Olympic Channel Brainstorms With International Federations

(ATR) Keeping lines of communication open and developing closer synergies was the overriding goal as Olympic Channel leaders hosted representatives from 28 international federations for a productive workshop this week.

Olympic Channel general manager Mark Parkman welcomed the various winter and summer IF marketing, communications, social media and broadcast rights executives for the four-day gathering at the multi-digital platform’s headquarters in Madrid.

Parkman deemed the first of its kind workshop as highly productive, engaging and useful.

"I think all of the federations were extremely positive and thought it was a very productive week and set the framework for a much greater collaboration going forward," Parkman tells Around the Rings.

Chris Wells, senior communications director for World Archery, was one of the many IF attendees who said the workshop in Madrid was beneficial.

"The briefing on processes within the Olympic Channel, including commissioning and professional services, was very helpful on a practical level," Wells tells ATR.

"It’s a new organization and works differently from other bodies in the Olympic Movement, so keeping the communication open and transparent is key in finding how to work together and the Olympic Channel team has done this very well."

Olympic Broadcast Services chief executive officer Yiannis Exarchos also attended the gathering in Spain. He tweeted: "Great discussions on promoting sports to millennials."

The 19th of IOC president Thomas Bach’s 40 Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations, the Olympic Channel officially launched at the end of the Rio 2016 Games.

Following its latest deal with the International Surfing Association, the Olympic Channel now boasts partnerships with 52 sport federations and organizations.

Still in its infancy, Parkman says the Olympic Channel is striving to help the IFs better promote and maximize exposure for their major events.

"The thing we got great feedback on was all the things that we’ve done from a content perspective to promote their events and create original content about their athletes and sports," Parkman said, adding that the IFs have pitched numerous story ideas for the Channel’s "Original Series" programming.

Parkman noted the Olympic Channel can specifically provide "behind the scenes previews, stories in advance of the event and help with news, highlights and results to give a 360-degree view of all their events through what we’re doing with social promotion, behind-the-scenes stories, original content creation and results and highlights".

Leanne Williams, media relations and communications manager for the International Equestrian Federation, says FEI is thrilled to take advantage of the Olympic Channel’s varied content offerings.

"For equestrian sport the Olympic Channel opens up lots of opportunities to reach a worldwide audience with the many great stories around the sport," Williams tells ATR. " The channel provides a platform for viewers to get privileged behind-the-scenes access to our athletes and their horses and to see the incredible bond between human and equine athletes so that they get a deeper understanding of this fascinating and unique sport."

Parkman notes that another key innovation being offered to the IFs is the integration of the Olympic Channel Player into the IF websites and digital platforms allowing visitors to quickly access highlights and video.

"We’ve already done this with wrestling," Parkman said of United World Wrestling. "We clipped all 380 wrestling matches from the Rio Games. They have embedded the video player onto their results page from Rio. You can click on results and now you can also see the video from that competition."

World Archery is eyeing the same target.

"We’ll soon be one of the federations able to make footage from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games available on our website via the Olympic Channel Players," Wells said. "This is something we’ve never been able to do before, and it is, unsurprisingly, really exciting for us and our fan base."

IF representatives also received tours of the Olympic Channel facilities including the main control room, production suites, studios and offices.

Parkman suggests that the inaugural workshop – in which countless ideas and strategies were proposed and discussed – should help foster more dialogue moving forward and potentially become an annual affair, although likely in a different "shape or form."

Queried by Around the Rings as to whether face-to-face meetings in our "anything is possible" high-tech, complex, constantly evolving digital world are still the best means of communication, Parkman affirmed that the old school method remains number one.

"Absolutely, I prefer face-to-face," Parkman says with a laugh. "We conduct a lot of meetings via digital conference, but nothing beats a face-to-face meeting, where you can really gauge the audience... and have more in-depth conversations.

"Even with the technological advances, you still have technological glitches."

Written by Brian Pinelli

For general comments or questions,click here.

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.