From February 10th to 12th, 2014, the BVIOC hosted a three (3) day Commonwealth Games Planning workshop at the Training Division Conference Room. Thirteen (13) NOC’s/CGA’s delegates from the Caribbean and Canada attended the workshop to gain theoretical and practical education on how to organize, develop, and plan for regional, national and international sporting competitions.
The British Virgin Islands Olympic Committee welcomed facilitators from Commonwealth Games Federation: Mr. Richard de Groen, Development Director based in New Zealand; Ms. Ellen Barwise, Regional Development Manager – Europe based in Scotland; and Mr. Ryan Pelley, Regional Development Manager – Caribbean based in St. Lucia. Also in attendance were representatives of the Commonwealth Games – Glasgow 2014: Ms. Kate Randall, Director of Games Family Relations and Protocol; and Ms. Sophie Coote, CGA Relations Manager.
The workshop was conducted as a lead up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games that will be held in Glasgow, Scotland from July 23rd to August 3rd, 2014. The workshop further provided an opportunity for National Olympic Committees to gain organizational capacity via Zeus, a web-based data management system, in order to more effectively manage athlete, official and sport federation information.
Zeus was established by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) to support its 71 Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) in managing their rapidly growing roster of athletes and sport federations. In many instances, National Olympic Committees play dual roles in also being a CGA. As the opportunities for participation in International Major Games increase, NOCs and CGAs must streamline their administrative and organizational responsibilities in order to better manage their growing workloads.
Mr. Richard de Groen stated that
“Zeus was created to assist CGAs in increasing their operational efficiency and Major Games Preparations. Games preparation and information management is an ongoing frustration for CGAs and the features of the Zeus database allow for increased efficiency in the way the CGA and National Olympic Committees can operate.”
The workshop was an overall success commented BVIOC Executive Director Mr. Cleave Farrington.
