Stcokholm stopover. Image copyright Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Sophie Luther
The Volvo Ocean Race Stockholm stopover has been chosen the ‘Årets eventarena', Event Arena of the Year, by the Swedish Event Academy EventAkademin at the annual trade fair ‘Eventdagarna' in Gothenburg earlier this month.
The city was awarded this honour for hosting and creating the most interactive and successful event as one of the stopover ports in the 2008 - 09 Volvo Ocean Race.
EventAkademin presented the award for Project Manager of the Year to Malin GunnÄng from PS Communication. GunnÄng was responsible for the project planning of all the content, events and ceremonies during the two weeks of the stopover. Mattias Rindberg, the director of events at Stockholm Visitors Board, also received a prize for the Volvo Ocean Race Stopover in Stockholm.
In June 2009, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet rolled into Stockholm, Sweden at the end of the ninth leg. The city was also the home port for Ericsson Racing Team, which had two Volvo Open 70s competing in the race: Ericsson 3, with a Nordic crew and Ericsson 4 with an international crew.
Ericsson 4 was the overall winner of the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race and took the Fighting Finish trophy home.
Stcokholm stopover. Image copyright Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.
The Volvo Ocean Race was by far the biggest event the city had ever organized. The city of Stockholm was able to promote itself on a global platform but it also brought a massive boost to the local and national economy.
The waterfront at Skeppsbron was assigned to create a temporary event area for the two week stopover because it could hold a large number of visitors who could join in on the fun of the many entertainment acts and get a closer look at the high tech racing machines.
The Skeppsbron Race Village was designed to attract visitors from all over the country and it achieved that and more, with over 700,000 spectators over the whole period and a record number of 160,000 on just one day.
The race village was not only a public venue, it was an important opportunity for the teams and race sponsors to be visible and have room to work throughout the entire event. The real success of this stopover was in achieving a balance between the exclusivity of the sponsors and the accessibility for the public.
Hosting an event of this calibre was a fantastic marketing tool for the city. Stockholm received extensive international media coverage during the entire race and in the stopover itself, 163 media were welcomed from more than 20 countries.
The next Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 will not be visiting Stockholm, but the city is already planning its proposal to be a stopover in future races.
Volvo Ocean Race
