Table of Contents

  • This book identifies how staging international events works as a trigger for local development, and what hosting cities and nations can do to ensure that a positive local legacy and wider benefits are realised. It reviews experience from more than 30 cities/nations and it looks forwards to future events yet to be hosted. Staging international events works as a catalyst for local development, but hosting cities and nations have to take precise and dedicated steps to ensure that a positive local legacy is realised. Whilst the hosting of major international events can be seen as an end in itself, it is also an unrivalled opportunity to get other things done by a nation or a city.

  • A new age of nations and localities hosting global events is upon us. The rivalry to stage Olympic Games, World Cups and Championships, Cultural Festivals, EXPOs, and Global Summits is more intense than ever before. Despite widespread virtual communication, large scale gatherings of this kind have again become extraordinarily popular. The global age is renewing the demand for global events. In part this is explained by the worldwide media attention and sponsorship that such events now generate. But it is also substantially explained by the local benefits and legacy that can be achieved for the place that hosts.

  • Hosting a high profile global event can be an expensive business. However, it is an investment that can yield high social, economic and financial returns to the host cities. The extent of these benefits depends on many factors, some of which can be planned for and controlled. The type of benefits can vary greatly in their size and duration, as well as the type of return.

  • This report now looks at the following categories of global events in turn, exploring a number of case studies in each instance, to further develop the analysis of how cities can be successful hosts. The focus at this stage is on mobile events - ones that are hosted by different cities each time and can therefore be actively bid for on a regular basis: 1. Trade fairs and exhibition events, e.g. The EXPO and others. 2. Cultural events, e.g. The Capital of Culture and others. 3. Sports events, e.g. The Olympics and others. 4. Political summits and conference events, e.g. G8, Earth Summits and others.

  • As has been seen, the nature and requirements of these types of events vary quite considerably. The scale of new infrastructure required to host a major sporting competition, in terms of appropriate sporting venues, for instance, does not compare to that required to host a 3-day political conference. Inevitably, therefore, different types of event will place a greater or lesser emphasis on different benefits available to the host city. This being said, many of the more indirect benefits associated with hosting a global event, such as image and identity impacts, events strategy or collaborative governance, can be secured from all types of event.

  • Whilst hosting one event is expensive, holding two is not necessarily doubly costly, and can yield much higher benefits. For instance, if new venues need to be built and can be used for both events, the initial costs can be shared. The theory behind such a plan is elegant and sensible, but it is technically very difficult to implement such a strategy. In this chapter, the cost-cutting approach will be examined and the possibilities and difficulties will be explored. If this strategy cannot be put into practice, there are many other ways in which two or more events in close succession can be advantageous. These benefits can be demonstrated with reference to the experience of cities that have been ambitious enough to host multiple events.

  • There is no doubt that the competition from cities around the world to host major world events, be they trade-related, cultural, sporting or political, is more intense today as ever. Arguably, the competition is actually even greater in the 21st century as cities in developing countries, previously without the resources or capacity to take on the responsibility of hosting a global event, are increasingly successfully bidding for events. At the same time, some of the oldest venues around the world (London, Shanghai, Madrid) continue to energetically seek the right to host events.

  • This book has largely focused on a retrospective assessment of how and hosting global events can produce local development benefits. It has focused substantial on the different kinds of benefits and the critical factors in bringing them about. It has stressed that such benefits are contingent upon good and effective management and planning.