Volleyball alive, wirelessly well
LIFE is a beach for Andrew Scotford. As chief executive of the Australian Volleyball Federation it is his job to oversee the Vodafone Beach Volleyball Tour.
This involves touring beaches from November to February and while also keeping in contact with the organisation he heads.
To this end, tour sponsor Vodafone kitted out six travelling team members with wireless Vodafone Mobile Connect 3G/GPRS data cards and two BlackBerries.
Scotford says he can't live without the VMC mobile wireless data cards. "I spend probably 50 to 60 per cent of my time out of the office each week through most of the year.
"I'm using the VMC cards pretty much full-time when I need to access things for the weekends and when I'm travelling. My job would be a lot different if I did not have them.
"Our event manager and our other tour staff all use the VMCs when they're off-site, wherever their base might be.
"It's used full-time to allow us to update results almost instantaneously on the beach tour. It also allows us to distribute media releases on the spot.
"It now provides that service to people involved with the tour so, for example, the media can come on-site and still able to load information back, instead of going to a media area, to a hotel or whatever.
"Having that capacity in the VMC is just awesome."
The wireless cards provide an immediacy that is expected by the 13-35 age group followers of the sport. They are familiar with an online real-time world and expect to see live results, Scotford says.
"It has been interesting watching the growth in the web hits now that people know the results are going to be there.
"It's particularly noticeable towards the end of the season, when it matters more who won points and how many. To be able to update that with a live score is important.
"For a sport like ours, getting a profile and keeping it is very important. The coverage is pretty good. Obviously, in 3G locations with the VMC it's very good.
"Sometimes there are little pockets where it's not perfect, but it just means you're not standing on the sand but on a boardwalk or something like that. It's not like having to relocate back to a hotel or anything.
"We update the website directly from the sand when we have full 3G service.
"We basically sit there on the sand. We have a code to access our website.
"The same for our people overseas. They can update the website or file a story or a photo and it's live as soon as the website is refreshed."
Scotford started with the Australian Volleyball Federation just before the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when Kerry Pottharst and Natalie Cook took gold on Bondi Beach, making the sport prominent enough to attract sponsorship.
Now the sport has captured the imagination of the public, Scotford is not about to let it go.
Technology is a big part of his plan. "We have a development program for youngsters aged 9 to 13. It's a modified program that can be played on any surface with a softer ball. We're trying to link that group with their heroes, whether it be gold medallists or elite players who go overseas."
The names of these younger players will soon be a few mouse clicks away from their heroes on the results pages, Scotford says. There are also plans for "new-media opportunities such as using Web 2.0 technologies to create a MySpace for the volleyball environment".
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Volleyball alive, wirelessly well
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