Graeme Menzies is the director of online communications for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), to be held from Feb. 12, 2010 to March 21, 2010. He works with a passionate team to extend the Olympic games experience through online media. In honor of the Olympic flame being lit in Greece this Thursday, Oct. 22, we've asked Graeme to discuss how VANOC is connecting people worldwide through online communications.
When Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic movement over a century ago, he... sought to create a moment where athletes and spectators could experience the positive and transformational effects of sport — values of friendships, respect and excellence. At the beginning of the 1900s that experience was a social experience, but one that was largely limited to those who had the resources and time to travel.
By the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan was already predicting that the evolution of electronic communication media would significantly reduce barriers of time and space. In effect, he said, the planet would be reduced to a "global village." Both visions now live side by side.
More than ever before, the most successful games are not only those that provide the most outstanding physical infrastructure for athletes and spectators, but also the most outstanding online experience for virtual fans and spectators.
The Torch Relay
This Thursday, the Olympic flame is being lit in Olympia, Greece. Canada's Olympic torch relay will be the longest ever held in one country, covering 45,000 km (or nearly 28,000 miles) on a 106-day journey by some 12,000 torchbearers carrying the torch through over 1,000 communities and landmarks across the country.
In the past, traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television, would record and tell the story of the relay. Now, citizens are telling the story themselves by sharing their photos, videos and thoughts on their Facebook profiles, their blogs and other social media. This new reality is what led the Vancouver 2010 team to reach out beyond its website and engage significantly in the social media space.
In Canada, where Facebook is already extremely popular, we've actively encouraged local Olympic torch relay celebration communities to use Facebook to build local engagement, enthusiasm and momentum. Communities such as Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Red Deer, Alberta, are using Facebook to communicate local torch relay news, stories and photos on Facebook Pages.
Anyone can follow the torch route as well. We've complemented our website with a Vancouver 2010 Olympics Page. It includes links to the interactive torch relay map, as well as a 2010 video that will give you a taste of the experience we're trying to build for the world.
Fans already are commenting as they discover who's been selected as a torchbearer, and soon we expect to see more fan-submitted photos and accounts of the Olympic flame making its way across the country.
Creating the Online Venue
On a global scale, we worked with volunteers and Facebook in Canada to build the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Page as an effective tool to engage the world. The majority of the fans are international, including significant engagement from countries one wouldn't normally associate with winter sports, including Indonesia, Venezuela and Columbia.
These fans prove the fundamental assumptions of Facebook: People with shared values and interests — not necessarily geography — will seek out and connect with each other online.
In our case, we have built the Facebook Page and provided basic content, such as timely news, images and videos, and let the fans do the rest. In a surprising irony, this is not too dissimilar to what organizing committees traditionally do in order to host the games — build venues, provide information and let the athletes and fans do the rest.
By bringing Facebook, including Facebook Connect and other social media into the mix, we are getting closer to the goal of making the games a meaningful social experience for fans in Canada and all over the world. More than ever before, the Olympic games are the games of the global village.
Graeme hopes you'll participate in the 2010 winter games by becoming a fan of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Facebook Page.
See MoreWhen Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic movement over a century ago, he... sought to create a moment where athletes and spectators could experience the positive and transformational effects of sport — values of friendships, respect and excellence. At the beginning of the 1900s that experience was a social experience, but one that was largely limited to those who had the resources and time to travel.
By the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan was already predicting that the evolution of electronic communication media would significantly reduce barriers of time and space. In effect, he said, the planet would be reduced to a "global village." Both visions now live side by side.
More than ever before, the most successful games are not only those that provide the most outstanding physical infrastructure for athletes and spectators, but also the most outstanding online experience for virtual fans and spectators.
The Torch Relay
This Thursday, the Olympic flame is being lit in Olympia, Greece. Canada's Olympic torch relay will be the longest ever held in one country, covering 45,000 km (or nearly 28,000 miles) on a 106-day journey by some 12,000 torchbearers carrying the torch through over 1,000 communities and landmarks across the country.
In the past, traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television, would record and tell the story of the relay. Now, citizens are telling the story themselves by sharing their photos, videos and thoughts on their Facebook profiles, their blogs and other social media. This new reality is what led the Vancouver 2010 team to reach out beyond its website and engage significantly in the social media space.
In Canada, where Facebook is already extremely popular, we've actively encouraged local Olympic torch relay celebration communities to use Facebook to build local engagement, enthusiasm and momentum. Communities such as Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Red Deer, Alberta, are using Facebook to communicate local torch relay news, stories and photos on Facebook Pages.
Anyone can follow the torch route as well. We've complemented our website with a Vancouver 2010 Olympics Page. It includes links to the interactive torch relay map, as well as a 2010 video that will give you a taste of the experience we're trying to build for the world.
Fans already are commenting as they discover who's been selected as a torchbearer, and soon we expect to see more fan-submitted photos and accounts of the Olympic flame making its way across the country.
Creating the Online Venue
On a global scale, we worked with volunteers and Facebook in Canada to build the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Page as an effective tool to engage the world. The majority of the fans are international, including significant engagement from countries one wouldn't normally associate with winter sports, including Indonesia, Venezuela and Columbia.
These fans prove the fundamental assumptions of Facebook: People with shared values and interests — not necessarily geography — will seek out and connect with each other online.
In our case, we have built the Facebook Page and provided basic content, such as timely news, images and videos, and let the fans do the rest. In a surprising irony, this is not too dissimilar to what organizing committees traditionally do in order to host the games — build venues, provide information and let the athletes and fans do the rest.
By bringing Facebook, including Facebook Connect and other social media into the mix, we are getting closer to the goal of making the games a meaningful social experience for fans in Canada and all over the world. More than ever before, the Olympic games are the games of the global village.
Graeme hopes you'll participate in the 2010 winter games by becoming a fan of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics Facebook Page.
