The 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games was the largest sporting event in the world that year. In terms of venue and athlete numbers, it was almost as large-scale as an Olympic Games, with approximately 7000 athletes from 150 countries competing in 18 official disciplines and three exhibition sports. But it was run using far smaller resource levels and budgets.

Programme Management – Senior Management (Director level)

The project involved planning and managing the preparation and running of over 50 Games venues (competition and non-competition venues), as well as contributing to the high-level operational planning and decision-making for Games-wide operations as part of the Senior Operations Management Team. Specifically, the assignment, which lasted over 3 years, involved:

• Overall responsibility for planning and management of all Games venues
• Leading role in development of a Games-wide operational strategy and plan
• Establishment and management of the Venue Operations department to create venue operations plans, policies, procedures, emergency response plans, etc
• Responsibility for a team of 15 full-time staff and 300 management volunteers
• Establishment of the Site Management and Logistics functions, including coordination of site planning, architectural and engineering work
• Establishment of the Event Services and Event Communications functions, and recruitment and support of the FA programme management teams in areas such as concept of operations; pedestrian flow planning; workforce planning and recruitment; deployment; resources/infrastructure planning; training; and contingency planning.
• Design, planning, set-up and management of the Main Operations Centre (MOC) – the overall command centre for coordination and control of the Games. Also included management and delivery of Games Readiness Training “Simulation Exercises” for all Competition venues
• Development and implementation of Medical Services functional area including: selection and design of electronic medical records system (the first time an electronic records system had been used at a Special Olympics games); advising on volunteer numbers, recruitment and assignment; development and delivery of training; event time operational management of Medical Services
• Ceremonies Planningand Management for Venue Operations, Athlete Parade, Accreditation systems, Ticketing, Transportation; Security, and Command Control & Communications; Functional Area coordination and creative/production interface. Event Controller for GOC operations at Opening & Closing Ceremonies

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