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Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #744
LAWYERS RESET BRAND-PROTECTION COURT DATE; CSPS GIVES LIFE-MEMBER AWARD TO 2010 STAFFER; COFC PRESIDENT THINKS 2010 TO BE GOOD FOR PENTICTONSome more moguls we bumped into today...
- The B.C. Supreme Court case in which the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee is trying to shut down the website "Whistler-Olympic.com", currently being used by a German-based cell-phone content provider to sell ring-tones and sexually oriented phone movies, was today adjourned until next Tuesday without resolution. And even the Tuesday session itself is due to talk about available court dates, likely in the new year. Until last November 16, the day the lawsuit began, the domain name was used for the Whistler Olympic Real Estate website, which advertised investments in Whistler real estate, but it was apparently transferred to a German relative of a lawyer, Nikolaus Homberg, for the organization Algino Holdings in Brackendale, a village near Squamish on the road between Vancouver and Whistler. Nikolaus and Ingrid Homberg are listed as directors and officers of Algino Holdings.
- A Canadian working as the Canadian Ski Patrol System representative for the health & safety group of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Committee has been given a Life Member Award from CSPS. Dr. Michael Swangard, a retired doctor, is the 50th person to receive such an honour. He was also the third to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the province. The group with which he's working formulates plans that they hope will never be used -- they deal with emergency rescue work for athletes, officials, staff and volunteers during the 2010 Games and the events that lead up to them. Swangard joined the CSPS in 1974, has been a CSPS First Aid instructor and examiner since 1979, and he has been Canada's medical delegate to IKAR, the international commission of alpine skiing, since 1985. Swangard is still a member of the CSPS national medical advisory board and the developer, editor and publisher of the Pacific South Division News. He began working with VANOC earlier this year.
- Joe Morelli, the outgoing president for the past year of the Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce, in the south-central interior of British Columbia, says he's in favour of the 2010 Winter Games. Morelli says, "I think the 2010 Winter Olympics are helping the whole province. It spurred the new [Penticton] event centre as an Olympic legacy building because there are dollars out there to be had for that building. The Olympics are going to help us keep going. It will put exposure on this province for the next five to eight years, pre-and-post Olympics."
RESOURCES
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CSPS's website showing the organization's structure:
http://skipatrolbc.com/about.asp IKAR's website:
http://www.ikar-cisa.org
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 16, 2004
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #743
WADA CHAIR POUND RE-ELECTED; SALT LAKE PAPER URGES WOMEN'S SKI-JUMPING, NORDIC; WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES URGED TO BE INCLUDED IN SPORTSHere are some moguls we bumped into today:
- Richard "Dick" Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a director of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee, has been re-elected to a three-year term as head of the Agency. Pound says WADA, set up by the International Olympic Committee and headquartered in Montreal, caught 24 athletes accused of cheating this year, many of them at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
- The Salt Lake City Tribune newspaper has added its voice in support of adding women's ski-jumping and Nordic combined, which involves both ski-jumping and cross-country skiing, to the roster of competitions at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. Salt Lake was the location of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. The newspaper, in an editorial today, is urging the United States Ski and Snowboard Association to fully support it as well, so that the International Ski Federation will strengthen its lobby of the International Olympic Committee to add the female versions of the sports when it and VANOC decide in about 2006 on the issue.
- An international conference of 70 national delegations, 50 sports ministers and 200 high-ranking officials involved with Olympic and Paralympic sports has recommended that countries ensure that women athletes, particularly those with disabilties, be included in the development of high-performance athletes. The group met in Athens. Among those attending the conference were International Paralympic Committee president Phil Craven, IOC President Jacques Rogge, WADA president Dick Pound and UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 16, 2004
Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #742
NEW HAMSHIRE TRADE DELEGATION CITES 2010 GAMES AS REASON TO COME TO WESTERN CANADAThe American state of New Hampshire, on the country's eastern seaboard, is about to lead a a business and trade delegation to Vancouver, in part because of the 2010 Olympics, and Montreal.
The trade mission is scheduled for Feb. 13-19, which means it will arrive the day after many communities around B.C. will have celebrated the five-year-mark to the 2010 Opening Ceremonies.
Canada is New Hampshire’s largest international trading partner, with more than US$506 million worth of goods sold to Canada last year, accounting for 26% of the state’s exports. This is the first time the state is to lead a trade mission to western Canada, centred on Vancouver, with some excursions to Calgary.
"With the economic expansion taking place in the Vancouver and Calgary areas, now is a great time to expand New Hampshire’s reach to that part of Canada," said Dawn Wivell, director of the New Hampshire International Trade Resource Center. "Calgary is the fastest growing city in Canada with double-digit growth, and Vancouver, with the 2010 Winter Olympics, is already working vigorously to update and expand its infrastructure with about C$4 billion worth of projects."
Commissioner Sean O’Kane, of New Hampshire's Department of Resources and Economic Development, adds that "There are so many commonalties and synergys between New Hampshire and Canada, that this mission is ideal also for tourism businesses, cultural institutions and service providers."
Participating companies will receive customized one-on-one meetings based on their business’ specific objectives, airfare, business-class lodging and evening receptions sponsored by the U.S. Consulates in Montreal and Vancouver.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 16, 2004
Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #741
COPPS CLAIMS FEDERAL SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM USED TO HELP VANCOUVER WIN 2010 WINTER GAMES 2010NewsWatch A Vancouver community newspaper says former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps told its veteran reporter Charlie SMith that, in her opinion, the controversial federal sponsorship program played a key role in Vancouver winning the 2010 Winter Games.
In an interview with the Georgia Straight newspaper while promoting a book, Copps said that while she was the federal Heritage minister, she asked the sponsorship program, which is now the subject of Canadian judicial and parliamentary investigations over the way some of its money was handled, for funding receptions that were likely to be attended by International Olympic Committee delegates.
Smith reports that Copps, the former federal government minister responsible for the Olympic bid by Vancouver, explained that IOC rules place restrictions on visits to other countries to promote an Olympic bid. "So," Smith writes, "federal officials devised ways of approaching IOC members while they were in Canada attending sporting events," to effectively bypass the restriction.
Smith says Copps told him, "Actually, the sponsorship program helped us get the Olympics. Did anybody defend it? NO. They just said money has gone into Montreal. I know that when they had some of the world championships that came here, we would encourage sponsorship [officials] to host a reception so that we could hit up the IOC members while they were here.
Smith reports that Jean-Mathieu Dion, a spokesman for Heritage Canada, told him that the ministry had nothing to do with the sponsorship program, which was run by Public Workers and Government Services Canada. Smith notes, however, that the program was created to highlight the federal governments role in culture and sports, and that "its expenditures included C$250,000 on the World Weightlifting Championships in Vancouver in 2003; C$200,000 to the Molson Indy Vancouver in 2002; and C$17i5,000 to the Vancouver Canucks for the 2002-2003 season."
Smith says Copps explained to him that, "the federal government devised a strategy to woo IOC delegates from French-speaking countries. To accomplish this, Copps said she appointed a former Canadian ambassador to France, Jaques Roy, as a special ambassador for the Olympic bid, along with Raymond Chan, the now minister of state for Multiculturalism. On July 2, 2003, IOC delegates awarded the Winter Games to Vancouver by a three-vote margin. "Jacques Roy basically won us the Games, and nobody even knows his name," Smith reports Copps as saying.
Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee spokesman Sam Corea told the Straight that he was not aware that federal sponsorship program money was used to boost the Vancouver bid.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 16, 2004
Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #740
BUSINESS BUREAUCRAT TAPPED TO RUN B.C.'S 2010 COMMERCE CENTREBrian Krieger has been appointed the general manager of the 2010 Commerce Centre. Launched in October by the B.C. government, the Centre's aim is to be a "one-stop information source connecting the business community with 2010 Winter Games-related information". Currently a virtual operation belonging to the BC Olympic Games Secretariat, the Commerce Centre is expected to develop in a way that will include at least one physical office location by late 2006.
Before his appointment, Krieger was the Director of Linx BC, the provincial government's so-called "Contact Center Attraction Team", a government job-creation project aimed at increasing the number of call centres in British Columbia. In 2001, Linx BC was named the Best Overall Economic Development Program by Business Facilities Magazine of New York, and in 2003 it was named Program of the Year by the International Economic Development Council in Washington. Kreiger has also won an award as British Columbia's Economic Developer of the Year for 2003. He was also general manager of Trade Team BC, a group of federal, provincial and Vancouver-area agencies that help Canadian businesses establish new markets outside Canada.
Kreiger, before being hired by the provincial government is listed as the principal in several business ventures ranging from automotive services to advanced electronics. He has a degree in Business Strategy and Marketing from the VAncouver-area Simon Fraser University.
Kreiger expects the 2010 Commerce Centre to add what he calls "a procurement engine" within the next two months, to allow businesses to sign up for e-mail notifications of the types of business opportunities that interest them. As he puts it, "From an economic development perspective, this should allow you to keep an eye on procurement opportunities that might suit the companies in your region. With that knowledge, you may be able to help those companies develop a stronger response using some of the tools you have access to that they might not be aware of."
RESOURCES:
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Brian Kreiger contact info:
Phone: 604.844.1806
E-mail:
brian.krieger@gems4.gov.bc.ca
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 16, 2004
Morgan:News:2010 |General| #739
SEATTLE NEWSPAPER TOUTS EXPANSION OF SKIING, SNOWBOARDING IN BC AS LEAD-UP TO 2010 GAMES2010NewsWatchA feature article published today in the major daily newspaper of Seattle, a large American city just south of Vancouver, is touting the development and expansion of British Columbia's winter recreational resources, particularly those that focus on 2010-related issues.
The article, headlined "B.C. ski resorts are pulling out the stops", was mostly written by Steven Threndyle, a freelance writer who lives in Kelowna, in British Columbia's south-central Okanagan area. It was originally written for Tourism B.C. and distributed by that organization, while a local Seattle reporter, Greg Johnston, contributed.
According to the article:
"One of the biggest progressions in skiing and snowboarding [in B.C.] has been the development of halfpipes, superpipes and terrain parks. When the snow isn't dumping, this is where you'll find the future Olympians of 2010, training for halfpipe, boardercross and slopestyle competitions.
"Big White is leading the way with its Telus Park, which features a snowboarder/new-school skier playground that already is being touted as a pre-Olympic competition and training site.
"Serviced by its own double chairlift and lighted for night sessions, the terrain park features an Olympic-size 500-foot-long superpipe with 17-foot transitional walls that meets World Cup and X Games standards. There's also a standard-size halfpipe with 12-foot transitional walls, 400 feet in length, and a boarder/skier-cross course that can be tuned up to run regional, national and even World Cup events; yet that also can be tuned down for us mere mortals as well.
"The expanded rail park will feature segregated beginner/intermediate and intermediate/advanced lanes, so riders can learn at their own pace. Telus Park also benefits from snowmaking that augments Big White's copious 24-foot annual snowfall.
"As host to many events in the 2010 Winter Olympics, it's hardly surprising that Whistler/Blackcomb has the most highly regarded terrain park and halfpipe facility in the world. As host to the 2005 FIS Snowboard World Championships, a new superpipe will be built in the Base 2 area of Blackcomb, and it will be lighted from Thursday through Saturday for night-riding sessions."
RESOURCES
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Here's a link to the full article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/203863_bcski16.html
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 16, 2004
Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #738
PRINCE GEORGE TO HOST MAJOR 2010-RELATED BUSINESS CONFERENCE TO SALUTE 5-YEAR MARK TO GAMESThe city of Prince George, in north-central B.C., will hold what it calls "The 2005 Winter Opportunies Summit", a combined set of four major business and government conferences from February 9 to 12, to "celebrate business, sport and culture in Prince George on the eve of the five-year countdown to 2010 Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies."
Prince George has consistently been among the most active and organized communities supporting the 2010 Winter Olympics. The conference is being sponsored by Initiatives Prince George, Pacific Sport Regional Centre and Prince George's Spirit of B.C. committee.
The Winter Summit event is expected to draw what organizers hope will be "hundreds of business, government, community, tourism and sports leaders to explore the unlimited opportunities for Prince George and northern B.C. as we create legacies and sustainability from the 2010 Winter Games."
A number of local, national and international speakers will take part, leading discussions about winter celebrations and festivals, creating commerce based on 2010 opportunities, sport tourism and the idea that athletes need a "playground to podium" model of development.
Key events include:
- Commerce and Procurement, February 11: This conference is expected to offer northern B.C. businesses information about the 2010 Commerce Centre, which is an provincial government-sponsored web site launched in October to help funnel information about the Winter Games to businessess. The 2010 CC is expected to eventually procurement opportunities, procedures and evaluation, on vendor qualification criteria and on sponsorship, merchandising and use of 2010-protected logos, word-marks and slogans. The conference will also discuss BC Bid, the provincial government's public-sector procurement website, on which VANOC occasionally offers requests for proposals or invitations to quote, and "overall business opportunities created by the execution of the world's largest winter sports event," the 2010 Winter Games. As well, a long-time VANOC marketing-department staffer, Linda Harmon, will speak about how the value of the Olympic brand affects procurement by VANOC and the opportunities available in general to businesses in British Columbia for licensing and sponsorship.
- Sport Hosting and Legacies, February 11: This conference is to explore and generate opportunities to see where opportunities lie for hosting sports and legacy-sports development emerging from the decision of B.C. to host the 2010 Games. Organizers have set up the conference themes to focus on how northern B.C. communities can prepare so they will be better able to take advantage of the economic and social momentum, which the organizers expect will be huge, that is likely to be created in the years leading up to the 2010 Winter Games, and begin planning on how this momentum can be extended beyond 2010. An afternoon panel discussion is expected to include Marion Lay, president of 2010 LegaciesNow, the organization set up by the provincial government to work with VANOC and the Spirit of B.C. communities throughout the province to fund sports, arts and cultural events. She is expected to outline the opportunities available though her organization, with a focus on how northern B.C. can directly benefit from the Games. A late afternoon session is to include Dale McMann, chair of the Prince George Olympic Action Committee, to outline how Prince George is doing in the process to recruit foreign teams to train and compete in Prince George.
- SportMap Primer-Athlete Development, February 12, will deal with the development of sports in general.
- Winter Cities Association Bi-Annual Conference and AGM, February 9 and 10, which is focused on issues for municipal governments that deal with wintry issues.
There will also be an opening reception for delegates on Februrary 10, including welcoming speeches, a luncheon speech the next day by John Furlong -- who is a former resident of Prince George and now the Chief Executive Officers of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee -- an evening reception and addresses by Olympic summer athlete Graeme Hicks from Albury-Wadonga, Australia, who will speak about how his community took advantage of opportunites provided by the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Hicks set up the infrastructure for the Albury-Wodonga Festival of Sport and coordinated it for more ten years, initially voluntarily, and then on a professional basis. He also developed Olympic business opportunities, pre-Olympic and Paralympic Training impunities, and cultural reunions around those aspects of the Olympic Games. This culminated in more than 400 athletes and officials from seven countries training for the 2000 Games in the area.
Also, at the same luncheon at which Furlong speaks, Prince George mayor Colin Kinsley will outline the city's aspirations in supporting the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games and where he sees opportunities for the city and its people.
The Prince George conferences' closing ceremonies will be held at the City's Exploration Place, featuring fireworks, hot chocolate and the beginning of the five-year Countdown to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler.
RESOURCES:
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The registration page for the Winter Summitt conferences outlines their per-seat costs and specific dates of the events, along with links on the side to detailed descriptions of the various conferences.
http://www.wintersummit.ca/registration/
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 16, 2004