The Olympic and Paralympic Games are about show business as much as they are about championships – a specialty for Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Gardena-based Joe Lewis Co., recently appointed as the official event production partner for the Association of National Olympic Committees, is ready to put on a good show for the world.
The long-term Grammy- and Academy Awards-producer is the first singular, multi-year events partner for ANOC, which historically relied on local agencies in each host city. As part of the partnership, it will support the association across global initiatives, stretching from the upcoming games in L.A. to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Besides being the official event production partner, it will also serve as a gold sponsor for the association, which represents 206 national committees.
The collaboration will involve creating an ANOC.TV Studio, acting as a key hub for interviews, live broadcasts and digital content creation during the games. The company will also handle official distribution of uniforms through the ANOC Peak Uniform Distribution Center and support major events such as ANOC General Assemblies and ANOC Awards, among others.
Joe Lewis, who founded his namesake company in 2000, told the Business Journal that the appointment is “a testament to all the hard work the team has done.” To accommodate the massive workload ahead, he said, the company will tap into its established local network and engage in the local freelance workforce with potential hiring plans going forward.
“I would say our ability to lean into our rolodex that we’ve established over the last 30 years is going to be one of the critical things that allows us to scale at the level we’re going to need to scale to.” he said. “Our job is to find a way to give (the less supported National Olympic Committees) the same exposure, the same engagement, the same support and the same hospitality that the larger and more well-funded NOCs have the ability to do.”
Gunilla Lindberg, ANOC secretary general, also highlighted the company’s extensive experience in a statement.
“It is essential that we work alongside world-class partners who share our commitment to excellence,” she added.
From mailroom to premieres
L.A. is widely known as the “entertainment capital of the world,” where major film and TV studios jostle for excellence. Like many others in the industry, Lewis’ experience began on a studio lot – starting out in the mid-1990s as a mailroom clerk at Culver City-based Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
From there, he quickly learned the ropes of event production and launched his own company targeting several aspects of the business, from corporate to music and sports. There was a gap in the market for comprehensive planners such as Joe Lewis Co., he said, and covering all sides of the demand has proven to be critical to survive ongoing economic shocks.
“We’ve survived a global pandemic and an entertainment strike and a crash in 2008. It’s because we’ve been so lean and nimble. Our services cross over to so many verticals of business,” he said. “The chaos that is event production is really what drives me.”
The company has quickly become a hot player in the scene. To date, it produced 18 Academy Awards, 10 Grammy Awards and multiple NFL Kick-Offs Fan Festivals. It is also behind some of the largest film installations over the years, including the 75-foot-tall foam sarcophagus for the 2017 premiere of “The Mummy,” in collaboration with Gardena-based Advanced Foam Inc.
The team quickly grew with the constant demand for event production in L.A., fueling a global expansion. Besides the headquarters in Gardena, the company also operates out of London, Abu Dhabi, New York and Nashville. Beyond being flexible – a core quality to thrive within the highly restrictive and time-consuming line of work – Lewis also attributes the success to the team’s network and experience.
“We are quite certain that we are going to get some phone calls and be requested to do some things that are unfamiliar territory to us,” Lewis said. “But we’re very confident that we can pick the phone up and find someone who can fulfill that … We may not have the answer today, but we will get the answer.”
As the collaboration stretches beyond the 2028 games in L.A., Lewis said, an upcoming Australian office could be on the line ahead of the Brisbane Olympics.
“If we don’t do our job (in L.A.), we won’t be there,” he said. “But in 25 years of business, we’ve never had that problem. We seem to always get invited back.”
L.A.’s Events Landscape
The business of live events gained massive following in recent years.
The independent live entertainment industry in California alone generated $18 billion in economic output in 2024, according to data from the National Independent Venue Association. Coachella and Stagecoach injected over $700 million each year into California’s economy, according to an April release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, with the former seeing almost 250,000 visitors over the course of two weekends last year.
“California’s creative economy is an economic engine,” Newsom said in the release. “Events like Coachella and Stagecoach don’t just showcase incredible talent – they power local economies, support small businesses and reinforce California’s position as the entertainment capital of the world.”
L.A.’s entertainment industry, though recently wrapped in turmoil, has over the years prepared the city well ahead of the Olympics, from extensive event spaces to concentrated production talent. With National Olympic Committees, delegations and sporting federations coming into town, the local live events stage is due for a significant influx of activity.
Lewis anticipated increased engagement with local production collaborators as the ANOC partnership trickles down the supply chain. The games are poised to produce $19.2 billion in economic output and over 88,000 jobs between 2024 and 2028, reported the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity. Much of that potential will turn towards small businesses and public infrastructure.
Upgrading the public transportation system and leveraging L.A.’s diversity will further present major opportunities for local enterprises, said Maria Salinas, chief executive of the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce.
“It’ll be like having seven Super Bowls a day for 17 days,” Salinas added. “You know how you plan for extreme weather? Well, you plan for extreme sporting events because that’s what it’ll be like, and we’ve got to make sure that it goes smoothly.”
