Meeting the Future

How Megaevents Should Transform for Success

  • The Megaevent Challenge and the Future
  • Approach to Measuring the Full Impact of a Megaevent
  • What needs to be done to Adapt to this New World?

The use of technology will be a major tool for unlocking the best mix of capability, impact and safety for host cities and nations. Emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies and beyond will enable the transformation of megaevents and provide much-needed flexibility to match event objectives with optimal social, economic and sustainability outcomes for years to come. The question is how different types of technology can help achieve hosts’ objectives for a range of events.

They will need to balance the enduring value and spontaneous human interaction that comes with in-person attendance, with the safety and accessibility of virtual experiences. Given what has been learned about switching to fully virtual or hybrid events during the past year, we expect that by 2030, events that combine in-person and virtual experiences will be the norm. Welcome to the hybrid future of megaevents.

The WHO estimates that the global economy loses out on around $1 trillion in productivity each year due to workers suffering from anxiety or depression, the two most common mental disorders.

Executive Summary

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined good mental health as “a state of wellbeing in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”.1 The purpose of this report is to set out a practical program of action for governments, policymakers, businesses and communities to build mentally resilient societies where citizens are supported at every stage of their lives to achieve this state of mental wellbeing.

Improving citizens’ mental health is both a moral imperative and a matter of enlightened public self-interest. For example, the WHO estimates that the global economy loses out on around $1 trillion in productivity each year due to workers suffering from anxiety or depression, the two most common mental disorders.2 Mental health is more than merely the absence of diagnosed mental illnesses and conditions such as schizophrenia or substance abuse. Wellbeing is a positive state that requires constant monitoring and self-management.

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented mental health crisis, amid lockdowns, social distancing constraints, job losses, enforced home schooling and the sudden shift to remote working. Loneliness, anxiety, loss of self-esteem and a host of other issues have afflicted people of all ages who previously regarded themselves as psychologically “normal.” This connects with a critical theme in our report – the importance of breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health to ensure that such issues are no longer sources of embarrassment or shame for the sufferer, or dismissed by family, friends and employers.

The report’s perspective is deliberately pragmatic, drawing on PwC’s own experience of supporting its global workforce at a time of unprecedented stress, and on examples of best practice by governments, businesses and voluntary organizations around the world.

Key recommendations for governments globally and in the Middle East:

  • Fully integrate holistic wellbeing initiatives into mainstream public health services by 2025
  • Incorporate wellbeing into health outcome measurements by 2025
  • In the Middle East, collaborate to establish a wellbeing and high-performance innovation and research hub

 

1. World Health Organization, “Mental health: strengthening our response”, March 30, 2018, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response#:~:text=Mental%20health%20is%20a%20state,to%20his%20or%20her%20community.
2. World Health Organization, “Mental health in the workplace”, https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/promotion-prevention/mental-health-in-the-workplace#:~:text=A%20recent%20WHO%2Dled%20study,or%20getting%20work%20is%20protective.
 

Hide

Contact us

Hazem Galal

Cities and Local Government Global Leader and Global Smart Mobility Co-Leader, PwC Middle East

Tel: +971 4 3043393

Mounir Kabbara

Senior Manager, Government and Public Sector, PwC Middle East