Be prepared

Before the Doha Games began, a reporter asked the Doha 2006 Organizing Committee "What if it rains on the day of the opening ceremony?" and the reply was "there's little possibility of rain that day." But things did not turn out that way. On the opening day, a heavy rain swept Doha, located in a Persian Gulf country that averages no more than eight days of rain a year, and many of the competitions had to be canceled. "It gave us quite a surprise, and it occurred to us that it's so important to prepare for all risks and uncertainties," an official of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) told Beijing Review.

"The Doha Games again proved that every slight detail has to be taken care of to make certain of a successful major sports event," the official added.

Participants praised the conduct of the Games. A veteran photographer who has witnessed many Asian Games and Olympic Games was lavish in praising the fields and stadiums. The lighting conditions were just perfect for photographers to take the best pictures. "This good detail showed the expertise of the organizers," he said.

"Doha hired world-class professionals to work for them and this surely contributed to their success," said Gao Peng, a Xinhua News Agency reporter. Statistics from the Doha 2006 Organizing Committee showed that the 2,400 managers came from over 20 countries and regions with Qataris making up a mere 15.75 percent. These staff members served at the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games and they knew where problems were likely to occur and how to deal with them.

"The multinational force helped Doha increase its efficiency," said Wei Jizhong, former General Secretary of the Chinese Olympic Committee and a consultant to the BOCOG.

Doha gave the spirit of multinationalism full play. The organizers invited bids from the rest of the world for every link of the organizing work. Information services were provided by a world-famous sports information company in Holland. Even the cleaning work at the information center was contracted to professional companies.

The volunteer services were also internationalized in Doha. Ten college students from the Beijing Foreign Studies University were part of the 16,000 volunteers at the Doha Asian Games.

The work of the volunteers was often trivial and sometime boring and the organizing committee prepared some incentives to motivate them. Each day when the volunteers checked in, they would receive a small gift, such as a badge, a bracelet or a mascot. "These small gifts didn't cost much but they gave a feeling of warmth to the busy volunteers, and they could feel that they were cared about," said Chinese volunteer Liang Suhui.

The Doha organizing committee also motivated the local residents. People in Doha often saw a sentence in Arabic on the car windows of the residents saying: We are all Qataris. "Simple words, but they activated the local people's patriotism and sense of participation. It's something we can borrow from Doha," said another Chinese volunteer, Zhao Hangyu.