Technology takes Ironman to next level

THE RACE is on. And this time, it just got big­ger and bolder.

In­deed, or­ga­niz­ing the Iron­man 70.3 Philip­pines has proven to be more in­tense and chal­leng­ing for both the or­ga­niz­ers and its host city.

But it was a chal­lenge that Ce­buanos had open-hand­edly ac­cepted as this al­lowed them to yet again show­case their ca­pac­ity to host the big­gest sport­ing event in the coun­try to date.

“Cebu is ideal to host this kind of an event be­cause in terms of in­fra­struc­ture and ac­ces­si­bil­ity, our city is ready and well-equipped. We can cre­ate a wide spec­trum for the par­tic­i­pants and the me­dia and event spon­sors,” said the Cebu-based, host-pro­ducer Lyn­don An­gan.

“Cebu like­wise of­fers a wide range of pre­mier brands of re­sorts and ho­tels that can ac­com­mo­date pro­fes­sional ath­letes and in­ter­na­tional or­ga­niz­ing sports bod­ies. Apart from this, or­ga­niz­ers, spec­ta­tors and ath­letes are guar­an­teed to en­joy the ac­tive sup­port and par­tic­i­pa­tion of the lo­cal gov­ern­ment units, which un­der­stand the lan­guage of sports tourism and its im­por­tance to each of the city,” An­gan added.

An­gan, who is a res­i­dent of the city, and the host-pro­ducer for the ca­ble TV pro­gram Make My Trip, has been wit­ness to count­less events that show­case Cebu’s com­pe­tence in han­dling huge crowds.

Home to Sin­u­log, which is one of the coun­try’s most cel­e­brated and ac­claimed cul­tural and re­li­gious fes­ti­val, Cebu is sim­i­larly more than proud to wel­come once again this year’s par­tic­i­pants to the Iron­man 70.3 Philip­pines event.

While host­ing an event as pres­ti­gious as the Iron­man can be daunt­ing and over­whelm­ing, An­gan noted that tech­nol­ogy has proven to be a huge con­trib­u­tor and a game changer in the way the race was or­ga­nized, and how it was able to bet­ter con­nect with sports en­thu­si­asts.

“Tech­nol­ogy proved to be very im­por­tant for this event as it al­lowed even an or­di­nary fan to get more in­ter­ested in the sport. It has like­wise al­lowed event or­ga­niz­ers to of­fer more mileage to spon­sors and to con­nect bet­ter with their mar­ket.

Tech­nol­ogy has em­pow­ered the or­di­nary spec­ta­tor by giv­ing them the power and op­por­tu­nity to bet­ter know the for­eign par­tic­i­pants and the celebri­ties com­ing to Cebu,” An­gan claimed.

“The large screens with live feeds that the or­ga­niz­ers will put up will pro­vide the crowd a glimpse of the ac­tual ac­tion and even be­hind the scenes up­dates. The tel­cos, by pro­vid­ing re­li­able In­ter­net con­nec­tion, will make the event more en­gag­ing,” he added.

Globe Tele­com, as this year’s of­fi­cial tech­nol­ogy and con­nec­tiv­ity part­ner, will pro­vide Wi-Fi con­nec­tiv­ity and lap­tops for the me­dia cen­ter, cash sup­port, and high speed in­ter­net to the game to en­sure that or­ga­niz­ers, ath­letes, me­dia and spec­ta­tors can have a won­der­ful dig­i­tal ex­pe­ri­ence which they can share with the rest of the world.

“Tech­nol­ogy al­lows the selfie gen­er­a­tion to have pho­tos and videos taken with their mo­bile phones dur­ing the pre and post event gath­er­ing of the triath­letes thus al­low­ing them to be a part of the whole spec­ta­cle and at the same time help pro­vide real time up­dates,” An­gan con­cluded.