2019 MGMT215 Event Management: Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the 2018 Commonwealth Games held at the Gold Coast, Queensland. It explores the event's background, operational considerations, and justification from economic, social, and environmental perspectives. The report highlights the financial impacts, including job growth and economic contributions to the region, along with the social aspects, such as community involvement and cultural celebrations. Furthermore, it addresses the environmental impacts, emphasizing sustainability efforts and the creation of green spaces. The report concludes that the 2018 Commonwealth Games was a successful venture across multiple dimensions, from financial gains to social cohesion and environmental awareness, offering valuable insights for event management and its broader implications.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of the following report is to highlight the different aspects of the 2018
Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast, Queensland in Australia. The background
information about the Commonwealth Games and its importance has been discussed in this
paper. The operational plans and their strategies to conduct the event properly have been
highlighted properly. The justification of the arrangements of the tournament from the economic,
social and environmental perspectives has been given as well. The economic benefits have been
analyzed with some figures. The environmental impacts of this sports event have been crucial for
the betterment of the society as well.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background and Operations............................................................................................................3
Justification of the event..............................................................................................................3
Operational considerations..........................................................................................................4
Sustainability/ Economic impact to the Gold Coast/ Queensland...................................................6
Financial perspective...................................................................................................................6
Social perspective........................................................................................................................7
Environmental perspective..........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References and Bibliography...........................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The following report will focus on the event of the Commonwealth Sports. This is one of
the most famous sports events across the globe and many famous athletes have participated in
this event over the years. This sport event Commonwealth Games first began in the 1930. This
event takes place once in every four years. The last commonwealth games event was held in the
year 2018 at Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. The athletes are involved within the
Commonwealth nations. This sports event is probably the very first one where the number of the
men’s and women’s medals is equal. This practice has begun from the last year’s
Commonwealth games in the year 2018 (Gc2018.com 2019). This sports event has gone through
several changes in the recent times and many changes have been brought in this event as well. In
this report, operational aspects of running the sports events will be discussed along with the
financial perspectives of the games. The environmental impacts will also be discussed here as
well.
Background and Operations
Justification of the event
The sports event 2018 Commonwealth Games is one of the most fascinating sports events
in the history of the host city Gold Coast. This sports event was held between 4th and 15th April in
the year 2018. The main events of the Commonwealth Games 2018 took place mainly in Gold
Coast but few venues were also extended to Brisbane as well. In this year’s Games, around 19
sports events had been played out. Nearly 6600 athletes took part in the event and 300 para-
athletes took part in the event as well. This sports event is surely one of the most important
events in the history of the city. It was on November 11, 2011 when Gold Coast was announced

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as the host city for the 2018 Commonwealth Games (Gc2018.com 2019). This was the eighth
time in history when the Commonwealth Games had been held in the continent of Oceania and
the Southern Hemisphere (Dizdaroglu and Yigitcanlar 2016). In this sports event, Australia
bagged the highest number of medals along with most gold medals as well. This event was much
significant for the sports category since many new athletes got the stage to show their
performance in front of millions of spectators. Apart from that, Gold Coast city also made
commendable benefits in terms of their economic stability (Gc2018.com 2019). During the time
of the event, this region was considered as a major destination for the tourists and sports lovers.
Millions of people came from different parts of the world to see their most favorite sports stars
perform. Socially, this event can be regarded as a union of the different people from various parts
of the world with different religions and different ethnic backgrounds.
Operational considerations
There are some important operational considerations regarding the arrangement of the
entire sports event of the Commonwealth Games 2018. The responsibility of the carrying out the
operations of the Commonwealth Games lied in the hands of Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth
Games Corporation (GOLDOC). The establishment of the GOLDOC was done in the year 2012
by the Government by Queensland. The headquarters of this organization was Ashmore, a small
city in the Gold Coast. The first chief executive of the GOLDOC was Mark Peters. There were
many venues where this sports event had been organized. Some of them are Hinze Dam, Carrara
Stadium, Gold Coast City Convention and Exhibition Centre, Coomera Sport and Leisure
Centre, Robina Stadium and many others (Gc2018.com 2019).
It is indeed very difficult to manage this kind of immense sports event and make it a
grand success. Transport issues have always been a huge problem for the attendance in the sports

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event. The GC2018 State protocol Plan has also been one of the major successes for the proper
operational measures in this regard. The operations by the police forces were also very crucial
from many extents as well. The GC2018 was perhaps the largest operations and security plan
that had taken place in the last decade (Thecgf.com 2019). The focus was put on the safety of the
athletes and plans for implementing the safety policies for the audience as well (Gc2018.com
2019). This sport event is surely the biggest ever event that took place in Queensland and the
operational plans had to be very tight as well.
Their main aim was to provide a safe environment for all the athletes and the people who
came to view this event. The Queensland Police Service worked very hard with the Government
of Queensland and Games partners. The successful operations would lead to the grand success of
the entire event. The entire community of Queensland participated in this procedure with highly
professional attitude (Dedekorkut-Howes and Bosman 2015). The Police Department acted very
actively by arranging some protective security zones in the venue cities. The coordination
between the different departments was fantastic and this of course paved the way for the overall
success of the event. The Emergency services were also made ready as a apart of the operations
across the different venues like Brisbane, Townsville, Gold Coast and Cairns. As a part of the
operations plan, the health officers of the Government of Queensland also enacted the procedure
with much patience. They completed all the procedures like the collection of food samples and
testing them for because athletes will be provided with those foods.

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Sustainability/ Economic impact to the Gold Coast/ Queensland
Financial perspective
The financial impacts or perspectives of the 2018 Commonwealth Games has always
been very important because it has accelerated the growth of the Australian economy to a huge
deal. The experts have found out the fact that the job growth opportunities had reached its peak
in the region in the last decade because of this event (Dedekorkut-Howes and Bosman 2015). It
has been estimated that the overall growth of the Gross State Product (GSP) was around $2.5
billion. This is a huge amount and this will support the growth of the nation’s economy. The rate
of employment had grown high up as well (Byrne 2014). This is why it is regarded as one of the
most successful events in the history of the Gold Coast region.
It should also be mentioned that the growth of the economic perspectives did not start at
the verge of the event. It had started well before that as audience began to settle in the different
hotels of the country. Thus the flow of benefits had already begun and it was definitely a good
sign indeed (Dedekorkut-Howes and Bosman 2015). Economists have also highlighted the fact
that the return generation of the benefits will definitely extend till the next four years as well. So,
this will surely be one of the best benefits that the Commonwealth Games organizers and the
people of the region can enjoy. These significant benefits can surely be one of the best positive
things that Gold Coast has been able to enjoy.
Perhaps this kind of benefit could be enjoyed because GOLDOC had made impressive
cost savings regarding the operations of the Commonwealth Games (Dedekorkut-Howes and
Bosman 2015). It is something very crucial that the actual costs of the operations plan were even
less than the planned budget of the event. The cost savings had been made in case of the venue

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management, operations management at the Games and its venues and the entire budget planned
for the workforce (Pigman and Rofe 2014). Thus the cost savings had been made and it became
very crucial for the economic growth of the country.
Social perspective
The social perspectives of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 signify the
involvements and participation of the people of the region. It also includes the involvement of
the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders as well. The local people had participated in this event
in abundant numbers (Fairley and Kelly 2017). The participation of the local creative companies
and their people was something to be noted. The enthusiasm of the people was very high and
they were very energetic as well. Their participation and involvement in the procedure was
cheered by everyone (Dedekorkut-Howes and Bosman 2015). The athletes spread the message in
the Gold Coast society that local people could stay happier and healthier through their physical
activities and active lifestyles. The creative talents of the different people belonging to different
communities had been largely celebrated as well. Another theme in the arrangement of this event
was the fact that it tried to uphold the culture of the Torres Strait islander people and bring it in
front of all the participants coming across from different parts of the world (Bajracharya, Cattell
and Khanjanasthiti 2014).
Environmental perspective
The environmental impacts are very crucial in this type of the events. All the
environmental impacts should be taken care of and highlighted for the better understanding of
the readers. Environmental sustainability was the primary focus for the people who were the
important part of this sports event. The greening effects in the city had become a major part of
the event. The organizers made firm protests against the cutting of the tress throughout the

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program (Dedekorkut-Howes and Bosman 2015). They even raised their voices against the
things like environmental pollution, environmental degradation and destroying the green spaces.
They focused in the sustainability within the city so the environment does not have to suffer the
evil impacts of these things (Bajracharya, Cattell and Khanjanasthiti 2014).
The organizers were in favor of taking proper care of the environment by stopping
pollution and planting the trees. They also shifted their attention to preserve and maintain all the
green spaces within the city (Fairley and Kelly 2017). Thus Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
2018 was a platform through which the awareness regarding environment had been given.
Creation of greener spaces had also been focused in the regions as well (Sarmiento and El
Hanandeh 2018). So, it was the message by both the athletes and organizers to plant more trees
and provide the fresh breathing air to the people within the community.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be said that the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018
was a very successful venture from all the aspects. Financially, it was a success since many jobs
were created, the financial growth of the country reached to a high and cost savings had been
made, Apart from that, the participation of the indigenous and Torres Strait islanders has been a
great message for the communities. Finally, the environmental impacts have been felt here in this
discourse since creation of greener spaces and eliminating pollution from the environment had
been highlighted.

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References and Bibliography
Byrne, C., 2014. Relationship of convenience? The diplomatic interplay between the
Commonwealth Games Federation and the Commonwealth Games host city. Sport in
Society, 17(9), pp.1204-1219.
Dizdaroglu, D. and Yigitcanlar, T., 2016. Integrating urban ecosystem sustainability assessment
into policy-making: Insights from the Gold Coast City. Journal of environmental planning and
management, 59(11), pp.1982-2006.
Fairley, S. and Kelly, D.M., 2017. Developing leveraging strategies for pre-Games training for
mega-events in non-host cities. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 35(6), pp.740-755.
Gc2018.com (2019). [online] Gc2018.com. Available at:
https://gc2018.com/sites/default/files/2017-11/TPT_Transport_Operations_Plan_0.pdf [Accessed
5 Sep. 2019].
Gc2018.com (2019). ABOUT | Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. [online] Gold Coast
2018. Available at: https://gc2018.com/about [Accessed 4 Sep. 2019].
Gc2018.com (2019). GOLDOC Executive Management Team | Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth
Games. [online] Gold Coast 2018. Available at: https://gc2018.com/people/goldoc-executive-
management-team [Accessed 4 Sep. 2019].
Health.gov.au (2019). [online] Www1.health.gov.au. Available at:
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/budget/publishing.nsf/Content/
3115AA452CEABA0DCA25810E000A0385/$File/44.%20Gold%20Coast

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%202018%20Commonwealth%20Games%20%E2%80%93%20additional%20Australian
%20Government%20support.pdf [Accessed 5 Sep. 2019].
Results.gc2018.com (2019). Medal Standings - Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
[online] Results.gc2018.com. Available at: https://results.gc2018.com/en/all-sports/medal-
standings.htm [Accessed 5 Sep. 2019].
Sarmiento, C.V. and El Hanandeh, A., 2018. Customers’ perceptions and expectations of
environmentally sustainable restaurant and the development of green index: The case of the Gold
Coast, Australia. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 15, pp.16-24.
Thecgf.com (2019). [online] Thecgf.com. Available at:
https://thecgf.com/sites/default/files/2019-04/Final%20GC2018_PostGamesReport%20low
%20res%20single%20pages.pdf [Accessed 4 Sep. 2019].
Thecgf.com (2019). [online] Thecgf.com. Available at:
https://thecgf.com/sites/default/files/2019-04/Final%20GC2018_PostGamesReport%20low
%20res%20single%20pages.pdf [Accessed 5 Sep. 2019].
Thecgf.com (2019). Gold Coast 2018. [online] Commonwealth Games Federation. Available at:
https://thecgf.com/games/gold-coast-2018 [Accessed 5 Sep. 2019].