Analyzing the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics: A Case Study

This case study examines the 2018 Winter Olympics held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, focusing on the event management process and the event life cycle. It details the planning stages, from bidding and election to venue selection and the design of medals. The report outlines the formation, growth, and staging phases of the event, including the torch relay and the opening ceremony. It highlights key steps such as setting goals, managing budgets, selecting destinations, and finalizing event details. The study emphasizes the importance of prior planning, with events requiring varying preparation times based on complexity, and concludes with recommendations for future Olympic events, such as incorporating new sports and designing medals that reflect the host country's culture. The study references various academic sources to support its analysis of the event management process.

Running head: A CASE STUDY OF THE PYEONGCHANG’S WINTER OLYMPICS
A Case Study of the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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A CASE STUDY OF THE PYEONGCHANG’S WINTER OLYMPICS
Executive Summary
The following report focuses on the procedure of event management along with a brief
description of the event life cycle. The event chosen for the report is the 2018 Winter Olympics
that were held at Pyeongchang in South Korea. All the events require prior planning and it was
same with the 2018 Olympics. As the events become more and more complex, it takes more time
for the planning of the events. The 2018 Olympics were planned in the year 2011 which started
with bidding and election for the hosting city. Then all venues for organizing different sports and
designs for the medals were decided followed by the regular visits to the venues by the different
members of the committee. Lastly, the event started with the arrival of the torch marchers in the
city of Pyeongchang on the day of the event after carrying the torches for about 101 days.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
THE EVENT LIFE CYCLE........................................................................................................3
THE PYEONGCHANG’S WINTER OLYMPICS.....................................................................4
The Formation Stage................................................................................................................4
The Growth Stage....................................................................................................................5
The Staging of the Event.........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
RECOMMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

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INTRODUCTION
Event management can be defined as the application of the project management in order
to create and develop large scale events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, weddings,
formal parties, concerts or conventions. The management encompasses a brief study of the
brand, identification of the target audience, arranging the concept of the event and to look after
the technical aspects before the actual launch of the event (Thompson, Schlenker and
Schulenkorf 2013). The modern Olympics are one of the most leading international games in the
present century. This sport mostly features the summer and the winter sporting competition in
which more than thousands of sports persons round the world participate in a variety of events
taking place (Davies and Mackenzie 2014). The life cycle of event planning, the planning of the
2018 Winter Olympics and its recommendations are discussed in the following paragraphs.
DISCUSSION
THE EVENT LIFE CYCLE
According to Eddleston et al. (2013), the preparation time of an event depends on its
complexity. Small and simple events require about two month’s duration to prepare whereas
large and complex events requires more than six months of preparation. To make an event
successful, there are several key steps that should be addressed. Firstly, the event goals are
addressed and the budgets are decided. The next step involves in selection of the destination
where the event is going to take place. Next a draft of the schedule is prepared and the event is
designed on a website. Next the event is rehearsed so as to make sure that nothing has been
missed and improvements are made where necessary. Once the event details are determined, the

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planners and manager sent email invitations to their distribution lists so that they are able to
register them. Next the events and the staffs are finalized and emails are again resend so as to
ensure that there are no cancellations. A survey regarding the event is conducted among the
guests so as to obtain the accurate feedback. The data obtained are then shared with the
stakeholders so as to take decisions and make improvements where necessary in the forthcoming
events (Oakil et al. 2014)
THE PYEONGCHANG’S WINTER OLYMPICS
The 2018 Winter Olympics which is officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter
Games and Pyeongchang 2018 was an international multi-sports event, held during the winter in
the month of February. It was the first time that South Korea hosted the Winter Olympics and
was the second to host the Olympics after hosting the Summer Olympics in the year 1988 at
Seoul (Essex and de Groot 2016).
The Formation Stage
The preparation of the Olympics starts with bidding and election. Earlier Pyeongchang
proposed to host the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, but lost to Vancouver and Sochi in the
respective years. The bidding for hosting the event started in the year 2011. The city of
Pyeongchang was elected at the 123rd IOC Session in Durban in the year 2011. The bidding
indices are featured by the two websites, gamesbids.com and around the rings, specializing in
this profession which periodically analyses and releases the positions of the candidates and
assigns them a score ranging either between 0-100 or 0-110 respectively. This year the city of
Pyeongchang won a vote of 63 which was the highest score in the history of Olympics (Kim,
Choi and Kaplanidou 2015). This involves the first and the second steps of the event life cycle.

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The Growth Stage
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 5th August, 2011 declared that the 2018
Winter Olympic would be held in the city of Pyeongchang in South Korea. After a span of a few
months on 4th October, 2011, the organization declared that the event would be directed by Kim
Jin-sun. An inauguration assembly was launched on 19th October 2011 by the Pyeongchang
Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) (Gold and
Gold 2016). The initial responsibility that was undertaken was the planning for the games and
designs for the venues. According to Muller (2014), the members of the organization visited for
the first time in the hosting city in the month of March, 2012. By then the construction had
already started and was moving on at a very fast pace. The committee advertised and spread the
news of the Olympic Games by recruiting the students from the universities of South Korea, who
spread the news of the event by means of social media and news articles. The medals for the
games were designed and displayed on the month of September, 2017. The growth stage
involves those stages of the event life cycle where the registrations and other required steps are
taken for the success of the event.
The Staging of the Event
The staging of the 2018 Winter Olympics started with the marching with the torches on
24th October 2017, which started in Greece and ended on the day of the events on 9th February
2018 at the hosting city of Pyeongchang. On 1st November, 2017 the relay along with 7500 torch
bearers entered Korea. These torch bearers represented the 75 million people of Korea and
continued the relay for about a span of 101 days. Most of the outdoor as well as the events on the
snow were held in the city of Pyeongchang while other events such as skiing and indoor events

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took place in the nearby countries and cities of Jeongseon and Gangneung respectively. The
opening ceremony of the event took place in the city of Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium on 9th
February 2018 (Arnold and Foxall 2014). This is the final stage and involves for the organizers
to make sure that no cancellations and postponements occur.
CONCLUSION
Prior and effective planning is the most important part to perform any action. The events
are also not exempted from the same. The 2018 Winter Olympics held at Pyeongchang was also
planned beforehand. Every event is planned depending upon it complexity. Simple and less
complex events require around two months of planning and the planning period extends to
around six months when the events are more complex. The life cycle of event planning involves
many steps and procedures. It starts with setting up of the goals and chalking out the budgets and
ends with conducting of the survey and recording the feedback of the customers. The Olympics
are multi-sport events that involve people participating from all over the world in different
sports. In order to make Olympics a successful event, the planning is done some years prior to
the occurrence of the event. The preparation of the event starts with election and bidding for the
hosting city. Then there were discussions and planning regarding the hosting of different sports.
The indoor and outdoor sports were organized at two different places, but the skiing was
organized in the city itself. The 2018 Winter Olympics saw grand openings and closing of the
events along with the torch marches that took place for about 101 days.

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RECOMMMENDATIONS
It has been found that all the steps of the event life cycle were followed while planning
the 2018 Winter Olympics which was held in the city of Pyeongchang in South Korea. The
committee can introduce some more events and sports so as to involve some more participants
from the countries. Like this year, the committees that take into account the event in the future,
can also design the medals according to the concept, style and fashion followed in the country.
This will inspire and motivate more people to participate in the events. Even the same people can
also participate in the events every year so as to collect the medals of different countries.

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REFERENCES
Arnold, R. and Foxall, A., 2014. Lord of the (Five) Rings: Issues at the 2014 Sochi Winter
Olympic Games: Guest Editors' Introduction. Problems of Post-Communism, 61(1), pp.3-12.
Davies, A. and Mackenzie, I., 2014. Project complexity and systems integration: Constructing
the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games. International Journal of Project
Management, 32(5), pp.773-790.
Eddleston, K.A., Kellermanns, F.W., Floyd, S.W., Crittenden, V.L. and Crittenden, W.F., 2013.
Planning for growth: Life stage differences in family firms. Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice, 37(5), pp.1177-1202.
Essex, S.J. and de Groot, J., 2016. The Winter Olympics: Driving Urban Change, 1924–2022.
In Olympic Cities (pp. 84-109). Routledge.
Gold, J.R. and Gold, M.M. Eds., 2016. Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning, and the World’s
Games, 1896–2020. Routledge.
Kim, A., Choi, M. and Kaplanidou, K., 2015. The role of media in enhancing people’s
perception of hosting a mega sport event: the case of pyeongchang’s winter olympics
bids. International Journal of Sport Communication, 8(1), pp.68-86.
Müller, M., 2014. Event seizure: The World Cup 2018 and Russia’s illusive quest for
modernisation. Social Science Research Network.

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Oakil, A.T.M., Ettema, D., Arentze, T. and Timmermans, H., 2014. Changing household car
ownership level and life cycle events: an action in anticipation or an action on
occurrence. Transportation, 41(4), pp.889-904.
Thomson, A., Schlenker, K. and Schulenkorf, N., 2013. Conceptualizing sport event
legacy. Event Management, 17(2), pp.111-122.