What did we learn from the Paris Games?

Description

Comment on potential business benefits of Olympic Games.

Subject

Event leverage refers to strategically planning for the maximisation of business, social and other types of short and longer-term event outcomes. 

When Australia last hosted the Games in Sydney 2000, our chief leveraging strategy was Business Club Australia – an international business-matching initiative that netted Australia an extra A$6 billion worth of inward investment in the 10 years post-Games.

In contrast, the business focus of Paris 2024 has been more inwardly-focused on simplifying access for France’s thousands of small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to the vast Olympic supply chain. 

The “Entreprises 2024” platform, launched in February 2020, had 20,000 French companies, 95 percent of which were SMEs, register on the platform.

Ultimately, 75 percent of Paris 2024’s suppliers were SMEs and microenterprises. 

Partnerships among SMEs to win Olympic tenders were key, but so were partnerships among trade unions, employer associations, sport federations, and local and federal governments. 

Many of these partnerships will continue to deliver benefits for France well into the future, but such partnerships are highly labour-intensive and take time and planning to maintain. 

So while short-term, visitation-related event impacts are fine, longer-term, more enduring event benefits need a more strategic approach. They take event leverage. Brisbane, your time starts … NOW!