Creating Sustainable Mega Event Impacts: Networking and Relationship Development through Pre-Event Training

The primary purpose of this research was to investigate how relationship marketing, specifically networking, was used to create sustainable event impacts in the context of pre-event training for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The investigation employed Parvatiyar and Sheth's (2000) process model of relationship marketing. Three case studies in regional Australia were analysed with respect to how stakeholders used pre-Games training to add breadth and sustainability to the Games' impacts. Equally important, the study addressed how some stakeholders lost opportunities for economic development by not using networking and relationship development in their pre-Games training initiatives. Findings suggest that a relationship-based approach to a major sport event can expand short-term impacts for hosts into longer-term opportunities for tourism, investment, and trade relations.