Along the month of August, Rio 2016 Organising Committee observers have been to London in order to follow the test events to the Olympic Games and exchange experiences with the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG).

Nineteen collaborators from different functional areas were chosen to experience the Test Phase together with the British, one year to the Opening Ceremony.

Check out the evaluation of some of them about the visit:

Mário Cilenti

NOCs Relation Department Director

“My main activity was to attend the Seminar of Heads of Mission, an opportunity to have 205 countries represented in the city. They attend LOCOG lectures, when it was presented all information and services for this client (National Olympic Committee). They represent the athletes. They are concerned about security, transportation, logistics, with the Olympic Village, with the venues, among many other subjects. London is doing a very conscious work and keeping in budget, always meeting the basic services for athletes. There are more than 200 different nationalities, with different cultural needs, in addition to languages, so we have to adapt our planning with the international planning. We are dealing with people who are, for example, in Ramadan, or who have disabilities or who speak languages whose experts are difficult to find here, then we start to plan now to comply with that type of need.”

Agberto Guimarães

Sports Department Director

“In General, the events were very well-organised. The tests served the purpose of thinking about the changes that are required. The most interesting point for us is that we worked with LOCOG’s Sports Department. We have arranged an agenda that would be complied while we were there. When they realized we were aware of all things, they shared with us many details that were not provided. We had access to many more areas and documents than we had imagined we would have. A great result was to consolidate a relationship of our area with LOCOG’s area thinking about what will happen over the year of 2012.”

Carlos Villanova

Communications Department Director

“It is amazing how many different areas can benefit from the test events, considering the amount of information, even if the events happen in a smaller scale than the Games. Marathon Swimming, Beach Volleyball, Badminton and sailing were the events I was able to monitor. It was very useful, for example, to notice details and problems related to the position of the press within the Sailing competition. Or the difficulties of having three Badminton courts operating at the same time, one beside the other. An important lesson came from the need of levelling the expectations, something that the British showed to be aware of. We always offer things we have a way to comply with. The press is a tense client, which is always under pressure because of its activities, it is important that they are aware and conscious, in advance, of the elements they will have to work with.”

Henrique Gonzalez

Human Resources Department Director

“The Observer Programme in an important programme of knowledge transfer. Regarding Human Resources and Workforce, specifically, it was very beneficial the experience with Volleyball, because they were doing a full test with respect to workforce. It was a ten-day event, which involved a number of about 600 volunteers. I was able to interact with these volunteers, it has showed me a great diversity among people. Young apprentices were boys between 16 and 18 years. There were mature people over 60 years old, devoting time. People who still have an occupation. Employed people that took the day off to be there. Anyway, it was a very rich experience to understand a bit more about the kind of volunteer works. It was really cool to see the engagement, motivation, their will to return to the Games in 2012. Volunteers are now automatically enrolled in 2012 and they were also being tested. About our relationship with LOCOG, it has been very open. They are very open to exchange experiences and tell you the things they have set right and the ones they have missed, which for us is fundamental.”

Regina Oliveira

Transportation Department Director

“I’ve been there a year ago. In Transport, there were 20 people. Now, there are 150. It was important to understand the processes they are experiencing, that are different from ours. About the tests, I was able to spend some time working with them and living that environment, I was able to ask questions, which was very good. We have learned several lessons. In recent months, I had some opportunities of having my staff working close to their counterpart in LOCOG, looking closely at everything. Rio 2016 has full access to the staff of LOCOG, and, for us, this is very positive.”

Rita Brandão

Project Manager – Venues Department

“It was very useful to being training the eye to the Games, especially for those who do not come from the sports field. I have managed large projects, extremely complex ones, but nothing like a sporting event of this size. It is important to have practical experience and on-site observation of what we were already learning on handbooks.”