Training of Vancouver 2010 volunteers: a legacy opportunity?

The successful delivery of a mega-sport event depends upon a volunteer workforce. It is often asserted that the training of event volunteers contributes to the creation of a social legacy via the transfer of learning to other volunteer contexts; thereby creating an enhanced volunteer pool after the event that will support the tourism and events industries in the host communities. This article reflects upon the reality of that assertion and argues that in order to achieve legacy both training and development strategies are required. As such an analysis of data collected at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games around training and legacy is discussed. A Legacy Training and Development Model is offered and subsequently, applied to the case study. The article concludes by suggesting that training at Vancouver 2010 was a missed opportunity in achieving legac

Measuring socio-demographic differences in volunteers with a value-based index: illustration in a mega event

The phenomenon of volunteering can be analysed as a consumer experience through the concept of value as a trade-off between benefits and costs. In event volunteering, both the expected value (pre-experienced) and the perceived value (post-experienced) of volunteering can be assessed. With this purpose, an online quantitative survey is conducted with a sample of 711 volunteers in a religious mega event, with questions related to five dimensions of their experience: efficiency, social value, play, spirituality and time spent. These five scales, properly tested are used for building a multidimensional index of both the expected and perceived value of the volunteer experience. ANOVAs test show significant differences on the index in both moments upon the socio-demographic profiles: negative expectations/experience balance by age, contrasted results by sex, and more experienced volunteers being more critical with the value experienced. Implications for event managers are proposed, in line with the motivation of volunteers