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The Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 champions social inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities and empowers them through sport. Described as the world's largest humanitarian sporting event, Xebia contributed by developing a special, predictive data analytics tool that could be used to improve the event and further "put people first."
The project grew out of Xebia's long association with the government of Abu Dhabi. Xebia worked with the event's local organizing committee to develop a predictive analytics tool with specific functionalities and features. It was designed to provide a seamless way to retrieve data while assisting attendees, athletes, and the entire event through data analysis. The application presented the event in a new light, allowing organizers to make decisions using real-time data while creating a repository of wide-ranging data for future events—offering an idea of what can be possible at similar events now and in the future.
The Special Olympics World Games tool encompassed the following capabilities:
Athletes' Monitoring and Safety
Made available to all games participants and representatives, the opt-in platform tracked the athletes' live location at different venues, monitored their heart rate, and tracked illness or injury. As a result, the tool was able to correlate athletes' data with their winning rate.
Strategic Information
The tool allowed users to gather live and raw data about social media impressions, volunteers' participation, youth engagement, viewers' attendance, and their feedback. This information is then subjected to Sentiment Analysis, thereby offering an insight into the real experience of the audience.
Operational Efficiency
From managing fleet operations by tracking fleet location, drivers, number of trips completed and rejected, distance traveled, drivers' ratings to an overview of transportation data such as bus check-ins, bus numbers assigned to particular delegates, and the number of absentees, the tool facilitated the management and maneuvering of operations with exceptional efficiency and finesse.
With such a wealth of data generated, Xebia was able to offer an overview of the in three categories:
- A pre-event statistical analysis of registered athletes, volunteers, staff allocation, flight arrivals, and fleet information.
- Real-time monitoring of athletes, social media sentiment analysis, transportation load forecasting during the event.
- Post-event data analysis, such as finding correlations and patterns to suggest future efficiencies and streamlined processes.
The Special Olympics World Games were founded in 1990 to serve athletes with intellectual disabilities through sports events. Over 7,500 athletes and an entourage of some 3,000 coaches from a record 192 participant nations took part in this year's Special Olympics UAE, which provided training and various competitions to enable these athletes to develop fitness, display courage, build confidence through physical development and foster lifelong friendships and camaraderie with fellow participants.
