Mega events are incredibly complex to organise – they are years in the planning and include complex networks of government entities, suppliers, associations and individuals, coming together to form a functioning organisation.But what happens when they end? Cities have been transformed, global audiences have been captivated, tangible impacts have been made. Then, within weeks, the organisation that delivered the event no longer exists.
- Spectators leave.
- Temporary infrastructure is dismantled.
- Equipment is returned.
- Venues return to their original purpose
The thousands of people who came together to deliver the event disperse into new roles, new countries, new projects - and sometimes out of the industry all together.
This is one of the defining characteristics of our industry; organising committees are temporary by design - they grow rapidly, operate at extraordinary scale, deliver something complex and high-profile – and then they wind down.
This ‘temporary’ mega event organisation model works in many ways - there is a weakness though, and that is in the capturing of lessons learned and the transfer of knowledge from one event to the next, or from one host nation to another.
Why this matters now
Host nations and rights holders are increasingly developing long-term event portfolios, rather than hosting isolated occasions. In key markets such as Saudi Arabia, Australia, the USA, Qatar, UK and the UAE, multiple major and mega events are being delivered within the same decade. Events aren’t one-off moments for the host nation – they are strategic vehicles for economic development, tourism growth, workforce capability and global positioning.
This creates an opportunity to build the next event soundly - the knowledge generated by each event becomes a genuine asset for the next one.As more and more event professionals recognise this, the question is shifting from whether it's worth capturing that knowledge, to how much is being left behind by not doing so. At Trivandi Academy, our work is at the intersection of workforce development and event delivery and we are seeing this shift playing out across every major market.
It also raises an interesting question for host nations delivering multiple events within a short timeframe – should knowledge management sit at the level of individual organising committees, or would it be better to centralise it across a national event ecosystem? As countries build their event portfolios, there is a growing case for the latter – a coordinated knowledge system that captures and connects insights across major and mega events, rather than allowing them to remain siloed within each organisation. Without this, the risk is not just that we lose the knowledge – it's that we repeatedly need to recreate it.
Events generate more knowledge than we realise
Every planning cycle, test event and operational delivery produces all sorts of knowledge and insights. Some of this can be described as institutional – captured in documents, operational plans, technical specifications, data sets and post-event reports.
But information alone is not knowledge.
The real value comes when it is transformed into something usable – case studies, playbooks, decision frameworks, operational briefs - tools that deliver the knowledge of how to do things well for future delivery cycles. This is important work, advancing quickly in the age of AI - organisations that are engaging with it are already ahead of the knowledge management game.
There is a harder challenge though - the knowledge that can’t easily be written down.
So what knowledge is hardest to capture?
It’s the understanding of why a particular operational model worked in one venue but not in another. The instinct that signals when a crowd management situation is beginning to develop. The quiet awareness of where the bumps in the planning road usually appear – and the judgement to assess risk quickly and make the right call.
This tacit knowledge is rarely captured in reports or operational manuals - it lives in people. And when the organising team disperse, it is this type of knowledge that goes with them.
For many years, the industry largely accepted this - host cities delivered a landmark event, once in a generation and the opportunity to reuse knowledge locally was limited, so the loss was accepted as part of the model.
But as the mega event landscape changes, and countries plan for multiple events over a longer timeline, capturing the knowledge to drive local capability development has become an urgent need.
How tacit knowledge actually transfers
Tacit knowledge doesn't transfer through documents - it transfers through proximity. It moves when an experienced venue manager works an operational readiness test event alongside someone doing it for the first time, and explains not just what to do, but why the decision matters at that moment. It moves when a workforce planner who has navigated the chaos of a major operational incident talks a junior colleague through how they read the situation and what they did next.
This is why structured, embedded, experiential learning - secondments, placements, observation programmes and integrated workforce development - is not a soft alternative to document-based knowledge transfer. It is the necessary complement to it. Trivandi Academy recently delivered an experiential learning programme in which a cohort of event professionals from Saudi Arabia spent two weeks embedded across functional areas at World Expo 2025 in Osaka - working within guest experience, event operations and cultural programming, and reflecting daily on what they were learning. They didn't just observe a mega event. They began to understand how one feels from the inside.
The industry has of course recognised this challenge for some time. Major rights holders such as the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and World Rugby have developed formal transfer of knowledge programmes, observation initiatives and reporting frameworks designed to pass insights from one host on to the next. These play an important role in continuity and institutional learning across specific event cycles.
However, they also have limitations. The extent to which knowledge is meaningfully transferred depends on how deeply individuals engage, how much context sits behind what is shared and whether the receiving teams are able to interpret and apply it within their own operating environment.What is captured tends to reflect what can be articulated – not always the instinct, judgement and situational awareness that define effective delivery in practice.
Operational plans, playbooks and post-event reports are essential. They form the institutional backbone of a well-run knowledge management programme. But they capture what was done. Experienced practitioners, working alongside emerging talent in live delivery environments, transfer why it was done that way - and that is the knowledge that changes how people perform under pressure.
The industry has invested significantly in the first category. The opportunity, and the gap, lies in the second.
Building knowledge transfer into the delivery model
The most effective knowledge transfer programmes tend to share one important feature – they are embedded into the work itself, rather than added on at the end of the event.Playbooks built during delivery rather than after it. Lessons-learned processes embedded in project management from day one. Workforce modelling that puts experienced practitioners alongside emerging local talent. These aren't complex interventions - but they require a deliberate decision to treat knowledge transfer as a deliverable, not an afterthought.
The deepest knowledge transfer happens through people - when experienced professionals work alongside less experienced team members, they pass on something far deeper than information - judgement, context, instinct and the kind of decision-making that only comes from having been in the room where things happened.
That’s why the connection between workforce development and knowledge transfer is so direct. A training model built around live delivery environments and learning in the flow of work doesn’t just develop individuals – it builds institutional memory.
From temporary events to lasting expertise
The mega event industry has professionalised enormously over the last two decades - planning frameworks have become more sophisticated, risk management more rigorous, operational expertise is deeper than ever. Knowledge transfer is simply the next step in the journey.
What this means in practice:
- Mega events are temporary organisations - when they end, teams disperse and knowledge goes with them
- Events generate more knowledge than is captured - and there's a distinction between raw information and structured, usable knowledge
- Tacit knowledge (judgement, instinct, context) is the hardest to capture and the most valuable
- The industry landscape is changing - portfolio event markets make knowledge transfer a strategic asset, not a nice-to-have
- The most powerful transfer mechanism is people - experienced practitioners developing emerging talent transfers knowledge in the deepest way
The organisations and host nations that invest in it will carry a real advantage - not just in delivering the next event, but in building long-term capability that lasts well beyond it.
Mega events are temporary – the expertise they generate shouldn’t be.
What’s the most valuable piece of knowledge you’ve learned on an event that never made it into a report or playbook?