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Table 9.5 Sydney 2000
PR practices
Description
1 Community and public The management of community based PR activities and raising
relations
awareness of the 2000 Olympic Games among all Australians. National
publicity was furthered for key programmes such as the national education
programme, ticketing and consumer products through events and activities.
The operation of the call centre was also among the projects undertaken
by this department. The call centre operating since 1998, enabled
Australians to obtain all the information they needed about the Games for
the cost of a local telephone call.
2 Olympic communication Professional speakers were provided at a range of public events, from
speakers bureau
community meetings to corporate conferences. Speakers communicated
desirable SOCOG messages and informed the public on their involvement
opportunities in the Games.
3 Olympic 2000 national The programme reached over three million Australian students, through a
education
range of education projects. These included distribution of Olympic
publications and CD-roms promoting the Olympic ideals and enhancing
the notion of volunteerism. Additionally, the ‘share the spirit’ art competition
was organized for Australian students up to 12 years old, while a special
section for students, named KIDS was introduced in the Sydney 2000
Olympic Games website.
4 Multicultural affairs This programme was a special addition in the organizational structure due
programme
to the special multicultural Australian environment (Banks, 1995). The
programme ensured that all SOCOG Programmes incorporated the needs
of Australia’s diverse communities in their planning for the Games.
Through a multicultural affairs programme, SOCOG reached out to
multicultural communities through newsletters, community briefings and
events and the mainstream of ethnic media.
5 Public information The public information co-ordination (PIC), provided a centralized store
co-ordination
of public information services and systems. The PIC oversaw the
development and maintenance of SOCOG’s key internal communication
database, Athena, which carried regularly updated information for use
across the organization, and externally through the official website and the
call centre.
6 Publications This programme managed and produced hundreds of publication projects,
as was the case in previous Olympiads.
7 Internet The official Games internet website enabled worldwide access to. information
and gave people the potential to buy tickets and licensed products of the
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The public information department was
responsible for feeding the website with constant information and news
updates.
8 Research and information The programme maintained SOCOG’s archives and library collection,
providing access to online databases that facilitated research.
9 Other programmes Other programme areas that contributed to SOCOG’S success were:
media information, government relations, aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders relations and international relations.
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors