What every Event Director should know about IT Håkan Blomgren Chairman – IOF IT Commission

The title of my presentation Aron Less gave this presentation the title! I think it's a very good title, and I will do my best to give a presentation, without going in to details In the past, IT presentations have been a lot about hardware, software, bits and bytes, cables, performance etc. I will skip that part in my presentation, I promise 

Start from above In general: It's important not to make IT more complicated than necessary! Keep it simple  But on the other hand: One of the big challenges with IT is that small mistakes, can lead to huge problems… When starting your IT planning, start from above: What are you going to provide in the IT Area? …in addition to quality assured Punching and Timekeeping?

My background I'm Håkan Blomgren, Chairman of IOF IT Commission (ITC) I have been working with IT in my profession for almost 35 years The last 15 years as project manager I was responsible for IT at O-Ringen in 1999 when electronic punching was introduced for all 20.000 competitors. I know the importance of being well prepared, also for the unexpected! I have been a member of ITC for five years, the last three years as chairman   You are more than welcome to ask question during my presentation!

How IT has developed orienteering IT has been used in orienteering for almost 50 years The first years to publish results Electronic timekeeping was introduced in the 80's and electronic punching was introduced in the 90’s Over the last 20 years more and more "services" have been introduced Arena production Web streaming of Live results, Tracking etc. TV production

IT is an important part of an event It's absolutely no doubt that IT dramatically has: made orienteering more efficient to organise revolutionized how orienteering can be followed by spectators; on-site and remote IT is today a major part of an IOF Event, that needs to be planned well in advance! If not, it will be a huge risk for the event and it can be very expensive for the organiser

Some background facts! Quality is about how well you meet requirements! Without described and agreed requirements, it's not possible to measure quality! IOF - as all organisations - have to balance between what is possible in the IT area, with available economical resources IOF don't have the same budget as FIS, but we can do a lot with the budget we have! We don't have the money to build castles, but we can build very nice houses!

Some background facts! IT and human beings will never be 100% in combination! Technology sometimes fails, or doesn’t work the way you expect  People do sometimes mistakes… This is facts and must be the starting point when IT are planned!

Lesson 1 Do not only plan for "sunny days" scenarios, i.e. that everything will work fine Important and critical functionality must have contingency plans (e.g. Timekeeping)! What can possibly go wrong, and what do you do then?

IT for an IOF event IT for an IOF event have two main focus areas (in priority order): Fair Competition for Athletes Exciting Live Coverage for Spectators

Fair competitions for Athletes From an IT perspective this is about Timekeeping Electronic punching It's extremely important that this work! If this fails, the competition fails! Unfortunately we have had a number of IOF competitions that have been cancelled due to this It will happen again if we don't do a proper job! There must be redundancy, i.e. when system A stop to work system B will take over!

Exciting live coverage for spectators This can be a number of different services, depending on what the organiser have agreed on to provide contract with IOF, and the organisers own ambition! I will come back to this soon!

Lesson 2 Quality assured timekeeping and electronic punching will always have the highest priority! If one or both fails, the competition will fail!

What to provide? What kind of IT services should an IOF organiser provide? … in addition to Timekeeping and Punching? Below is a table with requirements, regarding live coverage for different types of IOF events:

Live production requirements The highest requirements are for WOC and World Cup in FootO, the lowest are for JWOC/WMOC in SkiO and MTBO It's important to understand that increased live coverage requirements leads to significantly increased requirements in other areas!

Lesson 3 Decide/agree with IOF, as soon as possible - at least two years in advance - what you as an organiser will provide, in addition to timekeeping and punching An organiser can provide more than the table above The more requirements, the earlier this decision must be taken

The whole picture The IT area for an IOF competition is built up of a number of IT sub-areas, that are integrated to each other. The picture on next slide shows all sub-areas that can exist for an IOF competition. By experience we know that each sub-area works well, if handled according to the suppliers instructions The challenge is usually all integrations, between the sub- areas!

The whole picture Some organisers do a lot of the work themselves, some organisers hire vendors to do different sub-areas

Lesson 4 When an organiser know what to provide, it's important to decide what to do themselves and what to hire from the market When this decision is taken, it's important to evaluate competence and experience in the organisation TV production "must" be hired, very few organisers - if any - have the equipment and competence for this

The IT organisation It's very important that the organiser have an IT MANAGER, that is responsible for the IT organisation The IT Manger is responsible for planning and managing the IT work, starting at least two years in advance An alternative could be to hire a company that takes responsibility for the whole IT area. Except for World Games, I don't think that has been practised at any IOF event Identify early what kind of competence the organisation needs! Do the organiser have that kind of competence! If not, it must be found somewhere else!

Lesson 5 Right manning in the organisation is critical! An IT Manager Identified important competence, depending on what the event will provide in the IT area It's also important to have deputies for critical roles, like IT Manager (in case they leave the role)

Planning of tests When the organiser know what to provide in the IT-area, and who will provide each sub-area, it's time to set up a plan for tests Tests and rehearsal is probably the most important part of successful IT Give integration tests a huge focus! And remember lesson 1, don't just plan for happy days scenarios! The sun doesn't always shine  Plan for rain and hope for sunny days!

Planning of tests It's important to test sub-arenas when it's still possible to do something about found problems An example: If you test GPS coverage in the area two years before the event, there are still possibilities to do something about it Two week before the event it’s a fact!

Lesson 6 Planning and doing tests and rehearsals - a number of times - are critical to get at successful event! Test, test, test, …

What are ITC doing? … to increase quality at IOF events? We have produced an IT Quality Requirements document What is the IT area for an IOF Event Follow-up routines Requirements on different sub-IT areas The document is on final review and will be released in a version 1.0 during February

Proven solutions and best practise In addition to the Quality requirements document, we have started to produce a number documents that describe proven solutions/best practice. Examples: Proven Timekeeping Solutions for Orienteering Instructions from suppliers of electronic punching systems IOF XML v3.0 (format to exchange orienteering data) …

Proven timekeeping Solutions Proven Timekeeping Solutions for Orienteering IOF don't have any certification program for timekeeping systems. The document describe proven timekeeping solutions for orienteering There are three different levels of requirements Level 1: 0.1s accuracy (WOC sprint final in FootO) Level 2: 1.0s accuracy (not allowed to punch on finish line) Level 3: 1.0s accuracy (punch allowed on finish line) The document is on final review and will be released in a version 1.0 during February

Instructions from suppliers How to prepare and test Electronic punching equipment Suppliers of certified electronic punching systems describe: How to prepare and test the equipment (for organisers) How to use the equipment (for athletes and coaches) – example from Emit Today Emit, Sportident and the Russian system SFR are certified The Chinese system LearnJoy have a provisional approval.

A page at www.orienteering.org All IT quality documents will be found at a specific page (during February) The page will continuously be developed with updated versions of existing documents and with new documents

Introduction of an IT ASEA IOF are developing a new role for major IOF Events IT ASEA – IT Assistance Senior Event Advisor The IT ASEA is a person that: Give the organiser advise Follow up according to requirements in the IT Quality Requirements document If necessary, approve non proven IT solutions  To increase the possibility to get IT quality at IOF events, I would say it's a necessity to have a dedicated IT ASEA. The SEA usually don't have time and skill to handle these questions!

Lesson 7 All high level IOF events should have a dedicated IT ASEA to increase the possibility to get successful IT The role will be appointed at WOC, starting at WOC 2018 Later hopefully at other high level events 

Thank you!