“The exploitation of Technology during Athens bid for the 2004 Olympic Games” A. A. VEGLIS and A. I. FILIPPOPOULOS Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 39, Leoforos Nikis, 546 22, Thessaloniki GREECE Abstract: This paper takes as its point of departure Athens decision to bid for the 2004 Olympic Games and presents the multidimensional character of the I.O.C (International Olympic Committee) members’ decision as far as it concerns the election of an Olympic host city. Drawing upon the most important factors that play a decisive role in the pre-selection of cities that are suitable for staging the future Olympics, we discern that ‘Athens – 2004’ candidature dossier fully covered all the I.O.C. members’ prerequisites as well as convinced that Athens was entirely ready to host and stage mega – Cultural and Sporting Events of global range as the modern Olympic Games. The paper primarily deals with the technological content of the candidature dossier and in particular with the exploitation of Information technology and Telecommunications by ‘Athens – 2004’ in the process of submitting the candidature dossier, in the stage of preparation for the Games and foresees in detail technology’s penetration and need during the 2004 Olympic Games. Key-Words: Olympic Games, Athens bid, Information technology and Telecommunications 1. Introduction Athens decided to bid for the 2004 Olympic Games, at the end of 1995, based on the decision of the Plenary Session of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and the approval of the Athens City Council. Whilst the Athens endeavor for staging the Olympics ended when the President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, announced the committee’s historical decision, in Lausanne on September 7 th , 1997: “The city which will have the honor and responsibility to host the 2004 Olympic Games is Athens” [8]. Athens candidature dossier was structured in order to meet I.O.C. members’ desires and rules that determine the latter’s decision concerning the election of an Olympic Host City. In this context, the Hellenic Bid Committee taking into consideration that without modern technological infrastructure it would be impossible to stage the Olympic Games, widely acknowledged and exploited Information technology and Telecommunications as a crucial component of hosting and staging mega – Cultural and Sporting Events of global range such as the modern Olympic Games. Besides, the latter are a privileged field of experimentation for information and telecommunication technology for the reason that both of them are applied to planning and organization, telecommunication services, press and broadcasting, Internet and Intranet systems, archives and documentation [5]. In this paper, we perform a short yet comprehensive review of all information technology systems and telecommunications networks concerning timing and scoring, venue technology, Games Management Systems (GMS) and internal systems that are employed during the preparation as well as the 17 days that Olympic Games take place. 2. Allocation of XXVIII Olympic Games to Athens Unfolding the communication success of the Hellenic Bid Committee’s, we ought to define the factors influencing the decision of I.O.C. members’ votes for an Olympic city. We are able to discern that the most fundamental ones are: the quality of bid, past Olympic critiques, lobbying and corruption, election rules, world moral, Olympic principles and in general outside constraints as well as inner constraints, emotions and personality of the I.O.C. members.