Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition: December 2005

Thursday, December 22, 2005

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Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1385
FURLONG CONCERNED ABOUT MORE THAN CONSTRUCTION INFLATION PREPARING FOR 2006 CONSTRUCTION SEASON

The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says the considerable size and number of large capital projects that are due to be built on the south coast of BC over the next few years are going to pose challenges for VANOC beyond cost control.

"We're in a frenzied marketplace for construction," John Furlong said, "Our worry, going forward, is labour availability, cost escalations, even having a place to house workers who will be working on the projects in Whistler."

The total cost of the Nordic Centre was originally budgeted at about C$100 million when the bid to host the Games was accepted by the International Olympic Committee, and the Sliding Centre at about C$60 million. But that was in 2002 dollars, as required by IOC bidding rules, and the sudden expansion in non-residential construction in the past 18 months, has forced an escalation of construction costs.

However, Furlong said the design of the Whistler Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley has been "tightened up dramatically" during the past few months in an effort to reduce construction costs. "We've reduced the complexity, changed the design a lot. We'll still have a fantastic Nordic venue, but we've tried to take out elements that are simply too challenging to build."

Furlong said the decision to make the ski jumps temporary, instead of permanent as urged by various athletic groups, means, "We've taken about C$5 million out of [the Nordic Centre cost] by building only the speed jumps that we need for the Olympic program, but there won't be summer jumps after the Games."

Furlong says work this past season on both the Whistler Sliding Centre (WSC) and the Whistler Nordic Centre (WNC) came in on time and slightly under budget. About C$6.5 million was spent by VANOC on this year's program on the steeply sloped WSC. Furlong says the contracting firm Emil Anderson and VANOC managed to reduce expenditures by about C$600,000 from what was expected to be spent. VANOC earlier indicated that about C$13 million was spent at the WNC so far.

Virtually all of the work done this past construction season -- the time that's bracketed by the area's heavy snowfalls -- has involved earthmoving, road-building and parking-lot preparation, along with construction of some compounds.

Furlong says the contractors used on both projects this past summer were well aware that the work had to be done properly. "They are very aware the work must be done well, and we must send a message to the world that we are on top of it, that it's under control. So far, our experience has been great."

VANOC is expected to issue more tenders in the next few weeks to deal with the major construction of the venues in the Whistler area, as well as other venue projects. Furlong says contractor proponents are being evaluated on more than just their pricing structure. "We are absolutely determined that no contractor will work on this project [the 2010 Games] who is not prepared to get into the trenches and work with us to make sure we get the most out of these projects that we can."

And, he added, "We have to get these [upcoming] contracts done early and buttoned down, to reduce the danger of possibly going up even further, and we have to continue to find the best people we can to work on these projects, to manage them, to secure them and to protect them."

The CEO said that VANOC has had discussions with the steel and concrete industries "to see if they can find ways to help us to reduce our costs," but he did not say what the outcome of the discussions, if any, might be.

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1384

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

RICHMOND 2010 OVAL CONSTRUCTION TO START IN MAY

Richmond City staff now expect major construction of the city's sports complex that will house the 2010 Winter Olympics oval to begin in May, starting in the 6000-block of River Road. A total of C$5.9 million has been spent so far on the project, including C$2.3 million for design, C$960,537 for site preparation and C$175,240 for public consultation. An initial C$500,000 was spent on the application process, and studies leading up to it. The building, budgeted at C$178 million is the largest building being erected for the 2010 Olympics. Richmond is building the 33,750-square-metre facility, which includes the 400 metre indoor track -- with the help of C$60 million from VANOC, and, at last word, expects to complete the complex in the fall of 2008. By the way, just one of the many ironies coupled with the project: the Richmond politician that was particularly critical of the amount of money being spent on trips by politicians and staff to Torino for the IOC's observer program and to see how other jurisdictions deal with skating ovals was councillor Bill McNulty. He's been named by Richmond council as the leader of the group that will be going to Torino in early February.

BC GOVERNMENT EXTENDS ALBERNI LIVE SITE SPENDING DEADLINE BY TWO YEARS
The BC government has approved an extension to the March 2006 deadline that originally required key upgrades to the Alberni Valley Multiplex, based on government funding of C$330,000 from its 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Live Sites program. The new deadline is March, 2008. The C$600,000 project was originally planned to start last summer, but was delayed for various reasons and is now not expected to begin until the spring, when the arena's ice is removed. However, the government, in late November, sent Port Alberni a cheque for the first installment of C$110,000 from the Small Business and Economic Development Ministry. The Live Sites Award program is intended to increase participation by B.C. communities in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The local Spirit of BC Committee, which receives organizational help from 2010 LegaciesNow, hopes to attract national Olympic teams to the Alberni Valley for training and competition between now and 2010.

TORINO SHOWS OFF TALLEST CAULDRON, OLYMPIC VILLAGE
The Torino Olympics Organizing Committee today -- with only 50 days to go -- held a ceremony to draw attention to the Olympic cauldron for its Games. The 57-metre tower, about the height of a 20-storey building, with the cauldron atop, is the tallest in Olympic history -- the Olympic Stadium is only 26 metres tall - and it can be seen from almost anywhere in the Italian city. It will be lit on February 10 during the Opening Ceremony of the Games. The cauldron is one of the ways in which a host nation expresses its culture, spirit and history. The cauldron stands on five long tubes with a diameter of 60cm, that swells to three metres. A sixth, central, tube starts at the base and goes up to the cauldron, widening in the last three metres to give the burners the space needed to produce the flame. The five outside tubes twist in the final section, and the cauldron itself has a twist to it. The flame, supplied with methane gas by supplied by Italgas, one of the Games' sponsors, is expected to rise to a height of about four metres. The ignition system is expected to be kept secret until the runner carrying the Olympic flame enters the building. The location of the cauldron tower was determined by visibility studies. See the RESOURCES section below for a link to a photo of it. Meanwhile the Torino Olympic Athletes village was completed today.

RESOURCES

A photo of the Torino cauldron:
www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/news/news_ita150403.html

A satellite map showing the location of the Richmond complex that will house the speedskating oval:
maps.google.com/maps?q=6200+River+Road+Richmond,+BC,+Canada&t=h&hl=en

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

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1383
BC CENTRAL ECONOMIST WARNS THAT LABOUR-COST INFLATION MAY SOON REPLACE MATERIAL-COST WORRIES FOR VANOC

The economic weather forecast for the construction industry in which the 2010 Winter Games will be built just keeps getting worse -- for the Games and any other big-ticket item on a fixed budget.

First it was the price of construction materials skyrocketing in the last year or so. On the horizon, the cost of labour may follow suit. That's today's news from the economic folks at the Credit Union Central of British Columbia (CUCBC).

For just about anybody else that isn't footing the bills, it's a boom time in British Columbia's non-residential construction industry, one that is straining the limits of BC's building-supply pipelines.

Writing in the CUCBC's publication "Economic Analysis of B.C.", economist Dave Hobden says today that spending on non-residential construction projects totalled almost C$10 billion in 2004 and is forecast to jump to nearly C$14 billion in 2007. That represents average annual growth of almost 13% from 2005 through 2007, compared with 5% average annual growth from 2002 through 2004."

Although Olympic construction spending is less than 1% of that and has virtually no effect on it, the other 99% has a significant effect on building the venues for the 2010 Games because it has to compete with all the other projects for labour and materials, and both are in short supply.

And so the CUCBC's news is not good for Olympic organizers who are worried that inflation in labour materials over the last two years has increased substantially, forcing them to apply to the federal and provincial governments to guaranteed the value of their 2002 pledges of funds be held through 2007, when the bulk of VANOC's building will be nearing completion.

But the outlook isn't good for VANOC either. Hobden notes that, "Total investment in non-residential construction is expected to keep rising, both in quantity and price, at least through 2007. Real investment growth -- net of price inflation -- averaged 2.4% per annum from 2002 through 2004. In comparison, CUCBC forecasts [that] real investment will grow at an annual compound rate of 7.3% from 2005 through 2007. In addition to real growth, price inflation on non-residential investment is forecast at an annual compound rate of 5.1% from 2005 through 2007, up substantially from 2.5% from 2002 through 2004."

In addition, "Indications are the cost of materials, especially steel and concrete, has risen faster than the cost of labour over the past year or two, although this may reverse in the next two years. CUCBC forecasts price inflation on total non-residential construction investment will be 5.5% in 2006 and 4.2% in 2007. Price inflation on building construction in Greater Vancouver alone is expected to be higher, at between 5% and 6% annually."

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1382
BELL CANADA TO BEGIN LAYING TELECOM BACKBONE FOR 2010 GAMES BETWEEN VANCOUVER AND WHISTLER IN FEBRUARY

Bell Canada, the telecommunications sponsor for the 2010 Winter Games, says it expects to begin laying its new fibre optic cable system along the Sea to Sky Highway between West Vancouver and Whistler on February 14.

The fibre-optic network will carry TV signals from the 2010 Games in Whistler and the nearby Callaghan Valley to the Vancouver media centre and its attendant satellite farm, as well as hundreds of telephone and Internet services between the two centres.

Since a considerable portion of the Olympics revenue is generated by broadcasting of the Games, the fibre optic network will be critical to its success. It will also carry all the computer data generated by Games. The line will also serve the new Nordic resort and the Whistler Sliding Centre under construction by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

At the moment, the construction crews for those projects are relying on satellite-based telecommunications set up by Bell, particularly in the Callaghan Valley. In the years following, the fibre-optic line will continue to be a backbone of commercial and residential communications between Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver.

Laying down the communications backbone is a complex engineering job, with a batch of mundane trench-digging thrown in. The project requires trenches between three and five feet deep -- for the cable, its piping and assorted junction and access boxes -- to be laid the entire length of the 76-kilometre corridor. As it is being installed, it will also be placed alongside a set of well-used parallel railway tracks. And it will have to six streets in West Vancouver, from 13th to 16th streets, as well as Bridge Road and Ambleside Park.

In addition, the cable will be bolted to the side of 46 bridges and culverts along the route, and they total nearly two kilometres of work. And, as the job proceeds, the contractor will have to follow pages of instructions and requirements that stem from the regulations covering rail and road work, not to mention those of the various jurisdictions and other utilities that will be crossed in the process.

Also, the contractor will have to ensure that there are road and rail flagmen in place as the work proceeds, on a gruelling 10-on, four-day off schedule, in order to minimize the impact on traffic and maximize the timetable. Bell is supplying the materials for the piping that will hold the cable, as well as the cable itself, from a storage area in Squamish, which is roughly halfway between the beginning and the end of the cabling.

Bell says it will be taking any contractors interested in bidding on the work on a special train January 17 and a second run on January 18 so they can inspect the conditions where the fibre-optic lines are to be laid, but each contractor will have to pay C$1,000 just to board the train, and they'll have to get their proposals into Bell at its Calgary headquarters by January 25 if they want to be considered.

Bell say the three separate contracts for the work are expected to be awarded by the end of January. Time will be of the essence in getting the job done -- the cable needs to be in place to start carrying the communications traffic connected with the construction of the 2010 venues as work gets under way in the spring -- but the company is leaving it up to potential bidders to show them the estimated timetable, along with the projected cost.

The company this fall completed construction of its first Olympic-related, cellular base-station. The station is on Bowen Island, just north of Vancouver. The company is also working on a site at VANOC's Cypress Bowl venue, in preparation for work next year at the West Vancouver location.

BACKGROUND

A fibre-optic cable is a form of network cabling that transmits signals optically, rather than electrically, like coaxial and twisted-pair cable. The light-conducting heart of a fibre-optic cable is a fine glass or plastic fibre called the core. The core is surrounded by a refractive layer called the cladding that effectively traps the light and keeps it bouncing along the central fibre. Outside both the core and the cladding is a final layer, usually of a plastic material, called the coat or jacket. Fibre-optic cable can transmit clean signals at speeds as high as two gigabytes per second. Because it transmits light, not electricity, it is also immune to eavesdropping.
A high rail, also spelled 'hi-rail', is a special trolley mechanism that allows road vehicles, such as cars, trucks, pick-ups or vans, to drive on train tracks. The mechanism fits under the vehicle and the drive wheels of the vehicle propel it smoothly along the track.

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

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1381

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC EXTENDS CULTURAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR NET

VANOC appears to be having trouble getting qualified candidates for a job its offering to somebody with a lot of cultural experience: Program Director for its Cultural Olympiad. It first offered the employment in mid-November, and was hoping to pick somebody to start in January, or, maybe, February. It's now started to advertise much wider for the position. The Cultural Olympiad, a tradition with the Olympics, runs from 2006 to 2010 and parallels the development the Games themselves, and the job offer is now due to close January 16.

VANOC HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, BUT OFFERS WEB CARD INSTEAD
The doors to VANOC's corporate headquarters in downtown Vancouver will be closing at noon on Friday for the holidays and they'll re-open Monday, January 2. The Vancouver 2010 Information Centre in Whistler will be closed as well, but only on December 25 and 26, as well as January 1. The Centre will remain open from 11 am to 5 pm otherwise. By the way, VANOC has also produced a primarily visual year-in-review, billing it as a holiday message, on a website with its own domain. (The domain is owned by VANOC but hosted by its telecommunications sponsor, Bell Canada, from a server farmer in Quebec.) The web address is in the Resources section below. There are also links for "getting involved", which includes getting e-mails from VANOC on various occasions. It's also started to use some of its corporate style. The website uses Flash technology for its animated effects. There's also a section to send messages to Olympic athletes.

ICE ARTIST IN ITALY TO HELP PROMOTED 2010 GAMES
Gordon Halloran of Roberts Creek on the coast north of Vancouver is now in Italy, organizing his idea of including Torino as one of his installations, and promote BC's Olympics while he's at it. He is the only BC visual artist on the 2006 Winter Olympics cultural schedule to take part in a show to promote the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. He was invited by TOROC in July 2004, and raised C$125,000 on his own to finance his trip. He'll be promoting BC in an unusual way. The show, called "Paintings Below Zero" involves Halloran doing several large abstract paintings shortly before the Games on ice slabs hanging in the Fortezza di Fenestrelle, a church outside Torino. The church will be kept below freezing during the exhibit, which runs from January 28 to February 26. Halloran has several other installations along these lines. Griffin says Halloran, who is in Italy now, told him by e-mail from Torino, "There will be 1,500 square feet of paintings across the floor of the church and another 12 to fourteen, two-inch thick slabs that will go up the walls and across the windows of the church." The paintings will be centered in a series of historical forts and buildings, on floors, steps and up walls. There will be a "live" section of the painting: each day these sections will change, melting and freezing into different shapes, colours and depth.

RESOURCES
VANOC's year-in-review and holiday card:
www.salutations-vancouver2010.com

The website about the Halloran ice-painting project:
www.icepaintingproject.com/

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Torino| #1380
ATOS ORIGIN FINISHES WEEK OF TESTING '500 SCENARIOS' ABOUT WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO TECHNOLOGY DURING ITALIAN GAMES

Atos Origin, the huge networking company that will be working on the 2010 Winter Games, today completed a week of technological dress rehearsals for the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, which start next February.

It was the second and final major test of the systems the Games will be using, and it gives an idea of what to expect when Atos sets up for the Vancouver Games.

The rehearsal simulated the three busiest days of the Games, which TOROC expects will be February 15th to the 17th. It tested 500 different scenarios -- and only the senior managers knew anything about what they were or how they play out -- including hardware failures, security attacks, staffing problems and competition delays or rescheduling.

The week-long technical rehearsals were undertaken by a staff and volunteer group of 720 people, who work on IT systems, communication, sports, security, venue management and press operations.

About 40 officials, many of whom worked on setting up the scenarios, assessed the response to hardware failures, software bugs, sport changes, users' complaints, staffing problems, security attacks, network breaks and power outages. And the testing took place at 23 venues, both in city and in mountains, and involved all 15 of the sports. All the competitions were simulated from the actual locations, enabling the technical people to work directly with the Games infrastructure, and in real Games environmental conditions.

Representatives from the media and sports also took part in the trial, trying to apply for accreditation as they would do during the Games. Also tested was the Commentator Information System, a web browser-based application that displays results a fraction of a second after the event on touch-screen PCs at the venue broadcast sites. And also under the microscope: Info2006, an Intranet that will provide information to accredited media and the Olympic Family of athletes and IOC officials.

The system prepared by Atos works with the telecommunication company to distribute the information to radio, TV and Internet broadcast systems, and with Swatch, which will do the time keeping (in Vancouver's case, Switzerland's Swatch will be doing the timekeeping under its Omega brand).

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

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1379
VANCOUVER VOTES TO REWORK 2010 OLYMPIC VILLAGE HOUSING MIX TO RECOVER C$50 MILLION IN LAND COSTS

Vancouver City council has voted along party lines in favour of asking staff to report early next month on to report on how best the 2010 Olympic Village's legacy housing component can be revamped to recover the land value of the site over 15 years.

The decision -- for a staff report to the first Community Services and Budget Committee meeting of January 19 -- is a victory for newly elected NPA mayor Sam Sullivan, whose centre-right party gained a slim majority over the left-leaning parties that dominated the previous council. The Olympic village is the first phase of a three-phase, and much larger reworking of the decrepit industrial zone along the southeast shore of False Creek, in downtown Vancouver.

However, the decision, after a three-hour meeting that included a number of delegates urging Council to let the process proceed as the previous council planned. It comes at the 11th hour for the process that's designed by city staff to select a developer of about 1,000 units of housing over several buildings of relatively low-rise buildings, and get it built in time to become a place for 2010 athletes and their support teams to use.

The village has to be ready to turn over the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) by November, 2009, and the timeline is already extremely tight. The developer needs to be chosen quickly so that it can take the project's design through a formal public rezoning hearing, issue tenders and start construction by late this spring or early summer, while contending with a volatile and busy construction market. (The City is acting as its own developer of the public areas and services required, and it has committed to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) that it will provide 250 units of "affordable" housing, which is about one third.)

The City has already issued a formal Request for Proposals to four developers based on the current legacy housing mix of a third for heavily subsidized families, a third of mixed-income families, and a third for housing based on what the market will bear. Changing the ratio changes the profitability of the project for the developers, and staff said that if council decided to go for, say, an 80% mix of market housing and 20% for income-tested residents, that could change the economics by as much as C$36 million, and would require the proponent developers to offer a different land price based on a new housing mix.

Sullivan told council that a housing mix split even at 80/20 is "rare" across North America. "They don't even have the concept of social housing in new developments. It's something we should be proud of."

However, there was some confusion as to whether council can legally make changes to the housing mix without making changes to the master Official Development Plan, which would take weeks to implement, so Sullivan asked staff to include comments from the City's legal department in the report it will provide, as well as whether the RFP process could be significantly changed without restarting it.

Sullivan and his fellow NPA councillors told staff they want a report by their January 19 meeting that will give them options of adjusting the Southeast False Creek Official Development Plan, Financial Plan and Strategy so that the City's Property Endowment Fund (PEF) recover the land value of the entire site, currently estimated at C$50 million, over the anticipated 15 year build-out by adjusting the housing mix and other public Amenities. They told staff they want "minimal impact on the other aspects of the development, with no adverse impact on the delivery of the Olympic Village for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The PEF is a fund set up to help pay for public amenities in such projects, including, in this case, a community centre and quite a bit of the public infrastructure that would normally be built by a land developer.

And they told staff to issue an addendum to the RFP, to ensure the developers were fully aware there would be changes coming.

Sullivan told Council, as he argued in favour of the motion, that, "For the last 40 years, every council [before the last one] has respected the principle of financial sustainability for the PEF. And because of their discipline, we were able to purchase all the land in southeast False Creek. If it wasn't for their discipline in the past, we wouldn't have this project before us today, and if we are not prudent in the use of this Fund, future councils 50, 100, 200 years from now, won't have this incredible opportunity to make investments and do important projects." And, he added, "Not a lot of people get passionate about financial sustainability; I actually do."

Council still has several decisions yet to be made in 2006, no matter what happens with the housing ratio, including whether the land is to be sold or go to a long-term lease; it has done both in the False Creek area. Staff say that some of that information will also be in the January report, since they affect council's options.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 20, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Sports| #1378
PACIFIC SPORTS INSTITUTE CONSIDERS SETTING UP 'MEDICAL MALL' TO HELP SUPPORT 2010-BOUND HIGH-PERFORMANCE ATHLETES

The Pacific Sports Institute -- due to be set up at Camosun College near Victoria, on Vancouver Island, in time to have an influence on athletes for the 2010 Winter Games -- is asking corporate sport-medicine suppliers to contact it by January 16 about a concept its considering.

PSI, expected to be completed in 2008, is forecast to provide diploma, applied-degree and continuing-education programs in health, wellness and sport leadership, as well as athletic and coaching development. Since it will be focused on researching innovative sports technology, the Institute expects to be involved in athletic performances at the Beijing 2008 and 2012 British Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as the 2010 Winter Games.

At the moment, though, it wants to gather information about "the initial set-up and daily operation of a nationally respected sports-medicine facility within the Institute." In essence, it's thinking about setting up a type of medical mall within the Institute, and it wants to test whether companies would be interested in establishing there and, if so, under what conditions. As an Institute planner puts it, "Preliminary planning has allocated space in the range of 3,000 sq. ft., with design in the early stages. Service providers will have input on design and development for this space. It is expected that the space will be available for occupancy in March or April of 2008."

The medical mall, according to the concept, would be offering services to elite athletes, college students and the general population. The types of services they're thinking about would probably include chiropractic, massage therapy, physiotherapy, athletic therapy, related health and medical services, nutrition. They also suggest the services might include contributing to applied research in sport science and technology, and possibly the participating firms might be involved in helping to deliver sport-education programs. An educational component would be possible if it were aligned with the college's applied-degree programs.

Whether the concept goes to a formal Request-for-Proposals stage will depend on what Institute planners get from the information request.

RESOURCES

Pacific Sport Institute's website:
www.pacficsportinstitute.ca

PacificSport Victoria:
www.pacificsport.com

Camosun's website:
www.camosun.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 20, 2005

Monday, December 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1377
CREATIVE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS WINS SECOND MAJOR TRAFFIC-STUDY CONTRACT FOR 2010

A 12-year-old consulting firm from Port Moody, a city just east of Vancouver, has picked up its second contract with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

Creative Transportation Solutions (CTS) was awarded a contract last week to provide detailed studies of VANOC's Olympic and Paralympic parking requirements. As is usual with VANOC's use of BC's public bidding system, the value of the award was not released. Work on the contract is expected to start next month and take about six months to complete.

Parking and how people chose it will affect a range of VANOC's operations in late 2009 and the first half of 2010. So VANOC is asking CTS to detail whether Games spectators are likely to use public transit or their own vehicles to get to the Games.

CTS will also be figuring out where parking lots can be established around the venues -- in addition to lots that now exist -- how big those additional lots will have to be, and what kind of revenue VANOC could expect to be generated by the parking, along with what kinds of costs might associated with the lots.

VANOC is figuring on renting or leasing the necessary land for the lots, as well as generate revenue. And it wants CTS to cost out the property, plus the required Olympic overlay aspects, which will be installed starting in the latter part of 2009, such as signage, security, accreditation and the like.

Early last spring, CTS won its first contract: detailed baseline studies of Whistler's traffic patterns during the same time period when the Olympics will be running, to establish baseline information that was rolled into other traffic studies.

RESOURCES

Jan O. Voss, PEng, PTOE
President, Creative Transportation Solutions Ltd.
202 - 2615A St. Johns Street,
Port Moody, BC, V3H 2B5
Phone: 604.936.6190
fax: 604-936-6175
E-mail: jvoss@cts-bc.com

Our original story on the traffic project, which goes into more detail about what VANOC requires:

'Venue parking, GVRD and Whistler transit flows to be studied starting in January'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1294; Published on Monday, November 14, 2005]

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1376

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

VANOC'S PHELPS TO ALSO CHAIR JUNIOR MINING FIRM

Michael Phelps, one of the 20 directors on VANOC's board, has been appointed to the chairmanship of the board of a Vancouver-based junior mining company. The announcement about the appointment of Phelps to oversee management operations of Kodiak Exploration (TSX-V: KXL) was announced today by the firm. The company has several nickel, copper and gold properties in Canada. Phelps is also chairman of Dornoch Capital, a private investment company. From January 1988 to 2002, Phelps was president and chief executive officer, towards the end of his tenure there, chair of Westcoast Energy of Vancouver. For VANOC, Phelps is chair of the Board's Audit Committee. The Kodiak job is not Phelps's only outside endeavour. He is also a director of several large companies: Duke Energy, Canadian Pacific Railway, Canfor Corporation and Fairborne Energy Trust. He is also chairman of the Board of the GLOBE Foundation of Canada, and Chairman of the Committee to Nominate the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Phelps also serves on the board of the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, and is senior advisor to Deutsche Bank AG Canada.

MORE EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR VANCOUVER AFTER TORINO HAND-OFF
Still more information on various events in Vancouver to mark the start of the 2010 lead-up to the Winter Games. The start will be the February 26 hand-over of the Olympic flag by the mayor of Torino to Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, followed by a VANOC artistic performance. In Vancouver, the City's Parks Board has authorized staff to spend up to C$50,000 lighting an long-time inukshuk sculpture made of rock near a city beach. The lighting is to be permanent, to be a remembrance of the Games after they're gone as well as leading up to them, and Board officials hope they will be a tourist draw. Meanwhile, the parks board will also offer free skating sessions on February 26, which is a Saturday, at all its arenas, and there will be athletes from from various local teams, such as women's hockey, ringette and figure skating taking part. Arts projects focusing on the inukshuk are proposed for the four rinks affected in some way by the 2010 Games themselves: Killarney, Trout Lake, Kerrisdale and Riley Park. And, officials say, stations will be set up to collect inukshuk stories, as well as places to help children make their own toy inukshuk sculptures to take home. The City will also be erecting street banners, and the unveiling an official countdown clock for the Games. VANOC's logo is based on the inukshuk design.

NBC REPORTS TORINO OLYMPIC PROGRAMMING AD SALES SURPASS PREVIOUS RECORD FOR WINTER GAMES
NBC, to counter industry discussion that time sales for advertising during its Olympic coverage of the Torino 2006 Winter Games is sluggish, today reports that it has sold 90% of its inventory, with two months yet to go. It hasn't provided revenue figures, but says it has surpassed the 2002 Winter Olympics revenue of US$740 million, but that it hasn't yet reached its record revenue target of US$900 million. It paid US$613 million for the American broadcasting rights to the Italian Games, and is said to have made a profit on each of the last two Olympics, the summer Games in Athens and the winter ones in Salt Lake City. Advertisers who have bought time on the network during the Games broadcast, according to NBC, include Anheuser Busch beer, Visa credit cards, Coca-Cola soft drinks, Allstate insurance and General Motors vehciles. New advertisers include such as Applebee's, Target, Exxon Mobil, Choice Hotels, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T and Lenovo, the Chinese company that purchased IBM's PC business. NBC will also be broadcasting the 2010 Winter Games to the United States.

RESOURCES
Here is Kodiak's website:
www.kodiakexp.com

Here is NBC's Olympic website:
www.nbcolympics.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1375
OTTAWA PONDERS FULL SHORTFALL COVERAGE OF 2010 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

NewsWatch

The minister in charge of the federal government's part of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Stephen Owen, has told a reporter he expects Ottawa to share the cost with BC of any "unavoidable" shortfall in the 2010 Organizing Committee's operations.

The Vancouver Sun's Jeff Lee, in a report published Saturday, quotes Owen as saying, "I'd like to go out on a bit of a limb here. The Canadian government is a full partner," he said. "We're determined, on behalf of Canadians, that this will be a success, and we are not going to leave these Games in a deficit. We're certainly not walking away from cost overruns that are unavoidable."

Ottawa, Owen told Lee, would also cover the borrowing costs of funds it needs for its construction program because of delays by Ottawa in providing its previously pledged funding to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

VANOC revealed in its audited financial report for its fiscal year ending July 31, which it released earlier this month, that it needed to set up a C$5 million line of credit to offset federal funding construction money shortages.

Owen told Lee that VANOC's first draft of its business plan, which VANOC said would be ready last spring but kept being delayed, didn't arrived in Ottawa until July. He claimed that was the reason that the pledged funding wasn't included in last spring's federal government budget. And, he said, the necessary funds were included in the supplemental estimates that were sent for approval by Parliament this fall, but the collapse of the minority Liberal government November 28 prevented it from passing.

Owen told Lee that the Heritage Ministry, which is the government department run by Owen and which is responsible for Ottawa's part of the 2010 project, has now asked the government's Treasury Board for a special warrant -- normally used only for urgent projects -- to cover the shortfall, and it has also asked Treasury to deal with an application by VANOC for additional construction funding to offset inflation within the building industry since the pledge by Ottawa in 2002 to help with the expenses.

VANOC CEO John Furlong told Lee the federal financial delays didn't have much effect on the organization this year, because the construction budget was relatively limited, but the first of the next three years of heavy construction by VANOC is due to start next spring.

This was not covered in Lee's report, but the business plan and its budgets, the timing of which appears to be central to the funding troubles, was to have been released last spring, but when questioned at that time about it, VANOC's senior vice-president of Planning, Terry Wright, said it not be released until the fall, and that it had to be approved by VANOC's Board of Directors as well as the BC and federal governments. However, in the fall, VANOC Board Chair Jack Furlong said it was so full of qualifications and rough numbers, that the plan probably wouldn't be released until after staff were able to incorporate the Torino 2006 Winter Games experience into it. This year's VANOC plan, which still hasn't been made public, was to have been the first of three budgets the Organizing Committee was to have developed leading up to 2010.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1374

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

CHILLIWACK GETS C$330,000 GRANT FOR OLYMPIC LIVE SITE LOCATION

The Central Community Park project in Chilliwack, a city east of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley, received a C$330,000 grant from the B.C. government's Olympic Live Sites program Saturday. The city intends to apply to VANOC that it make the amphitheatre, which is planned for the C$1 million project, an Olympic torch stop for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver and Whistler. The park, near the city's downtown core, is planned to become a community centre with a strong arts component. The cheque was delivered Saturday by the area's Member of the Legislature, John Les, who is currently the BC government's Solicitor General but was previously the minister in charge of overseeing BC's interests in the 2010 Games when the Live Sites program was developed. VANOC has said previously that nearly every community in BC is expected to be on the torch run route.

EUROPEAN SATELLITE TV OUTLINES TYPE OF COVERAGE OF 2006 GAMES TO EXPECT
Eurosport, the European-based satellite TV network, gave an outline today of the coverage it expects to provide of the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics from February 10 to the 26. It expects to have an audience of roughly 130 million, it will broadcast the Games on three satellite channels -- Eurosport, Eurosport 2 and Euronews -- 24 hours a day for a total of 380 hours of TV. Eurosport be broadcasting in 19 European languages to 54 countries, and it will have about 120 people in the Olympic region for production. Then there will about 300 commentators in the network's national studios. Eurosport 2 transmits to 39 countries in seven languages and is aimed at youth. The network is already showing several magazine-style TV programs about the development of the Games and interviews with officials of the Torino Organizing Committee, another program does the same sort of thing with coaches and athletes, and a third looks at the behind-the-scenes preparations of the athletes and their supporters.

VANOC SPENDING IS UP CONSIDERABLY DURING FY 2005
A couple of remaining tidbits scraped off the sides of VANOC's audited statement for the fiscal year ending July 31: It was spending an average C$59,502 per day during that year -- that's C$1.8 million per month. That compares with C$47.92 per day and C$1,437 per month during the first fiscal year (which was only 10 months long). And it borrowed a total of C$19.6 million to finance its operations during the course of the 2005 fiscal year, compared with C$7.2 million during the prior period.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC, Government| #1373
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP AUTHORIZES VANCOUVER ATHLETE VILLAGE FORESHORE WORK TO BEGIN

A committee of various governmental environmental departments has finally given the green light to the City of Vancouver's proposed changes to False Creek that are needed to construct the 2010 Vancouver Athletes Village.

The City is working with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) to building the Athletes Village as the first phase and core of a new city neighbourhood. The Athlete Village will house athletes, their coaches, trainers and support staff, as well as various other officials connected with the 2010 Games, and is due to open early in 2010. It will later be converted to apartment-style housing.

The approval from the Burrard Inlet Environmental Review Committee (BERC) comes with plenty of detailed conditions, and covers the entire area from the Cambie Bridge to Main Street, which is the area that will be covered by the Athlete Village and the areas that VANOC needs to support its operations. These include car and bus parking, food preparation, roads, sewage and plumbing projects, stormwater management, and even laundry pick-up and delivery.

BERC includes representatives from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Environment Canada and the British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection.

It will be DFO, which can issue stop-work orders any time it wishes, that will be closely monitoring all the projects that take place to ensure that fish and their habitats are not disturbed more than necessary in the southeast quadrant of False Creek and, any necessary disturbance will be compensated by replacement habitats.

And BERC has warned that only work that has special clearance under the program can take place in the salt waters of False Creek between March 1 and August 15, because baby salmon will be in the area during that time. There is a caveat to that, however. If the consultants hired by the City or VANOC can prove to DFO there are no juvenile salmon in the area during the annual environmental holiday, work can continue until they show up, or as soon as they leave.

On the other hand, all the work along the foreshore, in and out of the tidal waters, has been given clearance between now and 2009, so neither the City nor VANOC will have to apply for further permission, unless the project requirements change unexpectedly. The City of Vancouver first applied for permission to conduct the work, which begins next month, last May, but only received official clearances earlier this month.

The BERC letter authorizes the City, which is responsible for the full development and construction of the Athletes Village by the summer of 2009, to begin removing about 275 piles, along with an old crumbling pier, to occur between January 2 and February 1 under a contract awarded last week, as well as follow through on construction of a coffer dam across a small inlet in the centre of the foreshore under a tender that was issued last Thursday. The construction of the cofferdam, to start in the third week of January and be completed by March 31, will allow land-based work to go ahead over the next six months. Deconstruction of the cofferdam, about the middle of next summer, is one of the projects given exemption by the BERC letter.

During the rest of the year, there will be a lot more foreshore remediation work for the Village, including rebuilding and backfilling a small inlet that is at the centre of the Village's foreshore, compressing the land near the inlet and possibly within the inlet so it can support the weight of buildings, sheet piling along the future western and southern edges of the inlet, as well as excavating and then building Village roads and utilities near the inlet.

Most of the pages in the BERC letter are devoted to paragraph after paragraph of instructions to the City about avoiding contamination of the Creek, once one of most polluted areas in Vancouver, from drainage, run-off, silt, mud, concrete dust, construction materials and the like during the building of the Athletes Village or the work of taming the foreshore. The City will have to hire several environmental consultants to ensure that none of the terms are violated, it will have to maintain a reference area in the Creek where regular samples of the water can be checked for muddiness from the work, and BERC will require a daily report from an environmental point of view about how the project is going.

The BERC letter also gives permission to the City's for its plan to build a small island of clean materials, and to cover the gap between the island and the foreshore with clean sand, as part of the fish-habitat compensation plan for the work that will be done on the foreshore, and it authorizes a foot bridge that is to be built from the new portions of the City's Sea Wall walk to the island.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 19, 2005

Friday, December 16, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1372
CEO FURLONG SAYS HIS SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM HAS ESTABLISHED COMMITTEE'S CULTURE AND 'BRAND ESSENCE'

The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), John Furlong, says he and his senior management have spent quite a bit of time this year working on the culture of the fledging organization.

"One of things we wanted to try to do is keep our team together, with our partners, all the way to 2010," he says. "What happens, often, with organizing committees is that they end up spread all over, and it's hard to keep morale together and it's hard to keep the culture together. We've spent a lot of time talking about how important it is that we remain a real team, a model team, a team that deserves to be supported by the community."

The groups that VANOC considers partners include its major corporate sponsors, the Canadian, Paralympic and International Olympic Committees, the RCMP and Canadian military; the BC, federal and municipal governments the four aboriginal bands of Vancouver, the Squamish corridor and Whistler.

One of the ways that he'll try to accomplish this is have as much of VANOC's operations in the new corporate headquarters in east Vancouver near First Avenue and Boundary Road. It's now being fitted up, and VANOC expects to move into it in the "early part of the spring." And, he adds, "All of [the 2010 representatives] of our partners and the Organizing Committee will be moving into it. We'll be developing a full Olympic campus on that site. It will be an exciting icon building."

Furlong also says the management spent "an excruciating amount of time" working on what the values of VANOC "have to be." Furlong says the values, which are now enshrined at the organization's current headquarters in downtown Vancouver are:

Teamwork: "That was easy. We have to have a great team. We have to have everybody singing off the same sheet, working together. We spend a lot of time practicing this. Teamwork is, sometimes, not easy to define, but you know it when you're looking at it, and in our organization, we have an obsession with that." Furlong says he sees all of the people who are part of VANOC's partners as being members of the team. "This is not about an elite group of event organizers working in one building in Vancouver, but building a team that, hopefully, will stun the whole country.

Trust: "For us to be seen as one of the better organizing committees of all time, people have to believe in us," says Furlong. "They have to trust us. They have to think we have integrity, we have let them know that we speak the truth, and if we make a mistake, we apologize and do something about it."

Excellence: "The public requires us to be great. We are raising the bar on many things, but we have to be absolutely good at everything. There's no room in this project for mediocrity. There's no room on our project for bad mistakes, so our team has to be focused, and looking at every little detail. And going back again to ask, 'Is this as good as we can make it?' We're looking for perfection, so the project lives up to the expectation that the world has of Canada."

Creativity: "This is where we can get a real edge over something that's happened before [at an Olympics]," says Furlong. "We're trying to look at things differently, and trying to bring the spirit of creativity to it. We ask ourselves, 'Can we present this is a different way, or a more efficient way, or a more spectacular way? Can we raise the bar with some new innovation?'

Sustainability: "This touches three areas for us: the environmental, social and economic. But, in a nutshell, it's really about how we behave. What kind of legacy do we want to leave as an organizing committee. Have we lived up to the expectation of including everybody. Have we embraced all of the cultures, and all the sectors of society that might be left out with a project like this. I hope this is one of the things we'll be remembered for, long after the Games are over.

Furlong says that in order for an employee to be hired at VANOC, they have to undergo, among other things, a values test. "We need to know, from every person who comes to work on this initiative, has the soul, the heart and the ability to survive in a very friendly buy challenging environment. We have an obsession with building that culture, because we know that unless we are an inspired organization, we'll have great difficulty in keeping the communities' support as we go along."

Furlong says that VANOC has also spent a lot of time discussing the 2010 brand. "We've developed 'brand essence'. I refer to it more as an inner-core culture of Vancouver 2010... This is what we've adopted as the culture. This is the kind of team that we're trying to build."

BACKGROUND

VANOC's official brand essence, according to CEO John Furlong:

Vancouver 2010 creates a climate of possibility that helps everyone discover the greatness inside themselves. It wakens us to the idea that we are all giants inside. It challenges us by asking, 'How good do you want to be?' It encourages us to dream bigger, to reach farther, and to leave something lasting behind for others.

Vancouver 2010 is an open invitation for everyone to share the Olympic and Paralympic journey. To find, and step up to, their own podium. It's about being everyday champions, every day.

From sport and the arts, to technology, from education to volunteerism, our 2010 story will be about the Games you can touch, not just the Games that touch you.

Celebrating the possible is an inclusive commitment that pays equal respect to both personal achievement and winning.

Vancouver 2010 gives every dream a field to play on, a podium to strive for.

There is no block, but the one that you set for yourself. There is no competition, but the one that you invite. There is no victory but the one that you feel in your heart.

Vancouver 2010 shares with the world what is possible. When a country embraces the values of equality, freedom, sustainability and local responsibility, and is inspired by the challenge to live by those ideals fully and completely.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games remind us all of our potential.

Vancouver 2010 is our opportunity to show the world what we can do, and what we can be, if only we will try.

Vancouver 2010 is a celebration of the possible.

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1371

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

BUSY BELL BUILDS CELL ON BOWEN, CALLAGHAN

Bell Canada's vice president of Olympic Solutions, Justin Webb, says the company this fall completed construction of its first Olympic-related, cellular base station. The station is on Bowen Island, just north of Vancouver. The company is also working on a site at the Cypress Bowl venue, in preparation for work next year at the West Vancouver location. The company has also started work on the fibre-optic network along the so-called Sea-to-Sky highway between Vancouver and Whistler. That network will handled all the Internet, voice, data and broadcast signals that will eventually be transmitted to the satellite farm at VANOC's Vancouver Media Centre. This year it's been using a machine to check the depth and type of ground into which the network will be dug and placed in 2006. Bell has also been working with VANOC on technology designs of the Whistler Nordic and Sliding Centres and at Hastings Park. "We've had a bit of a challenge [with the Nordic Centre] earlier this year. The Callaghan Valley is not in the middle of nowhere, but it's pretty inaccessible this year for power, roads and wires, so we put satellite and wireless technology there to serve the people who were working there this year." Bell says it now has all of VANOC's offices and the Vancouver 2010.com website are now using Bell communications technology. "We've been busy this year," he says.

VANOC PREPARES TO SET UP RISK-MANAGEMENT PLAN
VANOC is expected to set up its full risk-management plan and begin consolidating its corporate insurance programs in 2006, starting in the next couple of months. Planners say that they will handle the project by hiring a BC-based insurance brokerage with expertise in big-sports or big-event projects, then design a risk-management plan and sort out high-impact risks with the broker's help. Once that's done, the brokerage will shop for insurance firms to handle the various components. (This doesn't deal with venue-construction insurance. That's done separately.) VANOC will focus on risks involving finance, hazards, operations and strategy. It also wants the brokerage to provide claim-management services. That would include: helping VANOC to select the right consultants, developing claim procedures; notifying insurance firms about claims; tracking and reviewing claims; providing fairly quick coverage review to identify potential claim issues; dealing directly with insurance company claim staff, and tracking and reporting on how the administrative end -- reserves, payments, and recoveries -- are being handled. Brokers who tell, by January 16, VANOC's purchasing department that they're interested in the job will be shortlisted to three, and they will then be given a comprehensive Request for Proposals on January 23.

HIRTHLER HITHERS TO AUSTRIA
From our Where Are They Now department: George Hirthler, a professional Olympic-bid consultant who worked on the 2010 Winter Games bid for Vancouver, is currently in Austria, working on that country's bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Salzberg. The IOC will decide which country gets that bid when it meets next summer. Hirthler has also been hired by Denver, Colorado, to help it decide whether to bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, but it's in the early stages of that process, and the US Olympic Committee has not yet decided whether an American city will bid for those Games. A half dozen people from Denver will be travelling to Torino in February to observe the 2006 Games in operation.

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

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1370
FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS OFFICIALLY ASKED FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING TO COVER CONSTRUCTION INFLATION

Vancouver Sun reporter Jeff Lee has confirmed that the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has applied to the federal and provincial governments for an infusion of construction capital.

The information was carried in a front-page story in this morning's edition of the daily newspaper.

The amount of the requests, made in late November, was not revealed by either government, nor by VANOC, he reports.

In BC's case, VANOC has asked for additional funds to be released from the C$139 million contingency fund Victoria set up in 2002 for all aspects of the Games, but access to that account has be approved by BC's Treasury Board on a case-by-case basis. VANOC already asked for C$8 million from that account during its negotiations last October with Whistler over the controversial Paralympic sledge-hockey venue.

The BC government, according to Lee, is voicing reluctance to agree to VANOC's BC request unless there is matching federal funding. In the federal government's case, Ottawa has a national contingency account for the bulk of its operations, and so does not have a contingency establishes specifically for the Olympics, but the request, according to Lee, is being treated for the time being as a request for additional, new funding from the Heritage Ministry.

Lee's report does not say so, but the VANOC Board of Directors, which includes high-ranking bureaucrats from both the BC and federal governments, gets regular financial reports on VANOC's status, and would have been involved in the decision to make the application.

VANOC's CEO John Furlong said last month that the additional funding would probably be necessary because of the strong surge in pricing of steel-and-concrete building projects due to a significant non-residential construction boom, and shortages of skilled labour. But, said Furlong at the time, he was primarily asking for BC and Ottawa to protect the value of their 2002 funding promises to 2007 by adjusting the amounts for construction inflation. From VANOC's point of view, the request may be for more dollars but it's for the same value as was orginally pledged.

VANOC's major construction and renovation projects, which in total account for less than 1% of the value BC's non-residential construction, are due to take place over a three-year period starting in the spring, although it has limited its exposure to budget levels through various arrangements, primarily with municipal governments, in the case of the Richmond speed-skating oval, the Vancouver and Whistler Athlete Villages, the International Media Centre, the UBC hockey arenas, two practice arenas in Vancouver and the Paralympic sledge-hockey arena in Whistler.

It is, however, exposed to construction inflation on proposed renovations to BC place and General Motors Place, the Vancouver Coliseum as well as the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Whistler Sliding Centre, and may be exposed as well at several non-competition venues, such as warehouses.

By International Olympic Committee bid rules, the original capital cost for the 2010 Games 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 bids from other countries that have different inflation situations.

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

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1369
NEWS MEDIA TOLD HOW TO COVER TORINO OLYMPICS ON THE INTERNET

The International Olympic Committee has issued strict guidelines to news media around the world about how to cover the Torino Winter Olympics on the Internet without infringing on what the IOC considers are its intellectual property rights.

The IOC policy, which covers accredited and non-accredited media alike, allows written coverage of the Games in normal editorial use, like a news paper, but it won't allow transmission of moving images, audio, nor play-by-play style commentaries on the Web. They can use Olympic logos and slogans, but only for editorial purposes.

According to the document, written in legalese, "No sound or moving images of any Olympic events, including sporting action, interviews with athletes in the mixed [Athlete Village] zones and press conference rooms, Opening, Closing and medal ceremonies or other activities, such as chat sessions which occur within accredited zones (competition sites and practice venues, Olympic Village, Main Press Centre, etc.) may be disseminated, whether on a live or delayed basis, regardless of source."

In a paragraph that's expected to rankle many of the 5,000 reporters and crew expected to descend on Torino as the Games get underway in February, the IOC says media organizations without broadcasting rights will only be allowed to broadcast on the Internet any news conferences that takes place in the official Media Press Centre, "provided there is a delay of at least 30 minutes from the conclusion of the press conference." The effect of this decision on the highly competitive companies is to give media organizations who have paid the IOC for broadcasting rights, such as NBC in the United States or CBC in Canada, a half-hour lead on breaking news that occurs during these press conferences.

The policy also says, "Media organizations may feature still pictures on their websites, provided such pictures are used for normal journalistic/editorial use only, and are not reproduced in a sequential manner, i.e. that there is no more than one new image every 60 seconds."

And, it adds, "Media organizations may not create stand-alone Olympic-themed websites to host this or any coverage."

The policy is backed by the threat of legal action if the IOC discovers any of the policies in the two-page document are violated, with the IOC saying that the reason for the companies paying for broadcasting rights, "helps provide the funding necessary to stage the Games and to train athletes."

The policy document only covers the Torino Winter Olympics, giving the IOC an opportunity to rework the document as Internet technology and intellectual-property concepts evolve for upcoming competitions, such as the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler. The policy was issued from the IOC's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The IOC considers it necessary because it prefers to limit TV coverage permission on a country-by-country basis to help it maximize the value of the rights through auctions for each set of Games, and an Internet broadcast crosses international boundaries with ease. It expects to have technology in place by 2010 that would automatically block web surfers from accessing Internet broadcasts except from their own country.

RESOURCES

The IOC Internet broadcasting policy:
multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1025.pdf

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

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1368

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

NEW CP STORY ABOUT 2010, LABOUR SHORTAGES AND CONSTRUCTION COSTS

Another Canadian Press story published yesterday about the 2010 Winter Olympics and connecting it to the claim that "labour shortages and ballooning construction costs are prompting Canada to scour other countries for skilled labour" is spreading quickly to the rest of the country as well as internationally. CP stories are routinely used by the major daily newspapers of Canada, and a companion news network, Broadcast News, adjusts the stories for Canadian TV and radio newscasts. But the network's stories are also picked up by international news agencies For instance, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, which covers the largest American market expected to attend the 2010 Games, tomorrow morning will publish the Associated Press version of the story, which was rewritten a bit to make it even more dramatic. Another part of the story, which is common to both the CP and AP versions says "construction on Olympic venues moves into overdrive in 2006," even though the bulk of the venue projects, which only account for about 1% of BC's projected capital spending during the time, are actually spread over two to three years, depending on the project. BC, as part of its planning for the BC portion of the Games in 2002, set aside C$139 million in a contingency fund for cost overruns, but spending from that account requires Cabinet approval. The story also quotes BC's Economic Development minister, Colin Hansen, the minister in charge of BC's portion of the 2010 Games, as saying, "We've made it quite clear to VANOC that the C$600 million from the province is it. They have to manage all their cost pressures within that allocation." And, he added, it might look to the federal government if it wants more funds to offset construction inflation.

VANOC ADDS "THE INUKSHUK GAMES" TO SLOGAN STABLE
Add another slogan to the 2010 Winter Olympics portfolio: "The Inukshuk Games". The term refers to the theme of the Games logo, a stylized rock sculpture called "Ilanaaq", a northern Canadian aboriginal word that means, among other things, "friend". An inukshuk generally describes a type of route-marker built of local rocks. The slogan, designated an official, prohibited mark -- a mark used by a public authority in Canada as an official mark for wares or services -- was advertised in this month's issue of Canada's official "Trade-marks Journal." It's being shepherded through the registration process by VANOC's usual law firm for this type of work, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. It brings the current logo and slogan count owned by VANOC to 90.

2010'S HOLIDAY CARDS FOCUS ON SUPPORTERS OF ATHLETES
VANOC has begun sending out its printed holiday-season cards, signed by CEO John Furlong and his eight senior vice-presidents. The card, an attractive white with blue printing, includes a large cut-out of VANOC's logo on the cover. The words "Friendship", "Joy" and "Peace", in French and English, show through. The six-panel card folds, in English and French, says VANOC "will be inspired by the heroes that emerge" from the Torino Winter Olympics." VANOC will be sending more than half of its staff to observe the Italian Games. The card's message focuses on supporters of the high-performance athletes who will be representing countries at the Games. As it puts it, "It is always remarkable to wonder at how many people, what extended team, contributed to each athlete's journey to the top of the world. Behind every Olympian and Paralympian at Opening Ceremonies, there are parents who drove to practices and cheered from the stands, grassroots and elite-level coaches, supportive friends, generous sponsors, dedicated doctors and physiotherapists, hard-working equipment managers, and entire communities who rallied to make one dream come true."

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1367
BC PROGRESS BOARD SUGGESTS 2010 MARKETING COULD HELP IN DEVELOPING 'BC BRAND'

The BC Progress Board, in a December discussion paper that focuses on education, says the BC government's marketing push connected with the 2010 Winter Olympics, could help the province come up with a "BC brand."

The Report, prepared by Adrian Kershaw Consulting for the Board, refers to the province's 2010 promotional plans several times in the report as a catalyst for development. For instance, it says "The province has plans to use the promotion and marketing of the 2010 Olympic Games to further the global recognition of British Columbia; this may be of great assistance in positioning British Columbia internationally in the field of education."

It says the province's education sector "faces a challenge common to many trade-dependent sectors in the province: in order to prosper there is a need to create and maintain a 'BC Brand'." It maintains that Canada and Vancouver each have high international visibility, but not British Columbia. Obviously, it suggests, BC should be "positioned as part of Canada but distinct for the purposes of certain export activities."

The Board, established by BC premier Gordon Campbell in 2001, is an independent panel of 18 business and academic leaders. It compares British Columbia's economic and social performance against those of other jurisdictions, and tracks the province's performance over time. The Board also provides "strategic advice" to the Premier and the Government "on ways to improve the economy and provincial social policy."

The report adds later, "Currently, Geneva and Oxford have positioned themselves as preferred destinations for education tourism by focusing on French, German, and English language skill development in conjunction with cultural and/or outdoor activities. With the development of appropriate regional partnerships between local education and tourism providers, and with the active promotion of these products through BC Tourism, BC should be able to expand these kinds of language tourism products over the coming years. Within this context, the 2010 Olympic Games present an opportunity to promote the expansion of these services into the winter months."

RESOURCES

The BC Progress Board's website:
www.BCProgressBoard.com

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1366
TOURISM BC RESTARTS 'SPIRIT OF 2010 TRAIL' PROJECT BY LOOKING FOR CONSULTANT TO DO FOURTH-PHASE - MANAGEMENT AND MARKET PLANNING

The fourth phase of an on-again, off-again, Tourism BC program that has now been rolled into the BC government's Spirit of 2010 funding mechanism, is expected to get back on track in the next couple of months.

The phrase "Spirit of 2010" is part of the stable of Olympic brands owned by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), but is primarily used by for BC government purposes.

The so-called "Rails to Trails" project, the aim of which is to convert unused railway rights-of-way into tourist-based trails for hiking and cross-country skiing, is looking for proposals from firms interested in "building a strategic governance plan and a marketing plan, working in tandem" with four BC communities: Cowichan, Grand Forks, Penticton and Princeton.

Those towns, on Vancouver Island and in BC's south-central region, are all near potential corridors that were top-ranked during a 2002 study, a year before the 2010 Winter Olympics bid was awarded to Vancouver. They include the Cowichan, Kettle Valley, Slocan and Salmo-Nelson routes.

In 2004, BC Premier Gordon Campbell and the federal cabinet minister in charge of Canada's part of the 2010 Winter Games, Stephen Owen, announced that the Rails-To-Trails project would be re-branded as "The Spirit of 2010 Trail."

Peter Harrison, director of Tourism BC's Industry Development department, says that "As part of Phase Four, Tourism BC wishes to manage and further develop a world-class recreational Rails-To-Trails product that will stimulate the development of incremental tourism infrastructure and incremental tourism visits."

They want the firm that will eventually be hired to prepare the strategic plan so that a portion of it deals with liability and risk-management, which involves assessing existing and potential liabilities and risks associated with the ownership of the lands, and the management of the offsets. Another portion is to work out the development and implementation of the marketing component. The idea is to promote economic development in the communities, while launching the promotion of this "new tourism product for BC."

Companies interested in trying out for the role need to have their proposals into Tourism BC by January 13.

RESOURCES

The Trail project's web site:
www.spiritof2010trail.ca

TourismBC's corporate website:
www.tourismbc.com/

Peter Harrison
Director, Industry Development
Tourism British Columbia
12th Floor,
510 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 3A8

Fax Number: 604-660-3383
peter.harrison@tourismbc.com

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

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1365
THE TARGET AUDIENCE MAY BE SMALLER THAN ESTIMATED, BUT CULTURAL HEADLINERS SUPERVISE 2010'S TORINO'S CLOSING CEREMONY SEGMENT

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) is still keeping parts of its Closing Ceremonies segment secret, but it has provided more information about the eight minutes it will have February 26 to promote the 2010 games to a major target audience.

At the same time, it's considerably reduced its estimate of the size of that target audience.

VANOC says its ceremonies staff will be led by Burke Taylor, vice-president of Culture and Ceremonies, who is the executive producer of the show, and producer Marti Kulich, who was behind the 90-minute show, an hour of which was broadcast across Canada on the network of CTV held last spring to launch VANOC's logo. CTV won the broadcast rights of the 2010 Games.

VANOC will be using big-stage talent from across Canada in the broadcast from Stadio Olimpico in Torino, Italy, and judging from the aggressively creative talent management for the show, it should be quite intriguing -- and possibly controversial.

VANOC CEO John Furlong, says, "Though we are a small part of the Torino 2006 Organizing Committee's much bigger show, they've given us an unprecedented window to showcase talent from across our country before an international stage."

VANOC's participation in the Closing Ceremony includes the traditional Olympic Flag handover from the mayor of Torino to Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, followed by the eight-minute entertainment segment. VANOC, according to planners, will use that opportunity to start to tell its story by using the talent to illustrate "uniquely Canadian themes that reflect the country from coast to coast to coast."

According to TOROC, the Stadio can normally seat about 27,500. However, temporary stands are being installed for the ceremonies to raise the capacity to 35,000. And, it says, there "will be two thousand million spectators watching live around the world;" that's worded as two billion in North America. However, VANOC says the Torino Closing Ceremony is expected to have "a live audience of only 33,000 and an estimated television viewing audience of only about 500 million worldwide." VANOC could not immediately account for the wide discrepancy in TV audience estimates.

Meanwhile VANOC's Taylor says the creative team that will take part in the broadcast -- who he says comes from places in Canada ranging from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island -- includes:

Canadian choreographer and director Mark Godden will direct VANOC's segment. Godden recently created two works for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. "Dracula" is a dramatic study in black and white with special effects and, as one reviewer put it, "wild staging", and "The Magic Flute", described as "opulent" and "whimsical." Godden was born in Dallas, Texas, but has been with the Ballet since 1984, staging a long string of dances and ballets.
Robert Lepage, a playwright and director in Quebec, with a reputation for avant-garde and experimentation. He is nearly as famous as Celine Dion in the French-speaking parts of the country, but is not much known in English-speaking Canada.
Jacques Lemay of Victoria, BC, who uses jazz as a focus but who has supervised operas, ballets, symphony concerts, musicals, multi-cultural productions, royal galas, variety shows and special events. He was awarded the 2004 Community Arts Leader of the Year, and was artistic director of Calgary's 1988 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony.
Lyn Heward, the former president and COO of Cirque du Soleil's Creative Content Division in Montreal. The troupe performed during the 2010 logo broadcast.
Jillian Keiley, director, from St. John's, Newfoundland, whose tour of Canada with a self-developed, inventive show called "Artistic Fraud" was partly underwritten by VANOC sponsor Petro-Canada. Last year, she won the C$100,000 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for Direction.
Sal Ferreras is a Vancouver-based percussionist, composer and music teacher. He is the director of the World Music program at Vancouver Community College, teaches at Vancouver's two major universities, and has a PhD in ethnic music.
Alan Clark, the former head of Olympic properties for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who has also been head of the CBC Sports department. CBC has the rights to televise Olympic Games in Canada until after the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, when CTV's rights begin.

"Each of these talented individuals contributed key creative content that we've shaped into a very Canadian invitation to the world," said Kulich.

"I am thrilled to be directing and choreographing this piece for the 2006 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony and I am honoured to have the opportunity to create a vision of Canada for the 2010 Games Organizing Committee that we can share with the world," said Godden.

VANOC says it will release "further details on its segment of the Closing Ceremony" as Torino Games get closer, but, planners add, "Certain elements of the performance will be kept in confidence until the Closing Ceremony."

RESOURCES

Torino's own outline of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies information:
www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/vieni_a_torino2006/torino_stadio_olimpico.html

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1364

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

SKAARDAL OFFERS 2010 SOME ADVICE ON NORDIC CENTRE DESIGN

Atle Skaardal, the International Skiing Federation's race director for the women's alpine World Cup says he passed along some suggestions for the design of the 2010 Nordic Centre, to start construction in the Callaghan Valley next summer. It's the job of the 39-year-old Norwegian to oversee 37 races in 13 countries during the regular season. In an interview with Ski Racing Magazine's senior editor Nathaniel Vinton, Skaardal, a World Cup athlete in the 90s, said that he inspected all of design components and the site, "[I went] through everything, the course, to see what's possible, where we can have the different disciplines, the jumps, discussing safety, everything around the organization, slip crews, start times, transportation, accommodation for the teams. We [discussed] the men's track and the ladies track. The finish venue. I would say it's about 100 meters higher up than the Are World Cup finish area. It's a good place, but they need to separate finish venues for ladies and men. The main goal with that is the weather problems we can run into on the West Coast. Maybe it's necessary to do two training runs at the same time on the same day."

CROSS-COUNTRY WOMEN'S SKI TEAM CREDITS SPONSORS, OLYMPIC PROGRAM FOR COMFORT
The Canadian women's cross-country ski team is feeling much less financial pressure now than it did when its members were training for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt lake City. The team is currently training in Canmore, Alberta, where a Nordic World Cup event will be held this month, for the Torino Olympics and, from there, for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. But they say that with contributions from the Own The Podium program, co-funded by VANOC and the federal government, and from a sponsorship arrangement with stock broker Haywood Securities, the team has the resources now to properly support all of its athletes, including those still early in their training cycle and heading for 2010, not just the best ones. By the way Cross Country Canada says it will hire a director of high-performance skiing and revamp its related systems starting next spring, after the 2006 Torino Olympics are out of the way. The system will concentrate on developing the high-end development training necessary for the sport's involvement in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

MAYBE HE'D DRIVE THE SHANA-SLEIGH
From our Say What? Department: One of the best National Hockey League players on the Detroit Red Wings team, Brendan Shanahan, 36, says it would be a surprise to him if he were invited to be on Team Canada for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy in February, but he agrees "any Canadian would go if you were asked. He also says his wife would be as surprised as he is because, he says, she thinks they're going "someplace warm" in February. Shanahan also says, with a large smile, he was looking forward to competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics. "I was thinking bobsled." There's that smile again.

RESOURCES

Heywood Securities:
www.haywood.com

Cross Country Canada:
www.cccski.com
http://www.skiracing.com/profiles/news_displayProfile.php/2698/

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

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1363
VANCOUVER AWARDS DELTA FIRM WITH FIRST CONSTRUCTION TENDER CONNECTED TO 2010 ATHLETES VILLAGE

Even though there is no overall budget yet in place for Vancouver's development of the 2010 Olympic Athletes Village, the City has begun awarding contracts for work connected to it, because its under pressure of time.

JJM Construction of the Vancouver suburb of Delta submitted the low bid for removing and disposing about 275 pilings and associated wharf decking in False Creek on the foreshore of what will become the Village at a cost of C$265,000, plus taxes. It's the first of the tenders that are to implement the work of planners and their consultants. Other bids in the top three for the project were Online Constructors, for $274,603 and Fraser River Pile and Dredge at $276,040.

Design of the public infrastructure required for the Olympic Village by Stantec Engineering is now expected to be completed by March, about two months later that what planners expected earlier this summer. Construction of the waterfront, roads, and other public infrastructure will begin as soon as possible afterward, meanwhile the City will be choosing a developer to deal with the buildings required for the site. They're at the RFP stage now.

The City's project manager for Southeast False Creek and the Olympic Village, Robin Petri, says council has approved funding of C$712,000 for the operation of the SEFC Project Office in 2005, and C$615,000 annually starting next year, plus C$1.6 million for the area's Integrated Site Servicing Plan, adding, "These approvals, along with the anticipated site-servicing costs, will be reflected in the more comprehensive project budget that will be reported to council in the new year."

Vancouver City council policy requires it to approve contract awards that exceed C$300,000, but council had to approve this particularly contract because it's being funded by the city's controversial Property Endowment Fund for southeast False Creek development.

RESOURCES

John Miller, President
JJM Construction
8828 River Road
Delta BC V4G 1B5

Phone: (+1) 604.946.0978
Fax: (+1) 604-946-9327

www.JJMConstruction.com

==

Our earlier story on the project:

'Vancouver expected to start first major work
at cleaning up 2010 Olympic Village site in December'

[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1312; Published on Tuesday, November 22, 2005]

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1362
NUMBER OF ITALIAN OLYMPIC OBSERVERS FROM 2010-RELATED GOVERNMENTS SWELLS

The City of Vancouver -- just like Richmond, Whistler and Vancouver, as well as the BC and federal governments and VANOC -- will be sending a delegation of senior managers and a city councillor to observe the operations of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

The Vancouver delegation will take part in the International Olympic Committee's formal Knowledge Transfer Program, which also involves the Torino Organizing Committee (TOROC). In part, they'll also be seeing the impact of the Games on the host cities. They'll meet up, as well, with representatives from two future host Olympic cities, Beijing, which will be holding the 2008 Summer Games, and London, which will host the 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as the half-dozen cities vying for the 2014 Winter Games, as they are now all in the bid-preparation phase. And they'll be taking part in various meetings with IOC, Torino and other organizations connected with the Games.

For the BC cities and the two senior governments, this will be the last opportunity to learn from an operating Winter Games prior before they help the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) host the 2010 Games.

The City of Vancouver representatives going to Torino include mayor Sam Sullivan, who will take part in the traditional Olympic flag hand-over from the mayor of Torino during the closing ceremonies, an additional city councillor who has yet to be named, plus 10 City staff who will take part in the observer program, and half of the managers will also attend the Paralympics, which, like Vancouver's, will follow a few days after the end of the Olympics portion, which wraps up February 28.

They group was chosen because of the impact the 2010 Games will have on their departments, and include City Manager Judy Rogers, the Olympic Village Project Manager for Cultural Services. Transportation Venue Operations, Public Works, Building Codes and Public Safety, an Olympic Village Logistics Planner, as well as the City's General Manager of Olympic Operations. The group also includes mayor Sullivan's partner and his executive assistant.

Rogers trip is being financed by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) because she is also on its Board of Directors, but the rest will be financed by the city accounts.

Dave Rudberg, Olympic Operations manager, says the staff are expected to be rotated two and from for stays of five to six days so the impact of their trip on both the city and Italian accommodations is evened out. Part of what they hope to see is how the design and operation of the Italian Athlete Villages can be incorporated into the City's False Creek Athletes Village, which is still on the drawing boards.

Up to three councillors each from Whistler and Richmond are expected to be part of their community's delegation to Torino.

Planners are budgeting about $50,000 for the cost of the Vancouver group, with the actual cost dependant on specific travel, per diems and accommodation. They can purchase event tickets, but they have to do that out of their own pocket.

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

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1361

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

PRINCE GEORGE OLYMPIC MARKETING DELEGATION TO TORINO PICKED

Prince George mayor Colin Kinsley, who will be part of the group of officials promoting the city during the upcoming Torino Winter Olympics as a place to train for the 2010 Games, will head for Beijing shortly before. Kinsley will be talking to team officials there as well. While in Torino and staying at Canada/BC House in downtown Torino, the group expects to meet with the German consulate. The group will take promotional packages outlining the city's facilities for hockey, cross-country skiing, biathlon, curling and speed-skating, as well potential education offered through the city's University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). The rest of the group going to Italy includes Initiatives Prince George president Gerry Offet, city Leisure Services director Tom Madden, UNBC communications director Rob van Adrichem and former Olympic athlete Tuppy Hoehn, who competed in biathlon at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, but who will represent the Pacific Sport Regional Centre.

DEVONIAN PROPERTIES PLEASED WITH 2010-ORIENTED SKI-RACING CAMP
Alpine Canada and Devonian Properties seem pleased with how the rough-and-ready Rising Star K2 Development ski racing camp went earlier this month. The camp hosted Canada's country's top 13- and 14-year-old ski racers to offer intense and specific training early in the season as part of the youth development for the 2010 Winter Games. Devonian Properties is a land developer and operates properties in Canmore and Fort McMurray, both in Alberta. It has agreed to sponsor the camp for three years. The young athletes, who were all given matching uniforms, trained in slalom, giant slalom, super-G and related skills. The camp was on at Panorama Mountain Village, 18 kilometres west of Invermere in the BC Rockies.

"OWN THE PODIUM" EARLY GOAL ON TRACK
One of the goals of the "Own the Podium" program, a project of VANOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee, was that the country would be one of the top three nations in medal collections at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. The overall goal of the relatively new program is to be first in medals at the 2010 Olympics and in the top three at the 2010 Paralympics. COC officials said today that the initial results from a number of high-performance competitions this winter season indicates the plan is on track. From the start of the season, through last weekend's competitions, Canada ranks second overall in the number of total World Cup medals won with 74, picked up during 29 events over nine sports. The US currently leads with 84 medals in 33 events and 10 sports, followed by Canada, and then Germany is currently third with 72 medals in 29 events and 10 sports. Canada, at the moment is eight medals ahead of where it was this time last year.

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

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1360

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

A WEEK OF EVENTS IN MARCH FORECAST TO FOLLOW OLYMPIC FLAG HAND-OVER

Some events are starting to become known about what will happen in the Greater Vancouver and Whistler area in the week following the Closing Ceremonies at the Torino Winter Olympics, which occurs on February 28. During the ceremonies, an estimated two billion people will be watching as Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, a quadriplegic, is offered the Olympic flag by Torino's mayor at the beginning of an eight-minute presentation by VANOC highlighting the Pacific west coast as the site of the 2010 Winter Games. It's expected that Sullivan's condition will also be the focus of a number of media stories -- about 1,000 media are expected to be on hand -- as the closing ceremony is covered, particularly when he returns to take part in a similar ceremony on March 19 for the closing of the Italian Paralympic Games. There will be a number of public events in the Vancouver and Whistler areas for during the first week of March to mark the events. For instance, a countdown clock will be unveiled (on Feb 28, there will be 1,445 days left until the start of the 2010 Games), the inukshuk sculpture on Vancouver's English Bay will be presented in lights, and when the Olympic flag is brought to Vancouver, there will be an official flag-raising ceremony. There will also be banners hung in the areas of the 2010 venues, present and future, such as General Motors Place, BC Place, the Coliseum and other city locations, including the site of the new curling rink at Riley Park.

TORINO TECHIE TALKS TURKEY
An interview with Enrico Frascari, the managing director of technology for the Torino Organizing Committee published today in Red Herring, a technology business publication, offers a few more tidbits about the technical aspects that are facing Winter Games. In 2002, there were only 20 computers in the Salt Lake City athlete's village that connected with the Internet, which meant somewhat frustrating lines and delays for those at the village. In Athens, 2004, there were more computers, but only simple web browsing. Torino's Games are fully wired, but, he says, the distribution of athlete villages -- Vancouver has one in the city for the urban sports, and one in Whistler for the sliding and snow sports -- means duplication of effort. Connections between villages are necessary so meetings can be organized, but they're using video-conferencing in Italy. Atos Origin is the systems integrator and will play a similar role in 2010. Telecom Italia will provide phone communications and Eutelsat is providing TV satellite communications. Samsung will supply mobile phones. Bell Canada will be providing telecommunications and satellite through a subsidiary in the 2010 Games. In Salt Lake City, the organizers had set up two control rooms to deal with telecommunications and information technology, but there were co-ordination problems, particularly when there was a crisis. In Torino, there will be only one controller looking after the optical-fiber infrastructure to the network, application and customer service support sections. The ability to deal with video and photographs has prompted Torino to use a lot more optical fibre, which 2010 will also use. A number of TOROC's technical rooms are housed in tents at heights that are about 2,000 meters, so the equipment has to be protected and robust. There are three separate networks. One is closed -- so that only those who need to do so can use it -- and it is dedicated to Game results. A second network, physically separated, is used to manage the applications "and all the traditional activities that people can do with an IT infrastructure": mailing, document management, communication and the like. Denial of service is expected to be a major security issue -- a lot of redundancy is now built into the systems, but there are other problems. As he puts it, "Since we are a kind of public, well-known organization, everybody is looking to attack our organization, not necessarily to get information but just to be proud that they brought it down... [our] Internet site, which is under attack a thousand times a day in many different ways; again, not to collect information, but just to go inside and destroy what has been created."

PENTICTON OFFICIALS URGED TO DECIDE ON 2010 TRAINING PROJECT
If Penticton, a town in BC's south central Okanagan area, wants to use BC government funding for a sports centre that could be used to attract teams practicing for the 2010 Games, it had best decide whether it wants to go ahead with the project. Last April, the province pledged a C$9.7 million grant for the South Okanagan Event Centre, currently budgeted at C$30 million to build. Liberal member of the legislature for the area, Bill Barisoff, says the pledge was incorporated in the current budget year, which ends March 31. The federal government hasn't decided if it will also help fund the project, which would have to be built by 2008 if it hoped to attract international teams.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 13, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1359
RBC FINANCIAL LAUNCHES MULTI-OLYMPIC MARKETING CONTEST WITH 2010 CO-SPONSORS

The RBC Financial Group, which was awarded six years of marketing rights in Canada for Olympic-related concepts as part of its C$100-million sponsorship of the 2010 Winter Games, is the first to begin promoting the Beijing Summer Olympics with a contest.

The contest is a method of implementing its sponsorship agreement, it includes co-marketing with several other 2010 sponsors, it promotes two sets of Olympic Games, and its details were approved by the 2010 Winter Games marketing department.

RBC, which includes Canada's wealthiest financial institution, the Royal Bank, is offering its new and existing customers a chance to go to the Chinese Games in its "Achieve the Dream" contest. The contest is limited to individuals, as opposed to corporate clients, but they are automatically entered in the contest when they buy any of a wide range of the company's financial products or services between now and the end of the Torino Winter Olympics, February 28. For instance, they are entered whenever they open one of several specific RBC personal or business accounts; make purchases on their RBC Royal Bank Visa card; contribute to an RBC investment account; or draw on a Royal credit line.

The main prize winner, known as the 'Gold' winner, and a companion are to be flown to the Beijing Games. The cost of airfare, hotel and tickets to events will be included. Three second-prize prize winners and their family are to vacation in one of five cities that once hosted Olympic Games: Rome, Barcelona, Athens, St. Moritz or Lillehammer.

Five third-place prizewinners will each receive a 42", high-definition, Panasonic plasma TV. Early bird prizes include C$3,500 in gas at Petro-Canada, family trips to a choice of the previous host cities, and Olympic Games merchandise packs from HBC. Winners are to be announced each day during the Torino 2006 Winter Games.

Petro-Canada, Panasonic and HBC are also major sponsors of the 2010 Winter Games.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on December 13, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1358

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

BRITISH AD AGENCIES PROTEST 'DRACONIAN' OLYMPICS LAW

Advertising agencies in England are among the most vociferous industry groups to react to a comprehensive bill introduced by the government which will give it, in part, virtually complete control over marketing in the area around an Olympic venue. The fully formed London Olympics Bill was introduced only a week after London won the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. It is now wending its way through Parliament and is due to come into effect in the spring. Among a number of other sections, the advertising portion would allow the government's Secretary of State to decide whether any type of advertising violates the marketing rights of the Olympics and its sponsors, the places where such control can take place and "what is, or is not, to be treated" as advertising. Under the law, police would be able to come onto any property, business or otherwise, where they think such an offense is occurring -- although they must first give the alleged violator a chance to stop and they must also get a warrant. It would also make it illegal to combine words like "games", "medals", "gold", "2012", "sponsor" or "summer" in any form of advertising. Violators of the law would be liable for fines up to £20,000 (about C$27,500, at the moment). The Advertising Association of England, and the country's Institute of Practitioners in Advertising have called the law "draconian" and "vague." The government defends the law as necessary to help the London Olympics Organizing Committee sign up senior sponsors, but in letters sent separately today to Richard Caborn, the minister for Culture, Media & Sport, the industry groups argue that the International Olympic Committee has already signed up six of a possible 10 international sponsors for the 2012 Games, that the 2010 Winter Olympics exceeded its sponsorship marketing targets, and the Torino Winter Olympics met its marketing targets, all without such legislation. The AA and IPA also argue that the law presumes advertisers are guilty until they can demonstrate they are not associating themselves with the Games. The law also contains sections dealing with protection of Olympic symbols, planning, street lighting, transportation, traffic control and street closures.

BANK ECONOMIST SAYS 2010 HAS 'HUGE MARKETING POTENTIAL' FOR TOURISM
Adrienne Warren, senior economist for the Bank of Nova Scotia, says in Scotia Economics's "NAFTA Quarterly", that, "The 2010 Winter Olympics games in Vancouver holds huge marketing potential", even though Canada's overall market share of tourism continues to slowly decline. The decline is due, in part, to surging Asian tourism which, for the first time, she says, has a market share that is larger than that of North America. "Western Canadian tourism operators are arguably in the best position to benefit from a potential explosion in Chinese tourist arrivals in coming years," she adds, "with the expected granting of 'approved destination status' for Canada and the recent signing of a broadened bilateral air pact between the two countries. China is Canada's twelfth-largest tourism market, attracting roughly 100,000 visitors to the nation last year. Some estimates suggest these arrivals could climb as high as 700,000 annually."

CORPORATE TICKET AND HOTEL BROKERS PUSH TORINO AVAILABILITY
There's been a burst of marketing in the last few days by organizations selling tickets and hotel packages connected with the Torino Winter Olympics, as they try to counteract media articles about the availability of rooms and seats at some of the Olympic Games in February. The Games begin in about two months. Ludus Tours, for instance, a Texas-based company, says it has about rooms available in 16 centrally-located hotels, ranging from one to four-star, in the city and in various locations outside it. A spokesman for the company says, "the press has created the unfounded myth that there are no accommodations available." However, it's not the press that is coming up with the concept. "Tickets are still readily available, but hotels are hard to come by," said Matt Bijur, president of CoSport, the official vendor of tickets and packages in Canada and the United States. CoSport says it has four nights in a three-star property 20 minutes from Torino for C$2,300 per room, and C$600 a night, per room, 45 minutes away. Olympic organizers say they have almost 40% of tickets unsold, but conceded many key games in major sports -- hockey, speed skating, figure skating, alpine and cross-country skiing -- are sold out. They say they've sold about half a million tickets so far, with an average of 1,000 per day being sold in a November surge.

RESOURCES

The advertising section of London Olympics Bill is here:
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506