Snow Jam 2009 Highlights
From the press release sent to me this morning: Snow Jam (FIS Snowboard World Cup Big Air Competition) drew an impressive crowd of 260,000 spectators, including 45,000 foreigners, to the center of the city over the weekend. A total of twenty-nine snowboarders from ten countries competed in the tournament. Switzerland’s Gian-Luca Cavigelli took first place, with Austria’s Stefan Gimpl and Finland’s Markku Koski finishing in second and third, respectively. The three-day event won considerable praise, with 92% of respondents (from a survey of 650) citing Snow Jam significantly helped raise awareness of Seoul to the rest of the world.
But all figures aside, the fact that a 34-meter ramp was set up right downtown along the newly revamped Gwangwhamun Plaza was reason alone to celebrate. And with Pyeongchang’s 2018 Winter Olympic bid looming just around the corner, city officials hope the event will provide a little added momentum in clinching the IOC’s vote.
The set below came bundled in the press release. You can view more here. The photographer, Oliver Kraus, is a PR coordinator for FIS.
UPDATE: This post was featured on Korea. net this morning (December 16th) under Blogging on Korea.
José,
No worries. And thank you again for your insight.
As for the number of comments I’ve seen belaboring this issue, I’m not really sure how to go about answering whether or not the figures are accurate or not, nor if they were exaggerated to generate a sense of greater appeal. Frankly, the event’s overall success alone accomplished that by a long shot. I think people fail to see that with all the focus being on the accuracy of the numbers and what they think city officials are trying to suggest.
I just think events of this nature and magnitude are meant to be enjoyed and not beaten to death over certain specifics. That isn’t to say that I advocate misleading people, but I hardly think the number count alone justifies whether or not Snow Jam was a success. And it certainly wasn’t used as a means of impressing the International Olympic Committee.
It’s funny you mention the Samsung CEO, as he was recently replaced. Our company had their pitch last week (provincial level) and Samsung’s seat was replaced with another high-ranking CEO.
Thank you, Gregory, for your answer and the oportunity to respond:
“260,000 spectators, including 45,000 foreigners”: I wonder how they measured that. There is a way of measuring crowds in certain spaces, but it’s not that easy to check their nationality. Well, Korea is the most wired country in the world, so someone has figured that out!
“The three-day event won considerable praise, with 92% of respondents (from a survey of 650) citing Snow Jam significantly helped raise awareness of Seoul to the rest of the world.”
No comment, giving that this was publish on Dec. 14th. As I said, this country is really wired!
BTW, norms of statistic research ask, specifically, to define who was asked what.
Finally: “And with Pyeongchang’s 2018 Winter Olympic bid looming just around the corner, city officials hope the event will provide a little added momentum in clinching the IOC’s vote”
Are they talking about the release of the same Samsung guy?
I still love your photographic work, Gregory.
José, thanks very much. As always, I appreciate your compliments. I couldn’t agree with you more that art should rise above all else when it comes to matters of branding. Unfortunately, politics always seems to get in the way. And releasing the press notes (figures and all) was simply a matter of formality.
As for this blog being sponsored, to an extent I guess it is. I have followed through on media requests to get the word out to the foreign community here. With the latest Snow Jam project, I have friends that were very much involved with its promotion and wanted to help out as much as I could. The city really seemed pull it off without a hitch.
I respect G. Curley as a photographer. His work is outstanding.
I don’t know if this blog is sponsored, so I could understand the difficulty of having a personal way of communication and publishing press releases.
As I said (badly written) is that art should be above everything else.
This competition was not about sports, art… It was about Korean politics and that obscure concept of “nation branding”, which means to get on top of the charts “by any means necessary”.
Having this competition downtown, with all the inconveniences for citizens to attend, with obvious risks, limited access…, just for the photo opportunity should have more people talk about it, instead of just releasing press notes.
As I said: I don’t know much of the story.
Fixed that link for ya, Chris.
Nice shots, indeed.
I want a press release… sniff… The extreme wide-angle is a little unsettling, but otherwise great pictures included…
The one day I forget my telephoto lens… Got some shots of the scene and crowd – they’re posted at my blog on http://chrisinsouthkorea.blogspot.com/2009/12/seoul-snow-jam-2009.html
Thanks, Daniel. You got some nice pics yourself on your site.
the pics are superb. cool stuff.
I’m however not that positive about the Olympics in Pyeongchang. I would love to have the Winter Olympics in Korea, but the crowds that usual winter sports events in Korea draw are rather disappointing. (besides figure-skating and short-track I guess…) Beginning of 2009 there was the World Championships in Snowboard at the Hyundai Sungwoo resort. I attended the Boardercross competition and only a handful of people watched the event.
The snow jam stuff though was very nicely done, though I was squeezed with dozens of halmonis next to me. But then this created quite an unique Korean charm.
salutations
daniel
This set isn’t mine. It came bundled with the press release I got this morning. Just as well, I was having some issues with my camera when I went out.
Art should be above everything else.
Your pics are great.
Now, I will go in shame.