Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition: November 2005

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

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Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1333

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC/ABORIGINAL PROTOCOL PROMISES MORE INVOLVEMENT IN 2010 OPERATIONS

The new protocol signed in North Vancouver this afternoon between the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and the four main aboriginal groups involved with the Games encompasses a number of areas in which VANOC says it will work with the groups so they can participate.

They include, says VANOC:
- VANOC's opening, closing and medal ceremonies;
- More opportunities than have already been offered to showcase native art, language, traditions, history and culture;
- Skills development and job training that will be oriented to Games requirements;
- Various arts festivals and similar events;
- "Lasting" social, cultural and economic opportunities and benefits;
- "Improved" health, education and "strengthening" of aboriginal communities through sport, economics and cultural development;
- A youth sport legacy, which VANOC has discussed at various times already.
VANOC says it has also set up department called Aboriginal Participation Department within VANOC, and that all four of the bands' chiefs will take part in VANOC's Torino 2006 Observation program, in which about 70 VANOC personnel will be observing the back-end of the Italian Winter Games. Those taking part will be Lil'wat chief Leonard Andrew, Musqueam chief Ernest Campbell, Squamish chief Bill Williams and Tsleil-Waututh chief Leah Wilson. "It is important for our children to participate in sport, so not only will we have taken part in the planning leading up to the Games, but hopefully our youth will participate as athletes in the Games," says Wilson. "It is our hope, along with the rest of Canada, that we win more gold medals than this country has ever won and that aboriginal youth are represented on the podium."

BC TOURISM INFORMATION KIOSKS MAY BE OUTLETS FOR 2010 BRANDS NEXT YEAR
There's an indication that tourism kiosks around BC could be selling 2010-branded items during 2006. Apparently there have been discussions to that effect with various chambers of commerce and tourism officials. At the moment only HBC-related stores -- The Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters -- have been selling branded items.

US SPENDING BILL TO SEND MONEY FOR US-SIDE INFRASTRUCTURE
A huge US government spending bill currently awaiting approval by president Bush will have some implications for 2010-related activities in Washington State. The president is expected to approve it before December 8. A US$425,000 appropriation in the bill is to go to Skagit Transit will pay for several new buses, which are part of a regional transit project aimed at accommodating expected additional traffic during the 2010 Winter Olympics in British Columbia. The spending bill would also provide about US$50 million in federal money to projects in Northwest Washington State, most of it to help with a US$46.5 million upgrade to the Blaine border crossing south of Vancouver, one of the two major border crossings suppliers, tourists and spectators bound for the 2010 Games would be expected to use.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 30, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1332
ZENKEL PROMOTED TO PRESIDENT OF NBC'S OLYMPIC BUSINESS UNIT

Gary Zenkel, who has been one of the main executives that has kept American broadcaster NBC connected with the Olympics, has been promoted to president of NBC Olympics. It's a position that puts him in charge of the network's Olympic business unit during the run-up to the 2010 Winter Games.

NBC is the American broadcast rights holder of the 2010 Winter Games, CTV is the Canadian broadcasting rights holder, and the European Broadcast Union is the broadcast/sponsor for most of the European countries, except for Italy. Negotiations for 2010 broadcasting rights still have to take place with Australia, Japan and India, and several other regions.

Zenkel has been the executive vice-president of NBC Olympics since 2001. "Gary is our great strategic thinker and a tremendous asset to NBC Universal and GE," said Dick Ebersol, Zenkel's boss and the chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics. Ebersol is also the point man who has been to Vancouver and Whistler several times in preparing for the network's coverage of the 2010 Winter Games. Zenkel, says Ebersol, "has kept us several steps ahead by constantly thinking of the future."

Ebersol says Zenkel will report to him on all business matters related to the Olympics, including new-media initiatives, marketing and promotion, technical operations and strategic business alliances. David Neal, the executive producer of NBC Sports and the executive vice-president of NBC Olympics, also reports to Ebersol on all matters concerning Olympic production and programming matters. For all other Olympic business issues, Neal will report to Zenkel.

Zenkel, who is also involved with managing General Electric's Olympic sponsorship interests, was one of the main executives who helped with NBC's successful bid for the U.S. rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics. He also works with NBC affiliates -- TV broadcasters at the state and city levels -- to help them offer localized coverage of Olympic Games, including profiles of local athletes. That aspect of NBC's online coverage will expand to television for the Torino Games.

Zenkel has held several positions since joining NBC in 1990. He helped negotiate contracts for the Olympics, Notre Dame football, PGA golf and tennis, among others.

He was also in charge of negotiations and business development for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. From 1997-01, he was the senior vice-president of business development and marketing for NBC Olympics.

NBC holds the U.S. rights for the next four Olympics, beginning with Torino in February, Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010 and running through 2012 in London, England.

RESOURCES

Zenkel was behind the creation of a website which will focus, once it launches, on NBC's Olympic coverage. At the moment, it's still under construction, but features a couple of Olympic film clips:
www.NBCOlympics.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 30, 2005

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1331

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

BC APPEARS TO BE WILLING TO LISTEN TO VANOC FINANCIAL REQUESTS -- BUT NO PROMISES

Intriguingly, the reaction from the BC government to the concept that the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is thinking about asking it to protect the value of the capital construction funding so that it's expressed in 2007 dollars isn't setting off the same earthquake-type rhetoric that followed a similar trial flag that was run up by VANOC board chair Jack Poole more than a year ago. B.C. Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen is saying the C$139 million contingency fund is available to be tapped for that if need be, and BC expects the federal government might be convinced to help with that fund as well. The BC treasury board would have to approve the release of any contingency funds. By International Olympic Committee bid rules, the original capital cost of C$620 million had to be expressed in the Bid documents in 2002 American dollars, and not allow for inflation or other types of escalation, to keep things consistent with other bids.

BC CANADA PLACE WEBSITE IN VIEW
The BC Olympics Secretariat, which is behind BC Canada Place, the log building to host athletes, sponsors and officials connected to the 2010 Games at the 2006 Torino Olympics, has set up a website that shows what the building will look like, as well as its layout and construction methods. The logs are from British Columbia, the building built in the province, then taken apart to be shipped to downtown Torino, Italy. It will be open for business between January and March. A set of double doors carved by Squamish aboriginal band artist Aaron Nelson-Moody is the centrepiece of the building. They show a sun face surrounded by the heads of eagles, with copper plates that resemble stone paintings. The website address is below.

PRINCE GEORGE DELETATION EXPECTED TO USE BC CANADA PLACE
One of the users of BC Canada Place is expected to be the Prince George delegation that's assigned to market the city for Olympic winter team officials that will be gathered in Torino for the Games. Spokesman Kathie Scouten of Initiatives Prince George (IPG), the economic development agency for the BC north-central city, says the group, "is working closely with the [BC] Ministry of Economic Development and the BC Games Secretariat to include Prince George within the broader provincial promotional initiatives, and will be using BC Canada House in Torino for a Prince George-designed marketing program that is already well underway. The five opportunities for Prince George's economic development that can be marketed effectively to the audiences attracted by Torino Winter Games are team hosting; trade; education; tourism and transportation." And, she adds, "The initiative will also be driven by a media-and-communications strategy." The delegation will be led by IPG and include sport, civic leaders and a media-relations person.

RESOURCES
BC Canada Place's website:
www.bccanadaplace.gov.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 29, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1330
WHISTLER SHORTLISTS FOUR FIRMS IN PLAN TO UPGRADE ITS WASTE WATER SYSTEM IN TIME FOR 2010

Whistler municipality has short-listed four proponents out of the eight firms that responded to a call for those interested in working on upgrading its wastewater treatment plant, made necessary by 2010 development pressures.

Whistler needs to beef up its sewage treatment plant by 2008 -- a project that is expected to cost more than C$26 million -- because of increased housing pressure due to the 2010 Olympics, among other demographics, and to reduce or eliminate the smell from the current plant.

The four firms are:

American Water Canada, a subsidiary of an American firm, which is owned by a British company and ultimately owned by RWE AG of Germany.
CH2M HILL Canada - A Toronto-based engineering firm with offices in most major cities in Canada, including Vancouver.
EPCOR Water Services - A national Canadian firm, with offices in Richmond, B.C., south of Vancouver
Veolia Water Canada - A France-based international firm, with Canadian head offices in Montreal.

Each will get a formal request for proposal in January. The idea is for the project to start next year and completed by 2008. Whistler only has about C$20 million set aside for the capital cost of the project -- with C$12.6 million of the capital costs for the upgrade being paid for by the federal and provincial governments, and it knows that the C$26 million price tag for the work, as estimated in 2003, probably won't cover the recent price surge in rebar/cement construction projects in western Canada.

As a result, it's proposing the upgrade be done through a "partnership model" where the private sector will design, build and operate the plant for 10 years, perhaps more. Whistler, under the proposal would continue to own the treatment plant, and would also set utility rates and deal with customer billing. All plant employees are expected to be offered positions by the new operator at the same wages and benefits for a guaranteed period. The union representing the workers, however, isn't reportedly unhappy with this part of the plan.

RESOURCES

The project has a website:
www.whistlerwastewater.com

--

American Water Services Canada:
Stan Spencer
Manager
Domestic Sales & Marketing
Phone: (905) 521-1988
Fax: (905) 521-9613
Email: spencers@worldchat.com
www.amwater.com

--

CH2M HILL Canada
Ian Rokeby, Vancouver Manager
Suite 2100, Metrotower II
4720 Kingsway
Burnaby, British Columbia V5H 4N2
Phone: 604.646.2766
Fax: 604-684-3292
www.ch2mhillcanada.com

--

Epcor contact info:
www.epcor.ca/Contact+Us/WaterContacts.htm

--

Veolia Water Canada (dba Onyx Canada)
1705, 3e Avenue
Montral, Qubec H1B 5M9
Tel: 514.645.1621
Fax: 514-645-5133
E-Mail: onyx@onyx-canada.com
Site: www.onyx-canada.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 29, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1329
QUICK FOOD AND CATERING TO BE OFFERED AT VANOC'S NEW OFFICES

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), when it moves into its two new office buildings in east Vancouver in the spring, will have lunch all ready for its staff.

VANOC planners say that they'll be hiring an outside firm in the next few weeks to set up a lunch kiosk, as well as offer some catering services, for the staff until a new cafeteria section is opened up in the building, which won't be until there's enough people hired to support it. The cafeteria won't be available until early 2007, according to current planning and hiring trends.

The in-house catering service provided by the kiosk food contractor will continue after the cafeteria becomes available, to deal with more formal luncheons and business meetings among VANOC staff, and representatives of its sponsors and other major stakeholders, all of whom will have offices in the buildings. The catering services are likely to be required during normal business hours for the most part; however some catering services may be required after hours. VANOC won't allow the kiosk to be branded, according to planners.

They also want the eventual kiosk/catering contractor to offer "inexpensive meals, compared to off-site options", so they will be wanting to know how open the proponents are to making that happen or even to go along with "joint price-setting." They are also asking for the proponents to confirm they would deal with cleaning and garbage collection from all of VANOC's common areas "directly associated with the outlet's business." And, they are also asking for information on the proponents' "direct costs, margins and overheads." Why? "To support an open and transparent relationship," according to planners, but it sounds like VANOC might be open to a cost-plus arrangement.

VANOC, for the moment, will leave menu planning, the types of food and such things as promotions, catering, cashiering, licensing and the necessary supplies and equipment that will need to be involved up to the kiosk/catering proponent to outline. VANOC will use its standard expressions-of-interest process to get some ideas on what firms want to do what, but it will be more closely directing the requirements during a following request-for-proposal process to the shortlist of up to six proponents.

Unless the proponents for this process also suggest they'll be happy to take on the cafeteria aspects as a component of their solution, that aspect will be left for another day.

VANOC planners are specifically saying this opportunity is open to firms beyond Canada's borders.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 29, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1328
ABORIGINAL GROUPS TO SIGN THIRD MAJOR PROTOCOL TOMORROW DEFINING RELATIONSHIP WITH ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the four aboriginal bands connected with the Games will sign tomorrow yet another protocol, this one defining the relationship between the Committee and the four acting as a group.

The signing -- involving the Lil'wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh -- will be held tomorrow at 1 pm at the Tsleil-Waututh's community centre in North Vancouver. The agreements are necessary because these groups are in various stages of settling claims on the lands on which the 2010 Winter Games will be held, and because of VANOC's decision to treat them as full supports of the Games.

Those who plant to be at the ceremony include Jack Poole, VANOC's Board Chairman and VANOC aboriginal director Gibby Jacob, chief Leonard Andrew of the Lil'wat, chief Ernest Campbell of the Musqueam, chief Bill Williams of the Squamish, chief Leah George Wilson, Tsleil-Waututh and Tom Christensen, BC's Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation. Because of a federal Canadian election was called yesterday morning for January 23, the Canadian government representative hasn't yet been decided.

This will be the third protocol VANOC has arranged with the bands and it will be accompanied by ceremonies similar to the ones that involved the first two. The first was with the Bid Corporation to ensure each band offered its support to the Games before they were awarded to Vancouver and Whistler by the International Olympic Committee. The second was signed just over a year ago when the four bands formed a partnership among themselves.

Tomorrow, the new one is to define the relationship between VANOC and the four as a unit, and, according to a VANOC spokesman, "the parties will acknowledge their commitment to working in partnership to achieve successful... Games."

VANOC, in order to get aboriginal support for the necessary environmental and social clearances in time to stay on schedule for the start of building the Whistler Nordic Centre, also signed a detailed list of requirements last February 2 that dealt with a number of aboriginal issues in the Whistler area.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 29, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1327
WHISTLER HUNTS FOR ARCHITECT TEAM FOR PARALYMPIC SLEDGE HOCKEY ARENA

The saga of the Whistler Village sledge hockey arena, proposed for the Paralympic portion of the 2010 Winter Games, continues with the municipality today looking for an architect team to help with the project -- whatever it may be.

It had been scouting for a development manager for the project this month, but the deadline for resumes closed Friday and municipal officials are evaluating them now.

Whistler municipal council voted unanimously October 17 to accept the C$20 million VANOC was offering to build the venue, and it also voted to continue researching the two concepts proposed for Lot 1 (from Eldon Beck and from a local business group), along with potential commercial components on Lot 9, and to determine as soon as possible whether a referendum is needed. The two favoured projects are projected to cost (in 2007 dollars), between C$32 and C$33.4 million. There are various technical issues with the proposals which are still being studied, and it would take about five months for a referendum and a subsequent tax hike if the municipality decided to borrow the funds. Whatever is decided, the facility has to be operational in the spring, 2009.

VANOC has agreed to amend the December 18, 2002 Venue Agreement to increase its contribution by C$8 million to be applied to construction of a practice facility, if the municipality doesn't develop the arena. That allows the municipality to plan a facility and figure out a way to finance it without losing the opportunity to develop a second practice ice surface at Meadow Park. Both the BC and Canadian governments have approve that amendment. VANOC prefers the municipality build the sledge hockey arena. An additional ice surface is needed for the Paralympic Games so teams will have full access for practice.

For the architectural team, Whistler's looking for expressions of interest by December 9, so it can shortlist three or four firms and give them a detailed and formal request for proposals.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 29, 2005

Monday, November 28, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1326
OFFICE MOVE NOW SET FOR "SPRING", AND STAFFERS WILL HAVE A NEW FITNESS ROOM AWAITING THEM

The moving date for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) from its downtown Vancouver offices to its new location in east Vancouver continues to slowly slide further into the future. But when it does move, its staff will have a fitness centre.

About a year ago, when VANOC had only recently moved into its West Pender Street location, it figured on being out of its two floors by December 31. By this fall, when it had located and agreed to the conditions of moving into the two, new adjacent office building near First and Boundary, and had hired a firm to fit out the new buildings, the moving date had also moved, to late January or early February.

VANOC, because it had outgrown the Pender Street location this fall, said it would have to take on an extra batch of offices in the downtown neighbourhood on a temporary basis while the new building was fitted up. However, a January/February move would mean relocating just as the organization was to send about 70 of its top people to Torino to observe the 2006 Winter Olympics, which start February 10.

VANOC CEO John Furlong said Friday that the organization now will be relocating to a new office space located in the east end of Vancouver, in the "spring" -- he didn't get more specific than that -- which puts the moving date after the Torino Games.

We now learn that the new location will have a health-and-wellness centre that will require an indoor fitness facility located on-site. The entire centre will look after 270 employees initially -- VANOC has about 150 staff at the moment and expects to have about 300 by this time next year -- but that will grow each year to eventually look after about 2,000 employees by the 2009. The size of the active gym space 1,683 square feet, plus change rooms and a shower area.

VANOC is now looking for firms that can provide, at a minimum, cardiovascular and weight equipment, along with an area for stretching. In addition, if possible, it would like to provide a designated area for wellness classes and fitness training, as well as all the administration of such a centre as well as look after the supply and maintenance of the equipment. Since VANOC is also focusing on Paralympic sports, all equipment and facilities need to be accessible for people in wheelchairs or with other disabilities.

Once a short list of about five or six proponents is developed from the companies interested, a formal Request for Proposals will be issued on December 16 just to them, and those applicants will be asked to help identify the possibilities and options available for the development of the centre and its and programming.

Companies interested in being considered for the short list need to apply to VANOC by December 9.

BACKGROUND
To visualize how big the fitness centre area is, picture a room that's about 40 feet per side.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 28, 2005

Friday, November 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1325

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

FURLONG CONFIRMS INITIAL SALES OF OLYMPIC BRANDS ARE STRONG

The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), John Furlong, says he's not surprised sales of Olympic-branded merchandise are healthy. HBC, without giving figures, says that such merchandise, which includes their Olympic team clothing line, "is just flying", and is one of the factors it hopes will help pull the company from its financial slump. Furlong says that he was at the opening of one of the company's boutiques, which are now in 500 stores across Canada. "In the first 10 minutes, they did a couple of thousand dollars worth of sales, and that was on the day they opened."

VANOC'S SECOND ANNUAL REPORT TO BE RELEASED NEXT WEEK
VANOC is expected to release its second annual audited financial report on Monday or Tuesday, according to Communications vice-president, Rene Smith-Valade. "We were going to release it this week," she says, "but there was one number that we wanted to double-check, so we decided to reschedule it." The financial statement is for the year ending July 31. VANOC released its first such statement on November 22 last year. The report was prepared before Chief Financial Officer Rex McLennan was hired; he only started work, after leaving mining giant Placer Dome, on November 21. The work on the audited numbers, prepared by Ernst and Young LLP, was supervised by vice-president and comptroller, John McLaughlin, and was reviewed by the audit committee of VANOC's board of directors.

VANOC TO BE BIG COMPANY BY 2010
Furlong says that VANOC will be "one of the largest companies in Canada" by the time it's full compliment of 1,200 staff overseeing up to 25,000 volunteers is in place by 2010. At the moment, VANOC has 150 staffers and Furlong expects to have about 300 working at the organization by this time next year. The current staff, he says, are already international in scope: they or their immediate relatives have origins in 10 countries and speak a total of 20 languages.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1324
FURLONG ASKING GOVERNMENTS FOR INFLATION ADJUSTMENT TO PROTECT CAPITAL-CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM

The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), John Furlong, says he hopes to have "a dialog" with the federal and BC governments about protecting the value of their financial commitments to VANOC's C$620-million construction program.

"What we're doing is having a dialog with them about the situation we're in, and it's just starting," says Furlong. "What we've been trying to do is get this construction season over with. It's over, and we've done well, we're happy with the outcome; we're happy with where we are [financially]. But we're getting into the toughest piece of the project now. What's a home run for us would be if the value of the money that was committed to the project was protected all the way to 2007."

Furlong says that the rules of Olympic bidding required VANOC's predecessor organization, the Vancouver Bid Corporation, to provided construction costs in 2002 dollars, even though the plans originally were to start construction in 2004 and that has now been delayed to finish the bulk of the capital works program in 2007.

"That's the discussion we're having, and how it will go, we'll see. It's a reasonable position for us to have."

Furlong says he doesn't know how much the 2002 value on C$470 million -- the component of the capital budget that would be most affected by inflation -- would be expressed in inflation-adjusted dollars. Most inflation calculations are done in Canada on the basis of the Consumer or Industrial Price Indexes, but those indices are not particularly applicable to the substantial rise in cost of rebar, concrete and construction labour due to shortages. An estimated C$37 billion in capital projects are on the books for construction in BC during the next three years, and many in the construction industry figure that those non-residential construction costs have escalated by about 40% or 50% in the past three years.

Furlong says that a thorough review of the projected capital-spending program in the Bid Book plans -- including the concepts of moving the 2010 Media Centre from a stand-alone building in Richmond to space in the big convention trade centre expansion in downtown Vancouver and the decision to limit VANOC's financial exposure on construction of a long-track speedskating oval to the budgeted C$60 million when the project was moved from Burnaby to Richmond -- has saved an estimated C$85 million.

"We've done a pretty good job on that," says Furlong, "and we're continuing to look at other ways and means [to save further expenses]. But our view is that if we can get that [inflation-adjusted] support, the problem is a far different one than it is. It's clear to everybody that the climate that we're in, all across the province is the same, what we're trying to do is get an absolutely remarkable result under the circumstances."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1323
PRINCE GEORGE TO FOCUS ON WINTER OLYMPICS IN EVENTS AND LIVE BROADCASTS IN FEBRUARY

There will be a strong focus on the 2010 Olympics in the north-central BC city of Prince George in February, with two events designed to highlight the importance of the 2010 Winter Games in BC. The events will occur on either side of the 2006 Winter Olympics, while February also marks the four-year-out anniversary of the 2010 Winter Games.

Mary Graydon, an Initiatives Prince George coordinator for the Spirit of BC Committee in the city, says the Committee will use the events as opportunities "to promote ways for the city's citizens to work on developing legacies inspired by the 2010 Games, while also connecting to the Games and contributing to their excellence."

The first of the events is the "2006 Winter Opportunities Summit: Lighting Your Community's Flame Through Sport, Business and Tourism". It's the second edition of a similar event held last January in Prince George, and this year, Graydon says, it has $120,000 in community support, with 90% of support coming from the private sector and ticket sales, including its major sponsor, Bell Canada, which is also a major sponsor of the 2010 Games. The second, says Graydon, is the Community Torch Celebration which will take place in February during the Torino Olympic Winter Games.

The Winter Opportunities Summit (WOS), she says, combines northern businesses, sport and culture, "by providing a forum for northerners to learn about and take advantage of the immense opportunities arising from British Columbia's hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games." About 250 delegates from BC and Alberta, are expected for the three-day event, which is due to start February 9. "The WOS presents ways to use the 2010 Games as a catalyst to further develop and strengthen existing capacities in Prince George and throughout the region in key areas. It is a summit for those already in positions of leadership in their communities whether in business, the volunteer sector or municipal and other levels of government," says Graydon.

The keynote speaker is scheduled to be Susan Auch, a three-time Olympic speedskating medalist at a luncheon that will be open to the pubic and expects to draw up to 400 people.

Meanwhile, the Community Torch Celebration will take place at Prince George's Canadian National Railway Centre on February 26th, where there will be public broadcasts of the gold-medal men's hockey game live from Torino, as well as the Closing Ceremonies of the Torino Winter Olympic Games, during which the Olympic Torch is handed to Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, followed by a six-minute "We're Next" video showing BC images from throughout the province.

Graydon notes that passing of the Torch will be a highlight the city's Celebration because the CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, John Furlong, confirmed this week that Prince George will be one of the Torch Relay's last stops on its way to Vancouver and Whistler in 2010.

RESOURCES

Prince George Spirit of BC Community Committee
www.pgspiritofbc.com

2006 Winter Opportunities Summit
www.wintersummit.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1322
FURLONG TAKES MESSAGE OF INVOLVEMENT IN 2010 GAMES TO NORTHERN BC

The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee took his message that all Canadians should be involved in the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games to several town halls from Prince Rupert to Prince George along the Yellowhead Highway in northern BC this week.

John Furlong, who is due to give what he calls his annual report on the status of the Games to the Vancouver Board of Trade this afternoon, told town meetings in the north that he wants all Canadians to feel about the 2010 Games what he felt at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.

Although his primary job at those Games was to round up Olympic delegate votes for Vancouver's bid, he was awe-struck by what happened after the Canadian women's hockey team had won gold by defeating the US women's team. About two minutes before the end of the Canada-US men's gold championship hockey game, which Canada won: All of the Canadians in the crowd at the hard-fought, skilful game stood up and began singing the national anthem, "O Canada".

"Wouldn't it be something not just do it in hockey, but in everything?" he asked a crowd in Prince Rupert, on BC's northern coast.

He told meetings that the general question he hears from outside of the Vancouver-Whistler corridor is, "What's in it for me?" He said he answers by asking, "What can you do to contribute to the Games?" In Prince George, he said the decision of the city's council to spend up to C$38,000 to send a delegation to Torino to pitch the city as a place for teams to train was "a terrific strategy." And, he added, "Just by being in Torino, you'll know what it's like and what works in the environment."

Furlong cited several things he felt would lead to successful Olympic Games in 2010: Keeping the promises VANOC has made, that he assembles a team that's good enough to deliver on those promises, to ensure that sport development funds are focused in areas where Canada has a good chance of winning medals -- he cited the "Own the Podium" program for which VANOC is in the process of raising C$55 million -- and Canada-wide involvement, including the aboriginal community -- in the Games.

He also said that the 2010 torch relay, expected at the moment to start 115 days out from the Games, will try to touch as many communities in Canada as possible, even to the Queen Charlotte Islands, which he called by its aboriginal name, Haida Gwaii, west of Prince Rupert. He also says that volunteers to help with the Games -- about 25,000 will be needed -- will come from all parts of Canada.

"Every child can be world class. That's the real message of what we're trying to do," he said.

Furlong spoke at aboriginal cultural centres and to elementary schools in the communities, which have a relatively large aboriginal component, focusing on including aboriginal people in the Games, underlining the fact that VANOC has hosting agreements with the four aboriginal bands that are in the Whistler and Vancouver areas.

With him was Gibby Jacob, who is a VANOC director and chief of the Squamish aboriginal band, one of those four. Furlong was also accompanied by Lara Mussell Savage of Chilliwack, east of Vancouver. She was twice a world champion in the sport of ultimate and the Aboriginal Sport Circle's 2005 Female Aboriginal Athlete of the Year. She said she was determined to get to the Olympics as she watched the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a 10-year-old. "I was a kid just like you who just wanted to see how far I could go," she told the elementary students. "You don't have to wait for 2010 to start dreaming big."

Furlong, who has negotiated a Games-support agreement with the province of Quebec and is working on one with Ontario, is due to make a series of his trademarked "Best you can be" speeches in cities across Canada following his return from observing, along with a large part of his Organizing Committee, the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 25, 2005

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1321

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

VANOC DIRECTOR ROGERS AMONG CANADA'S MOST POWERFUL WOMEN

A director of VANOC has been ranked in the top 100 of Canada's most powerful women -- for the third consecutive year. The acknowledgement was given to Judy Rogers, who is also Vancouver's city manager, by the Toronto-based Women's Executive Network. Rogers was recognized in the Public Sector Leaders category. She was appointed to the VANOC Board in 2003 as Vancouver's representative on it. She has held the role of the city's manager since 1999, and was the first woman to be appointed to the position. The organization's annual Top 100 Award is for the accomplishments of Canadian women in several categories: corporate executives, entrepreneurs, public sector leaders, trailblazers, champions, professionals and future leaders. The first three categories, including public-sector leaders, are only nominated by the organization's Advisory Board against what they call "defined, measurable criteria." In Roger's case, the category is for women who hold the most senior positions in Canada's largest public sector organizations, in descending order of operating budget. Rogers was selected from among six nominees from each of this category's two groupings: federal government departments and provincial ministries with a minimum C$1 billion operating budget; and, universities, municipalities, hospitals and regional health authorities with a minimum C$150 million operating budget. VANOC's total operational budget is expected to be about C$1.7 billion during its lifespan. The City of Vancouver's 2005 budget is about C$773 million.

NEW WESTMINSTER PONDERS ATTRACTING OLYMPIC 2010 CURLING TEAMS
Dave Merklinger, the manager of the Royal City Curling Club in New Westminster, says he's trying to convince at least four national Olympic curling teams to train at his club between now and the 2010 Winter Olympics. They weren't Olympic teams, but curling units from Japan, China, South Korea, Taipei and Australia were in New Westminster this month for bonspiels. As Merklinger puts it, the only curling facility for the 2010 Olympics won't open in time for anybody to train on it, so they're going to have to train at neighbouring curling clubs. He suggests that in the next four years European and Asian teams in particular will wanting to train in BC so they can deal with the climate and time change, and he figures he can handle at least three, and perhaps four. His main focus is the Japanese women's team, since it's a Royal City Curling Club member, Fuji Miki, who coaches it. But he also suggested that he has good connections with Danish and Chinese teams.

VANOC GOES GUNNING FOR TRIPLE-LEAF LOGO
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has filed an application for a stylized triple maple leaf logo, and listed virtually every commodity known to mankind for its use. Including "firearms; ammunition and projectiles; explosives; fireworks". We don't think VANOC plans on taking up arms, unless it's got a new, more aggressive policy to deal with ambush marketers that it plans to unveil, but we think it's just a section that appears to have been swept in along with the rest of the 34 categories and 10 service areas listed. The design consists of a frontal view of a full leaf, overlapping two smaller leaves on either side. The logo application was made on Hallowe'en in Canada, which is October 31, and was formalized this month by the Canadian Intellectual property office. It's the 89th logo or trademark that's now owned by VANOC.

RESOURCES
You can see the latest 2010-registered logo here:
www.olympic.ca/EN/organization/news/2005/otp_logo.shtml

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 24, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1320
HBC POSTS MAJOR THIRD-QUARTER LOSS, BUT HOPES OLYMPIC MERCHANDISING WILL HELP PULL IT OUT OF ITS TAILSPIN

One of the major sponsors of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) financial problems are getting worse, but it is hoping that its Olympic merchandise sales will be one of the major factors to pull it out of its slump in the fourth quarter.

HBC, a public company which is the major retailing firm for VANOC but is also the subject of a take-over bid by a major shareholder, released its third-quarter results today, and reported a loss before interest and income taxes for the quarter of C$73 million compared to a profit of C$1 million in the same period last year. It also reported a loss, albeit smaller, in the previous quarter.

About C$28 million of this quarter's loss was due to the one-time cost of severances related to a restructuring that was done in the first and third quarters in which HBC rid itself of nearly 1,000 people, many in management positions, which it said was to reduce overlapping administration among its various businesses. But management also said it was partly due to a 3% reduction in customers coming into its stores during the quarter.

Sales and revenue for the first nine months of 2005 was C$4.7 billion compared to C$4.8 billion in the same period of 2004. Including the costs associated with the restructurings that were launched in the first and third quarters, the loss before interest and income taxes for the first nine months came to a substantial C$139 million, and the loss per share was $1.44. HBC owns Hudson Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitter stores. The Bay is the oldest company in Canada.

Last spring, the company signed a deal to sponsor VANOC and the Canadian Olympic team until 2012, worth to VANOC up to C$100 million. And, as part of that deal, it unveiled its Canadian Olympic Team clothing line and opened Olympic boutiques in all 500 of its stores earlier this month, stocking them with apparel with 2010 and other Olympic brands.

Michael Rousseau, HBC's executive vice-president & chief financial officer, during a discussion of results, said that one of the main drivers for the company in the fourth quarter, it appears, will be "Olympic product in all [of our] banners, which, by the way, is flying."

George Heller, HBC's president and chief executive officer and the man who arranged the deal with VANOC's CEO John Furlong, says, "The improved and lower cost structure, the completed roll-out of our new merchandise initiatives and the favourable weather, are positive indicators for the all important fourth quarter." Traditionally, retail in Canada does best in the last three months of the calendar year because of the holiday season buying cycle.

The Company's fiscal year-end is January 31. Executives note that its balance sheet and cash position remain strong, despite the losses.

RESOURCES
HBC's third quarter results:
tinyurl.com/8rykd

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 24, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1319
RICHMOND SPEEDSKATING OVAL TO HAVE LARGE AREA SET ASIDE FOR SUPPORT-SERVICES USE DURING THE 2010 GAMES

Planners for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) have decided that it will need a 38,500 square metre area west of the Richmond speedskating oval for its Games overlay set-up.

VANOC planners intend to use the main part of this temporary facility for areas to handle media, warehousing, logistics and various Games management and administration uses. The current plan is for the overlay area to have a gravel surface, but serviced by underground utilities and monitored by security while in use, starting from about the fall of 2009 through the 2010 Games and then decommissioned in March and April of 2010. The C$178 million complex, to which VANOC is contributing C$60 million for the oval portion, is expected to be one of the flagship venues for VANOC during the Games.

Specifically the temporary overlay area is expected by VANOC to need several compounds for permit parking, broadcasting, catering, temporary telecommunications and games information systems, garbage management, logistics, Games-related retail merchandizing, venue development, a workforce locker area and a lounge for the shuttle bus drivers who will be moving athletes and officials between the oval complex and other VANOC venues, including the Vancouver Athletes Village.

The complex is expected to be completed in the first half of 2008. VANOC is to have control over the security for the complex once it has taken full possession of it in 2009, or any other times that it's using it, such as for test events, and it will screen construction personnel and their employees when contractors are hired and building starts early next year. Richmond City and the municipality's RCMP, working with VANOC's Integrated Security Unit, will set up fairly sophisticated systems around the sport complex's site when the overlay goes in. VANOC is thinking there will probably be a 100-metre security perimeter in place leading up, during and shortly after the 2010 Games, with four check points, three of them just outside the perimeter, with the fourth inside that zone near the southwest entrance.

From late 2009 until the summer of 2010, security is expected to fully control vehicle and spectator access.

And, intriguingly, VANOC is thinking there may be security screenings of businesses in areas near the perimeter, such as those on the northeast side of Hollybridge Way, and those with addresses in the 6000 block of Elmsbrige Way, since they are large enough to fall into the perimeter zone, but that's not yet confirmed.

There are two industrial properties along the east side of Hollybridge Way and about nine industrial properties south of the Canadian Pacific Railway right-of-way that are within the security zone. Richmond and VANOC both say they'll do their best to "minimizing disruption" to businesses during the construction and operation of complex, and that they'll provide "maximum access while maintaining security measures."

In addition to the primary overlay area, a secondary area to be used as a small warehouse -- VANOC calls it a "material-transfer area -- a helicopter landing pad, a loading zone and a vehicle-screening area for use by security. It's to be set up either in the main or secondary temporary areas depending on how specific requirements can be arranged during future planning. Officials note that there is a 5,500-square metre area west of the primary site that could be used if necessary, but they won't know if it's needed until plans are a bit further advanced.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 24, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1318

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

PRINCE GEORGE TO SEND CITY OLYMPICS PROMOTION TEAM TO TORINO

The City of Prince George, in north central BC, has approved C$38,000 to fund the travel expenditures of a four-person delegation that will promote the city for a week at the Italian Winter Olympics in February. The group, which will include representatives from Initiatives Prince George, which asked for the funding. will work out of BC Canada Place. That's a building sponsored by the provincial and federal governments at set up in downtown Torino, for just such a purpose. Prince George has been working on attracting national Olympic committees to use the city's facilities for training in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Those venues include hockey, curling, speed skating, cross-country skiing and biathlon. Besides setting up meetings with Olympic team managers, the group also hopes to make connections with some of the estimated 3,000 journalists expected to be in Torino covering the Games; their media centre is not far from Canada/BC House.

BC CANADA PLACE DIRECTOR TO BE OSVALDO BRASCA
The new director of BC Canada Place is Osvaldo Brasca, of Campbell River, a town on the east side of Vancouver Island. Brasca, born just outside of Torino, speaks Italian, French and English, has been working in the tourism and hospitality industries of Canada for about 40 years, and has been a hotel manager in most of the major cities in Canada. The building, built of trees killed by the pine beetle that's currently infesting BC forests, was disassembled and is being shipped to Torino, where it's to be reassembled and opened in early January. It will shut down in March, after the Games are finished.

POWELL RIVER MAKES NORWEGIAN OLYMPIC CONNECTION
When you're a small BC coastal town, you don't have a big budget to spend on trying to attract national Olympic committees to consider your town as a place for their Winter Olympic team to stay while acclimatizing or training for the 2010 Games. There's no money for delegations or fact-finding missions or months of diplomacy. So, you do the next best thing: you knock on a door and see what happens. That's what Powell River's chief administrative officer, Stan Westby, did. Powell River is a forest-industry town of about 13,000 people, about 100 kilometres up the coast from Vancouver. Westby was born in Canada, but his parents are Norwegian, which is why he was in Oslo for a two-week holiday recently. When Joyce Carlson, chair of the Powell River Spirit of BC Community Committee, heard he was going, she suggested he meet with somebody from the Norwegian Olympic Committee. So he took some business cards, some Powell River pins, a couple of brochures and a CD about the town, and he stopped in at the steel-and-glass Olympic Committee headquarters, prepared to leave them and go. Instead Norwegian Olympic Committee president Karl-Arne Johannessen shook his hand and introduced him to the Committee's deputy president and secretary-general. That would be the top three people in Norway for Olympic sports. He told them about Powell River's rinks for hockey, curling and figure skating. He said the Norwegian junior hockey team would be visiting the town this December when Vancouver hosts the World Junior Hockey Championships. They told him they were currently focused on the February Torino Winter Olympics, but were intrigued about the hockey team and impressed with Westby's presentation, not to mention his timing. They took him to lunch and introduced him to the Norwegian team's Mission Chief, who has a strong influence on the team's facilities and travel plans. The next day, he ended up at Norway's training centre, talking to its manager. The manager, in turn, introduced Westby to Olympic athletes in training. Will anything come of this? Westby isn't sure, but now he knows who to call. And so do they.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 24, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1317
DAYTON & KNIGHT, ENGINEERS, WORKING ON CYPRESS BOWL VENUE'S SNOW-MAKING INFRASTRUCTURE

An engineering firm based in North Vancouver has been hired by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) to design the snow-making reservoir that will be the first construction project at its Cypress Mountain venue.

Dayton & Knight, whose office is not far from the site, is already at work on the task of designing and supervising construction this year of the relatively small, lined, earthen reservoir and its related pumping station on Cypress Mountain. The project has a C$400,000 budget. Since this project will be used well after the Winter Games, VANOC is working with the owners of the mountain ski area, Cypress Bowl Resort Limited Partnership (CBRLP), so it and VANOC will both be involved in overseeing the project.

The Cypress Mountain ski area, atop the mountain range that marks the northern edge of the Greater Vancouver area, is to be used for skiing and snowboard competitions. These events are to include moguls and aerials, freestyle skiing events, half pipe, snowboarder cross and parallel giant-slalom snowboard competitions. The location offers a spectacular vista of Greater Vancouver.

The contract that was offered calls for coverage of only the snowboarding areas -- 10.5 hectares, plus the five-hectare training area. The water for the snowmaking, if it's needed, would be pumped from Cypress Creek from a location near the Day Lodge, at a rate of up to nearly 1,000 litres per hour, to the main pumping station and, from there, to either the reservoir or the snow guns, when they begin operation. Four turbine pumps capable of delivering up to 2,840 litres per hour would move the water from the reservoir or creek, when the snow guns are in operations. Water-use licenses from the BC Government will be required as part of the overall project's environmental review process, as will an electrical system designed with a back-up system. The snow guns will be commissioned later.

The earth-banked reservoir, which will have a thick plastic lining, is to be built in an old gravel yard that has been used previously; the construction area would take up about two hectares but the reservoir itself won't be nearly that big by the time it's installed. The reservoir itself will be about 50 meters by 130 meters and six meters deep.

RESOURCES

Don Degen
President
#210-889 Harbourside Drive
North Vancouver, BC V7P 3S1
Phone: (+1) 604.990.4800; Fax: (+1) 604-990-4805
www.dayton-knight.com/company/About%20Us.htm
The company also has offices in Smithers and Abbotsford, B.C., and Singapore.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 24, 2005

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1316
ALTUS CANADA TO PROVIDE 2010'S FINANCIAL SOFTWARE

The Canadian subsidiary of a Colorado software development company has been awarded a contract to provide the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) with a new financial administration system.

Altus Canada of Toronto, a subsidiary of Serenic Corporation of Lakewood, Colorado (TSX-SER), is a value-added reseller firm that specializes in assembling Microsoft-based software for non-profits. Its parent company, is expected to generate about C$7 million during its 2005 fiscal year. The companies have two major programs: Microsoft Navision and their flagship, Altus/Serenic Navigator.

VANOC requires the new system's major components -- such as a system-wide general ledger, procurement, commitments tracking, budgeting & forecasting, and contract administration -- to be in place before the end of December. However, VANOC was somewhat behind in awarding the contract. It was supposed to be in place by late August or early September, however the agreement wasn't finalized until October 18 -- there was quite a bit of testing of various proposals by VANOC staff and its consultant, SoftResources LLC, an independent software-selection consulting group based in Seattle -- and VANOC only confirmed the arrangement this month.

The installed system, once it's ready, is also intended to support all of VANOC's organizational objectives through the execution and into dissolution of the Games operation, which is currently scheduled to occur by June, 2011, and VANOC also wants the new system to be capable of considerable expansion by way of additional modules as its requirements grow. The new, industrial-grade system that Altus is to provide is expected to replace the hodge-podge of various off-the-shelf computer programs VANOC is currently using.

VANOC was looking for a company to provide it with an integrated general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, procurement via purchase order, commitments tracking, contract administration, budgeting & forecasting, project accounting, asset management and a report writer. Future additions to the financial accounting system that will need to be integrated: project management, rate card, logistics & material planning, as well as inventory, and there may be other requirements later as well.

VANOC has organized itself into about 60 functions, some are operational now, some will be opened later. The Finance function consists of: the Chief Financial officer, Placer Dome's Rex McLennan, who was hired earlier this month but won't start until December; the vice-president of Finance & Comptroller, John McLaughlin; the Director of Financial Services, the Director of Budgets and Planning, a budget analyst, an accountant, accounts payable/receivable staff, a procurement manager and buyers.

RESOURCES

Altus Canada:
www.AltusCanada.com

Serenic Corporation:
www.Serenic.com

TSX view of Serenic:
tinyurl.com/devxb

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 23, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1315

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

ALPINE SKIERS SPONSOR TO HELP WITH OFF-SEASON

NRB Sports, the Canadian distributor of Rollerblade, has agreed to supply more than 40 Canadian National Alpine Ski Team members with a pair of high-end inline skates and protection equipment for a year. They're to be used for off-season fitness training when the team starts preparing for the 2010 Winter Games next summer. Ski officials say that inline skating exercises the leg muscles for long periods with less than half the impact shock caused to joints by running. This summer, the alpine team underwent more than three months of intense dry-land training prior to beginning their on-snow training in Chile. NRB Sports is a subsidiary of Rollerblade, Nordica Ski & Boots and Nitro Snowboards.

2010 VENUES SEEN AS ONLY A COMPONENT OF BC CONSTRUCTION BOOM
The latest edition of the BC Central Credit Union's publication, "Economic Analysis", by economist David Hobden, is remarkable for what it doesn't say, rather than what it does. The edition forecasts the economy for BC's Lower Mainland, which includes Vancouver, and the southwestern part of the province, which includes Whistler. The 12-page report, packed with statistics and comments on most aspects of the economy, mentions the 2010 Winter Olympics only once, and only then in passing. In a section on non-residential construction, way in the back on page 11, Hobden lists a range of big-ticket construction projects -- museums, temples, office towers -- adding, "In addition, a substantial number of facilities for the 2010 Winter Olympics are proposed for construction in metro Vancouver and the Whistler area through 2009." It's remarkable because a lot of media coverage of the economic boom currently underway in BC has linked it to the 2010 Games in terms of helping to drive up construction costs. In fact, VANOC's spending will only be a component of the total. Bearing in mind that the total capital-construction budget for the Games is C$620 million spread over this year and the next four years, Hobden forecasts non-residential building permits in southwest BC to be C$2.3 billion this year, C$2.3 next year and C$2.5 billion in 2007.

SLOTLAND.COM ROLLS DICE AGAIN ON 2010 CURLING HOPEFULS
The only Internet-based gambling operation to support a curling team with ambitions of playing in the 2010 Winter Olympics has renewed its sponsorship of an Ontario curling team for a second year. Slotland.com provided an unspecified amount of money to help the team of Gerry Geurts get into more tournaments in the last 12 months than it normally would be able to afford. Slotland.com's Hannah Morante claims, "These young men have dreams of making it to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and we're happy to do what we can to help them achieve that goal." At the moment, the team's win percentage for the year is 53%. When he's not practicing or competing, Geurts is the webmaster of CurlingZone.com, the official web site of the Ontario Curling Tour.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 23, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1314

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

FURLONG TO OFFER "ANNUAL REPORT" ON 2010 STATUS FRIDAY

The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), John Furlong, is expected to deliver a report on the status of preparations for the 2010 Winter Games to the Vancouver Board of Trade about 1 pm Friday. Billed as an "annual report", Furlong is expected to touch on how he hopes to involve all of Canada in hosting the Games, what he hopes his organization will be able to learn from the Torino Winter Games, and how sponsorships VANOC has arranged so far help athletes while helping the development of the 2010 Games.

OUTGOING VANCOUVER MAYOR OFFERS TIP TO NEW MAYOR ABOUT 2010
Outgoing Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell has a piece of advice for incoming mayor Sam Sullivan when it comes to dealing with the relationship between the City and VANOC. In an open letter to Vancouver citizens, Campbell, who will become a Canadian senator on December 5, writes, "The best role that the new mayor can play with the Olympics is that of a taskmaster, ensuring that all involved parties and partners are meeting commitments and deadlines. There will always be a certain degree of tension with the Vancouver Organizing Committee, so never lose sight of the fact that looking out for this city's interests, regardless of the organizing efforts surrounding the Olympics, should be the most important principle of engagement. No one can be left behind, and Olympic legacies must remain for every Vancouverite, from people with disabilities to athletes to those seeking affordable housing. It is a promise that must be kept." Campbell, who followed through on his former political party's promise to hold a referendum in the city about whether to host the Games even though it had signed a hosting agreement just before he was elected and who subsequently campaigned in favour of the Games, took note of the fact Sullivan will be given the Olympic flag during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Games in February, says it seems right. "It seems fitting that one of the first official responsibilities for the new mayor of Vancouver will be to retrieve the Olympic flag from Torino, Italy. The hand-over of the flag -- the final act in the closing ceremonies of the 20th Olympic Winter Games -- will represent a watershed moment in the history of our city. And it is the same winds of change that transformed the face of Vancouver politics three years ago that will fly this symbol of hope high above city hall in the years leading up to 2010."

SPEEDSKATING OVAL DESIGNERS CONTEMPLATE LEED GOLD PLUS
Designers of the Richmond sports complex that will hold the 2010 Olympic speedskating oval hope to achieve at least LEED Silver accreditation of the huge building by the time their finished, which will be a strong nod in the direction of environmental awareness all on its own. Best efforts to achieve LEED accreditation is a policy of VANOC for all of its venues, and was part of its promise to the International Olympic Committee during the bid phase of the Games. However, the designers are not just hoping they might achieve LEED Gold, a higher standard. They're also considering several other possibilities as well, including whether they can cost-effectively design the site's stormwater treatment system to be as much as 80% cleaner than normal for something like this; whether they can design the landscaping irrigation system to either eliminate to considerably reduce the amount of community drinking water used by using captured rainwater or recycled water; whether they can reduce the use of water by the entire complex by at least 20% as perhaps as much as 30% over what it would normally require annually; and simultaneously reduce the amount of power the building requires annual by a quarter, and reduce the overall power cost by 18%.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 23, 2005

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1313

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

COKE AND SAMSUNG BACK LAUNCH OF 2006 TORINO OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY

Coca-Cola Company and Samsung continue to be the confirmed sponsors of the 2006 Winter Olympic torch relay, which started today. This will be the seventh time that the soft drink company has sponsored the Olympic Torch Relay and the fifth time that it has been a "presenting partner." It is the second time that Samsung has been a sponsor of the Relay. In all, 10,001 torchbearers will carry the Olympic flame from Olympia in Greece to Rome and then around Italy, visiting 140 cities and all of Italy's regions, before finally arriving in the Stadio Communale in Torino on February10. The torch relay for the 2010 Winter Games is due to start 115 days out from the start of the games, on Tuesday, November 17, 2009. The general plan is for it to be flown over the north pole, for the first time, and visit every major city in every province and territory in Canada.

ROOTS LAUNCHES ITS AMERICAN OLYMPIC CLOTHING LINE
Roots, the Canadian company that was the trendsetter of the Olympics clothing manufacturers for years until it was shouldered aside by the major sponsorship of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) by retailing giant HBC earlier this year for an estimated C$100 million, has launched its official Team USA collection live on NBC TV's "Today Show" this morning, saying "The Olympic wear for Torino 2006 pays homage to the culture of the host country, Italy, while capturing the spirit of what it means to be American." Roots already had the American Olympic Committee contract when it lost the 2010 deal. NBC is to be the US host broadcaster for the 2010 Winter Games. HBC launched its first Torino-related clothing line for the Canadian Olympic team earlier this month. Like HBC, Roots is only showing the team wear, but will not "reveal" the team's parade jacket until the opening ceremony of the Torino Games on February 10. The American team's parade jacket is made at the what Roots calls its "state-of-the-art factory in Toronto". About 35,000 spectators attending the event at Torino's Stadio Olimpico and an estimated two billion TV viewers around the world will be watching the ceremony. Roots, in its typical humble fashion says that, "In view of its innovative design, the American parade jacket will take American Olympic style to a new level of coolness." There was no mention of the fact that some of its designers moved to the HBC design team.

NOTES ON 2010 TICKETS AND VOLUNTEERS
Some odds and ends we've heard in passing: VANOC gets calls daily from people asking if they can buy tickets for the 2010 Winter Games, even though the details of how the ticketing will work have not yet been finalized. However, VANOC says that every event will have seating available for the public, even though it is required to provide tickets to people representing or connected with various governments, sports organizations, sponsors and the like. Becoming a volunteer for the Games, VANOC says, will be just like applying for a job. Volunteers will need to have a good resume of sports-related volunteer work, preferably working with previous Olympics or similar events, and a good attitude. And, yes, volunteers who worked with the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary have already contacted VANOC. The organization isn't expected to start accepting volunteer applications until 2007 or 2008.

RESOURCES
You can see Roots's Olympic fashions here for men...
www.roots-direct.com/style.aspx?catid=27&dptid=1&saleGroup=&template=1

... And here for women:
www.roots-direct.com/style.aspx?catid=39&dptid=2&saleGroup=&template=1

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 22, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1312
VANCOUVER EXPECTED TO START FIRST MAJOR WORK AT CLEANING UP 2010 OLYMPIC VILLAGE SITE IN DECEMBER

The City of Vancouver's Southeast False Creek and Olympic Village Project Office has begun looking for companies to remove and dispose of the decking and piles located in False Creek near the 2010 Olympic Village.

The job will be the first visible signs of heavy work as the City begins the process of developing the site for the 2010 Games, and the tender gives a good idea of how the City plans to proceed in dealing with the old industrial site. Companies interested in the work have until November 28 to let the project office know their quote.

The area has been a heavy industrial work location for roughly a century. The 275 old piles and dilapidated deck, which are somewhat more modern but which have been there for years, are located north of First Avenue and west of the of the Manitoba Street extension, surrounding a small inlet.

There are two main parts to the deck, which is built of heavy, 4" x 12" timbers sitting on 12" square stringers. The eastern decking area of about 2,700 square meters sits over tidal mud flats, and the western decking area of about 300 square meters sits on a old barge slip. The piles, in bundles of three and covered in creosote, appear to have been driven into firm ground about 10 metres down.

The deck has partly fallen into the Creek. The work also includes removing and getting rid of any steel remnants from previous wharf operations, any garbage found on the decking structure, the 70 metres of old rails on the western deck, and removal of the 300 metres of fencing surrounding the area. It includes recovery and disposal of any material that has fallen into the little inlet bordered by the old wharf.

The work has to be done so that no debris falls into the Creek, which is now protected by a host of environmental regulations, and the contractor will be required to put a heavy curtain across the little inlet to protect material or silt from drifting out into the main portion of the Creek itself. The firm will also have to ensure that any water intakes are screened to prevent harm to fish, and it'll have to have a spill-prevention plan in place and ready to be activated.

Companies applying for the work will have to provide a surety and a bid bond of 10% of their bidding price, and, if they win the tender, they will have to exchange that for a 50% performance bond, along with a 50% bond for labour and materials payment.

The City notes, however, that it's still waiting for permission from the Burrard Inlet Environmental Review Committee, a governmental organization made up of environmental agencies that cover the area, to go ahead with the work. The City is responsible for getting that permission, and it's asked twice: once last May and again in early October, and it's still waiting. The work can't start until the approval is through.

The contract being offered also officially warns firms not use the fact that they're bidding or, even if they've won the tender, to promote itself as being allied with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) or the Olympic Games in any way.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 22, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1311
SQUAMISH NEWSPAPER BITTER ABOUT VANOC'S TREATMENT OF TOWN

The community newspaper that services Squamish, the town located roughly halfway between Vancouver and Whistler on Highway 99, has published a bitter editorial about the town's treatment at the hands of the the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

Squamish Chief editor Steven Hill, under the headline "The Olympic promise", writes that, "Squamish has missed some pretty big opportunities which were supposed to come out of the 2010 Winter Games. Although, 'missed' may be the wrong word -Ð it's more like the opportunities were pulled out from under us." The newspaper has a circulation of about 4,000; the town and its surrounding area has a population of about 15,000.

Hill starts his list of snubs with the time last year when VANOC told the town to remove its "Heart of 2010" highway banners for copyright violations forcing it to spending money developing a new campaign, however, he claims, the originals were, "the same banners that VANOC's predecessor, the 2010 Bid Corporation, was so happy to have us put up before they won the Games."

He includes what he calls "the whole Paralympic Sledge Hockey Arena fiasco," adding, "Whistler, at first, didn't want the darn thing, leading VANOC to approach Squamish about taking on the project. We spent lots of time and money on the idea, based on meetings with VANOC, yet they still gave more than one extension to Whistler on the deal, allowing them to change their minds and grab the cash for the arena. Just what did all that work and money get Squamish? Nothing except for a mayor with higher blood pressure and a bad taste in his mouth from VANOC."

Hill also discusses the fact there was a ferry that was originally considered between Vancouver and Squamish, but which was rejected by VANOC planners a few weeks ago. The terminal, says Hill, "was supposed to be built in Squamish to accommodate the oodles of Games-goers Ð isn't going to be built at all. Instead, Squamish has only the exhaust from hundreds of buses to look forward to in 2010."

Hill says Squamish, along with the rest of the province, are being told by VANOC to "start looking for opportunities now and to embrace the Olympic opportunities", but he writes, "Those officials need to embrace something other than fluffy-sounding sound bytes. To have a successful bid in the first place, they needed the support of all surrounding communities, and that support was secured with nice promises about legacies and opportunity. Now that Whistler and Vancouver have the Games, those promises have gone the way of so many cheques that were supposed to be in the mail."

Hill concludes: "It would be nice to hear some concrete examples of how VANOC thinks Squamish can still benefit in 2010. Now is the time to show what the Vancouver/Whistler Games are all about Ð either it is for the whole province, or just those two cities? Will it be a story of Olympic promise, or promises broken?"

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 22, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1310
SPORT, HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT SET UP FORUM IN CALGARY TO ORGANIZE 2010-RELATED TOURISM

Three organizations representing sport, tourism and government are setting up a C$200-a-seat business forum in Calgary next month with the goal of showing companies how they can take advantage of the tourism that's expected to be drawn to BC and Canada because of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA), the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), and the federal government's Western Economic Diversification Canada are collaborating to host the "2010 Sport and Tourism Forum Ð Maximizing the Tourism Benefits," to be held from December 12 - 13.

The Forum will feature two main speakers: Frank King, president and CEO of the Organizing Committee for the a1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary; and John Morse, managing director of the Australian Tourism Commission, who supervised the design and implementation of the Australian tourism strategy leading to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The CSTA and TIAC have a joint committee to "maximize the regional and national the tourism benefits of hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games". The committee includes both public- and private-sector sport and tourism operations across Canada.

After a number of meetings and discussions, the committee decided there were quite a number of organizations with various initiatives that could have an effect on the tourism industry leading to 2010, as well as beyond the Games. The Calgary forum is designed to be a platform for these organizations to share information, strategies and individual tourism objectives.

In part, the organizers say, the idea is flag areas where there are overlaps, gaps or opportunities for organizations to join in a particular initiative. The participants will also hear how government departments and tourism companies interact in attracting tourism.

"The Forum is a collaborative initiative between the sport and tourism communities to maximize the benefits of Canada's hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games", stated

RESOURCES

Randy Williams,
President and CEO of TIAC.
Contact info:
www.tiac-aitc.ca/english/tiacoffice.asp

Rick Traer,
CEO of the CSTA
Contact info:
www.canadiansporttourism.com/eng_doc.cfm?DocID=18

The registration information for the forum is here:
www.tiac.travel

The organizations list a number of groups that all have programs aimed at enhancing tourism, particularly involving the 2010 Games. These include:

The Canadian govermment's Canadian Heritage department:
www.canadianheritage.gc.ca
Industry Canada
Sport Canada
BC Olympic Secretariat
Canadian Tourism Commission
VANOC
Canadian Olympic Committee
Tourism BC
Tourism Vancouver
Tourism Whistler
2010 Legacies Now Society
Calgary Olympic Development Association

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 22, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Labour| #1309
BC LABOUR LEADER REPORTEDLY THREATENS TO KEEP AUSSIE FIRM FROM A MARKET OF "A$86 BILLION" LEADING UP TO 2010

The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney, Australia, is quoting a BC labour official as saying he intends to organize a boycott of an Aussie construction firm, to shut it out of "A$86 billion" worth of work "leading up to the 2010 Winter Games."

Wayne Peppard, executive director of the BC and Yukon Building Construction Trades Council, is in Sydney, and is quoted by the Telegraph article as saying he intends to organize the campaign against the James Hardie company in order to pressure the company to settle with asbestos claimants. Peppard said he attempted to meet with company officials, but they declined to see him.

"There's A$86 billion dollars worth of work coming up in the next six years and if they're interested in any of it they'd better compensate the victims," he later told The Daily Telegraph, offering his estimate of the time before the Games, which is actually just over four years. Assuming Peppard was talking in Australian dollars, the amount translates to about C$74 billion at today's exchange rates. However, the total proposed capital expenditure of the 2010 Games is nowhere near that amount; it was last reported holding at C$620 million.

Peppard told the newspaper he would use his organization's affiliations with the US building unions to raise the matter in the United States. The newspaper says James Hardie gets about 80% of its revenue from its American business.

"We'll start the campaign as soon as I get back home this week and move it as quickly as possible," he told the newspaper.

On November 22, The New South Wales Government gave James Hardie one week to settle its C$1.6-billion compensation deal with asbestos victims or it would legislate to force the building materials company to pay the claims.

The last issue of the BC government's Major Projects Inventory, issued in June, said it was tracking about C$78 billion in actual or proposed capital expenditures, however, the capital cost of all major projects currently under construction in BC is estimated at C$31 billion. "Proposed projects, are estimated at approximately C$43 billion; however," the report adds, "of this amount, not all projects have a high probability of proceeding... and approximately C$4 billion of projects are judged to be on hold for the time being."

RESOURCES

James Hardie's corporate profile on the Australian Stock Exchange:
markets.news.com.au/Newscorp/Company/Profile.aspx?SecId=JHX

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 22, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1308
VANOC'S JARVIS ELECTED TO INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE'S NEW GOVERNING BOARD

Patrick Jarvis, a member of the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), has won a seat on the International Paralympic Committee's new Governing Board as member-at-large.

Jarvis, who is also president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, is in Beijing for the convention at which he was elected. From the Chinese city which will host the 2008 Summer Olympics, Jarvis says, "This is the first Board elected under the IPC's new constitution, and our members can now rely on a new, credible governing structure to steer the Paralympic Movement in the right direction. My focus is to provide athletes with the best possible conditions for peak performances, as well as bridging the gaps between the Olympic and Paralympic games."

The Governing Board structure replaces the IPC's Executive Committee following recommendations of a strategic review accepted by the IPC membership at an special General Assembly.

Jarvis, a former Paralympian, served on the International Olympic Committee's 2012 Bid Evaluation Commission which eventually resulted in London, England being chosen for those Summer Games; and was appointed by the International Paralympic Committee to the 2012 Games Coordination Commission, to help with the transition between the two sets of Games.

Jarvis was the only Canadian to run in the elections. In total, 26 member-at-large candidates were nominated for 10 available positions. Philip Craven was acclaimed as the president of the IPC and Miguel Sagara, of Spain, was elected vice-president.

VANOC CEO John Furlong was enthusiastic about the election. "This is a tremendous honour for Patrick. He provides valuable contributions to help us deliver our goal of integrated planning for both the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. His Games experiences will serve him well as a member of the IPC Governing Board, and having him represent the Canadian perspective is great for sport and the Paralympic movement."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 22, 2005

Monday, November 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1307
13 BC COMMUNITIES RECEIVE TOTAL OF C$48,500 TO BEEF UP CULTURAL STUDIES FOR 2010

Thirteen communities in BC have been given a total of C$48,500 by 2010 Legacies Now through Creative Communities, a program designed to help municipalities and arts organizations develop local culture with community leaders.

The funds were provided under the 2010 Legacies Now section called Arts Now. Creative Communities is expected to encourage the use of cultural planning by communities, recognize the creative sector's importance and push for various social and economic objectives.

Olga Ilich, BC's minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, says, that "By developing planning capacity in our arts and culture organizations, we help ensure that future investments better meet community needs and are sustainable over the long-term."

The funding is available in two categories; Cultural Planning, which supports communities in creating a cultural plan that can be developed, implemented and evaluated; and Cultural Scan, which supports assessment initiatives that enable communities to take stock of local cultural assets, strengths, challenges and aspirations for the purpose of establishing the groundwork for the development of a cultural plan.

According to Marion Lay, the president and CEO of 2010 Legacies Now, the funds will help "cultural organizations work... with municipalities to assess the needs of their arts and culture community."

Dawn Johnson, the chair of the Arts Now Committee in Princeton, in BC's southcentral area, says her organization was one of the recipients of the funding: $4,245. "The contribution from 2010 Legacies Now was matched by the Okanagan Similkameen Regional District and the Town of Princeton and, after forming our committee and a consultant, we set a goal of inventorying community assets. We also did a survey to discover what people feel is lacking in arts and culture in our community."

BACKGROUND
Here are the recipients of the funding so far; funds are in Canadian dollars:

Musqueam aboriginal band - $15,000
The band says it will hire a consultant to do some cultural research through focus groups, list "cultural assets" and establish a "community vision, principles and values."

City of Nelson - $10,000
Nelson expects to develop an Arts Advisory Board that will plan and provide cultural policy information to the City. Nelson also expects to hire a consultant to develop an arts policy for the area.

Regional District of North Okanagan - $10,000
The Regional District of North Okanagan in partnership with the District of Coldstream, the City of Vernon and other arts and culture organizations will hire a consultant to develop an Arts and Culture Master Plan for the City of Vernon and the surrounding areas.

City of Campbell River - $10,000
The city will hire a consultant to draft a "Strategic Cultural and Heritage Plan", which will then be used to help it "develop cultural and heritage practices, services and programs."

City of Fort St. John - $7,500
The City, working with its Community Arts Council, will research its existing arts and cultural section, with the idea of developing a cultural plan for the city.

City of Nanaimo - $6,000
The City wants to develop an online Cultural Resources Inventory as a "searchable guide to Nanaimo's arts and cultural community." It will include a list of the existing arts and cultural facilities, arts and cultural organizations and a calendar of arts, cultural and heritage events.

City of Port Moody - $6,000
Two consultants will be hired to develop a Cultural Facilities Plan by discussing the matter with the Port Moody Arts Centre, the Port Moody Station Museum, the Inlet Theatre & Outlet Stage and the Rocky Point Warehouse Artists' Studios and Gallery.

City of Revelstoke - $5,000
With various arts and cultural groups, the City of Revelstoke hired a consultant and developed a comprehensive Cultural Plan to assess and inventory the local artistic activities and groups. This will enable the City to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the cultural and artistic sectors and identify community priorities for the future. The City is planning to now work on a Master Culture Plan.

City of Castlegar - $5,000
The City of Castlegar is to hire a consultant to research a cultural plan for the community. The Castlegar Arts Council is also working on the project.

Golden Area Initiatives - $5,000
In partnership with the Town of Golden and Area 'A' of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, the Golden Area Initiatives group are to do cultural research to help it develop planning in Golden.

Bulkley Valley Community Arts Council - $5,000
The Council, working with the Town of Smithers, the school district and the Office of the Wet'suwet'en aboriginal group, is to hire a consultant to draft a Strategic Cultural and Heritage Plan.

District of Vanderhoof - $4,000
Vanderhoof will hire a consultant to draft an "Arts and Cultural Plan", similar to Campbell River's.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1306
CANADIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE HIRES DAVID BEDFORD AS CHIEF MARKETER

The Canadian Olympic Committee has hired David Bedford as its new Executive Director of Revenue Generation, Brand Management and Communications. It's a new position.

Bedford is the former Vice President of Olympic and Paralympic Marketing Worldwide with IMG, a sports agency representing athletes. He will be based in Toronto and report to the COC's Chief Operating Officer, Lou Ragagnin. He starts December 5.

Chris Rudge, chief executive officer of the COC, says Bedford has "numerous volunteer positions in sport and he also brings an extensive background in the field of sports sponsorship and marketing. With David on board, we look forward to continuing to build a stronger corporate team to support the Olympic movement, VANOC 2010 and our mutual sponsors, and high performance sport in Canada."

Bedford's position makes him a key member of the COC's senior management team, and will help it to develop and implement the organization's strategic business plans.

Bedford says, "The opportunity to pursue my passion for Canadian sport excellence with my experience as a sport marketer... will help in pointing Canadian athletes towards the podium at future Olympic and Pan American Games."

An executive with almost 25 years of sponsorship and promotional marketing expertise, Bedford will take a lead role working with the corporate partners of the COC and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) to develop a broad range of programs designed to benefit Canada's Olympic athletes.

In addition to corporate sponsorship, Bedford is also expected to develop new fundraising programs, as well as work with the COC's communications department to implement a series of new plans designed to support the COC's programs involving high performance athletes and community relations.

Bedford knows the COC fairly well. He was the head of Canada team at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. He was also a volunteer member of the organization's Board of Directors, served on a number of COC committees, and was a member of the mission staff for the 1996 Summer Olympic and 1998 Olympic Winter Games.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1305
BC MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS UNLIKELY TO HOLD SURPRISES FOR VANOC

Municipal elections held throughout British Columbia over the weekend are expected to have only a mild effect on current development plans for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The people elected are expected, however, to influence VANOC's working relationship with the areas where venues are to be built, since all of the facilities will be built or renovated between now and when the next elections are held, in three years, and councillors have significant involvement in local land-use decisions.

In Vancouver, Larry Campbell, who earlier decided he would not run for a second term, was replaced by veteran council member Sam Sullivan of the more business-minded Non-Partisan Association party by a narrow margin in voting, and the city also chose a more moderate set of councillors, with the NPA given a one-vote majority on council. The leftist party, Committee of Progressive Electors, which dominated council for the first two years of its term in office, was all but eliminated in favour of the more centralist members of the party, which had split away during the final year to form their own party, Vision Vancouver. Sullivan's opponent, Jim Green, the political leader first of COPE and then of Vision Vancouver, is now out of office. The NPA also dominated separate school board and parks board elections. Vancouver Parks Board has some effect on the development of some of the city venues.

Sullivan, who is in favour of maintaining good relationships with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), immediately suggested that he might be able to loosen some of the low-rise development constrictions imposed by the previous council on the size of the buildings that might be constructed on the Vancouver 2010 Athlete's Village, which forms the core of a larger development area on the shores of southeast False Creek. However, the legalities of the City's development process, coupled with the stage the project is in, makes it unlikely there will be substantive changes permitted before construction starts next spring. The City is about to provide four potential developers a formal Request for Proposals on the Village portion of the project, and the developer has to be chosen by City council by January, with a speedy rezoning process to follow, probably in February, before construction can start. The buildings, whatever their height and configuration as proposed by the winning developer, have to be ready to be handed over to VANOC no later than November, 2009. Most of the remaining development work on Vancouver buildings for the 2010 Games is renovation-related.

The City of Vancouver also held several referenda for capital borrowing all but one of which were approved by margins approaching 80%. The exception involved a request to borrow up to C$35 million for projects which involved the City working with VANOC to take advantage of its construction and renovation schedule to renovate or construct adjacent civic buildings or use VANOC funds to share the cost of them. It was approved by a much narrower margin of 59%. The projects include: replacing two old ice rinks, one at the Killarney Community Centre, the other at the Trout Lake Community Centre, and building the Percy Norman Aquatic Centre as part of the new Hillcrest Centre. Following the Games in 2010, the new aquatic centre will form part of a complex being constructed by VANOC to include a replacement for the Riley Park community centre and ice rink, the Vancouver Curling Club and the Riley Park branch library. The reduced vote could be construed as a combination of some vote resistance to the City spending money in connection with the Olympics, and voter confusion over what the City was saying about its intentions.

In Whistler, the new mayor, Ken Melamed, narrowly defeated challenger and fellow municipal councillor, Ted Nebbeling, for the job. Melamed earlier voted in favour of a key amendment that helped Whistler council decide last month that the municipality would build the contentious Paralympic sledge-hockey arena. However, Melamed told council that he would only consider borrowing money to build a facility if the majority of the community voted to do so in a referendum. Melamed had said that Council was committed to remain fiscally responsible while staging the Games. Depleting reserves or going into debt to finance the facility, he said at the time, was not fiscally responsible. His amendment committed Whistler staff to continue considering the idea of twinning the sports centre.

In Richmond, the home of VANOC's C$60 million contribution to the sports complex that will house the Olympic long-track speed-skating oval, mayor Malcolm Brodie was re-elected. There was little debate about the project, currently valued at C$178 million, other than general concerns about the extent of the project and that its original concept being secret at the time, a requirement of the Request For Proposals process required by VANOC, but that has been hashed out over the past year, and there has been a lot of public consultation since.

In West Vancouver District, which includes the Cypress Bowl area where VANOC is to host the 2010 snowboarding events and freestyle skiing, Pam Goldsmith-Jones, who was just finishing her first term as councillor, successfully defeated incumbent mayor Ron Wood. During her term, however, she was a member of West Vancouver council's 2010 Olympic/Paralympic Committee Select Committee, the equivalent of a task force, as was Wood, so she has a good knowledge of the players and how her community's aspects are organized. The Committee wrapped up its work and reported to council last June.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 21, 2005

Friday, November 18, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1304

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

JARVIS TELLS BEIJING CONFERENCE 2010 PARALYMPICS AN INTEGRAL PART OF "ONE FESTIVAL"

Patrick Jarvis, a member of the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), is in Beijing, China, today, focused on developments in the Paralympics. Jarvis told the 2005 International Paralympic Committee General Assembly that VANOC is emphasizing an integrated planning and delivery model for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics is similar to that offered by Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Jarvis says that the 2010 Games will be "one festival, two events, 27 days of sport and 60 days of celebration." The annual Assembly involves representatives of the next four Paralympic Games Ð Torino 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. Wang Wei, the executive vice-president of the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee said his organization would subsidize the cost of travel by Assembly delegates to see the Beijing Games. Like Vancouver, Mr. Wang noted about Beijing: "Our goal is to achieve equal splendour for both Games."

2010 TOURISM MARKETER THINKING, PART ONE...
Overheard: Stephen Pearce, vice-president of Leisure Travel & Destination Management with Tourism Vancouver, speaking in Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver: "We sometimes forget that Canada, Vancouver and the Lower Mainland are just not on people's radar screens [around the world]. They're not thinking about us. It's not to say they don't think favourably about Canada, it's that they don't have much information and it's not dialled up in a way they pay attention to it. What is going to put us on the map like nothing else is the 2010 Olympics. We're going to have the opportunity to get people interested, possibly for the first time, in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. And once we've got their attention, we can sell them something."

... AND 2010 TOURISM MARKETER THINKING, PART TWO
The minister of Economic Development for BC, Colin Hansen, told the Nanaimo Daily News yesterday that the exposure the province will gain during the 2010 Games can only help the province economically, and the government intends to give the process a push when the time is right, which appears to be soon, "We are putting packages together to get Olympic visitors out of the Vancouver-Whistler area and into other areas of the province. It is a marketing gold mine for us."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 18, 2005

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1303

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

WHISTLER CHOOSES BARRATT AS NEW CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR

Bill Barratt, the deputy administrator for the Resort Municipality of Whistler, is now its chief administrative officer. He replaces Jim Godfrey, who was hired to work on the 2010 Games in Whistler last April. Barratt has worked for Whistler for 25 years.

FURLONG TO HEAD FOR BC'S NORTH NEXT WEEK
Around the VANOC corridors: VANOC CEO John Furlong will be starting a tour next week of BC's communities and aboriginal groups along the BC's Yellowhead highway, from Prince Rupert to Prince George. It'll be the first time he's been back to the areas since he canvassed them for support of the 2010 bid, and he'll be asking them what they'll be doing to help support the Games. Meanwhile, the staff of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) are just starting to hear whether they've been tapped to be part of the team going to observe the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy in early February. The messages have been circulated in the last day or two, and they include vice-president of Communications Rene Smith-Valade. No word yet on the total number going, although the last we heard, which was in September, was that it would be about half the compliment; VANOC is expected to have about 200 people on the payroll by the time the 2006 Games start.

MEDIA EXPECTED TO START TALKING ABOUT VANCOUVER AFTER TORINO HAND-OFF
More bits and pieces: VANOC figures the media invasion of Greater Vancouver, Whistler and BC will start following the hand-over of the Olympic Flag at the end of the Torino Closing Ceremony. About 10,000 news media will be coming to the 2010 Games starting in early 2010 -- and that's just the ones that will have been issued accreditation. There will be another contingent developing feature stories, and their technical crews, that will be using a non-accredited media centre. During the Games, by the way, VANOC's cultural department will be running major entertainment events nightly at BC Place Stadium, where the medals ceremonies will be held. One of the things VANOC did that was first during the bid stage for a Games was commit to reserving a large slate of rooms at hotels and motels in the Greater Vancouver area and around the Whistler area to house the so-called Olympic family. It was, we're told, Furlong's idea, which he got while talking to the IOC at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, early in the bid phase. Somebody else took notice, because that same commitment was in London's bid for the 2021 Summer Olympics, and it won as well. VANOC's accommodation department now has more than 10,000 rooms booked for the time around the 2010 Games.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 17, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1302
WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY LAUNCHES INTERNET-BASED CONTROL SYSTEM

The World Anti-Doping Agency, based in Montreal, has launched its Internet-based Anti-Doping Administration & Management System, a database to coordinate anti-doping activities internationally.

ADAMS, as it's nicknamed, is structured to work with the World Anti-Doping Code, developed by WADA, whose CEO is a director of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), Dick Pound.

WADA director general David Howman says that, "ADAMS simplifies the process for everyone. It helps us all become even more efficient at catching the cheaters and levelling the playing field for clean athletes around the globe."

All of the organizations involved in anti-doping activities have been asked to use ADAMS to coordinate a range of information to help implement the Code within a single, secure system. The type of information involves athletes providing their whereabouts, anti-doping organizations ordering tests or managing results, and laboratories reporting the results.

ADAMS first went online a few months ago as a pilot project, but it's now being extended to 30 anti-doping organizations and 10 anti-doping laboratories with extensive training.

Under the Code, WADA is the supervising agency for doping control testing data for registered pool athletes in order to ensure the integrity anti-doping.

Over the coming months, more groups are expected to be trained and added to the ADAMS system. The idea is to bring 85 anti-doping organizations and all anti-doping laboratories online by the end of next year.

BACKGROUND
There are four parts to the ADAMS database:

ATHLETE WHEREABOUTS: Various organizations that supervise the athletes, or fund them, can use the system to share whereabouts information, which is crucial for "maximizing the surprise effect", according to WADA spokesman Frdric Donz, along with making unannounced out-of-competition testing efficient; athletes can also update their information online, from anywhere in the world.

DOPING CONTROL PLATFORM: Anti-doping organizations can use ADAMS to manage a registered testing pool and its results, as well as the formal and step-by-step process for hearings, sanctions and appeals.

THERAPEUTIC-USE EXEMPTION MANAGEMENT: Anti-doping organizations and athletes are able to manage these requests online, as well as notify those involved in the process. Approved requests can also be linked with abnormal test results.

INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE: To ensure anti-doping activities are coordinated, the data is stored and protected, including lab results, exemptions and anti-doping rules violations. Sharing information among the need-to-know organizations helps to show that anti-doping activities occur efficiently and transparently.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 17, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1301

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

GENERAL CONTRACTORS FRET ABOUT WSC ARRANGEMENT

Contractors contemplating the idea of submitting proposals to construct the bobsleigh-luge-skeleton track of the Whistler Sliding Centre for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) are feeling somewhat uneasy about a key aspect. The VANOC's Venues Department decided earlier this year, for reasons that have to do with timing, to split the major construction contract into two. One contract deals with the refrigeration plant and its kilometres of associated piping; the other deals with the general contract for building the twisting 1.7 kilometre track itself. The piping -- which delivers refrigerant all along the fussy, carefully designed, U-shaped track -- is embedded in the web of structural and reinforcing track skeleton which is, in turn, covered in a skin of shotcrete that needs to be smooth. The general contractor, no matter who wins the tender, will want to have good control over how the piping is done. There have been a number of close questions asked of VANOC in the last few days about the relationship that can be expected between the two contractors, since VANOC inspectors will be overseeing the job and its quality control. That relationship will determine the job's profitability, or lack of it. Finally, the question was asked: Will the refrigeration contract be part of the general contractor's contract? VANOC's interesting and carefully worded answer: "...The refrigeration plant and track piping will be contracted separately, however it is envisioned, because the track piping is integral to the track construction, that at least this part of the refrigeration plant and track-piping contract will be assigned to the track contractor." OK then, (we paraphrase another question from a potential general contractor), can we get the list of refrigeration contractors that have indicated they're interested in bidding for that job? The answer: "...VANOC does not release this information at this time." Translation: If you want more answers, but probably not all of them, express your interest in being a general contractor by November 30 and make it to the shortlist to get the RFP. The main construction work on the track is expected to start next spring.

2010 PROCUREMENT WORKSHOP IN VANCOUVER FRIDAY
The BC government's Olympic and Paralympic Games Secretariat and its related 2010 Commerce Centre have been doing a number of procurement workshops around the province in various communities for the last few months. The workshop will be arriving in Vancouver Friday morning, with Tim Reeve of the BC Secretariat giving the presentation, along with Ian MacDonald, the president of Moving Products. For MacDonald's Calgary-based firm, the strategy of working with the Games has paid off. The company designs, sources and distributes corporate-hospitality gift packages, and it has built its business around the Games since the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988. It outfits the guests, staff and technicians of Games' sponsors in customized, branded clothing and accessories. The Vancouver Board of Trade is hosting the workshop, starting at 8 am, at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside's ballroom, located at 1133 West Hastings Street in the city's downtown business core.

WHISTLER MAYORALTY HOPEFULS TALK OLYMPICS
The Whistler Question, a weekly community newspaper that covers the Whistler area, today published a round-up of interviews from among the four main mayoralty contenders in Saturday's municipal election. Ted Nebbeling told the paper he intends to be closely involved with VANOC and its preparations. Nebbling was the BC minister in charge of helping VANOC make the case for the 2010 Olympic bid a few years ago. The paper quotes him as saying, "We have missed opportunities for financial support. The tools to help us are there but we need to go after the right people in government and at VANOC to push for more funding." He told the reporter that the deal between Whistler and VANOC over the controversial sledge-hockey arena, settled just last month, needs to be renegotiated. "The C$20 million from VANOC is based on 2002 building costs, which obviously is not realistic. They know that number does not reflect the true costs of building the arena in 2006 or 2007." Nebbeling also told the paper that the arena should be fully operated by money from the Olympic Legacy Fund, and not supported by Whistler taxpayers after the Games. Lawyer Nick Davies, who had been told by VANOC's legal department last year to quit using a 2010-style brand in his corporate marketing, said he would keep a close eye on the organization if he were elected mayor. The newspaper quotes him as saying, "We're partners, but being vigilant doesn't make for a bad partnership... people living here need to know what's coming down the pipe and how it's going to be done." The report did not carry comments about the Olympics from the other contenders.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 17, 2005

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1300
PRIME CULTURAL JOB WAITING TO BE FILLED AT 2010 ORGANIZATION

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is expected to have somebody start in January to fulfill one of the premier cultural jobs in Canada: the Program Director for VANOC's Cultural Olympiad.

The Cultural Olympiad, a tradition with the Olympics, runs from 2006 to 2010 and parallels the development the Games themselves. VANOC will work and fund BC and Canadian artists and cultural institutions to present a wide range of cultural activities and festivals. The idea is also to bring to Canada international cultural works from other nations that are planning the Olympics, such as Italy, Beijing and London.

The concept is for this Cultural Olympiad to build up the events, at a cost of about C$90 million, until they culminate with a five-week Olympic Arts Festival, and a two-week Paralympic Arts Festival, each surrounding their respective Games in 2010. The pair of festivals, according to planners, is expected to include a range of programming in every artistic discipline in performing arts, visual arts, aboriginal arts and culture, literary arts, video and film. But it will also include incorporating all of that with commemorative stamps and coins, related food, street and atmosphere entertainment, as well as snow and ice sculpture.

The planners expect they'll need somebody with at least 10 years doing this type of work. The person will report to VANOC's vice-president of Culture & Ceremonies. They'll also work directly with the professional-event industry, dealing with venues, as well as a range of community and cultural groups and be involved in developing the Cultural Olympiad program. The manager will also contract with creative operations required to develop the programs and decide whether one event or another will be handled in house, by volunteer or contracted out -- and, one of the most difficult parts of such a job -- they'll be charged with keeping control of the budget.

The manager will also be working directly with staffers from the federal and provincial governments, the City of Vancouver and Municipality of Whistler, aboriginal cultural groups, 2010 Legacies Now, the Canadian Olympic and Canadian Paralympic Committees, as well as with the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee. They'll also deal with whether there will be television coverage of the Cultural Olympiad programs by the various broadcasters, such as NBC, CTV and European television.

Burke Taylor, the former Vancouver cultural affairs director, is in charge of the Cultural Olympiad, which starts with Vancouver's eight minutes in the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Games a year from now in Torino, Italy.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 16, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1299

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC STARTS TO SET UP ITS OLYMPIC OVERLAY DEPARTMENT

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) will begin staffing up its department that will deal with the so-called Olympic Overlay in January, starting with the manager in charge. The Overlay is a systematic series of components that are added to all the venues of the 2010 Games, and most of the construction work will be done starting about the middle of 2009. And, of course, the Overlay, which is designed to be temporary, will have to be removed, and that work will take place in March, April, May and perhaps June of 2010. The components -- which include such things as security areas, accreditation locations, medical offices, signage, lighting and various other attributes that will turn the venues from what they are, if they're being renovated, or what they will be afterwards if they're being built, and make them part of the 2010 Games. That work also involves a batch of architectural designs that need to be provided to venue designers and contractors, so VANOC will also hire CAD designer for the Overlay department in the next few weeks as well. Although the work won't be done until later, the construction and renovation of various venue buildings, including the two Athlete Villages, over the next couple of years means that designers and planners will have to take into account the overlay requirements, and much of that work will be done in the next year or two. The Overlay Manager will also be responsible for helping to evaluate a number of tender packages and contract awards connected with the work.

VANOC MANAGER FOR FREESTYLE SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING TO BE HIRED SOON
VANOC is also expected to hire a manager for the Sport department in January who will be responsible for dealing with all the work connected with development of the freestyle skiing and snowboard venue, including all the testing and training events, at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver. The manager will be working with technical staff of the International Ski Federation, the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association and the Canadian Snowboard Federation, as well as with the Cypress Bowl Resort personnel. The person hired will also have the responsibility for recruiting and managing the VANOC work force connected with those sports, including the people needed for a competition committee and the sport's technical volunteers.

2010 LONG-TRACK SPEEDSKATING OVAL TO SIT ON 500 PILES
Dominion Fairmile Construction, the construction-management firm contracted by the City of Richmond to help it build the new Richmond Speed Skating Oval complex, has decided that the 25,800 square-metre building will need to be built atop 500 piles. By comparison, the Vancouver's new Trade & Convention Centre expansion building, which will house the media centre for the 2010 Winter Games, needs 1,000 piles. In Richmond's case, it will be using a special type of pile, with a flared base, known as an "expanded base pile." This allows pilings to be driven through the top layer of compressed river-delta land into more stable land below. The bottom of each piling hole is expanded beyond the width of the piling itself. It's a lot of piles, and a lot of pounding, but it's a well-established technology that keeps the building stable despite relatively soft ground. Piling companies are being asked to send in their proposals to do the job to Richmond City hall by November 24. The trade tender package is expected to be issued in late December or early January. In earlier bidding for foundation preparation work that was done this fall, Agra Foundations was the low bidder. Cannon Design is working on the complex itself. Both the oval complex and the Vancouver Convention Centre buildings are due to be completed in 2008.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 16, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1298

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

TORINO'S CLOSING CEREMONY TO START AT 11 AM FEB 26 VANCOUVER TIME

The Closing Ceremony for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, in which the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has an eight-minute segment, is scheduled to begin at 11 am Vancouver time Sunday, February 26. It will be 8 pm in Italy. The 2010 portion will begin near the when Torino's mayor hands the Olympic flag to Vancouver's new mayor. An estimated two billion people around the world are expected to be watching the broadcast of the ceremony. The Opening Ceremony is set for the same time, but on Friday, February 10.

TORINO TO REWORK ICE PLANT AT SECONDARY HOCKEY ARENA
Associated Press reports they're still working out the details and the cost, the 2006 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee has decided to pay thousands of dollars to quickly rework the ice-making machinery its power system in their secondary hockey arena, the Torino Esposizioni arena. Workers are today melting the ice so they could work on the flooring. The new system is expected to be in place by the end of December, and more test events are scheduled for January; the Games start in February. Players at test events this month complained the ice was soft, and new paint seeped through the ice during a power outage three weeks ago. The outage was long enough that officials worried the entire ice sheet would melt. An additional generator will be brought in so that one can be devoted to the ice-making equipment and another to the air-conditioning system. The events showed neither system could run at full capacity with one one power system. AP doesn't say so, but it appears the issue may have been the result of financial decisions, as the arena is a renovated exhibition hall that was due to be returned to its role after the Games. The revamped system, which could only get to minus 8 Celsius, will be able to reach a temperature of minus 14, matching the performance of equipment at the primary Palasport Olimpico arena. Work is still underway at the Palasport, as only half the seats have been installed and a test match is scheduled to be held at full capacity, to test the ice conditions when a full spectator heat load is generated, in December. The main hockey games in 2010 will be played at a renovated General Motors Place, where NHL hockey is regularly played. However, the secondary hockey venue is the new and renovated arenas at the University of British Columbia.

BC HELPS FUND GIANT TV SCREEN IN DOWNTOWN NANAIMO FOR 2010 GAMES BROADCAST
BC's Economic Development Minister, Colin Hansen, says the government has decided to give Nanaimo C$330,000 toward the purchase of a huge TV-type screen that can be used to watch the 2010 Olympics in the city on Vancouver Island's east coast. The amount is half the money needed; the rest will come from the Centre's capital budget. The funds are also to be spent on a portable stage and tent, and an audio/video/lighting system. The equipment is destined for the Port Theatre, with the screen, which measures 21 feet by 12 feet, on the outside of the building, facing Harbourfront Square in the city's centre. The BC government money comes from its C$20-million Olympic Paralympic Live Sites program, which has been running for a year. Communities submit applications to fund a live sites viewing project. The screen is also expected to be used to show community events, movies, the annual Nanaimo-to-Vancouver International Bathtub Race as well as the 2010 Games.

RESOURCES

To find when the 2006 Torino closing ceremonies will occur in your time zone, click this link:
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=2&day=26&year=2006&hour=20&min=0&sec=0&p1=215

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 16, 2005

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1297

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

CNL REIT BUYS CYPRESS BOWL RESORT PROPERTY

CNL Income Properties of Orlando, Florida, a real-estate investment trust, is expected to acquire ownership of a second property involved in the venues of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC). It's worked out a sale and leaseback transaction deal with Boyne USA Inc. of Boyne Falls, Missouri, worth C$56.6 million for the 250-acre Cypress Mountain ski resort in West Vancouver, where VANOC will be hosting alpine and snowboarding events, and a second, unrelated, leisure real-estate property in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. CNL says it expects the deal to close by the first quarter of calendar 2006. Boyne USA will continue to manage the resorts under a "multimillion-dollar, 20-year-lease with four five-year renewal options." CNL president Byron Carlock says the REIT will own 100% of the properties, including improvements and leasehold interests. And, he adds, CNL is "especially pleased to team up with Boyne in Canada in advance of the 2010 Olympics." In December 2004,CNL acquired a majority interest in 408,000 square feet of retail and commercial space at seven resort villages owned by Intrawest Corporation of Vancouver. Those properties included Whistler Creekside at Whistler Blackcomb. A REIT concentrates its holdings in real estate investments to generate income for shareholders. REITs are required to distribute as much as 90% of their income.

CYPRESS OFFERS OVERVIEW OF 2010-DRIVEN CHANGES
Speaking of Cypress, the mountain's spokesmen are reporting that the Canadian Series Freestyle Moguls will be held as an "Olympic preview" on February 25. Cypress also adds, "To prepare for the 2010 Games... the venues for freestyle skiing will be built in conjunction with a new quad chair on the east face of Black Mountain. Our revised master plan will add eight new ski trails in a new 40-hectare terrain area... The snowboarding venues on the Eagle Express terrain will provide improved grading of Fork and Panorama and create an Olympic-rated super pipe within the sight of the base area. A new day lodge, a snowmaking system and upgraded parking areas, and an athletes centre in the cross-country area will all be part of the drive to prepare for 2010."

PHONING IN OLYMPIC RELATIONSHIP
VANOC took on Esso for "creating an association" with the Olympics when it held a contest recently that didn't mention the word "Olympics", but offered some Olympic tickets as part of a larger prize connected with Esso's sponsorship of Hockey Canada. However, Telus continues to periodically post recruitment ads that describe it, in part, as "A premier founding supporter of the successful bid to bring the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to Canada." Which, of course, is true. Competitor Bell Canada outbid it a year ago for the right to be the telecom sponsor of VANOC.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 15, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1296

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VISA OFFERS DEMOGRAPHICS OF VIRTUAL-WINTER GAMES EXPERIMENT

Visa, the credit card organization, says its electronic gaming promotion set-up appears to be working well. Tom Shepard, the executive vice president of Global Marketing Partnerships and Sponsorship for Visa International, says the firm's contest, which started today and runs until December 15, is "an innovative way to raise awareness of Visa's Olympic sponsorship and increase brand interaction and relevance with consumers." Visa, which will also be sponsoring the 2010 Games via the International Olympic Committee, is promoting the "Visa Championships-Torino 2006 online game and international competition." Players from 23 countries compete in three virtual Olympic winter sports to win a trip for two to the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games and a chance to be crowned "global champion." Since the launch of the promotion, he says, "Players in all participating countries have been practicing and getting ready for these national championships. To date, more than 21,000 gamers have launched Visa Championships-Torino 2006, spending an average of more than 20 minutes of game time per visit." Players from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, the United Kingdom and the United States have begun competing. It's the first time the organization has done this sort of thing. Visa says it will await the results of the competition before deciding whether to continue this kind of marketing at the 2008 and 2010 Games.

HBC'S FASHION COLUMNISTS WARM TO HBC CANADIAN TEAM CLOTHING DESIGNS
More reaction to the clothing designs for the Canadian Olympic Team produced under HBC's sponsorship deal with the 2010 Olympics and unveiled last week: fashion columnist Nathalie Atkinson, writing in Canada's "National Post" newspaper over the weekend, says, "In short? It's patriotic. There's plenty of red. And while it doesn't hit you over the head with flags or HBC's signature point blanket stripes, it does lift a palette from the Olympic rings... Basic T-shirts are C$25, and the loose-fitting red-and-white hockey jersey is a safe way to proclaim your fanaticism at the local pub during hockey season... It's a challenge to design winter sports apparel that's cozy, functional and stylish. Mindful of the technical requirements of the various athletic uniforms, the collection includes yoga-inspired leisure pants that actually flatter an athletic female body ... zip hoodies in performance polyester that breathes and is cut close to the body, and a variety of knitted scarves, toques, caps and beanie-type headgear designed for winter sports like snowboarding, figure skating, curling or simply tromping through the snow. Each athlete will receive 46 items from the collection, including rolling duffel bags and backpacks.... Soft shearling boots are part Ugg, part mukluk, and each boot is emblazoned with an embroidered patch that conjures up old-fashioned figure-skating badges. A trappist shearling hat is a nod to The Bay's (and Canada's) fur-trading past. It could easily be mistaken for Canadian-born designing duo DSquared's runway version (except theirs costs in the high hundreds). The most expensive item? A bomber-length hoodie jacket, in flag-red shearling, for C$575." Meanwhile a Canadian Press news wire fashion report, distributed to a number of Canadian newspapers, says, "The athletic womenswear -- still blazing the proud colours of the Flag -- is a little more body conscious and sleek than in years' past, and, dare we say, slightly sexy. Other than the brightness of the hue, the menswear is also very urban."

ECONOMIC WITH HEADLINES
From our Say What? department: It's said that if you had 1,000 economists and you laid them end to end you'd never come to a conclusion. To illustrate this concept, we have for your consideration two newspaper headlines that appeared the same day atop a story about a Royal Bank economist's predictions about the effect of the 2010 Olympics. From the Kamloops Daily news: "Royal Bank study says 2010 Olympics could overheat B.C. economy", and, in the Prince George Citizen: "Olympics could curb economy: report."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 15, 2005

Monday, November 14, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1295

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

WSC TO BE UNDER OPEN-SITE POLICY, WITH NO "LABOUR INTERRUPTIONS"

VANOC doesn't want labour interruptions while construction of the Whistler Sliding Centre is underway. As a result, the Venues department of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is telling contractors bidding for construction of the track that, "It's an open-site policy [and] no labour interruptions will be a requirement." It's also not going to impose any geographical or social requirements on the contractor's labour force. When the department was asked by one bidder, "Will there be any requirements to hire local labour or First Nation labour?", the response was, "No mandatory requirements, however, [it is] always encouraged." The cut-off for companies hoping to be on the VANOC shortlist for the Request for Proposals is this afternoon. VANOC expects to give the RFP to no more than four firms. The RFP, which is expected to provide considerable detail on the construction, is expected to be issued in January or February. Work is expected to start when the snow has sufficiently melted in the spring, probably in April or May. VANOC has refused to discuss, at least for the time being, any information about the on-site relationship contractors can expect to have with the company that eventually wins the separate refrigeration contract for the 1.7 kilometres of twisting refrigerated and reinforced track, say all that will be addressed in the RFP. When asked," How will any conflicting union issues between the track and refrigeration contractors be addressed?", it simply responds with the 'open-site, no interruptions' answer.

RICHMOND TO USE ABOUT C$36 MILLION OF RESERVES FOR BRIDGE FINANCING OVAL COMPLEX
The municipality of Richmond, which is in charge of building the sports complex that will incorporate the C$60 million 2010 speedskating oval, indicates it will need C$36.5 million in bridge financing. That's because some of the funding for the C$178-million project won't be in place until the building is completed, in 2008. City manager Ted Townsend reports the city has up to C$45 million in reserves it can use if necessary, although it had earmarked some of the funds for fire-hall construction. As for the timing of the C$60-million: the city has already received C$30 million from the province of BC. Another C$30 million is to come from the federal government, but has not yet been received. By the way, Richmond is expected to shortly issue an RFP to developers asking if they're interested in developing the city-owned land adjacent to the project. The city will be using the funds from the land development to help fund the complex.

SCARFING DOWN HBC's OLYMPIC FASHION
There's been some squibs of reaction to HBC's Olympic boutique stores in its Hudson Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters stores, that will be opening over the next few days, starting with the first one last week in Vancouver. The Toronto Star newspaper, for instance, gossips about aspects in a fashion section, saying, "You would think that the most recognizable element of HBC, the iconic blanket stripes, would be liberally used in this Olympic collection. However the colour-blocked scarf (C$25) is the only accessory that proudly displayed them. Perhaps the design team didn't want to overplay this trump card and is saving these heritage stripes for the parade uniforms and accessories. The Vancouver 2010 scarf, only available to athletes at the moment, is another story. You can already feel the power of this match made in marketing heaven [to] Canada's oldest retailer and the 2010 Winter Games. The striking oversized lettering looks retro and has a vintage vibe, and if this is an indication of what's to come, they are off to a cool start."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 14, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1294
VENUE PARKING, GVRD AND WHISTLER TRANSIT FLOWS TO BE STUDIED STARTING IN JANUARY

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), during the first six months of 2006, will be studying in detail a host of transit and parking issues associated with the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler.

Since it will affect a wide range of its operations in late 2009 and the first half of 2010, VANOC wants to know, in quite a bit of detail, exactly how and whether Games spectators are likely to use public transit or their own vehicles to get to the Games.

Primarily, it wants to know where parking lots can be established around the venues -- in addition to lots that now exist -- how big those lots will have to be, and what kind of revenue it could expect to be generated by the parking, along with what kinds of costs might associated with the lots.

It and its consultants, for instance, hope to develop a cost-recovery program for the parking and identify the necessary real estate for them in specific areas, and the information it hopes to acquire include both the estimated costs for the property and the required Olympic overlay aspects, which will be installed starting in the latter part of 2009, such as signage, security, accreditation and the like.

Incorporated into those parking studies will be information about how people make decisions about so-called park-and-rides -- parking areas that are serviced either by walking, transit or shuttles between the parking lots and the venues, and how all that will affect commuter traffic, both in the venue areas and on the main routes into Vancouver and Whistler.

It also expects to pull in information about the impact of the new Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid-transit line, just now beginning construction, on existing transit and vehicle ridership and what new ridership will be generated by it. It also intends to determine an accurate percentage of day skiers who would use the Lower Mainland's transit system -- buses, commuter ferries, passenger trains and coaches -- to get to shuttles between Vancouver and Whistler.

But, in order to do all that, it needs to know how spectators from each of the 21 municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and in the areas of the Resort Municipality of Whistler and surrounds, are likely to make the transit vs. car decision for each of the venues.

It will also be studying the estimated number of out-of-town residents -- these would be individuals staying in Vancouver or Whistler accommodations -- and how they would expect to get to the venues, along with the same information about commuters to the Games, which it defines as those people who are less than five hours travel time from the venues.

That's to be integrated with what VANOC already knows about event schedules, projected attendance and estimated ticket sales.

VANOC has already done baseline traffic studies of Whistler, bus shuttle timings between its Cypress Bowl venue and the Park Royal shopping mall in West Vancouver, and it just finalizing a broad-strokes transportation policy, which it expects to be informed by its observation of how traffic is handled at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy in February.

VANOC figures on splitting up the job into two components, with either one consultant or two working on them. The first component is the so-called geo-marketing section, which deals with how many people will be coming from where, and how. That's expected to be done by February. The second component will deal with the integration of that information into the parking program.

VANOC isn't going to start looking for a private contractor to operate the parking program just yet -- at this stage, it is just looking for consultants to do the study -- but the information it'll glean in the studies is expected to help it determine what such an operator will be doing if it does being looking for one.

RESOURCES

A PDF document (about 350k) showing the boundaries of the GVRD municipalities:
www.gvrd.bc.ca/about/pdfs/GVRDMunicpalBoundaries.pdf

--

There are a number of studies available that deal with transportation planning in the GVRD. You'll find links to them here:
www.translink.bc.ca/Plans_Projects/transportation_planning.asp

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Stories we've done about VANOC transportation planning:
'Transportation planning for the Vancouver - Whistler corridor begins with focus on busses'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1070; Published on Tuesday, June 21, 2005]

--

'Hundreds of buses possible on routes involving Cypress Mountain venue, say test reports'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:844; Published on Monday, February 21, 2005]

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'Translink to warn its retailers about 2010 disruption possibilities...
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:816; Published on Wednesday, February 9, 2005]

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'2010 Committee to take close look at commercial and pedestrian traffic patterns in Whistler area'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:759; Published on Friday, December 24, 2004]

--

'(Feature) Size, transportation and popular support in Athens impresses and surprises Furlong'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:494; Published on Thursday, August 26, 2004]

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 14, 2005

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1293
WHISTLER TO SEE VANOC'S BUSINESS PLAN FOR 2010 OLYMPIC VILLAGE IN SHORT ORDER

Eric Martin, chair of the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation, the organization that's responsible for overseeing development of the Whistler 2010 Athletes Village, indicates early talks have been held with a hostel operation on the possibility one of the buildings may be used as a hostel after the 2010 Games are finished.

But in a meeting with Whistler council, the senior vice-president of Venues, Steve Matheson of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), and Mark Cutler, director of Villages Development for VANOC, it was apparent there's a lot of flexibility being built into the draft business plan for the Village.

In general terms, the Village is to include Olympic and Paralympic housing, a high-performance athletes' centre of about 12,000 square feet, and various buildings for Olympic and Paralympic support services leading up to and during the Games.

Martin says the Corporation has already held preliminary discussions with Hostelling International as part of the business-plan development. The plan is expected to be made available in time for the public open house about the project that's likely to be held in mid-December, and any resulting adjustments to the plan will be made to it before it goes to Whistler Council for approval, probably at its January 23 meeting.

Whistler municipal council is to be reconfigured during the BC-wide municipal elections later this month, and it will have a new mayor at its helm.

Steve Matheson says the plan will talk about what will be needed for the Village for the Olympics and Paralympics, and will be flexible in what could be done with the buildings and property after the Games, with some options on what might be done with the site afterward, with the financial risks associated with each option.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 10, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1292

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

HBC OPENS OLYMPIC BOUTIQUES ON SCHEDULE TODAY

HBC, the 2010 Olympics retail sponsor, begins earning more Olympic-related revenue to offset its investment by today opening its concept of a boutique in its stores to sell Olympic-branded merchandise. The boutiques are scheduled to be in Hudson Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitter locations in Canada, and are timed to take advantage of both the Christmas holiday buying season and the advent of the 2006 Torino Olympics. HBC has had an extremely limited supply of Olympic-branded clothing in corners of a few Hudson Bay stores for the last four months, as it ramped up the breadth and range of its branded materials.

LABINE HIRED TO INCREASE ALPINE CANADA REVENUES BY C$3 MILLION ANNUALLY
Andre Labine, of Anderol Specialty Lubricants, was today named vice-president of Marketing and New Business Development for Alpine Canada. Labine has a mandate to strengthen the financial resources required to make Canada "a world leading alpine racing country by 2010," Alpine Canada President Ken Read says. Read adds, "Andre is integral to delivering the human, technical and financial resources to ensure our athletes have the means to reach the podium." Labine, who was an executive marketer for Shell Canada for a long time until moving to the lubricant company in 1998, is to replace Greg Scott, who, after eight years helping build Alberta Alpine and Alpine Canada, told the organization last spring he intended to step down once he's had a chance to train Labine. Scott will leave the organization in late January while Mr. Labine will join in about a week. Alpine Canada, one of the most business-like of the national sports federations in Canada, is currently sponsored by the CIBC bank, General Motors, Telus, Husky Energy, Mars Equipment, Spyder, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Inniskillin and Carlsberg beer. Read estimates Alpine Canada Alpin requires C$3 million more annually to match and sustain the resources available within current world leading countries. Labine says he understands what Read wants, adding, "To compete on a level playing field with the Austrians and the Americans, and to achieve our goal of being a world leading country by 2010, we need more resources. "We must continuously strive to further the organization's marketing, corporate sponsorship, and fundraising initiatives such as the Podium Club in preparation for 2010 and beyond."

VISA, LENOVO EXCHANGE TORINO GIFTS
Visa, the credit card company that has an International Olympic sponsorship agreement that puts it at the 2010 Winter Games, and Lenovo, the China-backed company that bought IBM's personal-computer business but hasn't yet signed a deal to put it at the 2010 Games, have agreed to work together on various projects connected with the 2010 Winter Games. On the one hand, Lenovo will provide portable computers to Visa employees so they can link into the 2006 Torino Winter Games information systems, and give out computers as prizes to an Olympic computer-games contest Visa is promoting in connection with Torino. Lenovo's sponsorship agreement takes it only to the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. In exchange, Visa will provide Lenovo personnel with a Lenovo/Olympics-branded, prepaid credit-type card that can be used for expenses -- snacks, meals, trinkets, whatever -- at the Torino Games. It's the first time the two firms have worked on an Olympic Games together; Visa's the Olympic veteran, while Lenovo is the novice.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 10, 2005

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC, Torino| #1291
TOROC PLANS TO ENSURE WINTER OLYMPICS ARE ENVIROMENTALLY "CARBON NEUTRAL"

The Torino Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, TOROC, has released its formal report on the measures it has taken, and will be taking during the 2006 Games, to make the Games ecologically neutral.

The report sets the benchmark for the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, and it is expected to do the same for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler. British Columbia has strong set of environmental regulations. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has incorporated an extensive policy on environmental sustainability in many of its major contracts over the last year.

The report was published in Nairobi, Kenya, during a meeting of an international sports conference co-hosted by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The report says TOROC's measures will cut greenhouse gas emissions, minimize water use in snow-making and promote eco-friendly hotels.

The Conference, under the theme of 'Sport, Peace and Environment' brings together around 350 delegates, representing up to 100 different countries, every two years.

Pl Schmitt, Chairman of the IOC's Sport and Environment Commission, said: "When you host the Olympic Games, among the main priorities must be the environment." (The TOROC project, to make the Games carbon-neutral, is nicknamed "Hector"; it stands for HEritage Climate TORino.)

TOROC researchers calculate that the 2006 Winter Olympics, which run from February 10 to 26, will generate the equivalent of just over 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The main sources of emissions will come from transport and the operation of the Olympic venues.

The sister Paralympic Games will generate the equivalent of 15,000 tonnes of the greenhouse gas, making the total emissions from both events just over 120,000 tonnes.

Under HECTOR, these emissions will be offset via forestry, energy efficiency and renewable energy schemes, both in Italy and abroad, in line with the international climate change treaty, the Kyoto Protocol. Canada is a signatory to the protocol. For example the Piedmont Regional Government, 2010's equivalent to Whistler, and its Pinerolo town council are financing renewable energy and sustainable energy projects.

Employees of TOROC will, during the life of the Games, generate an estimated 500 kilograms of greenhouse gases which are to be offset by buying carbon credits linked with a reforestation project in Mexico, renewable energy projects in India and Sri Lanka, plus an energy-efficiency scheme in Eritrea.

Ugo Pretato, Head of Environmental Programs at TOROC, told the conference, "Climate change and offsetting carbon-dioxide emissions are high priorities for the Torino Winter Games, especially as winter sports and climate change are closely interrelated. This is the first time that an Olympic event will be able to offset all the carbon emissions produced during the event. They are being offset largely thanks to an investment of three million Euros by the Piedmont regional administration into energy efficiency projects, which are expected to generate an estimated 300,000 tonnes of carbon credits."

The IOC, as part of this week's events, has published its own "Guide on Sport, Environment and Sustainable Development". It was created to present methods and tools for the international sports community, based on the major principles of sustainable development.

The Guide, drafted by Professor Joseph Tarradellas of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, the IOC's headquarters city, examines ecosystem services and how they related to various sports. It analyses the impacts that athletes and different sports Ð from water sports and indoor disciplines such as gymnastics, to large outdoor matches Ð have on the environment, and offers practical solutions and tips to participants and spectators alike.

Meanwhile UNEP also announced it expects to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Summer Games (BOCOG) on November 18. The MOU is aimed at helping Beijing with its ambitious proposals in areas ranging from air, water and noise pollution up to transport, landscaping and the disposal of solid wastes.

UNEP will also help China with public relations campaigns designed to leave a legacy among citizens in Beijing and China generally on the importance of the environment.

Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director, told the conference, "In terms of the environment, the two organizing committees are taking forward a green torch first lit in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. I am sure the measures they are both undertaking will make the upcoming winter and summer games a crucial guide for environmentally-friendly mass spectator events everywhere over the coming years."

BACKGROUND
==========

Keystones of the Torino Strategy:

Snow-making machines can consume large quantities of water. The construction of 20 new reservoirs holding 350,000 cubic meters of water had been originally proposed. However the organizers and the Province of Torino were able to identify water-saving measures to reduce the scale of construction, reducing the impact on the landscape so that only nine new water storage facilities, holding around 220,000 cubic meters, have been built.
Monitoring at the recent World Cup for cross-country skiing, which took place at Pragelato, Italy, and other locations scheduled to host Olympic events, showed engineers that there were potentially high levels of sewage-related pollution connected with the sudden surges of athletes, coaches, officials and spectators. To prevent mountain water-purification plants from overloading, TOROC plans to collect the waste and transport it to bigger metropolitan-based plants during the Games.
Other measures Ð either completed, underway or planned Ð include a waste materials plan to handle the anticipated increases in rubbish during the Games; the development of eco-friendly buildings at, for example the new Olympic Village, and the use of pollution-free materials in their construction, and an extensive sustainable-transport plan.
TOROC has adopted the International Standards Organization's ISO 14001 standard alongside the European Commission's Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) to ensure the "continuous improvement in the environmental performance" of the organization.
Sponsors of the Torino Games agreed to a voluntary 'sustainability program' to meet a set of ethical and environmental standards. TOROC has also instituted a green procurement policy which aims to buy environmentally friendly products and services as much as possible.
TOROC is also promoting the European Eco-label for hotels and helping them to secure this green mark. Olympic accommodation for athletes will also be subject to the Eco-label standards.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 9, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1290

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

VANOC HUNTING FOR BRAND-PROTECTION LAWYER

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is looking for a lawyer to work on brand protection in its legal department. The person to be hired later this month will report directly to Senior Vice President and General Counsel Ken Bagshaw and work with the marketing department and the Director of VANOC's Commercial Rights section. They'll be responsible for developing and implementing brand protection and anti-ambush plan for the VANOC and Olympic brands. The job was posted as VANOC took on Esso Canada over its controversial plan to offer a trip for two to Torino to watch Hockey Canada teams play at the 2006 Winter Games. The job description also involves planning for dealing with ambush marketing, and for preparing and delivering presentations and public information campaigns. The lawyer is also to advise on programs to ensure "positive communication" with all parties regarding the misuses of brands or trademarks, advise on commercial and non-commercial licensing issues and "Develop and implement the full array of strategies and tactics to combat infringement." The job ad adds this comment, which is fairly normal in VANOC job ads but, in this case, sounds like an understatement, "This is an evolving position and responsibilities may shift over time."

VANOC ADVERTISING RUNS COLD AND HOT
Speaking of VANOC advertising, it's posting newspaper ads these days for engineering firms to be involved in construction of its Whistler Sliding Centre track. Those ads are relatively small and in black and white. The expensive full-colour and full-page ad campaign however, was VANOC thanking Bell Canada for the telecommunication sponsor's announcement that it would be putting C$15 million toward the "Own the Podium" program. And, speaking of sponsor investments, HBC, another VANOC sponsor, has reportedly agreed to provide C$2 million to Pacific Sport Institute in Victoria, BC. The C$36-million PacificSport Institute at Camosun College in the Vancouver Island city, now in the design stage, is expected to be the residential training centre for some of Canada's Olympians.

SPEEDO TO SHARKSKIN AMERICAN SLEDDERS FOR TORINO
Speedo, the Aussie clothing company, has signed individual endorsement deals with some of the US 2006 Winter Olympic sledding team -- Vonetta Flowers, Todd Hays, Noelle Pikus-Pace, Jean Prahm-Racine and Chris Soule. It's the company's first winter-sports endorsements. And, it says, it will dress them in what it calls "evolutionary suit technology" it will introduce at the Torino Olympics, and which stems from its high-tech swimwear based on shark skin that it introduced for the Athens Olympics last year. That product, Fastskin II, was developed using athlete testing, drag analysis, computational fluid dynamics testing and laser modeling. "Speedo's dominance in the pool is built around a research and development process that engages the world's best swimmers," said Sheree Waterson, President of Speedo North America. "This approach now extends to sledding athletes, opening up unprecedented opportunities for speed."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 9, 2005

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1288
HBC FOUNDATION LAUNCHES DRIVE TO RAISE C$20 MILLION FOR ATHLETES OVER NEXT SEVEN YEARS

Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) says it will help Canadian athletes by supporting a seven-year, C$20 million fundraising drive. The company says that its locations across Canada Ð- the Bay, Zellers, Home Outfitters, Designer Depot and Fields -- will participate in an attempt to raise nearly C$3 million annually until 2012.

"The road to an Olympic medal starts in communities across Canada; many of which have an HBC store," said George Heller, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, which has a sponsorship valued at C$100 million by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC). "It's our hope that our fundraising initiatives -Ð with the help of our customers and associates Ð- will send more Canadian athletes to the podium. Whether they are competing at the Paralympic, the Olympic, or Commonwealth Games, or training to get there. HBC is a committed partner to help them achieve their dreams and the dreams of all Canadians."

HBC's athlete fundraising projects are expected to include a "Cut-Out" program that will allow Canadians to financially support athletes while sending a written message to them at the games; a "Donate your HBC Rewards Points" program at all locations; the annual HBC Golf Tournament and the donation of proceeds from the sale of specific items.

It will also include the HBC "Run for Canada", to be held on July 1st, which is Canada Day, a national holiday, in 10 communities across Canada. The 10-kilometre run, also includes a three-km walk and a one-km run for children.

A company spokesman says that proceeds from all these events will go to individual athletes, elite training facilities and national organizations, to help ensure Canada's athletes are prepared to compete on the world stage.

There are 5 designated recipients of the HBC Foundation funding:
1. Individual Canadian athletes
2. Commonwealth Games Canada
3. Paralympics
4. Seven Canadian Sport Centres, and,
5. The "Own The Podium" fund

The HBC Foundation is a charitable organization with the focus of improving the lives of Canadians through programs that reflect Canadian values. Each year, by working closely with local and national organizations across the country, the Foundation invests about C$11 million towards three key areas: building healthy families, creating strong communities, and inspiring Canadians.

RESOURCES

HBC Foundation:
www.hbc.com/hbc/socialresponsibility/foundation/default.asp

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 8, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC, VANOC| #1287
HBC REVEALS FIRST DESIGNS OF TEAM CANADA CLOTHING AS PART OF VANOC DEAL

The second major test of the major sponsorship deal that HBC, the Canadian retail company, made with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) was outlined today in Toronto -- the Canadian Olympic Team uniforms.

Designed within two months of HBC winning the retail category sponsorship for a deal valued by VANOC at C$100 million, the uniforms and luggage were unveiled today by the company and the Canadian Olympic Committee at the Fort York Armoury in Toronto.

It's the first time in years that the Canadian team uniforms were designed by a company other than Roots Canada, which was shut out of the bidding for the deal last winter.

John Furlong, CEO, VANOC, said, "We knew when we struck our partnership with HBC earlier this year that their first major challenge would be the design of the 2006 Canadian Team uniforms. We put our faith in their ability to create a uniform that would instil national pride and become one of our athletes' most treasured memories of the Games."

HBC this summer also began selling a limited range of VANOC logo jackets and shirts at a few of its Hudson Bay stores.

The unveiling took place at a gala that included Canadian Olympic athletes, guests and HBC associates. The items included team wear -Ð items the athletes will wear during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games -Ð as well as some of the clothing line that will be sold through HBC stores that was inspired by the athletes' uniforms. Olympic-themed boutiques are due to open this week in HBC stores across the country, including the Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters.

"The 2006 Olympic Winter Games are about great things -Ð for our athletes, our country and now for HBC," said George Heller, President and CEO, HBC. "The HBC team of designers has built a collection for the Canadian team representing us in Torino that captures the essence of Canada and will make us all proud when our athletes march into the stadium and climb onto the medal podium."

Chris Rudge, CEO, Canadian Olympic Committee added that, "These uniforms represent the pride Canadians feel for our Olympic athletes. They are attractive and functional, and will showcase the Canadian team to the world at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. We are very impressed with the 2006 Torino clothing line and the commitment HBC has made to athletes for the next seven years."

HBC is the official clothing and luggage supplier to the Canadian Olympic Teams for the 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games.

According to HBC spokesman Geri McCuish, the 2006 Canadian Olympic Team uniforms and replica wear were created by a team of HBC designers "supported by Canadian design consultants that were brought in to work on the program." The team also worked with Canadian Olympic athletes from across the country. More than 50 athletes participated in focus groups in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, and provided feedback and suggestions that contributed to the goal of creating the package. And, McCuish added, "A set of core values including diversity, pride, achievement and tradition were the inspiration and touch point for the design team throughout the creative process."

Canada's Olympic Team in Torino will each receive about 45 items in the package including leisure wear, coats, indoor and outdoor jackets and pants, sweaters, shirts, shoes, toques, scarves and gloves. There will also be athlete-only pieces, such as the opening ceremony jacket, podium jacket, and a blazer that will not be available for sale. The Canadian designs for parade wear Ð- the clothing worn in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies Ð- and the clothing designed for the medal podium will only be revealed at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, McCuish said.

Suzanne Timmins, Fashion Director, HBC said, "We sought out the best in Canadian fashion and challenged our internal team of talented designers to come up with a line that mixes Canadian heritage with present day trends. From the latest fabrics to the cut and size ranges, our team considered everything."

RESOURCES

Photos of some of the clothing designs are here:
www.canada.com/national/globalnational/story.html?id=41435284-fc1f-4c6e-bc59-18e8bc8ba7b0

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 8, 2005

Monday, November 07, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1286
COBB SAYS 2010 TICKETS WILL BE "AVAILABLE TO AS BROAD A SECTOR OF THE PUBLIC AS POSSIBLE"

NewsWatch

The senior vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications for the Olympic 2010 Games, Dave Cobb, says it will be next summer at the earliest before the organization starts making detailed plans about ticket packages and pricing.

Cobb told sports writer Terry Bell of the Nanaimo Daily News that, "Our biggest challenge is to make sure that we make tickets available to as broad a sector of the public as possible."

Bell had asked him about reports that the only remaining way now to see the Canadian hockey team play at the 2006 Olympics at Torino was by buying a five-day VIP package of hotel accommodation, meals and other events for US$8,453, because off-the-shelf tickets for the gold-medal hockey events sold out shortly after they went on sale a year ago.

Bell quotes Cobb as saying, "We don't want it to be only Olympic insiders or wealthy people who can go to these Games. We want a fair allocation of tickets. It shouldn't be who has the most money or who has the most influence that decides who gets tickets."

Cobb confirmed for Bell that there would be similar VIP packages as well, however, and he's quoted as saying, "We will be talking to the hospitality companies that fulfil that market. There are people who plan holidays around the Olympics and they want a high-end package. We'll fulfil that but they'll be a very small percentage of the tickets available. Certainly we'll want the high-end prices that generate the revenue that puts the Games on, but we want to make sure that the average guy down the street has a chance to participate."

That's the extent of Cobb's comments to the Nanaimo newspaper, but one of the major players in high-end ticket packages is a U.S.-based company, which has authority from the International Olympic Committee to make such packages available. In Canada, the IOC required its Canadian Olympic Committee division to deal with CoSport, and it offered individual Olympic event tickets, and various packages that include tickets.

Last February, the company reported it had an inventory of more than 20,000 individual 2006 Olympic Winter Games event tickets and 1,200 ticket packages. For instance, Canadians were offered ticket and accommodation packages in six different hotels in and around the Torino area. Each hotel has packages consisting of three to six night stays, providing 29 different ticket and accommodation options that vary in content and price for a total of 572 combinations. These packages were designed to give Canadians a full range of amenities from the top end with an all-inclusive experience that includes meals, bi-lingual hosts, ground transportation, accommodations and tickets, to base-level packages that include tickets and bed-and-breakfasts.

To give you a sense of how the Torino Olympic Organizing Committee set its initial prices for hockey: e40 (C$56) and e80 (C$112) for the elimination rounds, e100 ($C140) and e150 ($C210) for the quarter-finals, e140 (C$196) and e240 (C$336) for the semi-finals and the final for the bronze, and e200 (C$280) and e350 (C$490) for the final match.

As for the women's Olympic tournament (Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA), the ticket prices are roughly half the price of the men's in various categories.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 7, 2005

Friday, November 04, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Torino| #1285
SAMSUNG TO OFFER 8,000 CELL PHONES TO TORINO OLYMPICS FAMILY

Samsung Electronics says it expects to provide about 8,000 mobile phones with the new Olympics-related technology to the Olympic Family of the 2006 Torino Games. And its description of what the cellphone will be able to do for staff, officials and volunteers, offers an indication of what will likely be standard issue for Olympics by 2010.

Samsung has an agreement with the International Olympic Committee to sponsor the Games in exchange for exclusivity in marketing wireless telecommunications equipment. It also sponsors the Torino 2006 Olympic Torch Relay, which is expected to start travelling through Italy beginning December 8.

The phones will be given to organizers, staff, volunteers, athletes and media. The company expects to complete the delivery of the SGH-D600 mobile phones later this month. The phones contain Samsung's mobile information service software technology, which can provide officials with up-to-the-minute information and services to help them run the Games. Staff will be able to see schedules and results of events, a real-time medal count, receive biographies of medal winners, information on venues and weather, and group messaging from the headquarters of the Torino Olympic Organizing Committee (TOROC) to on-site personnel.

Valentino Castellani, president of TOROC notes, "Samsung's mobile technology will enable thousands of staff members and volunteers to communicate quickly and efficiently about the operation of the Games."

For the Torch Relay, Samsung will also provide the same cell-phone services to help organizers there.

The company also confirmed that in December in Torino's city centre, it would begin building the Olympic Rendezvous at Samsung store. The temporary edifice will have a spectator centre with exhibits, live entertainment and, of course, buy Samsung's phones. It will also have a private area where Olympic athletes and their families will be able to make free phone calls to their home country.

RESOURCES
Here's a photo of the cell phone, along with its specifications:
www.samsung.com/me/products/mobilephones/gsm/sgh_d600.asp

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 4, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1284
PLACER DOME'S REX MCLENNAN HIRED AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) has hired Placer Dome's Rex McLennan as its Chief Financial Officer. The appointment is at VANOC's senior vice-presidential Level, and it's expected this is last senior position to be filled.

VANOC CEO John Furlong says that McLennan has been given the responsibility for overseeing all financial aspects of the 2010 Winter Games, such as the Organizing Committee's operating and venue-construction budgets, as well as VANOC's procurement and project-management functions. He brings 25 years of experience in progressively senior financial roles in the resources industry to VANOC.

McLennan spent 14 years with Placer Dome (NYSE, TSX, ASX: PDG) of Vancouver, one of the world's largest gold mining companies. It has 16 mining operations in seven countries and employs more than 13,000 people around the world. McLennan held a number of financial positions there. He had been working as the company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 1997, but the company announced August 2 that he was stepping down, about a week after the company reported a second quarter loss of C$7 million. It's first quarter quarter earnings were C$31 million and its third-quarter earnings were C$34 million on the positive side, however.

Senior financial oversight at VANOC has been provided until now by vice-president and comptroller, John McLaughlin. VANOC's fiscal year starts August 1.

McLennan is to start work for VANOC on November 21 and his first task is to begin to develop a new VANOC budget after studying the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. VANOC has said it would produce three major Games budgets, it's currently working on a tentative budget that was originally due to be released last spring but was later delayed to this fall. The second would follow the Torino Games, and the third would be about a year in advance of the Games themselves.

McLennan was chosen following an executive search. His appointment was confirmed by the VANOC Board of Directors last month.

VANOC currently has about 150 staff.

BACKGROUND
==========

Biography of Rex McLennan:

Rex McLennan began his career as a branch administration manager with the Bank of Montreal in 1974. He joined Exxon/Imperial Oil in 1980, working in the planning and treasury departments. He moved to Placer Dome in 1991, starting as the company's Assistant Treasurer becoming the company's Chief Financial Officer in 1997.

He holds a Master in Business Administration in finance and accounting from McGill University, and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and economics from the University of British Columbia.
--

Other major VANOC functions and their senior vice-presidential executives:

Services & Planning (the senior vice-president is Terry Wright), which includes such service functions as accommodation for the Olympic family, as well as ceremonies, but also such mundane items as cleaning, waste removal at the like;
Sport & Paralympics (Cathy Priestner-Allinger), which deals with everything an athlete or supporting staff encounter;
General Counsel (Keith Bradshaw), which deals with all legal aspects;
Human Resources (Donna Wilson, which includes volunteers & accreditation;
Revenue, Marketing & Communications (Dave Cobb), which involves revenue generation, such as sponsorship and ticketing, and every aspect that deals with the look, feel and image of the 2010 Games;
Venue Development (Steve Matheson), which deals with all aspects of getting all the sport and non-sport venues ready for the Games and returning them, after the Games, to their legacy functions if that's the plan for them; and
Technology (Ward Chapin), which will oversee networking and telecommunications, and the technical aspects of broadcasting.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 4, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1283
2010 LEGACIES NOW HUNTING UP SUPPLIERS FOR BRANDED PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

2010 Legacies Now has asked for marketing supply firms that can make or supply a variety of quality branded items for promotions to quote on a range of them.

All the items are to have, where possible, a six-colour logo on them. The society's marketing department cautions that it might not purchase all of the items it's listed because, in some cases, it's assessing how competitive the pricing is. But for instance, it's list includes 3,650 twill caps with piping of a contrasting colour and a cloth back-strap that has a Velcro closure. It's also in the market for 5,700 heavyweight cotton T-shirts, 425 golf shirts, 630 vests and 200 jackets. Besides clothing, it's also looking for various other logo-branded promotional items: 36,000 temporary tattoos, 9,250 nickel-plated lapel pins and 5,000 3"x2" stickers.

2010 Legacies Now is primarily looking for firms that can do all the work in house, although they may allow a limited amount of subcontracting.

There won't be any ability for the contractor selected to use its connection with the Olympics-related organization in its own marketing, and 2010 Legacies Now says the agreement the contractor will sign will contain a clause that turns over the intellectual property rights -- patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and trade secrets -- in any of the products that might be developed as a result of the deal. That includes the artwork, photography and graphics. And, for that matter, licensing and marketing rights for any such materials will not be given to the successful firm, either.

The deadline for to be considered is November 15.

RESOURCES

Contact:
Mark Russell
Marketing Assistant
2010 Legacies Now
Suite 1350 Ð 1095 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6E 2M6
Phone: (+1) 604.659.1389
Fax: (+1) 604-659-1374

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 4, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1282

ESSO "CHEER ON CANADA" HOCKEY PROMO CHANGES PRIZE, NOT CONTEST

You can still cheer Hockey Canada through Esso Canada's "Cheer On Canada" Contest, but unless you know what the heck is going on, you don't know where or why. Late last month, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), whose major petroleum sponsor is Esso's competitor, Petro-Canada, publicly pounded Esso to change the wording of its contest that offered a return trip for two, hotels and tickets to see Hockey Canada games at Torino, Italy. VANOC CEO John Furlong complained that the contest allowed Esso to "create an association" with the Torino Winter Olympics that start in February, which he said was a "big mistake". He noted that only VANOC and its sponsors could do that in Canada, and took Esso to task even though the word "Olympics" was not used anywhere in the promotion, because it was offering tickets, which would carry the Olympic brands, as part of the prize. Esso and Hockey Canada both objected, saying Esso was simply promoting Hockey Canada and they had a long-term sponsorship agreement to do that. By last Friday, VANOC had said it had managed to convince Esso to remove the association through negotiations, but nobody talked about what Esso agreed to do. Now we can. It's one week later, and Esso has changed the prize, not the contest, noting that, "Due to circumstances beyond our control, Esso regrets that it is unable to award the grand prize winner with a trip including tickets to watch Canada's National Men's and Women's hockey teams as previously advertised. In accordance with the contest rules we will be awarding the winner with the $55,000 cash value of the trip prize in lieu. Draw date: January 31, 2006." The promotion even drops the concept of the winner going to Torino, suggesting instead that maybe they might want to stay in Canada. It now says, "The Grand Prize winner of our Cheer On Canada contest will now be awarded the cash equivalent for the previously offered trip and hockey tickets. The good news is, with $55,000 you can cheer on Canada in style! Buy a big screen TV... or two! Have a party for a few hundred of your closest friends. It's up to you!" Even though the contest wording was changed, it appears VANOC's publicity over the matter made a lot more people aware of the contest than previously.

BUSINESS GROUP SAYS SQUAMISH FERRY PLAN CANCELLATION "IMMENSE DISAPPOINTMENT"
Mohammad Afsar, the president of the Town Centre Association in Squamish, a large town on the highway between Vancouver and Whistler, says his group is "publicly expressing our disappointment over the way Squamish has been treated by the Olympic Committee." The disappointment stems from word that VANOC has quietly dropped the idea of a passenger ferry between Vancouver and Squamish as part of VANOC's transportation plan, preferring to use buses instead, even though the ferry was part of the Bid promises to the IOC. Afsar has written an open letter urging Squamish residents "to write to the VANOC to let their feelings be known." As he puts it, "The Squamish Community... had celebrated this component of the plan for its potential impact as a legacy. In addition, the travel would have taken the visitors through downtown Squamish that was anticipated to dress up for the occasion. The development of a ferry terminal was the only tangible benefit Squamish would have drawn from the 2010 Olympics. A cancellation is an immense disappointment."

UN UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTS TORINO OLYMPIC TRUCE RESOLUTION
The United Nations General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution urging all countries to observe the Olympic Truce during the Torino Winter Olympics and Paralympics in February and March. The resolution asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to "draw the attention of world public opinion to the contribution the Olympic Truce can make to the promotion of international understanding, peace and goodwill." A similar resolution has been approved for each Olympic Games since the mid-1990s. In a separate measure, the Assembly requested that the Secretary-General set up a plan to expand and strengthen UN partnerships with governments, sport-related organizations and the private sector. Adolf Ogi, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, said 60 countries marked 2005 as the International Year of Sport and Physical Education. Pointing out that obesity and the lack of exercise that often accompanies it are gaining increasing recognition as major public health problems, Ogi called for countries to promote athletics around the world. "It is important that sport gets a better understanding, that it gets value, that it has a platform that is accepted throughout the world, and that is not yet the case," he said.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 4, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1281
2010 LEGACIES NOW TO SET UP SHORT-TERM SPEAKER'S BUREAU TO SPREAD OLYMPIC, PARALYMPIC EXPERIENCE

2010 Legacies Now is in the process of setting up a small speaker's bureau to operate for at least six months starting in January, and is looking for an agency to manage it, as well as look after the public-relations work that is related to it.

The "2010 Legacies Now Speakers Series", as it is called, will focus on community and business experts from other countries that can offer Olympic and Paralympic "success stories", and outline how BC businesses and municipalities can develop their own long-term opportunities from the information.

2010 Legacies Now was originally established by the BC government to help support the 2010 Olympics; it's now a non-profit society that works with various community organizations, other agencies, business and government. It's mandate is to develop "sustainable legacies" in sport and recreation, arts, literacy and volunteerism leading up to, during and beyond the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The program, run by 2010 Legacies Now's marketing manager, Lyndsey Morrison, will involve three people who will visit British Columbia to talk about their experience. 2010 Legacies Now wants each to speak at an event in Vancouver and then visit two additional communities in BC, and speak to the local Spirit of BC Community Committee that 2010 Legacies Now has set up, or to a business group like the local Chamber of Commerce. While on the road, the contractor that gets the job will also be required to set up media interviews in each community. The speaker will also speak to three events that are privately sponsored, but 2010 Legacies Now will look after those.

In addition, the agency also wants to have a live webcast as a fourth event for each speaker. It wants to be able to have communities throughout BC to be able to listen in, ask questions of the expert and have them answered during the broadcast.

The proposed speaker visits are tentatively scheduled for the week of February 6, and for a week at a time in the months of April and June. The program launch event is tentatively scheduled to take place in mid-January.

Companies interested in the work need to contact 2010 Legacies Now by November 10.

RESOURCES
Lyndsey Morrison
Manager, Marketing
2010 Legacies Now
Suite 1350 - 1095 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 2M6, Canada
Phone: (+1) 604.659.1392
Fax: (+1) 604.659.1374
E-mail: LMorrison@2010LegaciesNow.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 4, 2005

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1280

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC DIRECTOR INDUCTED TO CANADIAN SPORT HALL OF FAME

Catriona Le May Doan, one of the directors of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), was the only woman inducted into the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame yesterday in Toronto. She was the first Canadian speed skater to defend her 1988 Olympic gold medal when she won the 500 metres in Salt Lake City in 2002. She held the Olympic, world and World Cup titles in 2002 and her world record in the 500 metres in 37.22 seconds remains the benchmark to beat. Doan, 34 and from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was named The Canadian Press female athlete of the year three times during her career, retired from speed skating in 2003. She'll be at the Torino Olympics, but providing colour commentary for the TV broadcasts of short- and long-track speedskating. Besides being on VANOC's board, she is also a liaison for the Olympic Oval in Calgary. Last April, ironically, she hosted the induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame as others were named to the Hall.

2010 BC MINISTER HANSEN TO BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT NANAIMO AGM
The BC minister responsible for the provincial government's aspects of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Economic Development minister Colin Hansen, will be the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce November 9. Hansen is not expected to devote much of his speech to the Olympics, however -- he's also heading up a project of the BC government to expand trade with Asia, and he'll also be talking about the BC government's economic themes for the next few years. However, since Nanaimo is on Vancouver Island's east coast directly across Georgia Strait from Vancouver, and the city has a direct connection by ferry to West Vancouver, which is hosting 2010's skiing and snowboarding events, the Games and business opportunities are expected to come up during the question period following the speech. The dinner meeting, at the Coast Bastion Inn, is sponsored by Bell Canada, a major VANOC sponsor.

TORINO OLYMPIC TORCH TO BE LIT NOVEMBER 27
A handheld torch is to be lit on Nov 27 by the sun shining through a parabolic mirror at the original site of the Olympic Games, in Greece. That is to mark the start of the official torch run to the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, which is to be held from February 10 to the 26. The torch relay will proceed through every region of Italy and end at the site of the Games. About 10,000 torchbearers from Italy and around the world will take turns carrying the flame. The host country designs the Olympic torch and, in this case, Torino's was designed by Pininfarina of Italy to encompass Italy's cultural history in the arts, design, fashion and winter sports. If you're thinking you'd like to sponsor the torch carrying, you're too late. Samsung, an international sponsor of the International Olympic Committee in its wireless communications category, has the deal to do that. It gets its marketing return by holding contests in each of the countries in which it does business to select a handful of people to represent that country by carrying the torch on its route, and flying them there to do it.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 3, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1279
A LOOK AT HOW MCDONALD'S RESTAURANTS WILL MARKET ITSELF AT, AND DURING, THE TORINO WINTER OLYMPICS

Today is 100 days from the start of the Torino Winter Olympics, and McDonald's Restaurants, an international sponsor of the Games, marked it by outlining how it intends to execute its affiliation with the 2006 Games.

Since much of what the company intends to do is similar to what it has done at Winter Olympics in the past, it's a good indication of what it is expected to do at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, although planning for that by McDonald's Canada is still in its early stages.

From a strictly business point of view, making known its affiliation with the Games to its marketplace is where it gets its operational return from the estimated C$60 million it spends per package of four Olympic Games for sponsoring them.

McDonald's has the appearance of a single corporate entity, but it's actually a combination of corporately owned restaurants and country-wide franchises. The Italian marketing is being run from the U.S. headquarters at Oak Brook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

Vancouver and Whistler, on the other hand, are covered by one of the original McDonald's franchises, McDonald's Canada, which is actually an amalgam of two franchises, one covering western Canada, run until about 2002 out of Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb, and the other out of Toronto. Toronto is generally now the main corporate centre for McDonald's Canada. It's expected to lead the marketing of its 2010 Olympics connection, with expertise provided from its international and American affiliates.

McDonald's has two full-service restaurants within Torino Olympic boundaries; one is located in the Torino Olympic Village and the other is in Torino's International Media Centre at Lingotto. Italy has only one Olympic village; by contrast, Vancouver is building two villages, one in Vancouver and the other in Whistler. Vancouver will also have such main media centre; it's to be located in the new expansion of the city's convention centre, now under construction, but it will also have a media section in Whistler as well. Out of its 80 Greater Vancouver restaurants, the company has nine in the downtown Vancouver core, including the one at 1527 Main Street at Terminal, which is just across the street from the entrance of what will be the Vancouver Olympic Village. It has only one in Whistler, which is some distance from the proposed Olympic Village site.

Both Torino restaurants will open at the end of January, about two weeks before the start of the Games, to help feed the estimated 15,000 athletes, coaches and officials that will have access to the Village and those attending the Media Centre. The Italian McDonald's Olympic restaurants will feature a relatively new business segment that has been built into about 500 regular restaurants in 29 countries around the world in the last few years, called McCafe. This store-in-a-store concept features espresso-based coffees, made-to-order specialty drinks and a variety of cookies and snacks. There are 13 additional McDonald's restaurants throughout Torino, which will be focused, through various marketing and community-relations ideas, on capturing business from the spectator tourism drawn by the Games.

McDonald's has created a "look of the Games" for its restaurants that will be seen throughout Torino in what a McDonald's spokesman calls "surprising, fun ways." Developed by Leo Burnett Italy, part of an international Chicago-based public-relations agency, the new "vibrant and contemporary" designs were chosen to "reflect the energy of the Olympic Spirit and the athletes competing."

The designs will be seen at McDonald's two official Olympic restaurants, on special outdoor advertising in Torino, marketing worldwide, and will be seen in the Olympic Champion Crew uniforms the Olympic McDonald's staff will be wearing while working at the Games.

McDonald's will also use the Games connection, and the attributes of health and activity, to actually launch its nutritional-information campaign, which it announced October 27. Italy will be first McDonald's market to implement the program, which involves icons and bar charts on packaging, as well as on communications materials in-store and online, about a wide range of nutritional data on each type of food McDonald's offers.

The company is also sponsoring a batch of on-site activities -- it hasn't gone into detail about what these involve -- that connect parents, children and Olympic athletes, and focused on marketing the idea that people should lead more balanced, healthy lifestyles. This has been a theme of McDonald's marketing in the last couple of years.

McDonald's will also roll out a batch of new Olympic-themed television commercials internationally. They'll feature their trademarked character, Ronald McDonald, "in some fun vignettes showing off his athletic abilities." There will also be another spot that "celebrates Olympic dreams." The new commercials will start appearing on a TV set near you in early January, along with the TV commercials of various other Olympic sponsors, so they can also help market the Games themselves.

In addition, some of McDonald's countries around the world will offer special restaurant promotions as well as Olympic-themed advertising and packaging to tie themselves in with the Games.

A long-standing tradition by McDonald's is to hold contests among its 1.6 million employees in more than 100 countries worldwide, with the prize being the offer of a job at the Olympic McDonald's in Torino, and a batch of employee perks associated with being in the city during the Olympic Games, such as free tickets to events. About 300 of McDonald's "best of the best" crew are to be chosen.

The idea has always been strong for morale, but it's also a way for McDonald's to focus internally on customer service. That's because criteria for selection is determined by each country, but includes excellence in teamwork, speed of service, order accuracy and customer service. McDonald's gets a double bang from that particular buck by holding, on February 9 in Torino just before the start of the Games, a publicity event where the crew receive "the first medals of the Games", as a McDonald's spokesman puts it, for being chosen to be there via the contest.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 3, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1278
SLIDING CENTRE TRACK CONSTRUCTION NEXT YEAR BEGINS WITH TODAY'S CALL FOR CONTRACTORS

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has at last begun the process of building the track on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler for the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events, by asking for contractors interested in the work to step forward.

An Expression of Interest document has been filed on the BC government's BC Bid electronic system asking for firms with the necessary expertise in building the complex track to respond by November 14. VANOC's Venues department, led by senior vice-president Steve Matheson, will then shortlist the firms to no more than four during December and give those that made the short list a formal Request for Proposal, which will provide considerable detail on the construction, in January or February. Work is expected to start when the snow has sufficiently melted in the spring, probably in April or May.

The work involves building 1.7 kilometres of twisting refrigerated and reinforced track. It will extend from an elevation of approximately 930 metres to 785 metres, with a series of banked curves and straight-aways. It will be built of concrete, using shotcrete techniques, over a cage of steel reinforcement that contains the refrigeration piping. And, says the document "Very tight construction tolerances are required." Take that as accurate; there will be a lot of inspectors watching how the shotcrete is applied and smoothed, since the better the quality, the lower the track and ice maintenance costs and the less likely there will be vibration issues for the athletes. The track is to be supported on reinforced concrete pilasters and foundations.

The preparation work began last spring that involved clearing the forested, steeply sloping land on Blackcomb Mountain that overlooks Whistler and roughing in the areas for the track and support buildings. The rough-in also involved the area where refrigeration complex is to be constructed, but it's being handled by a separate engineering contract.

The track itself, with its meticulous and methodical design that covers each small section, was started last year and finalized over last winter. As early as last May, VANOC figured on issuing the contract by July 15, but when that contract was issued, it only covered the work involved in the refrigeration plant, after the Venues department decided to leave the actual construction of the track itself to next year's building season.

Just as Matheson promised earlier, the design documents for the overall track provided by Stantec Engineering with the EOI are clearly marked that the contractor that does the work has to maintain "unencumbered access" to several businesses that use the access road to the Whistler Sliding Centre. They include Zip Trek, Canadian Snowmobile Adventures and Blackcomb Mountain operations.

As usual, the eventual winner of the contract will have to agree to a detailed security check and a criminal-records search of all those involved in the project.

RESOURCES

Our earlier major feature on the Whistler Sliding Centre:

'Sliding into construction - Part 1 - How the Whistler Sliding Centre is to be built'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1064; Published on Monday, June 20, 2005]

'Sliding into construction - Part 2 - How the Whistler Sliding Centre connects with its surroundings'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1075; Published on Wednesday, June 22, 2005]

The EOI document in PDF format, which contains plans for the track, is numbered 2010-17. It will be on BC Bid until November 30. www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 3, 2005

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1277
STANTEC REPORTS 2010 OLYMPIC VILLAGE PART OF ROSY FINANCIAL PICTURE IN FIRM'S THIRD QUARTER

Stantec Inc., the Edmonton-based engineering firm that's involved in the initial design work of the 2010 Winter Olympics Athletes Village in Vancouver, reports gross revenue for its third quarter increased 4.5% to C$146.1 million from the same quarter of 2004.

Net revenue was up 5.1% to C$125.9 million and net income increased 51.2% to C$12.8 million from C$8.5 million and basic earnings per share were up 43.5% to C$0.66 compared to C$0.46 for the same period last year.

"The third quarter of 2005 was one of the most exciting periods for Stantec since I became CEO," says Tony Franceschini, who is also the firm's president. "We achieved major milestones by listing on the New York Stock Exchange and completing the acquisition of The Keith Companies, the largest in our history. We also recently added two highly respected firms in the building practice, CPV Architects and Keen Engineering, making Stantec a premier sustainable-building design firm in North America."

He added that Stantec is using a "unique sustainable approach" in preparing the urban design and site-servicing plan for the Village's LEED-standard buildings, which are to be developed by another firm.

In a half-hour conference call with investors this afternoon, he spent a few minutes talking about the Stantec approach at the future village site, saying it "will showcase green technologies and construction processes for stormwater management, environmental protection and energy use, including the use of 100%-renewable energy sources to produce a greenhouse-gas neutral neighbourhood" in the southeast False Creek area.

RESOURCES
Stantec market trading info:
TSX:STN-News; NYSE:SXC-News

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 2, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1276

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC DIDN'T TAKE POSITION ON NATURAL LUGE DECISION

When the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board meeting last week turned down a request from the International Luge Federation for it to include natural-track events at the 2010 Winter Games, it wasn't the idea of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC). Spokesman Mary Fraser says VANOC didn't take a position on the issue. She adds, "The decision was for the IOC to decide, and, if they did decide to include it in the program, then VANOC would have done a feasibility study to determine the operational and financial issues with the addition." Basically, she says, any new discipline or event is the IOC's decision. If the IOC decides to adjust the 2010 program list, "then we will consider it and work with the IOC and [the international federation involved] to include it." Women's ski jumping and dog sled racing have both indicated they'd like to be on the 2010 schedule, but decisions on them are not expected for a year or two yet.

AUSSIES OFFER IPC SPIFFED UP COACHES MANUAL
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) reports that the Australian Sport Commission and the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) have donated 1,000 copies of the Commission's "Coaching Athletes with Disabilities Manual" to the IPC for use among its international membership. The distribution of the CAD Manual allows the small IPC organization access to good material and is expected to help national Paralympic committees in under-developed countries. The Manual, part of a larger project to help Paralympic athletes, was started by the Australian Sport Commission in 1988. It developed coaching materials, manuals and courses to help coaches of athletes with a disability. The Australian Sport Commission and the APC have worked together in revising the CAD Manual in 2005 so it could be used both domestically and internationally. Greg Hartung, president of the APC, says, "Good coaching is fundamental to sporting success everywhere. This manual has played a significant part in assisting Australian coaches and athletes over many years Ð we hope it will do the same for others throughout the world."

YOU'RE ON THE A LIST? HAVE WE GOT A PARTY FOR YOU
Being part of the Olympic family -- the in-crowd that hosts, sponsors or participates in the Games -- has its perks, but there's a hierarchy as to who gets what perks. Budweiser and Sports Illustrated, both long-time sponsors of the Olympics, announced plans today to host the "Sports Illustrated Party at Club Bud" during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy. The party, scheduled for February 25, is expected to draw about a 1,000 people from a guest list that includes "Olympic medal winners, sports legends and Hollywood stars." It's a tradition -- Sports Illustrated magazine's publisher has hosted parties at every Olympic Games since the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. "Club Bud" will be a six-storey, pyramid-shaped nightclub located on the Po River across from Piazza Vittorio in the city center of Torino. The club includes a "distinctive" bar, dance floor, DJ tower, video screens and, we're not kidding, a hot tub. (There's a link to a tiny picture of the club house below.) Budweiser, owned by Anheuser-Busch, Inc (NYSE: BUD), has been an Olympic sponsor since the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The brand is the Official Beer Sponsor of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino and the Official International Beer Sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Sports Illustrated began its Olympic sponsorship in 1980 and was a TOP Worldwide Sponsor from 1984-2004. The magazine was also the IOC's Worldwide Publishing Partner and published an "SI Daily" edition during the Games in Atlanta and the Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Budweiser will host three other "exclusive" parties on February 13, 17 and 18 for fans and athletes. They would be for the lesser mortals.

RESOURCES
Teeny picture of "Club Bud":
www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051101/CGTU094

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 2, 2005

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1275
GM CANADA TO SPONSOR 2010 GAMES FOR C$67 MILLION

General Motors Canada has signed on as, likely, the last Tier 1 sponsor of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), for C$67 million as valued by VANOC.

The deal is for C$53 million of that value provided as vehicles, services and marketing support, plus C$14 million in cash, but not all of the money will be going to VANOC. Some, the amount not specified, includes investments in sport initiatives like the "Own the Podium Ð 2010" program. GM Canada has about 20,000 employees and about 34,000 people working for 785 dealers and retailers.

The eight-year partnership provides GM Canada with sponsorship rights for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as well as rights for the Canadian Olympic Team going to the Torino 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

GM Canada president Michael Grimaldi said the company looks forward to supporting VANOC. "This major commitment is a natural extension of GM Canada's long history of supporting Canadian athletes, from novice hockey players experiencing the sport for the first time to elite alpine skiers competing at the international level."

Adds VANOC CEO John Furlong, "These will be ÔCanada's Games', and General Motors offers the breadth of reach that we are looking for to provide all Canadians with a chance to experience the Games, no matter where they live."

A key element of GM Canada's sponsorship promises is a commitment to ensure that 30% of the vehicle fleet used by VANOC organizers and volunteers leading up to and during the 2010 Winter Games will run on hybrid or alternative fuel technologies, such as bio-diesel. GM Canada's fleet of 2010 Games vehicles will include sedans, passenger vans, SUVs and trucks from the line of Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Saturn brands. GM vehicles, according to the company, have won more Canadian EnerGuide fuel efficiency awards than any other automotive manufacturer.

GM has also been a long-time supporter of Alpine Canada, whose skiers will be a major part of the 2010 Olympics, through support of the federation's Pontiac GMC Cup and sponsorship of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team.

VANOC needs a wide range of vehicles to support the movement of its so-called Olympic Family, which involves VANOC staff, consultants and sponsors, government officials on VANOC business, and representatives of the International Olympic Committee and its sponsors, as well as national and international media. It intends to move the majority of athletes from the Olympic Villages to various venues by fleets of buses.

RESOURCES

GM Canada corporate overview:
www.gmcanada.com/inm/gmcanada/english/about/Overview/overview.html

Canadian EnerGuide web site for personal vehicles:
oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/personal-vehicles-initiative.cfm

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on November 1, 2005

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