From event registration to punching your ticket to Paris 2024: Event-Works plays a role in the world-wide athletes’ pathway to the Games
Have you ever wondered how athletes end-up competing at an international competition such as the Olympic or Paralympic Games? Lots of determination, dedication, skill, resources and maybe some luck – yes! But they also are required to earn their spot. They do this at a series of events called qualifiers defined individually by each international sport federation. Behind each of those events, there are hundreds of people – and technologies – deployed to deliver these opportunities to make it to Games.
As we near the final sprint to this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, we go behind-the-scenes with Wiz-Team to learn more about its event-management platform and its role in supporting the exciting athlete qualification events for boxing and urban sports. It’s a unique chance to explore the opportunities and challenges that come with delivering the technology behind the “same” event, for the “same” stakeholders, in very different locations around the world.
We caught up with Wiz-Team’s Delivery Team Leader Elisa Pinheiro to gather her insights and experience on providing services and a solution that can translate across multiple events and locations and what is key for achieving consistency and success when delivering beyond borders.
End-to-end and integrated: pillars to a one-stop-shop event management tool
Spring has seen Wiz-Team’s delivery team travel from Italy to Bangkok and Shanghai – with Budapest next on the list – to support the smooth running of the registration, sport entry, travel, accommodation, and accreditation processes for boxing competitions and urban sports qualification events for break dancers, skaters, sport climbers, and BMX riders on the road to Paris 2024.
"How do you offer an efficient and cost-effective solution that caters to the needs of individual sports and local organising committees across different regions of the world? How do you ensure consistency in service and experience for those using your system across multiple events?"
The answer in short: Wiz-Team’s all-in-one event management platform Event-Works with its suite of customisable tools designed to flex and scale to the changing needs of an evolving event delivery.
To elaborate, as part of its Event-Works Games application suite, Wiz-Team’s registration, accreditation, form-builder, accommodation and travel modules bring everything from athlete sport entries to departure dates under one interface. Meaning that from one solution a delegation leader can manage the full data journey of their athletes from the start of registration to the starting bell at the event. The goal is to offer an integrated experience and give end-users greater autonomy and transparency into the operational expectations and experience of their athletes and officials.
That’s precisely what Wiz-Team has done for boxing and urban sports event owners. As Elisa explains: “Our technology and implementation work towards building a full view of an athlete’s or official’s journey to and from the event. From one interface, the local organisation committee, National Olympic Committees, international and/or national sport federations can manage the information needed to go to and participate in the different qualification events.” Essentially a delegation lead can see what event an athlete is entered in and where they are staying for what duration from one central solution.
This intergraded approach allows event organisers the time to focus on building a data journey and business process end-to-end in one platform – versus trying to align several different technologies and their outputs – creating a single experience for both external and internal end-users of the tool.
On top of the technology, Wiz-Team’s delivery team plays a critical role in serving as an integrator of workflows and requirements between event owners and their key stakeholders. A role Wiz-Team and their technology is no stranger to playing. However, in the case of an event series… local organising committees (the critical business owner) and their geographic location changes with each delivery.
The power of replication and configuration in localisation
Luckily, this is not Wiz-Team’s first rodeo or rather, first foray into a shared-hosting model i.e. supporting the delivery of an event across multiple locations. But it is the first time at such a scale, and as part of an event series with different system business owners at each stop.
"Can you merely copy and paste a system’s configuration and roll-out from one event to another? Is that an effective approach to repeated events?"
“It depends on the next event!”, shares Elisa. “For instance, the system set-up for the boxing competitions were almost a copy-paste from what we did for Tokyo. Amendments were needed based on the local organiser’s specific rules and needs, so we localised it. But the baseline model was there which speeds up the delivery process, development, and increases efficiencies.”
She adds: “Each event, even if it is part of a standard series, will have its own specificities. From a system and configuration perspective, that means amendments are not the exception but the norm.”
"An example of such localised specificities?"
Country-specific regulations regarding visa applications and letters, or the types of data collected, and the validation process are common examples of localisation changes which the technical solution needs to accommodate without budget impact.
“Our solution allows us to be flexible”, explains Wiz-Team’s Delivery Team Leader. “A fixed system means you would get the same thing over and over again.” Bespoke systems force event organisers into a box in terms of technology design and solutions. Practically this makes it more difficult to execute and support systems in a global event delivery model with new event organisers and needs with each iteration. The aim is to avoid an instance where business owners need to export data and manage it outside of the system.; a common outcome of bespoke tools.
Event-Works allows Wiz-Team’s delivery team to truly support the “local” nature of each event. Elisa adds: “Our team can create adjustments and reconfigure the solution or the workflows as required, adapting the delivery to what is truly needed.” With the freedom and autonomy to tailor the configuration, Wiz-Team’s delivery team can be agile and iterative with an event’s needs without development and added costs. “Essentially, we get to truly meet our clients’ needs at their level and in this case, their location.”
While the event organisers may operate differently supporting a shift in workflow steps, the external end-user experience can remain consistent. “From a system side, we can control the user experience and streamline the process as much as possible. This creates a familiarity and ensures a certain consistency.” In doing so, Wiz-Team can accelerate system adoption, especially for external end users. It is here Wiz-Team and its partners see real gains in data quality and operational efficiency from one event to the next.
In summary, supporting event series with Event-Works is a welcome challenge at Wiz-Team. It is a unique chance to leverage the strengths of Wiz-Team’s configurable and flexible platform to rise to the demands of each individual event. Not unlike the athletes competing to earn their spot on the Olympic or Paralympic stage; every qualifying event of these series requires agility, coordination, commitment and preparedness to respond well to delivery above and beyond results!
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