Lessons from the Atlanta Olympics: Marketing and Organisational Considerations for Sydney 2000

This paper presents an overview of the lessons learned by successful and unsuccessful small businesses during the 1996 Summer Olympic games in Atlanta, Georgia, and considers their impact on organisations involved in the 2000 Olympiad in Sydney, Australia. With the Olympics in Australia now imminent, it appears that whilst the organisers have learnt and benefited from the painful lessons of Atlanta, there are still issues that are causing much concern even at this late stage of event organisation.