HELLO FUTURE: The Future of the Olympics (Part 1)

Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Olympics are starting. I'm a big, big fan of
the Olympics, but the Olympics are changing this year. The
Olympics are Meeting the Future. Hello Future, It's me Ken.
This is a dispatch from the Digital Frontier. The planet
is Earth, the year is twenty twenty six, and my
name is Kevin Serrilli. I'm the founder of Meet the Future.
You can check us out at MTF dot tv. And
remember you can get all of the latest Hello Future
episodes by visiting your iHeartMedia app, and you can check
out all the latest episodes on our show on hosts
of different shows. He is a professor of Sports Business
and Sports Media at the University of Southern California, which
seems a lot warmer than it is on the East
Coast these days. Jeff Bellonser and Professor Bellonser, thanks so
much for showing up to Meet the Future and for
coming back. I know you've spoken on Olympic panels before.
You're going to be watching the one games.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Absolutely. I got a fun night tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
I'm going to go to a volleyball match between the
number one and two ranked teams in the country very
nearby where I live in Long Beach and then be
lying back and catch the opening ceremonies and start to
just get immersed in all all things Winter Olympics for
a couple of weeks, but always a really exciting time, Kevin.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
So, as you look at the Winter Games, and obviously
you're in Los Angeles, the twenty twenty eight Games are
just around the corner, twenty twenty eight, it's just around
the corner, folks. I'll stop talking now. But but as
it relates to, as it relates to what some of
the changes are for the Winter Games and just changes
in the Olympics over the last several cycles, what have
we noticed? What have you noticed? And I'm a futurist,
what should we be looking out for?

Speaker 3 (01:47):
I think I think it's a super exciting time. It's
kind of funny too. I don't know whether I mentioned
it last time I was on, but I'm moved into
a new place down in the Long Beach Marina a
few months ago and I'm looking out directly. I wish
I could share it with you. At the area that's
going to be used for rowing for the twenty eight Olympics,
I mean literally the stretch of water at Marine Stadium,
in Long Long Beach are going to have the second
most number of events eleven besides LA in twenty eight.
So I feel it every day, Kevin, because I wake
up and I'm looking out and I'm seeing activity there
and training and like, that's where it's going to be,
That's where the that's where the competition is. So I
kind of get reminded it's that's sort of like my
daily Olympic moment. And you know, and I think we
don't know exactly if there are going to be even newer, innovative,
cutting edge things that will happen between now and twenty eight,
and they're happening all the time. We're living it out
in real time the changes, and I think, I think
the way NBC is going to bring the Winter Olympics
to fans starting tomorrow night Friday night is going to
be exciting. I love the idea of the gold zone,
So I'm sure you do anybody that're trying to keep
track of the exciting moments spread around as Olympics are,
especially a Winter Olympics with moving to mountains and rinks
and you know, and and arenas to be able to
have uh that you know that that red zone format
which they call UH.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
They call it gold Zone. Used it for Paris.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Is really great, I mean to be able to keep
track of things. And then the UH was reading about
the feature called O l I. It's like a it's
like their version, NBC Universal version of AI. It's an
Olympic Guide and it gives you it's going to connect
you to highlights, metal count profiles, and you know, you're
always I think, Okay, what's the metal count or what's
the what's coming up, what's the So they have calendar reminders,
the metal count, athlete profiles, basically things just to enhance
the coverage and your enjoyment. So I think I would
say that's the biggest thing Kevin is is just continuing
to make it as fan friendly as possible and make
it easier to keep track and not make it feel like,
you know, a little bit overwhelmed. They're taking behind the
scenes the future is just bringing you as many behind
the scenes experiences as possible.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, I think it's fascinating just because you know, really
what they're doing is world building, and NBC has just
done such a great job in terms of, you know,
their history of the games and building this world. I
was reading in the Sports Business Journal that in the
Paris Games, more than one hundred thousand clips were generated
and they deployed artificial intelligence. You know, we're interacting way
more beyond just using letters and words. We're communicating via
clips and comics essentially of really what happens. And just
I find fascinating just how much we can project, you know,
personality and drama and storytelling in a three second clip.
You know, when Carrie strug or hockey makes a goal,
or Tara Lipinsky, you can really project a whole country's narrative.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
One hundred percent, one hundred percent, that facial expression, emotion,
it's it's the drama, the intensity. Like you know, growing up,
we really gravitated to Olympic storytelling. The only thing that
was that was frustrating at all was that it only
happened every four years, so you have you get these
great stories. You pay attention to sports that you didn't
really pay attention to in between the four years, like
gymnastics and you know volleyball, I mean basketball, no volleyball,
track and field events, and then then virtually every winter
Olympic sport for those of us Southern California, you really
didn't wasn't really a part of your life. The best
stories out there are in sports. It's a matter of
finding them. And the Olympics brings these great stories together,
so we can't find them. And a few purists said,
you know what it's it's like, it's a distraction, it's
what's this there? Well, it's got the score and the time.
You can't imagine watching any sport now that didn't have that.
But at one time that was. That was the reaction.
Even the glowing puck that Fox introduced for hockey, thinking, well,
hockey is a hard sport to watch on TV. What
if we put you know this like lightning bolt on
a puck to show when it goes in the net.
Wouldn't that make it easier a little more exciting? That
was rejected by the purests.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
I think it was an idea that was just ahead
of its time.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
I think the concept of making it easier to watch
it difficult to consume TV sport on television, hockey, which
is much better in person sport like good idea, let's
let's do something that can make it easier to watch,
and but reject it. But when I see some of
these innovations today I realized how far we've come because
we're so open now because technology has opened so many
doors for us, and having mobile devices that that that
that take us wherever the action is, we can connect
to it again. You don't have to just be sitting
in your living room, which is probably the best place
to watch on Olympics, but wherever you are, it's there
and like open your eyes and you can't imagine the
innovation that's here, that's coming, and we'll get a big
dose of it with these Winter Olympics.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Thank you so much. Professor Jeff felons or USC focuses
all things sports, di plomacy, sports business, sports media, so
much fun. I could talk to you forever, and I
know you'll be back on the program as well, and hey,
maybe I'll get to see you in LA in twenty
twenty eight. We're all focused on the future in twenty
twenty eight. Thank you, friend,