the sydney 2000 olympic and paralympic games - Australian Sports ...

PART FOUR : NSW GOVERNMENT AGENCIES GAMES SUPPORT SERVICES
The MPC was located in a 40,000 square metre facility at Sydney Olympic Park and was designed and
developed to provide the technology, telecommunications, facilities, services and space to meet specified
media requirements. The venue included 11,000 square metres of office space rented to media
organisations, Press Room and Conference Centre, Image Centre, catering areas and logistics compound
as well as banking, hairdresser and travel services.
The MPC opened its doors to 5,300 journalists and photographers on 15 August and operated 24 hours
daily from 2 September until 2 October. It required 114 paid staff, 1,113 volunteers and 1,078 contractors
to manage and operate.
Technology
The Technology Division managed the planning, development, implementation and operation of the
technology systems and services supporting SOCOG and the Sydney Games by delivering information
technology, telecommunications, audiovisual and general technology support. By Games-time the Division
consisted of 8,500 people, including 4,500 volunteers.
Total Technology expenditure amounted to $406.5 million. A significant portion of which related to sponsor
provided ‘value in kind’ products and services.
The key Technology systems managed included:
• Games Management Systems such as accreditation, medical, staffing and logistics.
• Core transmission network providing telephony and IBM wideband data for results and Games
management systems including connections to all competition and key non-competition venues and
installation of 35,000 telecom peripherals and a further 15,000 on Rate Card.
• Results systems for each sport, Commentator Information System, TV Graphics, Data Display System
and Entries and Qualification systems.
• Headquarters desktop technology.
In conjunction with IBM, SOCOG operated the web site www.olympics.com. This was the official site of
Sydney 2000 and was the most popular Internet destination during the Games with an unprecedented 11.3
billion hits.
Ceremonies
This SOCOG program had responsibility to produce and stage the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, all
medal presentations and team welcome ceremonies at the Athletes Village.
Total expenditure incurred was $67.0 million.
Olympic Arts Festivals
The Arts Festivals Program was responsible for demonstrating the unifying force of the Olympic Movement
in the harmonious blending of sport and culture. This was successfully achieved via a four year program of
festivals:
• 1997: Festival of the Dreaming.
• 1998: A Sea Change.
• 1999: Reaching the World.
• 2000: Harbour of Life.
The Harbour of Life Festival included almost 400 cultural events involving 4,000 Australian and overseas
artists. It took place around the Harbour City over a six-week period. More than 260,000 people attended
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