WJ events was responsible for the planning, design, build-out, staffing and operation of the Venue Operations Center (VOC) at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky USA.

Using the federally mandated National Incident Management System (NIMS), WJ events implemented an extensive communications plan to manage 1,800 radios on 57 talkgroups. The WEG spanned seventeen days and including forty-nine distinct, stand alone events.

NIMS nomenclature was used to organize the functional and operational aspects of the event. Venues were organized geographically into divisions led by a supervisor. Functional areas that had site-wide responsibilities were organized into groups. Branches were created for competition, event management, media management, security and transportation. Units were established for accreditation, ceremonies and ticketing.

WJ events was responsible for weather monitoring and forecast dissemination, threat notification, incident logging, Crisis Management Team organization and notification as well as assisting individual venues with benchmark activities. Functional area group resources were coordinated at Event Control and dispatched according to priority. On-site traffic, crowd management and safety issues were monitored with an extensive CCTV system.

To our knowledge, this was the largest and most integrated rollout of NIMS at a major, non-emergency event to date.

Event Control Organizational Chart

NIMS Action Plan (password protected)

Presented at the 2011 National Association of Sports Commissions Sports Event Symposium held in Greensboro, North Carolina USA.

“Event committees, by their nature and design, are temporary businesses that are destined to expire after venues are restored and the bills are paid.  Successful business models almost never address failure or the likelihood of its own demise, and certainly do not write their own epitaphs.  But that is precisely one of the unique aspects that the event business model should address.  Recognizing the inherent character of event committees, their personality traits, transition benchmarks and performance criteria will determine if your next event will be a success.” – Will Johnson

Learner Outcomes:

• Formation of a Bid Committee – asking (and answering) the right questions
• Event personality strengths and weaknesses – a balance to be gained
• Identifying the right venue at the right time – for the right reasons

To obtain a copy of the presentation, please contact Will Johnson.

Presentation sponsored by the Arizona Sports Alliance and Gainesville Sports Commission.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) currently has eleven corporations participating in the TOP VII programme. The seventh generation of this Worldwide Olympic marketing partnership welcomed Dow Chemical Corporation to this exclusive group in the summer of 2010.

On behalf of Helios Partners, WJ events authored a customized presentation for Dow entitled “Building An Olympic City” that detailed the chronological and developmental history of the London 2012 Olympic Games, including the history of the Lower Lee Valley Olympic Park, the predecessors of both the London Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

The original text of “Building An Olympic City” is copyrighted and not disclosed as a courtesy to Dow and Helios Partners.

Engaged by Populous and LOCOG as Olympic Overlay Experts, WJ events assists the team of LOCOG Overlay Architects with planning on two-thirds of the off-Park Olympic venues, which comprises 70% of the Olympic competition venues.

Working with our Olympic generic venue performance criteria to integrate the Functional Areas and the scope required for temporary facilities, we balance the LOCOG budget established for overlay phases with International Federation technical specifications for these existing and temporary competition venues.

Ultimately, the integrated functional design process supports the venue operations management effort throughout the design, procurement, permits, installation, games operations and removal/reconfiguration/restoration phases that encompass the life of an Olympic venue.

Programming

WJevents was first engaged in November of 2005 by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to prepare pre-design/planning data in support of the Master Plan effort for the 400+ acre Lower Lea Valley Olympic Park.

As LOCOG’s Olympic Overlay Experts, WJ events developed Design Narratives for the most significant sport and non-competition venues placed in the Olympic Park: International Broadcast Centre (IBC), Main Press Centre (MPC), Main Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre, Indoor Arenas 1 and 2, and the Athlete’s Olympic Villlage.

In support of the Olympic Operations Management, WJ events initiated the Technical Briefs for the above venues as well as the Common Domain for the Olympic Park. Specific attention to detail was provided regarding the Technical Briefs for the back-of-house Compound Generics that support the sport venues in their games time operational mode.

Jeff Harkey, Will Johnson and Craig Penzler at Horse Guards Parade.

For over four years, WJ events partnered with the World Games Foundation in Lexington, Kentucky USA as Senior Expert Advisors to produce the Operations Management Plan and overlay design for the largest World Equestrian Games in history.

A series of historical “firsts” proclaimed the arrival of the World Equestrian Games:

• First time WEG is held outside of Europe.
• First time WEG is held in the United States.
• First time WEG holds all nine equestrian disciplines at the same World Championship venue at the same time.

WJ events were the event architects for WEG and developed the integrated master planning effort for the 1,224 acre Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky USA. Blessed with many existing world-class equine performance facilities, the Kentucky Horse Park was transformed into one of the world’s premier equestrian centers with over $80 million USD in legacy construction and an additional $20 million USD of temporary facility upgrades required to host the World Equestrian Games.

WJ events developed the designs and operational plans for all major event systems:

• Spectator support: transport mall, parking shuttle programs, spectator entrances, food services courts and associated support spaces.
• Trade Show Village: anchored by a single temporary structure of 2,800 square meters surrounded by over 200 vendor spaces.
• Walnut Grove: a central food court area that featured 2,000 square meters of contiguous space with additional sponsor and trade show areas.
• Central Catering Compound: produced all upscale food service for the Main Dressage and Jumping Stadium, Media Center and Main Hospitality.
• Maker’s Mark Hospitality: a 2,800 square meter temporary luxury hospitality facility with meeting rooms, private dining and outdoor entertaining areas.
• Central Food Service Compound: produced all food service for over 50,000 spectators and 3,000 volunteers/athletes/staff per day.

Event Control

Venue Operations Center for WEG

WJ events designed and operated the 24-day Venue Operations Center during the event. This required continuous multi-venue communications support and coordination. Our knowledge of the venues and operations enabled WJ events to manage the Command and Control aspect of this major event.

Learn more about Event Control at WEG.

The effort was spearheaded with an initial focus on four stadium venues for the 2009 Confederations Cup: Free State Stadium in  Bloemfontein, Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria and Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg.

Here again, WJ events managed the interface of the legacy stadium construction with the overlay design/operations planning for these four stadium competition venues. Beginning with the Master Precinct Planning, our team produced the overlay design, coordinated Commercial Display areas, created food and beverage logistical plans and developed merchandising areas heretofore unknown in these stadiums.

World Cup Venues

Content tenders representing temporary commodity procurement and installation details were developed specifically for each stadium and together with the overlay design detailed drawings created the successful models for the FIFA World Cup’s remaining six venues.

Our on-site construction management services in both Antigua and Grenada allowed us to maintain budget and schedule control over the installation of the temporary commodities as well as the temporary modifications to the new legacy cricket stadiums constructed for the Cricket World Cup event.

Games Time Operations

During the games times operations, WJ events key staff was embedded at the Venue Control Centre alongside Cricket World Cup representatives and the National Defense Security Forces of both Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda.

For seven consecutive years, WJ events has worked with the Aruba Minister of Tourism Office for venue management, security operations and venue design in support of the Aruba Music Festival.

The existing facility housing the National Lottery of Aruba also holds a covered stage facility. WJ events made significant structural and cosmetic upgrades to the performance stage areas, back of house areas and the spectator house seating area to ultimately host the 5,000 person capacity audiences.

Festival Timeline

The Aruba Music Festival is held each year on the second weekend in October, with the focus market being the American Columbus Day holiday weekend. This event is marketed to east coast US cities with easy access to this island destination.