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Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1067
BRAND-IDENTITY SYSTEM AND PARALYMPIC LOGO TO BE CONTRACTED OUT THROUGH RFPThe Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) has confirmed it will contract out the creation of its entire initial brand-identity system, including the separate development of a logo for the 2010 Paralympic Games.
And it will do so using a formal Expressions of Interest/Request for Proposals method, as demanded last year by the Canadian and British Columbian graphic-design industry. The system is expected to provide the baseline for the entire look-and-feel of the 2010 Games.
VANOC says it will issue the RFP on July 8 and the companies, who will number no more than six, that make the shortlist will get the document. It expects to award the contract in the first week of August.
The arrangement will only be in place from then until next March, which is when the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, will be over and VANOC will have the winter Olympics marketplace to itself. After that, it says, it will "re-evaluate its requirements", which is code for the likelihood it will then hire its own brand-development staff to bring the work in-house from that point on.
But that's in the future. This current concept for development of a brand-identity system will involve -- besides the Paralympic logo -- the relatively straightforward task of creating a brand-colour palette, which will be based on the colours of the two logos and Olympic colours, the necessary typefaces and secondary graphics. Somewhat more complicated, but otherwise straightforward, the firm will also design templates for corporate stationery, newsletters, fact sheets, Power Point templates, and the new website. The firm will also develop styles for the use of 2010 photographs and maps, and about 30 pictograms that will be used to identify various 2010 Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Another major component will be the development and production of the brands' tool kit. This involves a formal presentation about the brand along with a brand brochure or booklet, both of which will be used to "educate and inspire staff, sponsors and partners". The firm will also have the option to develop a new Vancouver 2010 promotional video -- the current one has been getting a lot of use -- along with a Vancouver 2010 mobile display unit that will be used for events and conventions, as well as at various locations during the Torino 2006 Games. The firm may also develop VANOC's marketing materials that will be launched during the Torino Games.
According to VANOC planners, brand marketing firms have to consider that the 2010 Olympics are, first, "Canada's Games, and secondly, they are a Games for the world, requiring a profound understanding of and demonstrated experience with national and international audiences." They say the objective of the imaging system "is to effectively build the Vancouver 2010 brand through an integrated, unique and extraordinary design platform with a heightened sensitivity to marketing with the full Canadian context: geography, language and culture."
The system they will instruct, is to "establish a strong, compelling look and feel for all Vancouver 2010 communications and public touch points. By the staging of the Torino 2006 Winter Games, the new Vancouver 2010 brand will be unveiled through an extensive launch of communications, promotional materials and collateral."
Though they may be Canada's games, according to VANOC documentation, the creation of the brand system and the Paralympic logo, is not limited to Canadian firms, as has been the case in most other VANOC supply contracts, nor in the development of the main 2010 logo, which was specifically limited to Canadian designers.
However, VANOC says that if a non-Canadian firm wants to be considered for the shortlist, which will be limited to six, it has to "indicate [the] nature and extent of [its] current operations in Canada or [its] strategy for conducting business and operations in Canada." And whatever firm wins the competition, it and " each of its directors and officers" will be required to agree to "VANOC and its security partners conducting at VANOC's discretion, a security clearance". That will include a criminal-records search and "such other security searches as VANOC may deem advisable." And, says VANOC, it will also monitor those security clearances as long as the firm is involved with VANOC.
The window of opportunity for providing VANOC with an expression of interest is July 5.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 20, 2005
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1066 Here are three moguls we ran into today:
- TEXT MESSAGES TO VANOC REPORT ROWING WIN
Two of the people who were first notified that Liz Urbach won the lightweight women's single sculls final yesterday at the Canadian rowing trials in London, Ontario, are senior executives of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC). Urbach worked on the Bid Committee and with VANOC's second-in-command, Terry Wright, the senior vice-president of Planning and Services, and said she also received inspirational advice from Cathy Priestner, VANOC's senior vice-president of Sport. Both, says Urbach, got text messages about her result. She's now on the Canadian team, which is to remain at Fanshawe Lake to train for the world championships in Japan in August.
- TORINO AREA TO HOST SEPTEMBER OLYMPICS FAIR
Here's something the city and regional government will be doing this September, about five months before the start of the Torino Winter Olympics to promote the Games and help market local companies and agencies involved. From September 9 to 11, they'll be hosting a fair, called "Mount Snow" in nine separate locations that will cover all major aspects of the upcoming games. For instance, one of these will be devoted to skiing, with artificial slopes; another will focus on the area's mountain rescue services -- it'll be called "SOS Village" and will featuring the people providing protection and security services, which in Italy's case include the army, the civil protection agency and police. Tourists will be able to try wines and foods, while other areas will be devoted to fun for children. Some of the focus will be on legacy activities that can occur at the mountain venues during the summer, such as mountain-biking and off-road cars. All the activities at the fair are free.
- 2010 GIVING BC 'CELEBRITY STATUS'
A lengthy article about BC tourism that's in today's edition of Canada's national newspaper, the Toronto-based Globe & Mail newspaper doesn't dwell on the 2010 Games, but it does say, "And even though it's still five years until Vancouver and Whistler will play host to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the hype and hoopla surrounding the event is already giving the province international celebrity status."
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 20, 2005
Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1065
MUSQUEAM AND VANOC TO "CELEBRATE FRIENDSHIP" AT FUNCTION TOMORROWThe Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) says that in honour of National Aboriginal Day tomorrow, VANOC and the Musqueam aboriginal band will be "co-hosting a celebration of friendship to nurture the relationships between the Musqueam Nation and the staff of the Vancouver Organizing Committee."
It's to be held at the Musqueam Administrative building in Vancouver, starting with a half-hour opening ceremony at 11am that includes Musqueam chief Ernie Campbell, VANOC CEO John Furlong and some as-yet-unidentified Olympic athletes. For the next half hour, ceremonial Musqueam dancing is to take place by the Musqueam Warrior Dancers and Sun Dancers, followed by a lunch that is to include Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell as the keynote speaker.
After the lunch, there is to be three and a half hours of "winter sports demonstrations, family activities, arts and crafts and a Musqueam history slide presentation."
The 1,100 members of the Musqueam's main community live on Musqueam Reserve #2 at the mouth of Fraser River on the southwest side of Vancouver. The Musqueam Indian Band's two other reserves are a small section on Sea Island, adjacent to Vancouver International Airport, and one in the Vancouver suburb of Delta. A number of the VANOC venues are being renovated on property that's part of the Musqueam land claim.
Problems with the Musqueam land claims forced VANOC last year to move the International Media Centre, which was to be built in Richmond, to downtown Vancouver.
Last November 24, the four aboriginal groups whose lands are affected by the development of the 2010 Winter Games -- the Lil'wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh -- signed an agreement with VANOC to ensure that their protocols and traditions would be acknowledged and respected throughout the planning, staging and hosting of the Games in Vancouver and Whistler. In exchange, these bands agreed to work, according to the wording, in a "co-operative and mutually supportive manner in order to participate fully in the Games and to take advantage of the social, sporting, cultural and economic opportunities and legacies that will arise as a result of the Games." The document is now known as the Four Host First Nations agreement.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 20, 2005
Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1064
SLIDING INTO CONSTRUCTION - PART 1 - HOW THE WHISTLER SLIDING CENTRE IS TO BE BUILT[Editor's note: This is the first of several feature reports on the process of developing the Whistler Sliding Centre, one of the major venues for the 2010 Winter Games, by the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC). The work is just beginning. In this report, we have a detailed look at the type of construction work to be done this year by VANOC and its contractors, and an overview of the schedule of construction work to be done between now and 2010, year by year. The overall responsibility for the work is borne by VANOC's senior vice-president of Venues, Steve Matheson.]=
The federal government's detailed environmental screening process for the Whistler Sliding Centre has resulted in VANOC providing a number of operational promises to Ottawa and others.
The 91-page summary of the six-month screening was required by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act because the federal government will be contributing most of the construction budget concludes there's no significant environmental or socio-economic reason to stop the construction of the Centre, so it clears the way for the federal Department of Canadian Heritage to advance construction funding, since work is about to begin. It's the department that also initiated the environmental assessment.
There is a lot to be learned in the report. For instance, VANOC says it has not yet finalized its preliminary agreement to even use the land on which it's building the Centre. The WSC project will cover 15.6 hectares of land owned by the provincial government, but the land is currently under long-term tenure to Intrawest, the operator of the Whistler and Blackcomb Mountain ski operations. VANOC has received approval in principle from the Province, Intrawest and the Resort Municipality of Whistler for use of the site. That's seen as primarily a formality, but in later reports, we'll see that's not the only set of agreements VANOC has not yet finalized.
However, quite a bit of work has been done by VANOC on figuring out how the construction and operation of the Centre will proceed under three major groupings: two phases that involve construction and preparation of the Centre for the 2010 Games, and the operations phase, which will start with VANOC in late 2007 and continue under a different owner after the Games end in March, 2010.
Construction of the WSC will include land preparation, road- and parking-lot work, the construction of the track -- which will be refrigerated along its entire course -- for the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton sports, infrastructure construction, and the installation of a refrigeration plant.
There are a lot of opportunities yet during the next few years, and the work is being split over three construction seasons that basically involve the spring, summer and fall until heavy snows begin. During the winters, VANOC and its consultants will be planning the programs for the upcoming season.
Construction of the WSC's track and access road, for instance, is expected to require logging and clearing, mainly within an area of second-growth forest, but some first-growth trees will also be removed. Auxiliary facilities such as buildings for the start and finish of the races, booths for timekeeping and signaling, a first-aid centre, a media centre, a bobsleigh shelter and open-air warm-up areas for athletes will be developed during the construction. A paved road will be installed parallel to the track, to allow for bobsleigh transport and track maintenance. Plumbing and refrigeration systems, including hydrants, will be installed along the full length of the track. Not all of the design has yet been completed. "The exact layout and configuration of some components will continue to be designed and refined during the detailed design phase, which is currently underway.
The preparation and construction phase also includes start locations for the men's, women's, junior and tourist starts; weather protection on the track and lighting both for specific events and for the facility itself; the refrigeration plant along with all of its piping systems and associated controls; the access roads that go from the base to the starts, as well as parking pads at the all of the starts and the finish locations. The base area parking lot is to be expanded and an access-road connection will be built down slope of the WSC by way of the existing Blackcomb Way. There will also be a separate track-maintenance route as well as a specialized track upslope to accommodate Snow Cats, the tractor-like vehicles used for maintenance operations.
This phase also includes construction of a cistern for water storage that will be used for the WSC when it's operating. There will also be a number of athlete- and recreational-support facilities connected with the main buildings, along with standard site-servicing that includes sewage, water, power and communications.
The major buildings will be the start houses, the sport-and-track operations buildings, the weigh house, a control tower, the maintenance facility, as well as both provision for the Olympic Overlay and installation of the temporary Overlay itself. The Overlay involves making the centre look like it's part of the Winter Games -- the so-called look-and-feel aspects -- along with spectator access, viewing areas, seating and a range of facilities that deal with security and medical systems during the Games themselves, all of which will be removed after the Games are finished.
The operational phase of work for the WSC includes a couple of winters worth of testing the facilities, as construction is due to be complete in late 2007, but it also will involve continued commercial-scale resource extraction or operation of manufacturing and processing facilities. The operations will also involve both on-site or off-site operation of utilities, such as the refrigeration system, water supply, waste disposal and electrical supply, running the operating-workforce facilities and services that deal with accommodation, food and services for health and safety.
Here's how all of this work is to be scheduled, in general terms, but it's useful to note that Most of the expensive track-related construction will be completed during next year's construction season.
Here's what's underway at the site now: contractors for the first part -- primarily clearing and grubbing, are being mobilized, and on-site construction trailers are being set up. VANOC is making arrangements, along with some of the contractors, with BC Hydro, the province's power utility, to import temporary electricity for the crews. Over the next few weeks, they'll also be preparing the sediment-detention pond for storm-water control, and start the logging and initial site-preparation activities.
One of the requirements imposed by the environmental-screening process is to protect nesting birds in the area. So, VANOC is in the process of completing a birds-nest survey, which has to be done before it can begin clearing work, to ensure that active nests aren't disturbed by construction or clearing. If a nest is found, a perimeter is placed around the trees to warn off workers.
Over the next few weeks, probably until the end of July, the tree clearing will be completed and work on road installation and upgrading, as well as work on the foundation for the refrigeration building, and the foundation of the track will be completed. The clearing and rough grading work will be done so that foundations of some of the buildings can be started.
From August to October, the work will continue on what has already begun but now moving up to do the mountain-road preparation work and they'll begin installing various retaining walls and, if the work goes well, they should get quite a bit done on preparing and grading of the down-slope parking lots. The refrigeration-building shell is to be constructed late this summer, if the road construction goes well, and the first layer of asphalt will be laid on the access road. Site utilities are also to be laid along the track route during this period, so they'll be ready to install when the track construction starts next spring.
Although construction will be shut down during the winter months, the refrigeration building will be prepared so the mechanical sections can be installed next year.
During next year's construction season, the access road will be finished, and the refrigeration building will be completed. The major effort during 2006 will be to complete the track, first by laying out the foundation structures, and then actually constructing the track elements. This includes laying the refrigeration piping, and carrying out all the fussy and complex concrete work associated with the track. Houses, buildings and parking associated with the track are also scheduled to be installed or set up next season.
Construction again will shut down during the winter of 2006/2007, but mechanical and electrical work that can be done inside will carry on.
During the last construction season -- the spring, summer and fall of 2007 -- all of the remaining construction work is to be completed. The completion of all of the infrastructure at the venue is scheduled to occur during early 2007. The track and refrigeration system are to be commissioned during the early part of the season, while installation of lighting, sunshades and weather-protection components will occur. The access road and upslope parking areas will be graded properly during the final season, and a layer of finish paving will be applied to all of their surfaces. Landscaping and venue finishing work is to be done during the last half of the 2007 construction season.
After October 2007, the Whistler Sliding Centre is to start a two-year period of testing the various sport disciplines using both events and training, and there will still be some construction type of work as the operations of the track and its systems are fine-tuned. During the two winter seasons, VANOC hopes to host several international events in bobsled, luge and skeleton. Construction crews will again move in, scheduled for January, 2010, to install the Olympic Overlay, and all of that will be removed, with more crews, during April and June, 2010. At some point following the Games, responsibility for the administration and long-term operation of the facility will be passed to the new owner as VANOC fairly quickly winds up operations.
One of the more carefully worded promises contained in the environmental screening report has to do with what happens when VANOC turns over the operation of the Centre to an organization currently nicknamed the Whistler Legacy Society. The Society is to be responsible for managing day-to-day operations of the WSC, as well as the Whistler Nordic Centre, and the Athletes Village to be developed at Whistler. The WLS is expected to be a non-profit organization whose members will include the federal and provincial governments, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, and the Lil'wat and Squamish aboriginal bands; the Resort Municipality of Whistler also has an option of becoming a WLS member, but has not yet decided to do so.
So far, the procedure and exact timing for the transfer of ownership -- and the transfer of responsibility for the operations of the WSC -- hasn't yet been worked out. However, the assessment says when that occurs, "at some point in the short term following the Games, VANOC assures that the long-term operator of the WSC will be instructed to maintain vigilance with respect to potential effects of the environment on the Project, such that they may take appropriate actions to identify and correct potential problems that are identified." There are no requirements for that concept to be legally continued beyond VANOC's tenure.
Next, we'll look at some compensation requirements by VANOC to aboriginal groups, some effects of the operations of the Centre, a preliminary look at mass-transit requirements and energy-sustainability requirements.
BACKGROUNDHere is are just the major tangle of laws and regulations that VANOC has to consider when building and operating the Whistler Sliding Centre:
- CANADIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
• Canadian Environmental Assessment Act
• Fisheries Act
• Canadian Environmental Protection Act
• Environmental Emergency Regulations
• Species at Risk Act
• Migratory Birds Convention Act
• Navigable Waters Protection Act
• Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act,
• Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulation
• Pest Control Products Act
• Pest Control Products Regulation
- BC PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT:
• Waste Management Act
• BC Weed Control Act
• Public Notification Regulation
• Open Burning Regulation
• Municipal Sewage Regulation
• Code of Practice for Use of Reclaimed Water
• Spill Reporting Regulation
• Special Waste Regulation
• Contaminated Sites Regulation
• Riparian Areas Regulation
• Fish Protection Act
• Water Act
• Wildlife Act
• Pesticide Control Act
• Highways Act
• Forest Act
• Forest Practice Code of BC Act
• Health Act
• Safe Drinking Water Regulation
• Sewage Disposal Regulation
• Food Premises Regulation
• Heritage Conservation Act
• Electrical Safety Act
• Canadian Power Engineers
• Boiler and Pressure Vessel Safety Act
• Gas Safety Act
• Fire Services Act
• Utilities Commission Act
• Workers Compensation Board of BC
• BC Fire Code
- LOCAL GOVERNMENT
• Squamish Lillooet Regional District Liquid Waste Management Plan
• Zoning Bylaw
• Building Bylaw
• Solid Waste Management Plan
• Municipality of Whistler's Bear Management Framework
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 20, 2005
Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1063Here are three moguls we ran into today:
- RICHMOND GROUP TOURS TORINO
In Richmond, where one of the 2010 Winter Olympics flagship venues is to be built, the chairs of three advisory committees to city council, five senior city staff and four consultants working on the speedskating oval have all just returned from an eight-day tour of other winter Olympic sites. It was similar to a tour sponsored by Richmond about a year ago, when it was bidding for the venue. The group toured the speedskating oval with one of its architects in Torino, Italy, where next winter's Olympic Games will be held and met with Games officials. They also toured the ice-hockey Olympic venue, the Olympic stadium, the short track speedskating oval and the figure-skating venue. And they also saw a presentation on Torino's trade and convention centre. They also went to Oslo, Norway, to hear presentations by the Petter Roningen, the man who ran the Lillehammer Winter Olympics in 1994 and had a look at its legacy sites, including a tour of the former athletes village and its ski jumps. The committee reps -- Kathleen Beaumont, a planning consultant and the chair of the oval building committee, Terry McPhail, chair of the oval steering committee and principal with Farrell Estates and stakeholder committee chair Cheryl Taunton, who is also president of the Richmond Sports Council -- will prepare a detailed report on their work for presentation to Richmond council in a few weeks. McPhail feels Richmond needs to ensure it reaches marketing agreements with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) to retain use of Olympic symbols on the building after the Games, as Lillehammer officials wish they had done. But VANOC's Dave Cobb has said that Richmond would have to choose between Olympic symbols post 2010, or commercial revenue from selling naming rights; it can't have both. And VANOC only has the rights to the Olympic symbols itself until December 31, 2012. However, Calgary received approval from the International Olympic Committee to continue using the rings and the Olympic name after the 1988 Games.
- SCHOOL BACKGROUND PUBLICATION DISMISSES OLYMPICS BENEFITS, LEGACIES
A Waterloo, Ontario, publication that writes backgrounders for schools to use in classroom discussions on Canadian events has written a largely negative article about the trade-offs politicians have to make between sport and "social good" in hosting an Olympics, including the 2010 Games. The three-page article, entitled "Circuses and Bread", talks dismissively about various benefits and costs for the 2010 Games, using benefits information published several years ago by the 2010 Bid Committee and costs from a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Using the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens as example, the unsigned article in "Canada and the World" claims,"Less than a year after the athletes went home, the Greek government has the highest level of public debt in the 25-member European Union. The International Monetary Fund says Greece will have to slash wages and social spending to get its economy back in order. The Olympic Village, which was to house several thousand people, is now empty and already in need of expensive repairs. Many of the sports venues, built in haste by unskilled workers, are crumbling. Almost none of the benefits that were to come from holding the games have materialized, at least that is for the general public." Other examples include the Sydney, Los Angles and Montreal Summer Games. The article adds, "People do make money from the Olympics. The construction industry is a huge beneficiary. hotels, restaurants, and bars make a killing; for a couple of weeks they get away with charging three and four times the usual rate for a room, a plate of pasta, or a glass of beer. The media makes gazillions from advertising surrounding coverage of the events." It also notes that Calgary's 1984 Winter Olympics and Barcelona's 1992 Summer Games were the only ones that left legacies that were useful.
- BC USES 2010 NAME TO PLUMP FOR NEW MANAGERS
The BC provincial government has begun trading on the fact that it's helping to host the 2010 Games as a routine incentive for hiring executives for the Ministry of Small Business, the ministry that's been responsible for the province's interests in the Games. In a series of public-service ads published today for an investment manager and marketing managers for the North American Free Trade and European Union areas, it says, as part of the enticement, "British Columbia is experiencing strong growth and will be receiving unprecedented attention from all corners of the world as North America's gateway to Asia and the host of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games."
BACKGROUND
Here's a sample idea for school students to talk about, as drafted by the authors of the Olympics article in "Canada and the World Backgrounder":
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896. James Connolly of the United States won a gold medal in the triple jump. But, to get to the Games he had to hitch a ride across the Atlantic on a freighter and travel across Europe by train. Spindon Lauis of Greece won the marathon wearing running shoes bought by contributions from his fellow villagers. Hungarian swimmer Alfred Hajos won the 100 m and the 1,200 m freestyle swims on the same day. For the longer race, the nine entrants were taken by boat to the open water of the Mediterranean and left alone to swim back to shore. None of these athletes had corporate sponsors, government funding for training, nor did they use performance-enhancing drugs. Can the spirit of amateurism displayed in these examples be rekindled in Olympic events? Discuss.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 20, 2005
