When planning the Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics, the host country must balance artistic vision with the practicality of budget and time constraints. The financial success of the Winter Olympics depends largely on the popularity of the Opening Ceremony. A major percentage of the host's total revenue depends on television sponsorships; therefore, the Opening Ceremony is the perfect place to spark interest in the games, increase viewership and recognize the host nation's rich and unique culture. An interesting Opening Ceremony will result in higher viewership for future programs. Likewise, a lackluster performance may discourage viewers from watching the whole program or tuning in to future events. A limited budget unfortunately constrains the amount of participants involved in the spectacle which can limit variety of cultural elements included to represent the host nation. In 1994, Norway struggled with what to include in the performance, hiring and firing several producers and designers in the process. The tumultuous process is documented in the third volume of the Lillehammer Official Olympic Report. The LOOC agreed on having the following elements in the Opening Ceremony: Sami joik music, Telemark skiers, a children's choir, a traditional Norwegian wedding ceremony, fiddlers and folk dancers,
After deciding on the different cultural elements, the LOOC had to decide on how many participants would be involved in each performance. They wanted to maximize the amount of participants while still maintaining a strict budget of approximately 60% of the Main Ceremonies expense given in the parliamentary propositions. This limited the committee to approximately kr 57,000.
To determine how many participants would be involved in each performance, I created a linear optimization model and constrained the results underneath the budget limit. I approximated the cost per participant in each performance, taking into account costume expense, prop expense and/or professional fees. For instance, the children's choir has lower costs because the children were performing for free. The traditional Norwegian wedding ceremony would be more expensive per performer because of the intricacy and expense of the costumes and accompanying horse-carriage needed for the ceremony. For restraints, I required that there be at least 5 Sami joik musicians, 10 performers in the traditional wedding procession and 2 skiers to make sure those elements were clearly represented. (Otherwise, ideally, the Opening Ceremony would consist of inexpensive, amateur children's choirs) I also capped the participation of the children's choir at 250 because a larger group of children would require additional supervision, coaching and rehearsals which the hired producer would have to account for in his artistic vision. Rehearsal time and location was also already an issue in planning for the ceremony and was highly contested among the different producers.
The optimal result was 5 Sami joik, 2 Telemark skiers, 250 children in the choir, 10 participants in the wedding ceremony and 170 fiddlers and folk dancers. This result allowed 437 Norwegian citizens to participate in the Opening Ceremony at a total estimated cost of kr 56,810.
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| Lillehammer Opening Ceremony Postcard from 1994 |
To determine how many participants would be involved in each performance, I created a linear optimization model and constrained the results underneath the budget limit. I approximated the cost per participant in each performance, taking into account costume expense, prop expense and/or professional fees. For instance, the children's choir has lower costs because the children were performing for free. The traditional Norwegian wedding ceremony would be more expensive per performer because of the intricacy and expense of the costumes and accompanying horse-carriage needed for the ceremony. For restraints, I required that there be at least 5 Sami joik musicians, 10 performers in the traditional wedding procession and 2 skiers to make sure those elements were clearly represented. (Otherwise, ideally, the Opening Ceremony would consist of inexpensive, amateur children's choirs) I also capped the participation of the children's choir at 250 because a larger group of children would require additional supervision, coaching and rehearsals which the hired producer would have to account for in his artistic vision. Rehearsal time and location was also already an issue in planning for the ceremony and was highly contested among the different producers.
The optimal result was 5 Sami joik, 2 Telemark skiers, 250 children in the choir, 10 participants in the wedding ceremony and 170 fiddlers and folk dancers. This result allowed 437 Norwegian citizens to participate in the Opening Ceremony at a total estimated cost of kr 56,810.
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| My Linear Optimization Model *Note that data besides budget cap is completely arbitrary* |
