FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 15, 2006

2006 FIFA World Cup Selects Inocon to Lead Readiness Project in Germany

Frankfurt, Germany
The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the German Organizing Committee for the 2006 World Cup™ Finals have retained The Inocon Group to assist in final preparations before the tournament begins in June.

In April and May 2006, The Inocon Team worked closely with Local Organizing Committee and FIFA executives and staff on creating a ReadySim™ validation and practice exercise for the World Cup Headquarters Operations Centre, and a number of Venue Management teams. The purpose of this real-time simulation was to provide an opportunity for tournament organizers to practice the complex operations of running the World Cup Finals prior to real full scale operations.

The Challenge
The German Organizing Committee recognized that a sophisticated operations centre would be required from where FIFA and LOC executives could direct the operations of the tournament. The challenge they faced was to properly conceptualize such an operations headquarters that would function as an effective communications and coordination centre, while maintaining the proper balance of centralized decision-making and individual venue autonomy.

Furthermore, developing such an operations centre comes with the inherent risks of understanding complex relationships between executives, defining their roles and responsibilities, addressing multiple-language issues, and finding an effective method of tracking and managing issues, incidents, and crisis situations.

On May 7, Inocon led the exercise participants through a simulated tournament day, during which time they were asked to respond to simulated crisis situations while also managing normal operations. This activity allowed organizers to practice usage of their operations centre, communications systems and structures, staff roles and responsibilities, and execution of policy and procedures similar to exercises Inocon has recently delivered for The Olympic Winter Games, and the Commonwealth Games, the ReadySim™ exercise for FIFA focused on communications and decision-making.

“Like the recent projects we have done for other premier international events, the World Cup project had to provide the event managers and executives with a clear sense for how well-prepared the organization is” said Darren Comer, Senior Consultant for Inocon. “We know that ReadySim™ can show very definitively where the organization excels, and where additional improvement is needed.”

About the Inocon Group
The Inocon Group is a global leader in crisis management planning and risk mitigation, specializing in operational readiness consulting for major sporting events, leagues, membership organizations, and professional sports franchises. Our Incident Management Programs prepare organizations to effectively prevent, plan and respond to an incident or a crisis. By continually deploying Crisis Management Best Practices our clients proactively reduce their exposure to risk, crisis and incidents. The Inocon Group is based in Atlanta Ga. with offices throughout the world.