IOC's 'New Virtual Environment'

(ATR) Changing times call for adapted practices and new realities.

The IOC regularly engages with more than 200 national Olympic committees, 40 international sport federations, worldwide broadcasters and sponsors, and journalists scattered across the globe. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has relegated most to working at home in isolation, the IOC has streamlined its virtual communications.

The IOC held a one-hour media teleconference with 200 journalists on the line on Thursday. It was an orderly, well-organized and productiveflow of information and exchange of questions and answers.

Joining the press briefing – all participating from their homes – were IOC staff members Christophe Dubi, Kit McConnell, James Macleod, Timo Lumme and spokesperson Mark Adams.

"We are all working from home, actually," says Dubi, the IOC Olympic Games executive director. "It’s proving fairly effective. We have a good technological environment in place.

"We have all taken our new marks when it comes to those meetings either by teleconference or video conference.

"There is a lot of discipline. The meetings stick to the times and it means that the preparation is very rigorous as well," he said.

To manage the planning of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the IOC established a task force last week, as did Tokyo organizers. Without IOC senior staff on the ground in Japan, constant communication and efficiency are paramount, taking into consideration the seven-hour time difference.

"It works the same way with Tokyo, so it means a very early start for some of us, so we can maximize the time where we are in business hours together," Dubi says.

"We don’t have any more people from the IOC management in Tokyo. We have, however, some staff members of OBS, the Olympic Broadcast Services, that were working on the installation of the International Broadcasting Center.

"With these people on the ground, a decision will have to be made whether they come back or stay longer," he advises.

IOC president Thomas Bach has been working from his home in Lausanne but some essential meetings or interviews are done in Olympic House with a core group of staff.

According to Christian Klaue, the IOC director of communications and public affairs, video messages and podcasts have also become a useful tool for the IOC, many airing on the Athlete365 platform. He informed that everything has been going smoothly.

"It’s a great team spirit you can feel here within the IOC staff and the colleagues in Madrid," Klaue says, referring to the IOC’s Olympic Channel headquarters in Spain.

Dubi says albeit vastly different to the manner in which many are accustomed to conducting business, the adapted procedures have quickly become a necessary and useful practice.

"We have adapted to this new virtual environment, so we’re missing to be with people, obviously, but we do the right thing and we’re contributing to the fight against COVID-19, and we’re happily doing so."

Written at home in Prague by Brian Pinelli

Follow Brian on Twitter: @Brian_Pinelli

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