive, Rugby League World Cup 2021 said: “We have all tried to master the art of managing uncertainty. Having to be nimble and developing a high degree of resilience. Events in the future can look to opportunities from the crisis, seeing sports as a force for good and to influence policy makers. Events with a purpose are here to thrive – what happens off the field of play is as important as what happens on the pitch.”

Speaking on the panel Diversity and Integrity in Leadership, longstanding IOC Member, FINA Vice President and activist Sam Ramsamy said: “Sport has changed forever; the components have become highly commercial. We have to consider sport as entertainment, whether we like it or not. That is what fans want. It is important that we have at the foremost end diversity and inclusion to take the entire grouping forward with us.”

Jamaican swimming champion Michael Gunning said: “As a young boy learning to swim there were no people of colour around me - that role model was missing. I enjoyed breaking the mould and doing something that not many people like me did.

“Jamaica has strict laws about being gay. It's heart-breaking – if I showed affection to the same gender I would be sent to prison. Athletes have to come together; I want to help inspire people and show that it's OK.”

On the panel Partnership Approaches to Event Hosting, Trudy Lindblade, Chief Executive Officer, 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships said: “We have the benefit of it having never been done before, so it’s been cocreation from the start. We’ve pulled our commercial rights together to share the risk and the reward.”

Sustainability was a recurrent theme of the conference. David de Behr, Head of Sales Aggreko Event Services, Aggreko said: “In the last year Aggreko has brought out its energy transition strategy and we support our customers on their journey to decarbonise in the future.

“What we do now is try to reduce the energy needs of our customers. 90 per cent of our work goes into this, without risking the critical supply for the event. This means difficult discussions with the rights holders and organisers – but it’s a positive evolution for us.”

Tim Briercliffe, Secretary General, AIPH - International Association of Horticultural Producers said: “The themes of our events really tie into the message of sustainably. The theme of the Beijing 2019 Expo, where we had 10 million visitors, was ‘Live Green, Live Better; in Almere next year it will be ‘Growing Green Cities’; in Doha 2023 it will be ‘Greener Desert, Better Environment'.”

Laura Lopez, Director, Conference Affairs, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said: “My top tip is: be like Glasgow! That was a key element in making our event a success. We had the most people we’ve ever had at a COP – more than 38,000. One of the reasons we had so many people coming to COP26 is that they had assurances they would be taken care of.”

On the workshop on Defining event impacts and promoting positive outcomes, Joel Lavery, Strategic Lead Major Sporting Events, West Midlands Growth Company said “As we were looking at the Commonwealth Games, Birmingham was keen to measure the impact of the Games on the city. So we looked at the impact of various international and national events, and there was zero consistency – it was like trying to compare apples and pears.

“We as a city need to be clear on the type of things that we need to measure. That led to us developing a major events strategy.”

Technology also featured prominently on the conference agenda. Presenting on The Digital Transformation of the Olympic Games, Kevin Li, Head of International Sports Industry Department, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence said: “In January 2017 Alibaba became the official cloud provider of the Olympics. During 2021, the most important milestone is to support Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games which is the first time on cloud. Our teams are working to provide cloud tech support to Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. As a worldwide Olympic partner we share the vision of the IOC of using cloud computing and digital intelligence to improve Games operations.”

Speaking on the panel Broader Casting – Who Owns the Rights?, Jeff Foulser, Chairman, Sunset+Vine said: “Sport is the ultimate unscripted live drama. People love to come together for the real moments. You need the platforms to build engagement, but you want people to come together hopefully in one room.

“It’s important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that there are people who can’t afford subscription channels. For the bigger events we want to make the sports as available to as wide as possible an audience – that’s how they grow and expand.”

In a joint presentation with World Triathlon, Michael Dhulst, Co-Founder & CEO, Super League Triathlon said “The Arena Games Triathlon is a new concept developed under Covid to be in line with social distancing and leverages the booming virtual racing environment. It opens up the possibility to open up the sport to much bigger participation.”

Sarah Lewis OBE OLY said “Host City has been outstanding this year – huge compliments. It’s demonstrated the value of many positives that we’ve taken from the pandemic as an events industry.”

Host City 2021 was delivered with supporting partners EventScotland, Glasgow Life and Glasgow Convention Bureau.

Event supporters included: Headline Sponsor, Aggreko; Gold Sponsors, Alibaba Cloud and Birmingham and the West Midlands Convention Bureau; Silver Sponsors, AIPH – International Association of Horticultural Producers; Sunset+Vine and Super League Triathlon; Federation Partner the International Sports Travel Agencies Association (ISTAA); Branding Sponsor, Sport Event Denmark; and Strategic Partners, the Association of Global Event Suppliers (AGES), FOAMHAND and the Global Esports Federation.

EDITOR’S NOTES

About Host City

Host City is the event and media brand that connects the owners, hosts and organisers of major events.

Through its conference, exhibition and online publishing platforms, Host City shares best practice within the international community of international sports, business and cultural events.

Launched in 2014. Host City events are renowned for the highest level of speakers, content and networking.

For more information visit www.hostcity.com or email ben.avison@hostcity.com