INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Public relations
In today’s world, public relations are of extreme importance as
luring students towards Olympic Education is a struggle just the same
as that involving two competitive brands in the marketing world.
Nowadays, there are hundreds of diverse activities that students can be
attracted to hence ‘selling’ one’s product in the best possible way is
very important.
All NOAs should take advantage of today’s fast means of
communication and do a bold effort to host their own website. From
the eight countries that replied to my questionnaire, only the Icelandic
NOA had its own website. This is a very effective tool that helps in
promoting the activities organised by the NOA as well as to provide
other useful information related to the Olympic world. The Dominican
NOA issues regular press releases to report its activities, as is the case
in Aruba, the Maldives and Malta. Furthermore, the NOA of Aruba is
in the process of finalizing the preparations for its own website which
is intended to give all the commissions and members the possibility to
publish useful and important information.
Activities organised
The activities organised by the NOAs vary in many ways. For
example, an exhibition depicting ‘The Olympics Through the Ages’
will soon be set up in Dominica while in Iceland some courses for
leaders and coaches are organised on a regular basis while next
autumn the Icelandic NOA will be working on a Theme Week in
Icelandic Schools. One of the major achievements of the Maltese
NOA was in 2002 through the publication of the history of all Maltese
sports associations and Malta’s participation at the Olympic Games
and other major international events.
In Seychelles, public speaking and inter school quiz competitions
are organised on an annual basis while poetry contests and working
sessions with the national federations and PE teachers are organised
regularly.
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