The record-breaking amount raised through the 2011 edition of l-Istrina would never have been possible without months of intense preparations coordinated by the President’s office.

The actual collection of the money is also largely down to the state-of-the-art infrastructure put in place by GO. Once marquees are set up, performers booked, games designed and presenters made-up, the real task is getting people to phone or text in their donations. But providing dozens of telephone sets for celebrities and volunteers to take the calls is just the visible part of the iceberg.

Verdala Palace did not originally have sufficient network to deal with the demands of this campaign, so the first challenge for GO was to extend fibre and copper from Rabat to the Palace, and then set up equipment within the palace to support the wide range of telecommunications services, including hot lines, pledge lines, general lines with ‘hunting’ facility, SMS donation lines, mobile connections, data connections for high-speed ADSL and an entire internet exchange in this isolated area.

The GO teams are by now used to connecting up remote locations – for the past few years, l-Istrina was held at Lufthansa Technik, also quite a way from major local exchanges.
 
In the case of the Palace, there were added headaches: work could not start outside until the marquees were actually erected. Also, the technical and aesthetic issues were compounded by the importance of ensuring that all the cables snaking around the extensive area were covered for safety reasons.

GO teams from engineering, IT and coordination had to work very fast and be extremely flexible, holding frequent meetings with the organisers to identify the best solutions. Once the cable was laid, it took 10 people over two weeks to set up the entire network. There were 70 telephones for donations from the public, and another 60 lines used for support and coordination of the activity. The outside broadcast unit required a TV connection, while auditors KPMG, who received all the cash donations, required a set-up specifically dedicated to credit card donations. BOV and HSBC required ADSL for their electronic points of sale, and a hybrid system had to be created so that voice calls could be put on air if required.

It was an intense few weeks, yet thanks to the input of GO staff, dozens of organisations will benefit from over €2.56 million next year.

Every year GO plays an intrinsic role in the management of communications for l-Istrina. Last year, €696,672 were collected from fixed line donations (GO and other service providers) and €115,460.82 from SMS (GO network only). In addition GO waived €22,280 in labour costs and for the installation of fibre. This year, GO also donated €15,000 in cash, €2,565 representing the amount matched by GO after hundreds of its employees took part in the President’s Fun Run, and €400 raised by selling memorabilia donated to GO by Gary Neville after GO sponsored his testimonial dinner in June.