The Olympic Torch Relay Project

Getting the Olympic Flame, known as the Olympic Torch Relay, to a destination City,  while Olympic Games is never been a simple matter.

Generally, The Torch Relay has gotten longer and more complex with every Olympic event. This complexity is driven by the realization of host-country citizens that it is a rare opportunity to have the Olympic torch pass through your hometown and the corresponding goal of the Olympic Committee to touch as many lives as possible in a positive way.

Planning for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Torch Relay took two years, cost over $20 million, and involved an 84 day, 42 state campaign using 10,000 runners to carry the torch for 15,000 miles! Accompanying the runners was a 40-vehicle caravan carrying security officers, media personnel, medical personnel, computers, telecommunications gear, clothing, food, and spare lanterns with extra flames in case the original torch went out.

The caravan included: 50 cellular telephone; 60 pagers; 120 radios; 30 cars; 10 motorcycles; and clothing for 10,000 runners, 10,000 volunteers as well as 2,500 escort runners.

However, the torch relay is also a major marketing campaign, primarily for the relay’s sponsors. Thus, accompanying the Atlanta-bound caravan were trucks hawking Olympic memorabilia: t-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps, tickets to the soccer matches, and on and on. In addition to retail commercialism, a number of companies were piggybacking on the torch relay to further their own commercial interests: IBM, Motorola, BellSouth, Texaco, BMW, Lee, Coca-Cola, and so on. All in all, a very successful relay due to the best in project management.

Come, Let us practice the project management!