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Functional Area: Honored Guest Services (All-Star Fans and MVP Fans) Author: Editra Allen, Kim Widdess Date: 22 February 2013

SOI Functional Area After-Action Report

SOI Functional Area After Action Report

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List of venues where function operated: Intercontinental Resort

Type and Number of Games participants served: 436 ASF (239 primary; 197 guest of primary); 174 MVP (149 primary; 25 guest of primary)

Number of days of operation: 1/27 – 2/6 – 11 days

Measures of Success

Sections not relevant to your Functional Area can be left blank

What was achieved? Any lessons learned? Recommendations? Achieve 90% registration deadline adherence by all constituents Status: Not Achieved

Only 23% of All-Star Fans responded by Nov. 1st; 10% of MVP Fans responded by Nov. 1st deadline. Despite Save the Date letters going out close to one year out from the Games, responses and registration by the deadline was low. Part of the challenge was that registration materials were delayed until several days before the Nov. 1st deadline due to missing critical information from the GOC on such items as Opening and Closing Ceremony tickets, transportation to and from Incheon Airport and confirmed dates and times for key special events. The registration deadline was pushed to December 15th to give the guests the opportunity to fill out the information; however we still had a large number of registrations come in even after the December 15th deadline. Recommendations: GOC and SOI must confirm and commit to


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What was achieved? Any lessons learned? Recommendations? critical elements regarding guest services (such as Ceremony Tickets and airport transfer plan) to ensure the registration materials are able to be sent out to constituents to be reasonably filled out by the internal deadline. Regions and Guest Relationship Managers must be diligent in reinforcing deadlines and pushing their guests to respond. There also needs to be adherence to a final cut-off date that is close to one month prior to Games to close the registration process and discontinue any new invites. The large amount of last-minute additions to the guest list severely impacted SOI’s ability to effectively manage the group.

Attain top tier media coverage for 40% of participating Programs Effectively integrate all FAs through implementing a successful venue development system for all sports and non-sports activities

Status: Partially Achieved The GOC did a good job of implementing a venue development system, but stopped short of examining venue flow and related process for key functional areas and constituents. This impacted Media (lack of defined media zones and media flow), Awards (lack of clarity around the process and flow for award presenters), and Honored Guests particularly at Ceremonies (lack of definition of the process for entry into Ceremonies and the flow from the reception through to the seating at Ceremonies). Recommendations: Future GOCs must include the above elements into the venue development system, but also include all venues above and beyond Competition Venues. Reception locations, Ceremonies, Main Guest Hotels, etc., should all be considered venues and be reviewed for flow and set-up.

Establish and implement a model WG financial reporting system Status: Achieved SOI implemented new processes and resources to handle on-site


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What was achieved? Any lessons learned? Recommendations? finances and guest payments better than ever before. There were three Finance staff dedicated to payments of vendor invoices, staff reimbursements and Honored Guest payments who all greatly minimized the post-games financial clean-up. While there can still be improvements, we made great leaps forward these Games. Recommendations: Continue processes implemented for these Games, and add more integration with the finance department leading up to Games to ensure transparency of payments made and owed throughout the Games process.

Secure attendance of 5-6 government leaders with global development responsibility and 7-10 congressional leaders as development champions within their country and globally

Status: Achieved GDS summit people: ASSK, Blair, McCain, Banda, McLucas, Lemke, Vilsack, Villlaragoisa, Stoyanocv, IFRC-Malika, CRS-Woo, WHO-Officer, Al-Jufri, Elliot Recommendations: While we achieved the goal of having quality Government representatives at the Games, most of them were cultivated by individuals within SOI-HQ rather than through the Regions. For future Games, the Regions should have targets internally to cultivate government delegations for the games.

Identify and partner with 3-5 government, multilateral (quasi-government), non-profit organizations linked to international development (e.g., UN, WB, ADB, CGI)

Status: Achieved Partner Organizations cultivated through the Honored Guest program include the United Nations, World Health Organization, Catholic Relief Services, International Federation of the Red Cross, Lions Clubs International, ONE Campaign, UNICEF, US Department of State and US Department of Education.


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What was achieved? Any lessons learned? Recommendations? Recommendations: Incorporate partnership signings and partnership announcements into the overall World Games schedule and plan toward these activities starting two years out from the Games so there is better use of the World Games platform to cultivate and instigate partnerships. Additionally, create a more robust engagement strategy for partner organizations that cultivates not only leadership but also the staff in the organizations who will be leading the work.

Create a center of excellence around youth and athlete leadership Identify 5-6 Board/Global Ambassador prospects Status: Achieved

Prospects cultivated through the Honored Guest program include Hannah Teter, Dikembe Mutombo, Cindy McCain, Yang Yang, Toby Dawson and Dan Jansen.

Identify 3-5 foundations to support youth and/or global development work at $100K+

Status: Partially Achieved Foundations cultivated for youth/global development work include the Michael Phelps Foundation, US Department of Education, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, Ray and Stephanie Lane, Mattel and Golisano Foundation. Recommendations: Better utilize our Board and already involved supporters in the youth and global development arenas to help us cultivate and bring new people to the Games.

Raise Special Olympics sports profile by establishing collaborative operational and marketing relationship with 2018 Olympics LOC

Confirm 2-3 partnerships with international sports federations Status: Achieved Partnerships and cultivation through the Honored Guest program


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What was achieved? Any lessons learned? Recommendations? were implemented for the following federations (and related organizations): Sport Accord, IFF, and FISU. Recommendations: Incorporate partnership signings and partnership announcements into the overall World Games schedule and plan toward these activities starting two years out from the Games so there is better use of the World Games platform to cultivate and instigate partnerships.

Identify 5 opinion shapers from the world of sports as Board/Global Ambassador prospects

Status: Achieved Sports world prospects and opinion shapers include Dikembe Mutombo, Apollo Ohno, Hanah Teter, Yao Ming, Dan Jansen, Toby Dawson, Bart Conner, Michelle Kwan, Donna DeVarona, Yuna Kim, Catriona Le May Doan, Carl Verheiejen, Kim Dong-sung, Korean Olympians (Ski Team), Michael Tritscher and Trixi Schuba.

Introduce online SO Global Sports Academy Identify 3 funders at $100K+ to support the Sport pillar Utilize the Games to commercialize the SO brand by maximizing messaging opportunities and reinforcing the new brand identity

Implement a social/digital media strategy that involves 25% of SOI Board, GAs and Celebrity Supporters and delivers 250,000 new fans

Status: Not Achieved While a few of the Honored Guests participated in blogging and tweeting, and materials/business cards were handed to each guest encouraging social media activation, there was not a defined or understood strategy for engaging some of our top media friendly guests to activate in the social and digitial media space. Recommendations: The Honored Guest team should have one dedicated staff person/volunteer who solely focuses on the


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What was achieved? Any lessons learned? Recommendations? social/digital media activation with guests – working with the Communications Team on strategy but taking responsibility for execution on site.

Engage 8 existing donors in meaningful activities around their area of interest

Status: Achieved Existing donors engaged in meaningful activities include: Ray and Stephanie Lane, John and Mary Manley, Kim Samuel, Golisano Foundation (Ann Costello), Lions Clubs International, Safilo, Mattel, The Coca-Cola Company, Hilton, Healthy Athletes Sponsors, Angelo Moratti/Tommy Copper, Shane Fitzsimons GE, Deloitte, Henley and Helen Lee. Recommendations: Continue offering specially crafted experiences for key donors that engages them in their particular areas of interest and provides them specific roles at the Games.

Recruit and involve 3-5 new major donor and/or sponsor prospects

Status: Achieved New donor and sponsor prospects cultivated through the Games Honored Guest program include Tommy Copper, Samsung, Cindy McCain, Fidelity (East Asia) and OMAS. Recommendations: Only one Board Member brought a prospect to these Games. For future Games, more emphasis should be on Board Members cultivating and bringing new prospects to the event.


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Your Functional Area – Pre-Games Planning & Integration

Lessons Learned Recommendations Scope: All-Star Fans Program: The scope of the ASF program was clearly defined and sufficient both internally (among SOI) and externally (with the GOC), however there was a lack of full participation by GOC guests. MVP Fans Program: While the scope of the MVP Fans program was clear among SOI, the GOC was not as engaged as they should have been with the program and never embraced it fully to manage their significant part.

All-Star Fans Program: While the operation of the program was clear, there was significant mission creep with the participants who were allowed to be categorized as “ASF” that at the end of the day negatively impacted the ability of the Guest Coordinators to service the guests. MVP Fans Program: The majority of MVP services are scoped out with the ASF services, however there are a few items, such as welcome services, transportation and on-ground hospitality, that need better development in the overall planning process.

• Re-examine the definition and purpose of two

distinct Honored Guest Programs and consider either combining into one program or refining the individual programs so that quality and integrity of each program (services provided as well as participants invited) is preserved.

• If two programs persist, then there needs to be much more rigid guidelines around who is invited as an ASF.

• The MVP experience, and related scope of the

program, must be greatly enhanced to better host the participants and have more support both from SOI and the GOC.

Preparation: Preparation for the Honored Guest Programs on the SOI side was efficient and effective. Although many individuals who are critical to guest management within the organization did not attend the

Several members of the Guest Management staff remarked that they would like to have been better informed of cultural business practices to prepare them for dealing with the Korean culture. Additionally, a dedicated

• Where English is not the first language used and

there may be significant cultural differences, the Honored Guest functional area should have multiple dedicated language support staff who integrate much earlier in the process, as well as better training of doing business in the specific


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Lessons Learned Recommendations monthly meetings, the team that was present felt engaged and well equipped to help support the Guest program. Preparation on the GOC side was lacking, mostly due to lack of resources assigned to Guest management. As a result, on-site GOC hosts and volunteers were not well trained on the program and thus not prepared for their duties supporting Honored Guests.

person for volunteer and staff management would have been helpful in the process. There must be far more oversight of the GOC’s planning to execute the Honored Guest program and related functions like training the volunteers.

culture to better prepare them for dealing with GOC and local counterparts.

• SOI Honored Guest Program should have one staff who is assigned as the volunteer coordinator, who also takes on training of volunteers.

• GOC should be held accountable for a minimum

number of staff working on the Honored Guest program as well as providing full and separate operational plans for this functional area.

Resources: The SOI Honored Guest management team included the following staff (most temporary for 6 to 8 months surrounding the Games): ASF – 4 Guest Coordinators, 1 Guest Scheduler, 1 USE Coordinator, 1 Manager (SOI Staff) MVP – 1 Guest Coordinator, 1 Manager (SOI Staff) Both Programs and the related activities were supervised by 2 SOI Senior Staff Supporting the program was the GEMS database, owned by SOI

The Guest Coordinators of both the ASF and MVP programs work with and rely heavily on the diligence of the Guest Relationship Managers (RMs) (SOI and Regional Staff who are placed in charge of each guest group). Building out the Guest Coordinator team of support works extremely well, and these Games they were particularly well matched with their RMs creating more effective follow-up. That said, while some RMs were heavily engaged, others did not support the program enough causing problems confirming details around guest attendance. Creating schedules for guests proved to be too much work for one person both pre-Games and on-

• SOI and Regional Relationship Managers should be

more responsibly engaged in the process of Guest Management and collaborate more with the Guest Coordinators for follow-up.

• At minimum, two schedulers should be applied to support the program.

• More of the systems should be automated, such as

registration and schedule production, to allow for more time spent on guest coordination and follow-up.

• SOI Relationship managers need to be more

responsible to their guests on-site at the Games, and held accountable for this function.


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Lessons Learned Recommendations site and without a fully automated

system it became a burden.

Integration: SOI: Monthly meetings (and bi-weekly meetings leading into the Games period) were held for SOI staff to keep them informed and integrated with the system. Unfortunately, these meetings consistently had fairly low attendance. That said, this only affected a few of the Regions/Departments who chose not to engage fully in the process. Most were fully engaged and supportive. GOC: Integration with the GOC was not sufficient due to their lack of planning and hiring staff/vendors to conduct the work. There was only one person on the Guest Management team who spoke English and during Games time, he also held the burden of the work.

Lack of integration from some SOI Departments and Regions caused some challenges in the late stages of planning and with execution of the program on-site.

• SOI leadership should put more emphasis on

having consistent representation at regularly scheduled meetings about Honored Guests and there should be a system to hold relationship managers more accountable.

• There needs to be better oversight and more integration with the GOC on the Guest program planning, as well as on-site integration.

• Co-locate GOC and SOI Honored Guest Operations

office on-site.

Contract: In certain areas of the contract there is still ambiguity around definitions and services.

• Specifically define categories of people who are entitled to Sponsored Air and Sponsored Room Nights in the contract

• Specifically define a schedule of recruitment and training of hosts, as well as vetting of hosts for key


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Lessons Learned Recommendations guests

• Define the standard of service required for the airport and create a grid outlining airport VIP service for constituents (e.g. who is entitled to what level of service)

• SOI should own the ASF Accommodations • SOI should own the ASF Transportation • Define rules around use of transportation by ASFs

and the capacity of vehicles (with Hosts)

Your Functional Area Highlights/Best Practices

Highlight/Best Practice

Description Recommendations for future Games

Guest Coordination Staffing and System

Guest Coordinators were well matched with Relationship Managers and according to “buckets” of types of guests. This resulted in a more fluid and efficient program.

Continue the Guest Coordinator process and have them assigned by bucket. The GOC should similarly have Guest Coordinators in place that work on GOC Guest management.

Relationship Management

Having one central point of contact for SOEE was very helpful in managing the guests both pre-Games and on-site.

Ask each Region to assign one person to work with the Guest Coordinators on their guests collectively, rather than farming the responsibility out to several people within the same Region, and have this person fully dedicated to Guest management on-site at the Games.

Accommodations Having a dedicated person for accommodation (Eunice) was extremely effective, and most importantly this person spoke the local language and was our primary liaison with all things related to the hotel (beyond just sleeping rooms).

Always assign one person to be fully in charge of the main ASF hotel, however that person needs one or two people also working for them on-site. When language is an issue, there needs to be several people with language skills dedicated to the team.


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Accommodations The main ASF Hotel, the Intercontinental, provided a great space for events, hospitality and guest operations.

The layout of the hotel is as important as the location; both should be considered when selecting the main ASF Hotel.

Transportation The many inter-venue shuttles that the GOC provided worked really well.

The guests did not take advantage of this system fully; we need to encourage them to use it more.

Transportation Motor Pool and Dedicated Vehicle volunteer drivers were good and most of them spoke English. Even if they didn’t know the location they were able to find their way.

Ensure drivers are well-trained and know the locations of all of the venues as well as the VIP entrances to each venue.

Volunteers Air-force and corporate volunteers were of great help especially for the Welcome Center and transportation arrangements.

Continue to maximize volunteer “groups” such as military and corporate partners, who can support overall operations and serve in key functional areas. Also be sure to integrate the lead volunteer organizers as early as possible in the system. If language is an issue, we need more bilingual volunteers. Last, volunteers should be front-loaded, looking at the Games schedule and the participation of guests.

Operations The Guest Operations Center, located at the Intercontinental Hotel, provided a great space for our work and was ideally located in the main ASF Hotel.

Continue to have the main Guest Operations Center separate from the SOI Operations Center and located in the main ASF Hotel. This is critical to efficient functioning of the program. The Ops Center also must have flex meeting space for private meetings as well as a location for Executives (Chairman/President) to work or have meetings.

Airport Arrivals SOI had a dedicated staff person and team of volunteers at the airport to help facilitate greeting ASF Guests.

The ASF and MVP Programs must have presence at each airport, and there should be a separate dedicated team to this process, with at least one person who is familiar with many of the guests by face.


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Airport Departures

Guests were scheduled for their airport departure transportation and informed the afternoon/evening before their departure both through their Guest Coordinator and with a notice that was slipped under their door at the hotel.

Continue to have separate communication about the guest’s departure transportation and also communicate it through several different channels to be sure the guests are aware.

Guest Evaluation On-site surveys were conducted by a team of University students.

Continue to have an on-site survey process that will allow guests to engage in more of a conversation around their experience, however there should also be a confidential post-Games survey in place. Guests that are staying less than 24 hours should not be considered a part of the sample. The on-site surveys could be improved by doing them in waves, through many channels and entry points to get a good sample.

Unified Sports Experiences

Unified Sport Experiences were overall a great success, and recruiting participants ahead of time worked well.

Continue to offer Unified Sports Experiences as a key element of the Honored Guest experience. To enhance the guest experience and maximize fundraising, more emphasis should be put on the online fundraising and competition should be encouraged among the guests leading up to and at the Games. One or two Honored Guests (SOI Chairman/SOI President) should lead this charge and engage regularly with the other guests to encourage them to participate more heavily.

Receptions Having smaller dinners and gatherings as opposed to big receptions worked well to better engage key constituents.

Examine the reception schedule and implement a more thoughtful special event strategy that includes both large and small gatherings.

Guest Invoicing SOI had dedicated staff on-site to issue invoices and get payments direct from guests.

Continue to have dedicated staff on-site to collect payments, if not done prior to the Games.


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Gifting VIP Gifts (Jackets, pin sets, etc.) were delivered to rooms rather than given at the Welcome Center, which worked very well.

The Welcome Center items should be limited to those things that everyone gets – credentials, tickets, welcome packet, etc. Gifts should be delivered to rooms and this should be negotiated in the hotel contract.

May I Serve You The May I Serve You program at these Games was a huge success – both easy for guests to participate and a fun engagement activity.

Consider the proximity of athlete food service areas to the main Guest Hotel when planning May I Serve You. If the distance is far away, a different system should be in place to accommodate (such as serving dinner as opposed to breakfast).

Healthy Athlete Tours

Healthy Athletes assigned staff members who greeted guests and toured them through the venue.

Continue with offering Healthy Athlete Tours to Honored Guests and also consider adding seminar rooms and other elements that could further enhance the guest experience and engage them in conversations with the doctors and staff about the program.

Your Functional Area Issues/Lessons Learned

A = Games Critical, B = Significant, C = Minor

Rating (A, B or C) Description of Issues/Lessons Learned Recommendations for future Games A Staffing: The Guest Management Team was not

adequately staffed to manage the volume of guests attending the Games.

Establish an acceptable ration of Guest Coordinators to actual bodies of people that attend the Games and as volume begins to exceed capacity, bring on more support.

A Role Sort: There was not sufficient clarity among the Relationship Managers of the role of their Guest Coordinator when it came to dealing with the Guest. This caused some inefficiencies and

The role of the Guest Coordinator needs to be clearly defined and enforced with the Relationship Managers. Pre-Games, Guest Coordinators should have direct contact with the guests, regardless of Relationship Manager. RMs should support the


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Rating (A, B or C) Description of Issues/Lessons Learned Recommendations for future Games difficulties in follow-through with the guests, and resulted in some Guest Coordinators doing the job of the Relationship Manager on-site.

process, drive the schedule development and deal with the Guest on-site. RMs, especially Regional Staff, also need to engage in the process much earlier. All on-site Relationship Managers should be clearly defined prior to the Games, engaged in training prior to the Games and held accountable on-site for managing their guests so that the Coordinators can deal with logistics, scheduling and problem-solving.

A Training: Due to the workload, the Guest Management Team did not get an opportunity to see the venues and be trained on logistics of the Games that would have helped them answer questions both to Relationship Managers and Guests.

The Guest Management Team should arrive on-site earlier and have their first day fully dedicated to a venue tour and distance training. This is critical for their understanding of the Games and for sharing information with the Guests and Relationship Managers.

A Scheduling: The process of schedule production was extremely time-consuming and our observation is that many guests didn’t follow them.

We should have more flexibility in how we produce schedules. While we acknowledge that guests need a detailed schedule prior to the Games to get them engaged and share the vision of their overall Games experience, we should consider an option of schedule on-site that is more refined, easier to produce and has more flexibility (such as a grid-style schedule). Relationship Managers should be put in a lead role working with their guests on roles at events, side meetings and their overall activities which may help the guests get out to see more competition. The detailed and updated sports schedule should be available daily for each guest. This information might be on the website but guests should be notified about changes and multiple channels should be used to drive people to this information.

B Awards: There was not a clearly defined process for guests to sign up to present awards at

SOI should establish, test and implement the awards scheduling system for each Games, as well as assign a person


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Rating (A, B or C) Description of Issues/Lessons Learned Recommendations for future Games competition venues, and once the process was implemented, it was not flexible to take in walk-ups.

from the Guest Team to be dedicated to working with the GOC on the awards. Consistently, this falls through the cracks with the GOC and is a last-minute process despite continuously speaking about it in planning. Awards scheduling should also be flexible at the venues so that walk-ups can be accommodated within reason.

C Information: Guests who didn’t know to access the website each day and did not visit the Welcome Center had difficulty getting updated information about competition schedules, transportation and activities taking place.

Having hotel tvs, elevators, walls used for spreading the word might be a good idea. We should consider asking the guests to be more involved by photo uploads, tweets and facebook posts.

B GOC Support and GOC Guests: The GOC structure did not support our guest program - registration and communication was delayed and not coherent, we were not able to integrate Korean guests into the system.

The GOC must provide better and more transparent planning for the Honored Guest Program, just as they do for competition. The GOC needs to delegate more individuals to manage the program and do a better job of inviting, recruiting and integrating local guests into the program.

A Guest List Management: There was an extremely large amount of last-minute addition to the guest list as well as late registrations by invited guests that resulted in capacity issues with the program. There were also a fair amount of people who were “moved up” to the ASF program but should not have been serviced as ASFs.

We need to hold everyone accountable of deadlines and consider giving quotas for number of guests to be invited per Relationship Manager/Department or Region. We need to be more disciplined in controlling the invite list and ensure that the integrity of the ASF program doesn’t get compromised and we maintain a smaller, more elite group of supporters. The GOC guests must also be integrated much earlier in the process into the SOI guest list.

A MVP Services: MVPs were disappointed in the double standard treatment they got.

We need to make it clear to MVP Fans, as well as to the Programs and Regions, what the distinction means, what they’ll be getting with their registration fee, the events they can attend, their accommodation and transportation


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Rating (A, B or C) Description of Issues/Lessons Learned Recommendations for future Games provisions. We also need more staff dedicated to making this experience a good one for the MVPs. Consider asking MVPs to serve on an ad-hoc evaluation team for events and activities outside of those provided to Honored Guests (such as Festival and Athlete Entertainment activities).

A Registration: Registration for both the ASF and MVP Programs was offline with guests asked to fill out forms and send them into either the GOC or SOI. This offline registration system resulted in numerous hours of data entry and had a high potential of mistakes as data was transferred from the form into the database.

SOI should invest in a front-end online registration portal for Honored Guests that links to GEMS on the back-end. An online integrated system is necessary to fix most of our problems that are related to guest management, and as more people get comfortable with online registration systems we feel many will use it. Registration materials should also be prepared and ready to send out when invitations are issued to speed up the process.

C Visa Letters/International Relations: Due to lack of a clearly defined process for issuing and obtaining Visas, there were complications for guests trying to obtain Visas. There was also a lack of communication and participation by Korean Embassies abroad.

The GOC must put a plan in place for involvement and engagement of their Embassies in other countries. There also must be a clearly defined process for issuing Visa letters and following-up on related Visa issues with Embassies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

C Sponsored Airfare: Sponsored airfare was booked late and there was confusion regarding reimbursement.

A contractual agreement should be made with the GOC that lets SOI to book the sponsored flights and GOC to reimburse flights. From the budgetary stand point departments should be aware of who will be paying for the sponsored airfares.

B Guest Management Staff Provisions: Staff accommodation, food, transportation and support needed improvement especially considering the Guest Management Team’s working hours. For the first few days of the Games, most of the Guest

SOI needs to have better provisions in place, especially for the first few days of the Games, for the Guest Management staff who are among the hardest hit at that time. If possible rooms at the same hotel or closer to guests, a transportation system available even at late hours, and at least one convenient meal


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Rating (A, B or C) Description of Issues/Lessons Learned Recommendations for future Games Management staff was not able to get out for lunch or dinner and there were extremely limited affordable options in the immediate area. Due to accommodation challenges staff had to stay at a location 20 min. walk away which was suitable but there was no transportation provided for late-night transfers which made it difficult on many of the hard-working staff.

each day will be appreciated.

B Transportation – Motor Pool and Dedicated Vehicles: The process for obtaining card and accessing dedicated vehicles was not clear to the Guests and resulted in significant confusion for the first few days of the Games.

There needs to be a clearly defined and simple process for Motor Pool and Dedicated Vehicles. Dedicated Vehicles should not have to be requested each day, rather they should be on call at all times (during designated Games hours) for the guest. Motor Pool should have a reservation system, as well as a pool of cars for point-to-point service going to and from key venues. There must be flexibility within the system and there also must be substantial cars during the first few days of the Games to deal with the quantity of Guests in attendance.

A Airport Services: Airport arrivals were not defined well and resulted in some guests going to the VIP room and others just sent out through regular exits of which there were too many for the SOI team to effectively manage. In some cases, the hosts met the guest at the airport and rode with them to PyeongChang – a nice gesture but taking up a seat that could be used for an additional guest or luggage.

There should be more clear communication between GOC and SOI on who is responsible for what in terms of airport transportation. We need to have a more clear understanding of how VIP service works to service the guests better. We should ensure that the right people have the security clearances they need so that key SOI staff have presence inside the airport and can facilitate issues. We need more Special Olympics presence at the airport but we also need to make the dates we are providing service clearer, as we had some arrivals prior to the airport being serviced. We should have a policy to communicate to guests that if the Games venue is far away from the airport there will be no early morning transportation provided. Hosts should not meet guests at the airport, rather there should be an entirely separate airport team that


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Rating (A, B or C) Description of Issues/Lessons Learned Recommendations for future Games supports the Guest program.

B Guest Welcome Center: The flow of the Honored Guest Welcome Center became inefficient at times, and co-location of the MVP and ASF Welcome Centers created some ill will among the MVP Fans.

The Honored Guest Welcome Center should be reorganized to have a better and more efficient flow. The Center should be utilized better for sign-up of various events. A white board could be used to encourage people to sign up by creating a competitive atmosphere. There can be sale of merchandise at the Welcome Center based on the interest of guests during these Games. Having separate MVP and ASF Welcome Centers should be considered, especially for the main check-in days. The location of Welcome Center should be chosen carefully so that if it is not easily identifiable there should be signs to direct guests to the Welcome Center. Welcome Center should have easier access to daily updates and information should be distributed by multiple channels.

A Welcome Packets and Credentials: there was a significant delay with the production of credentials and welcome packages, and in many cases people other than the guests picked up the packets and they went missing.

Credentials and welcome packages should be prepared ahead of time by SOI, and extra invitations that need to go to the guests can be either inserted or hand-delivered to the guests’ rooms. Guests should sign and show ID to pick up their folders and credentials, or a designated person should pick up the items for the guest who is held accountable if those items go missing. There should be credentialing booth/desk at the Welcome Center with tech set up to decrease the amount of delay for guests who need new credentials.

B Hosts: While the GOC had many hosts, they were very young and not trained well. Additionally, many of the hosts were assigned to guests after the guest arrived which made it difficult to connect them.

The GOC needs to assign a team of people for recruiting and training hosts, and the hosts should have one-on-one time with SOI Guest Coordinators and Relationship Managers. Hosts must be assigned to guests well in advance of the guest arrivals and also must have cell phone numbers provided to the guest, the Relationship Manager and the Guest Coordinator to


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Rating (A, B or C) Description of Issues/Lessons Learned Recommendations for future Games make sure there is a solid connection between the three parties. There should also be a host pool for guests who don’t need their hosts at a specific time so those individuals can be deployed to assist in other ways. Host protocol and guidelines should be updated.

C On-Site Relationship Managers: Many of the on-site SOI Relationship Managers did not attend any of the pre-Games SOI Guest Management Trainings and arrived to the Games very late thus not able to be properly trained or oriented on the Guest Program.

Staff who are designated as on-site Relationship Managers should be required to attend a designated amount of pre-Games training sessions, and must arrive on-site at the Games at minimum 48 hours prior to the arrival of their first guest.

B Issue Management: Several guests had medical and other issues while at the Games. While the issues were resolved, there was some confusion about the process and availability of facilities to service the guests.

The GOC and SOI should conduct table-top issue resolution exercises jointly leading up to the Games. These should range from medical issues for an athlete to transportation issues for a guest. Working together on these prior to the Games will ensure cooperation during Games time.

Feedback on other FAs/aspects of Games (positive or negative)

Topic Description of Success OR Issue Recommendations Communications – Venue Media Control

There was a lack of media zones at venues and no security to control the media.

We need to delegate one person who is actively working with GOC to be responsible from media control.

Finance – On-site Expense Management

The finance department had easy access to on-site cash payments as needed which was greatly helpful for the Guest Management Team who had to pay taxi drivers and bus drivers in cash.

Having cash available on-site was a great help for any unexpected expenditures that needed to be covered for the guest program.

Finance – MVP The invoicing system for MVPs to pay their There should be a better system to make sure that MVPs who


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Topic Description of Success OR Issue Recommendations Fees hospitality fees during the Games did not work. are trying to pay their registration materials are able to do so.

Healthy Athletes - Tours

This is one of the most successful non-sports related activities that the Games provided and it should be promoted more efficiently to attract the attention of first-comers.

Continue to expand on the tours.

Sports – Daily Schedule Updates

Having access to daily updated sports schedules was very helpful in providing the right information to the guests.

We should consider making this information available in various resources and ways.

Technology – WIFI and Phones

Wireless became a problem when there were so many people using it. The eggs were a great solution! Phones provided to staff were very helpful for communication.

Keeping phones for another day after the Closing Ceremony might be a good idea considering all the post-Games work that needs to be done.

Food Service - Athletes

Access for guests to eat with athletes was a huge success.

Providing more opportunities for this kind of interaction would be a benefit.

Communications - Documentation

The availability and quality of photos from the Games was not as good as the previous Games.

Citizen journalism is another sharing mechanism that might be helpful for this matter. The Relationship Managers should also be given more responsibility to make sure that there photos of their guests are taken.

Communications – Story Sharing

Although the information was handed out and there were business cards scattered around, the Share Your Stories idea was implemented ineffectively resulting in little engagement among the Guests.

We should encourage guests to set up an account on a website upon their arrival to share their stories. A fan feed is also another idea that may encourage people to see what they’ve shared on mobile boards. Providing free wifi and hash tags for creating this fan-experience at all venues wherever there is an event with foot print is crucial.

Communications – Blogs and Social

Blogs and online presence with the interaction of guests was not very strong and not managed.

Although a list that reflects which guests have media profiles that can help promote Special Olympics during the Games was


22 Special Olympics

Topic Description of Success OR Issue Recommendations Media created prior to the Games there wasn’t much done about it.

As staff bandwidth was most likely the issue, the Guest Management team should have one designated person who solely works with Communications and the guests on this activation. There is also concern that there were too many tweets that were re-tweeted that might have caused SOI to lose followers.

Events – May I Serve You

Worked really well. Great location, appropriate food.

Continue offering this program with parameters in place to ensure its success.

Events – Cultural Events and Festival

Guests really enjoyed attending different events every night and the list of activities was impressive.

Continue to make this a priority for the athletes and the Games.

Additional Comments

Topic Comments Recommendations 3T

Supplementary Materials

Document Location All Honored Guests Materials are available in the Honored Guest World Games Guide.

NOTE: Please attach any relevant documents, video clips and other materials when submitting this report. Do not attach very large files –

please place these on the server and list the file paths above.

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