Introduction

Tech, Major Events
and Newsworthiness

Authored by

JTA is a leading international communications consultancy specializing in sports, politics, and major event bids, helping cities, regions, and countries position themselves for success on the world stage. Known for its strategic expertise in bid management, public relations, and brand positioning, JTA is instrumental in driving the narratives that elevate its clients’ profiles and secure their place in the global sports arena. By blending rigorous strategic planning with creative storytelling, JTA crafts compelling, cohesive campaigns that resonate with audiences across diverse media platforms.

In recent years, JTA has expanded its expertise to include digital and social media, allowing clients to reach younger, tech- savvy audiences and amplify their impact. With a track record of securing major wins for clients bidding for iconic events like the Olympic Games and World Cups, JTA is adept at navigating the complex interplay of sports, business, and politics. The firm’s success lies in its deep-rooted relationships with industry stakeholders, including sports governing bodies, athletes, and political figures. JTA’s holistic approach and dedication to excellence make it a trusted partner for organizations aiming to enhance their legacy through sport and realize transformative international ambitions.

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The bigger the event, the bigger the range of tech solutions being implemented throughout it, and there’s no bigger than the Olympic and Paralympic Games. So, it’s no surprise that solutions at Paris 2024 ranged as widely as can be: from the unglamorous yet indispensable, to the fancy yet frivolous. As frustrating as it may be for providers, the indispensable kind can often draw news attention only if it goes wrong, while the frivolous kind wins much of the media attention despite not being mission-critical.

At JTA, we had the privilege of supporting the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee in issues management and proactive communications. This meant we helped both spread the news of the fun innovations, and also dealt with the less welcome developments when the indispensable didn’t work as advertised. And there were certainly things that didn’t go as planned.

For example, one week out from the Olympic Games is always a busy time, with little room for error. Thousands of athletes, officials, referees, journalists and TV production crew members are already in the host city, ready for the experience of a lifetime. More are arriving hourly. Staff and volunteers head to proudly collect their uniform in vast numbers. A dizzying number of deliveries are being made, as finishing touches bring magic to the Games sites. So, when the world’s biggest event met the world’s largest ever IT outage with CrowdStrike, you didn’t have to imagine the scenes, you saw them.

Fortunately, the Olympic and Paralympic Games have proven partners like Atos, with teams that train diligently for every kind of issue. That preparation includes being ready for when the tools used to deal with issues go down themselves. In Paris, the response to CrowdStrike was quick. Negative impacts were minimized. Workarounds were found. Systems and confidence were restored. Throughout, news media used Paris 2024’s recovery as a resonant metaphor for that of enterprise in general not just in France but around the world.

With the worst averted, fun tech around the Games was quickly back in the news. A Snapchat x Coca-Cola collab in the Olympic Village saw users of a vending machine met with augmented reality reflections of themselves, featuring lenses created by Snapchat for the Games. The respective PR teams must have been pleased with the widespread coverage they earned for an activation that the vast majority of Games participants will never have been aware of.

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Coca-Cola has sponsored the Olympics since 1928. Its vending machines in the Olympic Village are not new news. But the addition of buzzy tech was just what was needed to cut through to media. It’s an effective PR tactic, dependent on tapping into the latest trends.

For partners looking to tech as a means of generating coverage, picking the right trend can be a minefield. The sheer length of time between the beginning of a bid and the delivery of a Games means what’s newsworthy at the time of bidding often falls by the wayside. Or the tech becomes so successful and widespread during the years of preparation that it’s simply taken for granted by the time the Games come into view.

Considering Paris 2024, a look back at Gartner’s annual list of tech trends from the bid era is revelatory: computing everywhere, VR, IoT, security for cloud computing, smart machines… Much of it is now taken for granted.

In 2016, as the bids were heating up, Oculus Rift launched its first consumer VR headset. There was widespread speculation that sport would be forever changed. Advocates claimed breathlessly that by Tokyo 2020, much less four years later, the VR experience would make being in a venue while still sitting at home be every bit as enticing as traveling to the host city. We would all be watching in the metaverse. But the visceral and joyful experience of being in Paris will always beat staying at home.

Sure, some may have watched Paris 2024 with headsets. But even with augmented reality, sport has embraced the principle as a core part of sports presentation either in the venue or as a key part of the broadcasts. Not as a gimmicky add-on. Think of the world-record line moving along the swimming pool, or the relative speeds of boats and cyclists being displayed next to them, as an integral part of the broadcast product. Instead of watching through special headsets or glasses, the biggest change in the way the Games are consumed across the last eight years has arguably been the shift towards short-form video on mobile.

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Indeed the onward march of Moore’s law and the innovation of partners like Samsung has seen smartphones shift from consumption devices to production devices. Shooting broadcast-quality 4k video, smartphones are far more than just social media tools now. Samsungs were even used to contribute live images of athletes from fixed mounts on their boats along the Seine during the Opening Ceremony, without the need to deploy camera operators.

It is where tech could replace human intervention, in the form of AI, that Paris 2024 saw some of the most significant breakthroughs. All the more so because the scope, scale and speed of machine learning had not been fully understood in those Gartner predictions of nearly a decade ago.

Athletes benefitted from systems established by the IOC’s Safe Sport team to quickly sift through online violence, helping swiftly shut down abusers. The AI-driven generation and personalization of highlights clips, meanwhile, is another of those astonishing things that will be quickly taken for granted, as we wonder why we were all shown the same highlight material prior to the 2020s, regardless of our favourite sports, athletes and countries.

Taken together, tech has changed the Games for the better in unimaginable ways. Innovations will always be a fun part of the story, whether they simply come and go (3D television, anyone?) or become a lasting and valuable part of the product. We cannot predict with certainty what the future holds. But we do know that the tech community will continue to play an invaluable part in delivering, sharing and enjoying one of the few remaining things capable of bringing the world together in peaceful celebration. And that’s something to be grateful for.

Introduction

Tech, Major Events and Newsworthiness

Tech, Major Events
and Newsworthiness