During 1999 and 2000 while Mickey McManus was at the integrated marketing agency he cofounded in 1996, he built and led the team that created the second largest structure and experience on the Olympic boulevard at the Sydney Olympics for the summer games in 2000, called The Olympic Rendezvous. He was the creative director on the entire experience and co-designed the pavilion and key immersive experiences throughout the space.
For context it had 2 radio studios, a television studio, a night club, a performance space, a lounge for athletes and their families, and an interaction area for the athletes to engage with their fans over the course of the 15 days of the event.
Over 1 million people visited the venue. It hosted dramatic theatrical experiences with a 30 meter x 4 story high wrap-around projection system/stage, Cirque du Soleil performers flying over the crowds, and interactive spaces filled with 10,000 silver floating information bubbles that could be grabbed out of the air unlocking experiences of wonder for kids and adults of all ages.
It was featured as one of the top ten most visited sites of the games on major news media and appeared on the cover of Space magazine in the fall of 2000.
It was co-created and sponsored by Samsung for their first global Olympic sponsorship for telecommunication and media and featured Samsung’s new products in imaginative sculptural gardens, digital media tunnels, water falls, and interactive experiences.
The entire venue had to be designed, approved for construction, and built in less than a year on the grounds of an existing raw parking structure on the planned Olympic boulevard. Early sketches explored various ways to bring the venue to life using soaring steel rings and glass cubes…
… inflatable “air-kitecture” inspired by early pneumatic “muscle” based structures being explored by Festo…
… or tensioned fabric structures covered in sail cloth and illuminated with digitally controlled lighting.
Ultimately we engaged Arup for the design engineering of the structures, made tensioned fabric skins and brought a 60′ Jumbotron to the stage outside. We also tapped into Russian choreographers, British film makers, Circe du Soleil performers from Las Vegas, and brought in the digital lighting designers from the (at the time recent) movie “the Matrix” which had been filmed in Australia. We further worked with the interior design team locally in Sydney from Woods Bagot and coordinated the entire venue with Samsung’s agency, Cheil.
