Kronos Enterprises: Delivering game-changing event technology to drive inclusion in sport

Special Olympics is a global inclusion movement that uses year-round sports, health, education and leadership programs to end discrimination against and empower people with intellectual disabilities. Occurring every two years, the Games alternate between the Summer and Winter Games.

Kronos was an official partner of the 2022-2023 Games that had over 7,000 athletes from over 170 nations compete in 26 sports across Berlin’s state-of-the-art venues. The project was completed over a two-year period in the lead-up to the Special Olympics National Games Berlin (19-24 June 2022) and the Special Olympics World Games Berlin (17-24 June 2023).

Lachlan King, Project Specialist and Business Analyst at Kronos, said that emerging and evolving needs for technology within the international sporting and non-sporting event industries significantly affect the growth of demand for more user-centric and cloud-based solutions for organisers to manage their events.

“Our objective for the Special Olympics was to deploy our fully customisable flagship event management system ‘Eventum’ to fit seamlessly into the clients' legacy systems and existing applications on a single platform, to help deliver one of the most successful, engaging and user-centric Games to-date,” said King.

King said it was an honour for Kronos to support the Games to ensure people of all different abilities can fully immerse themselves in sports, and big event experiences.

“The Special Olympics creates such a sense of inclusion and diversity. The event offers so much empowerment for the athletes. And it's not just about the athletes, it's about everyone involved, including families, fans and the event staff. There’s a strong sense of community and support throughout the Games,” said King.

Driving accessibility using flagship event management platform ‘Eventum’

Kronos’ engagement with the Berlin 2023 event started as the result of an initiated program of digitalisation which was integrated with critical benefits and scope, including:

• Developing and customising 26 timing software along with the integration (via Eventum) capabilities
• Utilising a digital and centralised diffusion portal (Eventum)
• Developing required Mobile Applications for two mega events (Berlin 2022 and Berlin 2023)
• Modernising existing equipment (I.e. photo finish cameras, swimming pool touchpads, sensors, consoles, etc.)

Kronos’ ‘Timing and Scoring System’ was deployed across all 26 participating sports – along with ‘Eventum’ which was used to capture, collect and diffuse all competition data on a centralised platform. The results were distributed through the Games’ various online platforms and channels including web, mobile app, and TV graphics on air.

The Information Diffusion Portal (IDP), Eventum’s competition platform functioning as a web-results page, was embedded on the event's official webpage. Eventum’s IDP offered content in seven languages, catering to staff, spectators, and athletes alike. The IDP saw significant engagement during the Games, attracting over 500,000 visitors and facilitating the download of 80,000 results.

“To ensure that athletes and their families maximised their experience, we worked closely with the Organising Committee to ensure that the event’s Berlin 2022 and Berlin 2023 official mobile applications of the games were user-friendly, accessible, and catered for various needs – whether it be colour-blindness, or reading and hearing difficulties. The app had more than 35,000 downloads between its release date at the start of June 2023, through till late June 2023 when the games came to an end,” said King.

“When developing these systems, there are lots of factors to consider, especially within the timing and results system. We change our systems based on the needs of the athletes. It's a big task to categorise these athletes into their divisions, because the athletes can have varying levels of needs,” said King.

Changing the way sports events are timed, measured and scored using a bundle of sport technology solutions

Kronos has a core team of 15 people spread globally. During game time operations, this number significantly expands. Originating in Ankara (Turkey), Kronos moved its headquarters and operations to Melbourne in 2017. Kronos also has offices in UAE, Germany, Turkey and staff working in various other locations, including the UK, US and around the Middle Eastern region.

Alongside the ongoing development of Eventum, Kronos has various event time solutions, including broadcasting, TV, scoreboard graphics, LEDs and networking support. King says that in the current landscape of sporting events, there are smaller federations and associations that lack that ability to adopt feature-rich systems to manage their multi-sport events.  

“While we cater for large scale multi-sport events, we also want to address the needs of these smaller organisations by providing them with a custom fitted solution. We've found many organisations struggle with managing data effectively and Eventum bridges this gap by providing a very flexible system that can meet the needs of these smaller entities,” added King.

Building networks through ASTN Trade Missions

Kronos has been a delegate in two European trade missions facilitated by the Australian Sports Technologies Network in 2018 and 2023. In 2018, ASTN facilitated the introduction between Korpe and the Special Olympics on the trade mission. Kronos is also in ongoing discussions with sports federations introduced from the trade mission in June 2023, with the hope of securing more European-based customers.

“The ASTN trade missions continue to be very beneficial for us. We have been able to quickly understand the opportunities that exist in the market for us in countries like Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and have been fortunate enough be introduced to a number of major sports events and federations who are interested in our solution,” said King.

Where to from here? The future looks bright for Kronos Enterprises

King says that the Special Olympics World Games Berlin opened a lot of doors for Kronos – and hopes that other future major sporting events in Melbourne will bring even greater opportunities over the next decade and beyond.

“The Special Olympics garnered a lot of attention for us. Other events and organisations have reached out to us as a result of the Games, looking to start the conversation to plan multi-sport events.”

“We believe that Eventum, our user-centric modernised software will soon change the realities of the market with “plug-and-use” features by minimising the time for pre-development at its maximum. The future is bright and we’re looking forward to continuing to deliver big event experiences to the wider community,” concluded King.

Learn more about Kronos here.

Listen to King’s interview on ‘Sports Cutting Edge’ here.