Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition: July 2006

Friday, July 21, 2006

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Morgan:News:2010 |Sports| #1799
CANADIAN FREESTYLERS SELECT WHISTLER AS THEIR PERMANENT SUMMER TRAINING CAMP

The CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, Peter Judge, says Canada’s Freestyle World Cup and Development Mogul teams will make Whistler their permanent summer training camp.

“We’ve seen significant (financial) economies from our aerial team which is based on one place and the world basically spins around the athletes as opposed to them having to run around to access resources,” Judge told The Whistler Question newspaper. The aerial team is based in Lac Beauport, Quebec.

Judge says part of rationale for choosing the location is due to the 2010 Olympics, but also because the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) will be building a new high-performance athletes’ training centre as part of the Whistler Olympic Village.

And it also quoted him as saying, "With the access to glacial snow, access to the water ramp [above Blackcomb’s Base II], and proximity to other snow facilities when Whistler Blackcomb isn’t on line, it makes perfect sense to be here... There is an affinity that we want the athletes to develop for the region. Tactically it’s a good idea for the skiers to be involved in a place that is near to where our Olympic event will be [West Vancouver’s Cypress Mountain], in a place that has the same culture, same snow conditions." And, he adds, "Whistler culturally is the crossroads of the ‘new school’ movement in skiing."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 21, 2006

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1797

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

OLYMPIC SPIRIT MUSEUM BLAMES IOC, VANOC FOR FAILURE

Reports from Toronto say the for-profit Olympic Spirit Museum in in that Ontario city folded yesterday after two years and Jay Whiteside, president and CEO of the Museum says his organization is "considering" the possiblity of legal action against the International Olympic Committee or VANOC for allgedly failing to help it through marketing. VANOC, for its part, said it did not inherit any legal agreements with the Museum when it received Olympic marketing rights for Canada in 2003 from the International Olympic Committee. About 40 people were laid off by the Museum, according to Whiteside. Toronto-based PenEquity Management Corporation was the major investor in the Museum.

VANCOUVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE REZONING OPEN HOUSE SET

The City of Vancouver will hold an open house for the public to view and comment on the rezoning submission for Southeast False Creek Sub-Area 2A, which is the 2010 Olympic Village for its first phase. The area is bordered on the north by False Creek, on the south by First Avenue, on the west by Columbia Street and on the east by Ontario Street. City staff and representatives from the applicant, the Millennium Group, will be on hand to answer questions and receive comments and feedback. The open house is scheduled for Wednesday, August 2 from 4 – 7 pm at the Vancouver Public Library. The village is the core of a much larger residential community that is expected to take until 2018 to develop.

CALGARY'S TODERIAN HIRED AS VANCOUVER DIRECTOR OF PLANNING

The City of Vancouver has hired Brent Toderian, a senior planner from the City of Calgary, as head of Vancouver's Planning Department. Toderian starts work September 14, and so he could have an effect on the development of the 2010 Olympic Village, the VANOC work in planning how to deal with crowds of visitors coming for the 2010 Games, and the development of various other venues in the City, although quite a bit of that work has now moved from the planning level to implementation. In Calgary, he was in charge of department of 20 people, which was focused on master planning; development design and architectural review; civic realm design; heritage planning and special projects work. That included a new downtown library, a new university downtown campus, and the expansion of the Calgary Stampede. A lot of the work was done in areas of the city experiencing rapid residential, office and retail growth. He has also been heading the development of Calgary's new comprehensive Centre City Plan, which meshes design and planning issues with arts and culture, social planning, economic development, and other facets of successful planning. Toderian also spent four years setting the tone for neighbourhood design in Calgary as its Chief Subdivision Planner, where he was instrumental in introducing new approaches to sustainable design and growth. In his role as Director of Planning for Vancouver, he'll head a staff of about 100. Toderian is to lead the Planning Department's two divisions, City Plans and Current Planning, which advise Council on policies which guide growth and change in the city, with an emphasis on land use. The Department also considers the implications of a wide range of social, economic, physical and environmental issues on the livability of the city. He takes the place of the retired Co-Directors of Planning, Ann MacAfee and Larry Beasley.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 20, 2006

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1796

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

WALTER FRANCL AWARDED DESIGN CONTRACT FOR 2010 PRACTICE RINK

The Vancouver Parks Board has awarded a contract for the design and construction adminstration of the new Trout Lake Ice rink as well as the schematic design for a future new community centre to Walter Francl Architect of Vancouver for a fee of C$1.277 million. VANOC is partly funding the capital construction, as is the city of Vancouver. The rink will provide practice space for the 2010 Games. After the Games, it will be retrofitted to convert it from Olympic use to community recreation. The complex is being built to LEED Gold standard.

NATURAL GAS LINE TO WHISTLER GIVEN APPROVAL FOR PRE-2010 DELIVERY

The British Columbia Utilities Commission has approved an application from Terasen Gas, a subsdiary of Kinder Morgan, to build a 50-kilometer natural gas pipeline from Squamish to Whistler. The project, estimated to cost C$37 million, is in the process of being tendered. It is to replace replace an aging propane system and Kinder Morgan officials hope it will bring natural gas to Whistler before the 2010 Olympics. Terasen Gas hopes to begin construction on the project this year, with full service available to Whistler by November 2008.

SEA-TO-SKY LAND TALKS MAY BE NEARLY FINISHED

From our Reading Tea Leaves Department: We've been getting scattered and unconfirmed reports that indicate the BC government expects to complete its negotiations with the Squamish and Lil'wat over land-use issues in the Sea-to-Sky corridor in the next four or five months, perhaps earlier. The talks have been going on for about 18 months. The negotiations arise from arrangements made during the detailed negotiations that eventually culminated in VANOC receiving an environmental certificate for the Whistler Nordic Centre and its extensive trail system, which is being build on land claimed by aboriginal groups. There was a proposal that the aboriginal groups be consulted regarding land swaps as part of a provincial land-use strategy development the government was crafting to cover the Sea-to-Sky corridor, but which involved a large number of issues ranging from tourism to forestry uses. The consultations have also involved the regional district that covers the area, the Squamish Lillooet Regional District. The current thinking seems to be that implementation of the strategy -- whatever it is -- is expected to occur next year, possibly as early as the first calendar quarter.

RESOURCES

Walter Francl Architect
www.wfrancl.com/

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 19, 2006

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Paralympic| #1795
"FEEL THE RUSH" MARKETING CAMPAIGN WINS INTERNATIONAL AWARDS

The Canadian Paralympic Committee's public-relations campaign, called "Feel The Rush" has won two major awards from the International Association of Business Communicators.

The campaign has won the IABC Silver Leaf Award and the Blue Wave Award of Excellence, to be given at the association's international conference in October. The campaign was launched in the lead-up to the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Torino to improve excitement, interest and involvement in Paralympic Winter Sport.

Henry Wohler, President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, says that, "'Feel The Rush' reaches out to all Canadians to get them excited about Paralympic Sport, and to people with disabilities to get them involved. In this way it aims to get more Canadians in the stands and on the podium at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. It is a key part of our 2010 communications programming and we hope to expand its scope to summer sports, and deepen its reach in the years ahead."

The Blue Wave Award of Excellence recognizes outstanding achievement in a comprehensive communications project or program. "Feel The Rush" was identified by the award judges as possessing all the elements of best practice in research, analysis, planning, strategy, production, execution and evaluation.

Own The Podium-2010 paid for the development and implementaton of the campaign; the money comes from corporate fundraising organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and by matching funds from the federal government.

"Feel The Rush" is a national initiative focused on the Paralympic winter sports of hockey, curling, nordic and alpine skiing. The campaign encourages Canadians with a physical disability to "feel the rush" of confidence and empowerment that comes with participating in sport, not just at the high-performance level, but in an everyday way as well.

The marketing communications campaign includes events and community outreach, a web site, multi-media features, and support materials. The program uses mass media, as well as targeted approaches to the disabled community, health care and rehabilitation centres.

The campaign was devised by Phil Newton and Cossette Communications of Canada, who says that he hopes to run the program in the future to include summer sports. An Own the Podium program for summer sports is in the final phases of development by the COC.

RESOURCES

Cosette Communications
www.cossette.com/en/flash/index.asp

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 18, 2006

Monday, July 17, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1794
RICHMOND SPEEDSKATING OVAL TO FEATURE WOODEN WAVE BUT NEEDS MORE MONEY TO DESIGN IT

One of the 2010 Olympics’ most prominent buildings will feature a roof design made from B.C. wood, and an extra C$1.5 million of government-related money is being invested in the building to help pay for it.

The BC government says that the roof of the sports complex that will house the 2010 speedskating oval in Richmond will feature a wave design with arched trusses and rafters. The curvature in the surface panels will give the roof a rippled appearance.

The Richmond Oval, home of speed skating for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, will be the first building in the world to include a roof of this design built exclusively from wood.

Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman claims that “With B.C. wood and B.C. innovation we can do almost anything and the Olympics are the perfect opportunity to show off that creativity and ingenuity. The oval will be a highly visible facility giving us the opportunity to market B.C. wood products to a worldwide audience.”

The provincial government made a commitment to use the 2010 Olympics as a showcase for B.C wood and wood products, and Coleman said that the lumber used for the roof would include a significant proportion of pine-beetle wood, which has a blue stained colour, which has been nicknamed "denim wood."

Olga Ilich, BC's minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, and also the member of the BC legislature for Richmond Centre says, “BC/Canada Place in Torino showed us how one building can draw attention to all that B.C. has to offer. Our venues will encourage visitors to return to our province long after the Games are over.”

Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd., a BC Government organization that helps pay for programs that market BC forest products, is contributing C$1.5 million towards the engineering and design of the roof in addition to the funding that's already been provided by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

The 33,000 square-metre Oval is scheduled to be substantially completed in the summer of 2008, with a 400-metre track and seating for approximately 8,000 spectators. In addition to being the home of speed skating competitions during the Olympics, the City of Richmond expects the Oval to be hold a batch of sports and wellness businesses, and a venue for special events.

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie says, “The wood design is not only unique, it is also preferable to steel in many ways, including superior acoustics and sustainability.”

About one million board feet of primarily pine-beetle lumber will cover the 6.5 acres (26,304 square metres) of the Oval’s roof area and an additional 19,000 sheets of plywood will provide the roof surface.

RESOURCES
Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd is wholly owned by the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Forests. The company is managed through a Board of Directors made up of the Deputy Ministers of Forests, Finance, and Small Business & Economic Development, as well as FII’s President and Chief Executive Officer. FII operates under an agreement with the Ministry of Forests and requires a funding vote from the Legislature in order for the organization and its programs to continue each year.

RESOURCES

There is an animated artist's rendering of the new roof here:
www.for.gov.bc.ca/pab/media/coleman/2006/oval/

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 17, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1793
CANADIAN SPORT ETHICS CENTRE ENDORSES 'SAFE-SUPPLEMENT' TRADEMRK FOR ATHLETES

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and NSF International, a safety non-profit, are setting up a new certification program for Canadian athletes designed to minimize the risk that a dietary supplement or sports nutrition product contains prohibited substances on the World Anti Doping Agency's Prohibited List.

The certification process will concentrate on the categories of stimulants, anabolic steroids, beta-2 agonists and masking agents.

NSF International is an independent, not-for-profit American organization that certifies products and writes standards for food, dietary supplements, water and consumer goods. The Centre (CCES)...

CCES says it will recognize ab NSF "Certified for Sport" trade mark on products as a significant indication that sport nutrition products have undergone stringent review through the NSF Athletic Banned Substances Certification Program.

Michael Chong, the federal government's minister for Sport says Ottawa is supporting the CCES "in their efforts to promote ethical conduct in sport, and we applaud this certification program."

A majority of Canadian national-team athletes rely on nutritional supplements, in the belief that they help meet the heavy demands of their training, travel and competition schedules. There have, however, been a number of cases in the past of Canadian athletes testing positive for the presence of a prohibited substance, and the source of that substance turned out to be one supplement or another.

Under the rule of strict liability in the World Anti-Doping Code, athletes are responsible for any substance that may be found in their body. If an athlete tests positive for a prohibited substance, this can result in serious sanctions being imposed, regardless of how the substance entered the athlete’s body.

Joseph de Pencier, Director of Ethics and Anti-Doping Services and General Counsel for the CCES says that, "While the CCES does not promote the use of supplements, we do recognize that athletes use them. Therefore, we need to assist our athletes in choosing the most trustworthy supplement products. NSF’s independent product-verification and -certification process is an important step forward in helping Canadian athletes, and consumers, make informed decisions about nutritional or sport nutrition supplements."

RESOURCES

The program, which is focused primarily on the sports supplement manufacturing and sourcing process, provides key preventive measures to:

Protect against adulteration of products

Verify label claims with product contents

Identify presence of athletic prohibited substances in the finished product

The foundation of the program is built on the principles of Good Manufacturing Practices. This involves a consistent process whereby products are manufactured under conditions that certify freedom from contamination and provides independent review of a manufacturer's product label claim. Additionally, any manufacturer, finished-product company or ingredient supplier that currently makes a steroid or steroid precursor, or any other prohibited substance, is excluded from participating in the program.

NSF maintains the only accredited American National Standard to certify dietary supplements. This standard, NSF/ANSI Standard 173, ensures that the actual product contents match those printed on the label.

In addition to CCES recognition of the program, the NSF Athletic Banned Substances Certification Program has been recommended by key athletic organizations, including major league baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Professional, amateur and recreational athletes as well as coaches, trainers and parents will now be able to look for a specially designed NSF Certified for Sport™ Mark on sports supplement labels.

RESOURCES

NSF Web site:
www.nsf.org/business/athletic_banned_substances

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 17, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1792

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC CEO SUPPORTS 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF MONTREAL OLYMPICS

VANOC CEO John Furlong has published a lengthy statement marking the 30th anniversary of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics. In part, he says, "While the Montreal Olympic Games were not without their share of challenges and critics, we must not forget how those magical moments impacted the spirit and mood of our country, inspired an entire generation of future athletes, musicians and performers, and reinforced the very Canadian values and principles espoused by the Olympic Movement. This should be celebrated. Today, Montreal will celebrate a remarkable achievement in its civic history, and the people who selflessly and relentlessly pursued the dream of hosting an Olympic Games on Canadian soil. Today’s celebration will be a manifestation of the true Olympic spirit – recognizing the ordinary people who were moved to action, who embraced the challenge of a lifetime because they wanted to do something special for their city, province, and country, and who want to rejoice in the fact that the Olympics changed their lives. In my work leading [VANOC], I am reminded every day of the extraordinary challenge that lies before our team in upholding and enhancing the Canadian Olympic tradition that began in Montreal. The 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal ignited the passion and the pride of all Canadians, creating a human and emotional legacy that has resonated across generations. This infusion of the Olympic Spirit paved the way for Calgary and Canada to welcome the world again in 1988, and we are confident that Canadians will once again touch, and be touched by the drama, effort, and excellence that define an Olympic Games, as we welcome the world to Vancouver in 2010."

TRANSLINK TO BUY MORE SKYTRAIN CARS, IN PART FOR 2010 DEMAND

TransLink, the Greater Vancouver public transportation body, is planning to buy 34 new SkyTrain cars from Bombardier for C$147 million. The purchase, which first has to be approved by the board Wednesday, would be a 16% expansion on the current fleet of 210 cars by 2009. TransLink says the expansion would boost capacity ahead of the 2010 Olympics and ensure more spare cars are on hand as well as meet normal growth projections. SkyTrain ridership is forecast to grow from 200,000 people per day to 280,000 by 2013.

SECURITY COORDINATOR TO WORK WITH WHISTLER-AREA COMMUNITIES IN ADVANCE OF 2010

RCMP overseeing the Whistler end of 2010 security are expected to set up a coordinator who will work with various communities in the area that are expected to be affected by the security staffing demands of the 2010 Games. At the moment, a number of communities are being integrated into the new Sea to Sky Regional Police Services. Apparently, the Whistler 2010 security unit will be formed for the Games by drawing police officers from across the country to bolster its numbers. The unit will work with local enforcement agencies -- community police and RCMP offices -- in part to help ensure the communities don't lose their "front line" resources, both in terms of manpower and support because of Games requirements. The job of the co-ordinator is to meet with each municipality's administrator and mayor to discuss any out-of-the-usual demand on local officers' time dealing with 2010 security and protection issues. The idea is to ensure that people who are influencing the development of 2010 policing policy, and local forces, both know what to expect during the Games.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 17, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1791
TORINO DEBRIEF CONTINUES BETWEEN IPC AND VANOC

Though the Olympics debrief completed Friday, it's still underway in Vancouver for the Paralympics.

The official debriefing of the Torino Winter Games also included International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Governing Board members Patrick Jarvis, who is also on the Board of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), and Ljiljana Ljubisic, CEO Xavier Gonzalez and Paralympic Games liaison director Arno Wolter.

The Paralympic Games were covered in two dedicated half-day sessions and in the general overview sessions of the debriefing last week. This allowed participants to review the general success factors and challenges of the Paralympic Games and to highlight the legacies, such as accessibility and sports development. The services to each stakeholder group were also analysed.

Today and tomorrow the IPC will hold specific meetings with VANOC officials, focusing on the technical requirements of the Paralympic Winter Games. This review across all functional areas of the Games involves each VANOC department.

For the first time, representatives from various Olympic and Paralympic groups, such as representatives from the international sports federations, the sponsors, the media, spectators and the wider general public, were invited to participate actively in the programme, in order to share their experiences of the Torino 2006 Games.

From the IPC's point of view, last week's debriefing highlighted five key elements for what it considered would be Games success for paralympic athletes, who will all be competing in Whistler in 2010:

Vision must be at the centre of everything you do: It is important for VANOC to have a vision for its edition of the Games and to ensure that vision remains consistent in all facets of the organizations' work from ticketing to the field of play.

People are at the heart of the Games: Organizing Committees should focus on the needs of the different stakeholder groups that will live through the Games experience. Groups -- such as athletes, spectators, the media and the sponsors and governments -- all have different needs that must be met in order to ensure the best experience for them.

Leadership and unity are essential: The Games draw upon the experience and knowledge of a large number of independent but interrelated organizations, such as local authorities, governments and local partners. It is important that VANOC be able to lead and co-ordinate these different groups.

You can never test enough: It is important that all members of the network have rehearsed their roles and relationships. The IPC says it is important to test and simulate as much as possible before the Games, to provide reliable and flawless services during the Games, and create a unified team that can operate seamlessly.

Without a positive legacy, good operations don't mean much: The debriefing stressed that it is the legacy left to Vancouver, Whistler, West Vancouver and Richmond that will determine the success of the Games. Moreover, a Games legacy is both 'hard', such as sports facilities, and 'soft', as can be seen in the improved image of the city, social and educational programs.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 17, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1790

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

ATTENTION TO DETAILS, COMMON SENSE ESSENTIAL TO PLANNING 2010

Cathy Priestner Allinger, VANOC's executive vice president of Sport, Paralympic Games & Venue Management, says details and common sense need to be considered to ensure the 2010 Winter Olympics are properly delivered. Priestner's role also includes overseeing all the medical aspects for athletes. Following the Torino debriefing, she said that TOROC, at one point, had problems getting an ambulance to a venue to replace one that was taking an athlete to a emergency hospital room. Every vehicle and worker has to have specific security clearances to allow them to be in certain areas of the venues. The outgoing ambulance had the necessary clearances to be close to the venue and to quickly take the injured athlete out of the area and head for the hospital, but the incoming ambulance hadn't been cleared to replace it in the area where it needed to be. And, since IOC regulations required that events couldn't take place unless an ambulance is on site, there were delays while the incoming ambulance was granted clearance. "TOROC encouraged us to use common sense when it comes to our zoning process [security areas] of the venues. It was a little detail that came out as a major issue that had to be resolved. The bottom line in that was there is a lot of detail and to pay attention to it. You can execute a really optimal Games, but if you don't pay attention to those little details or you have too many of them that you've missed, then the result just isn't the same." Priestner also says the field of play, for which she is also responsible, will turn out well for the athletes. "That's an area where we cannot compromise, and we [on the VANOC management team] all agree about that; there's no arguing about it. And it was reinforced several times during many TOROC presentations that the field of play has to be Olympic class. You'll see no compromises by Vancouver in that area. It just wouldn't be acceptable."

IOC PRESIDENT HELPS MONTREAL CELEBRATE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF SUMMER OLYMPICS

The president of the IOC, Jacque Rogge, was one of about a dozen dignitaries who are helping Montreal this month celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. For Rogge, it was poignant. The Montreal Games were the last ones in which he competed. By profession, he is an orthopaedic surgeon. In the course of his sports career, he competed in the yachting competitions at the Games of the Olympiad in Mexico in 1968, Munich in 1972 and Montreal in 1976. He was also a member of the Belgian national rugby team. "The Games were a great success for the City of Montreal and for Canada," he says, "It is through the success of these Games that Canada has created a strong Olympic legacy which paved the way for Calgary to host the Olympic Winter Games in 1988 and for Vancouver to host in 2010." Canadian Olympic Committee president Michael Chambers agrees. "Thirty years after the Olympic Games were staged here in Montreal we remain very proud of the legacy that exists with us today. The Games in Montreal first brought an Olympic Games to Canada's shores. They engendered a lasting love of sport and a national pride in Canadians that remains a part of the Canadian spirit today and continues to inspire young men and women to embrace Olympism and excel in sport on the international stage." As part of today's celebrations, the City of Montreal is launching a commemorative exhibit at City Hall. A 1976 Olympic Games documentary will be shown on Wednesday at the Olympic Stadium's Auditorium. The anniversary will also be highlighted at 14 major sport events this summer throughout the province of Quebec. The 30th anniversary celebrations of the 1976 Olympic Games are held in partnership between the COC, the City of Montreal, the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport, Sports-Québec, Olympic Park, Sportcom and the National Multisport Centre - Montreal. The 30th anniversary of the 2010 Winter Games is February, 2040.

MORE DETAILS ON VANOC'S WHISTLE-BLOWING ARRANGEMENTS

An update to the story we reported July 11 about VANOC's contract with Toronto's ClearView Strategic Partners to set up a whistle-blowing hotline and website. The Vancouver Sun's Jeff Lee reports this morning on an interview he had with VANOC's chief legal officer, Ken Bagshaw about the deal. Lee paraphrases Bagshaw as telling him "VANOC is designing a reporting structure with ClearView that would allow whistle-blowers to direct their information to people other than their superiors. And if the complaints are about any of Vanoc's 20 board members, Bagshaw said he would take those complaints to the board's audit committee or the chairman, Jack Poole." Bagshaw told Lee that ClearView was one of seven companies that competed for the contract. Phil Enright, ClearView's executive vice president of Sales and Marketing, when we spoke to him July 11 about winning the contract, said that because of the way VANOC conducted the competition, the company had no idea whether it was bidding alone or against others, although he presumed there were others simply because of the strength of the industry.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 17, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1784
BC GOVERNMENT GOES SLOW ON OLYMPICS OPERATIONAL, CAPITAL SPENDING

Things we learned today as we reviewed the BC government's annual service plan and audited books provided by Colin Hansen, the minister responsible for the Economic Development ministry, which also has responsibility for the British Columbia aspects of the 2010 Winter Olympics:

The B.C. Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat was expected to spend C$109.6 million during the fiscal year that ended March 31. Instead, its operational expenses were C$12.6 million. It was supposed to have 15 employees (known as full-time equivalents) for 2005/06; instead it had only 13 by the end of last March. Most of the C$96.6 million it didn't spend was shifted to programs that "enhanced economic development" in the province.

The government claims the 2010 Games remain "on time and on budget", even though the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) requested an additional C$55 million for capital spending last October. Since the amount wasn't granted in that fiscal year, merely considered, the project remains on time and on budget. But, of course, that refers to the 2005/2006 fiscal year's deadlines and budgets, which were different from the 2005/06 deadlines and budgets. Officially this means the government "Measures the performance of providing oversight and following the provincial financial management framework in managing the C$600 million funding envelope, and meeting the milestones of the provincial commitments." The ministry's capital budget was to have spent C$620 million by March 31; instead it was C$31 million.

The cumulative total of businesses registered for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games through 2010 Commerce Centre: 1,879. The government's target for the 2005/6 fiscal year: 1,500. It means fairly little, at least at the moment, although the department is figuring it's a measure of the organization's outreach program. The measure originally included the number of B.C. businesses registered for the 2010 Commerce Center newsletter. It was later amended to provide "a more effective measure without overlap as a business can register for both opportunities and newsletters."

RESOURCES

Here's where the section of the service plan for Hansen's department starts:

www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/Annual_Reports/2005_2006/ed/default.htm

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 17, 2006

Friday, July 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1789

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

MAIN VANOC VOLUNTEER CALL STILL SET FOR EARLY 2008

The executive vice-president of Human Resources for VANOC, Donna Wilson, says the main call for Olympic volunteers is still planned for early 2008, even though VANOC's director of Nordic Sports, John Aalberg, is asking Whistler-area Nordic clubs to provide a list by August 1 of individuals who are interested in volunteering in 2010 for the Olympics, the Paralypics or both, as well as for test events that happen between now and the Games. "The Nordic call is related to technical sport volunteers, and there will be a couple of thousand of those in the Games. We need to source those people early, so we can train them. We don't have a lot of people who are skilled at starting gates for sledding or a biathlon, for example." Wilson, who is responsible for the whole gamut of volunteer recruitment and training for the 2010 Games. Wilson, however, doesn't expect any other calls for technical sport volunteers for a while. "I expect our experts are talking to those different sports right now to see what their needs are."

IOC'S VANOC COMMISSION CHAIR SAYS PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS ARE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL GAMES

The chairman of the IOC's commission that oversees the development of the 2010 Winter Games, Rene Fasel, says the Torino debriefing confirmed for him that the development of a good Olympic Organizing Committee is all about people and their relationships. "You can have the best structure and the best opening ceremonies, but at the end it's people. Trust, respect, open, transparent, friendship, talent -- and passion. You have to build a team, and then you have to work." Fasel, who is also president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, says he had a good working relationship with the director of sport for the Torino Winter Olympics, and he would often have discussions with him about challenges hockey faced in the structure of the 2006 Games. "We talked about how we would get support, it was done. It's all about relationships." Fasel likened the situation with VANOC to the relationship the players in a Canadian hockey team have. "It's the relationship they have in the team. If they have a good relationship, if they _are_ a team, then they win. It's about building a team, having a goal and winning, doing their best. Knowing the Canadians [VANOC], they will do so. They're not lazy."

CORPORATE SPONSORS TELL VANOC HOW TO TREAT THEM BETTER

Almost all of the worldwide sponsors of the International Olympic Committee made presentations to VANOC and other delegates to the Torino debriefing meeting, which VANOC's executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, Dave Cobb, says was extremely helpful. "We heard a lot of details directly from them about what would make their experience better. They talked about their hosptiality programs, their marketing and promotional activity," he says, "every piece of their experence." Cobb says they focused on the things they though VANOC should do differently, "I'll give you one little example," he says. "When they got their ticket seat allocation, which they paid for, in some cases they had a lot of tickets for a big hospitality program, but the tickets allocated people so they were scattered around different areas of the venues. That made if difficult for them to host one group of people. They couldn't meet during an intermission, and transportation was complex -- what entrance are they dropped off at each venue. Those are logistical things that may not seem significant in the whole scheme of things, but it's one of those delivery pieces that affects the experience people have, and what they need to have a positive Games experience. so they'll continue to sponsor the Games and to do what they're doing, which is investing in sport." By the way, Lenovo, the desktop computer maker, was one of the sponsors who didn't attend. Lenovo has been trying to decide whether to extend its sponsorship to include the 2010 Winter Games.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1788
2010 COMMUNICATIONS TO HOST SUPPORTERS CONFERENCE TO CO-ORDINATE CANADIAN COMMUNICATIONS

The vice-president of Communications for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says she hopes to convene a small conference of governments and corporate sponsors towards the end of this year to co-ordinate the way VANOC's Olympic story is told nation-wide.

Renee Smith-Valade says, "What we're doing right now is planning how we'll sit down with our sponsors and our partners and saying 'What are you going to do?' And then we'll do a gap analysis and see what we, as an Organizing Committee, can do fill those gaps and weave all of this together."

Smith-Valdade says the Torino Olympic Organizing Committee cut back on their Games advertising, community relations promotion and public relations budgets because they mistakenly thought their corporate sponsors would do the work of promoting the Games for them. But the sponsors signed on late, and activated their marketing budgets late and that considerably reduced the national impact of the support for the Torino Games. "It was a misstep," she says.

VANOC, she says, is in exactly the opposite situation. "We have sponsors coming on fast and early, and activating almost faster than we can keep up with them. It's a nice problem to have. Now we [VANOC] just have to ramp up, and keep the sponsors going as fast as they're going."

Smith-Valade expects the discussions will involve the marketing representatives of VANOC's corporate sponsors and well as the federal, provincial and municipal governments, which also have specified marketing rights, as well as organizations such as the Canadian Olympic Committee and others. In part, she says, the outcome of the conference could mean that VANOC might be able to scale back its own operational marketing budget, like TOROC did, but do so because it knows exactly what others will be doing to market the 2010 Games instead.

"There's a lot of work to be done," she says, "because everyone is still in the formulating stage. It will still be a couple of months before people can come to the table and say 'Here's what we're going to do'. And I suspect that out of that meeting, people are going to change what they do, because they'll be able to see what others are doing, and not doing, and perhaps volunteer to pick up work that needs to be done. At the end of it, it will be a great synergy of everybody working together to ideally make sure that the whole nation has a chance to participate" in supporting the 2010 Games.

Smith-Valade points out that the organizers of the 2006 Winter Games, because they were held in Italy, relied heavily on their news media to get their story out to the general public. While she acknowledges that media relations is a powerful tool for the marketing department of an Olympic Games, Canada has a much wider range of channels to use for public relations. "One of our biggest things will be the Internet. The penetration of the Internet in Italy is nowhere near what it is in Canada, and particularly in a city like Vancouver, or in British Columbia. We have the media to tell our story, we have the Internet, a healthy advertising budget, a comprehensive workforce communications plan so that our staff and our volunteers will become conduits for information. Torino had a focused strategic media plan, but we'll have a much more holistic communications plan that will tap into a number of different ways to communicate."

Even so, TOROC's website had more than 25 million visits, and served up more than 500 million page views, with the United States visits easily topping those of the Russian Federation, Italy and Canada, in that order.

VANOC has already begun building its Internet communications team, led by its Internet manager, Marc Dinsdale, a former executive of the Canadian headquarters of Blast Radius, a customer-experience consulting agency. Dinsdale, who was seconded to the Torino Organizing Committee for six weeks during the 2006 Games, is building a team at VANOC now. "And not only is he looking at using our site as a communications tool, but maybe a revenue-generating tool and other ways we can be progressive. He came back from Torino with all kinds of ways of using our website to communicate."

Smith-Valade said that one of the several TOROC debriefing sessions she attended had to do with athlete expectations from the point of view of the national Olympic committees, which send their country's teams to the 2010 Games. "If we can communicate at Games time that the athletes are thrilled with their accommodations, food and entertainment, that'll be a wonderful message for us [to publicize]."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1787

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

A BUCK MARKS MINT'S YEN FOR POUNDING RINGS ON CHANGE

The first Canadian collector dollars featuring the Olympic rings emblem rolled off the Canadian Mint's presses in Winnipeg yesterday. The dollar is the size and shape of a Loonie, but it is silvered and features an image of a flying Canada goose just as it splashes down on a strip of water. The five Olympic rings are positioned at the top of the coin, just underneath the standard image of the British crown. The Mint earlier this year became a tier-2 sponsor the 2010 Winter Games, and a royalty from the sales of such coins, and more to come between now and 2012, is paid to VANOC. The mint will also make the athlete medals for the Games.

TOROC 'TEXTBOOK' CLEAR, BUT NOT TRANSPARENT

They call it 'the textbook'. It's the 3.5 inch binder of materials and presentations that the Torino Olympic Organizing Committee distributed to the 300 delegates at the debriefing in Vancouver of the 2006 Winter Olympics. During a discussion about VANOC's transparency, we asked to see a copy. It's only for delegates, we were told.

CONSTRUCTION BUDGET NON-STORY EXPECTED TO MAKE HEADLINES

If there's a single major lesson to be taken by VANOC out of the debriefing sessions this week in Vancouver, that's not to let a wild card, even if he's the CEO of the previous Winter Olympics, near a microphone when there's dozens of major media looking at you. The wild card will upstage you every time. The IOC's closing news conference of the debriefing today had two of the most senior executives of VANOC at the table, along with their TOROC equivalents who ran the Torino Games, as well as the three senior IOC staffers keeping an eye on both sets of Winter Games. But it was Cesare Veciago, the gruff-speaking CEO of TOROC, who said he thought the C$580 million capital construction budget VANOC is spending, half funded by provincial taxpayers and half funded by federal taxpayers, was "a little bit light." Aghast, because the VANOC budget is a highly sensitive and charged issue with Canadian media at a time when the federal government is still considering whether to top up the budget by C$55 million make that total happen, IOC executive director Gilbert Felli and TOROC president Valentino Castellani were both at great pains to say the TOROC's construction budget, which was twice Vancouver's, can't be compared to with VANOC's because they are completely different building programs in completely different physical locations that required completely different sets of infrastructure. It didn't make a bit of difference to the assembled news media. They never heard a word after Veciago spoke, because they were busy fitting the CEO's comments into the headlines of their story. Which is why you'll be seeing stories around the world over the next few days -- but not here about how TOROC thinks VANOC is underfunded. It also underlines the concept that some people think an expert is anybody from out of town.

RESOURCES

You can see the Canadian Olympic dollar coin in a photo of the minister responsible for the federal governments portion of the 2010 Games, David Emerson, holding it. The photo is at this address for now:

a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/otct/20060621/232904-84093.jpg
or tinyurl.com/gupwz

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1786

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC TO CONSIDER VANCOUVER VERSION OF TORINO'S 'WHITE NIGHT'

The organizers of the Torino Winter Olympics were so pleased and surprised at the success of "White Night", which flooded the centre of their city with late-night partygoers and allowed businesses to stay open, that they quickly added a second one, and VANOC is looking seriously at whether it could do the same in downtown Vancouver in 2010. Vancouver 2010 CEO John Furlong is considering negotiations with Vancouver City staff to see if something similar might occur. "People will gather every night for the celebration at BC Place Stadium [for medal ceremonies], and they'll come out and they'll want to be downtown," Furlong is quoted as saying. "They'll want to walk along Robson Street, congregate around the art gallery and the library and all the areas that will be natural gathering places. We'll have to look at how we co-ordinate that and how we create the atmosphere." Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan has indicated that he's in favour of the concept. Furlong and many of his 2010 staff have helped host debriefing sessions this week with Torino Olympic organizers. The meetings wrap up this morning.

CANADIAN MEDIA CONGLOMERATE STOKED ABOUT WORLD SOCCER RESULTS

The media companies that will jointly carry the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Canada also joined forces last week to carry the World Soccer Cup, and they report some of the biggest audiences they've ever had. Sportsnet reported four of the top 10 audiences in network history stemmed from the soccer tournament, The Italian-Germany semi-final contest attracted 1.18 million Canadian viewers, while TSN's cover of the England-Portugal quarter-finals produced 1.6 million, the best for the World Cup on Canadian TV, except for the 2.84 million who watched the final on CTV.

IOC TO START SCHOLARLY PUBLICATION WITH 2008 SUMMER GAMES

The IOC says it intends to issue an "Olympic Studies Reader" to help researchers understand the concept of Olympianism, and it will start with the Beijing Summer Games. Research on Olympic subjects, IOC officials hope, will be easier with the new guide, a collaboration between Beijing Sport University and the Gama Filho University in Rio de Janeiro. The project is also supported by the IOC’s Olympic Studies Centre and the International Journal of the History of Sport. The publishers are issuing a call for papers and a summary needs to be produced by December 2006, in English or Chinese, which will also be the languages of the scholarly publication. It's intended for students and researchers interested in Olympism and has two main aims: to offer information on the main research topics linked to the Olympic Games, Olympism and the Olympic Movement, and to offer "orientation and suggestions for developing future Olympic research projects."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1785
PHOTOGRAPHER NEEDED TO HELP LAUNCH ABORIGINAL SPORT-PARTICIPATION POSTER CAMPAIGN

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has suddenly decided to produce a poster campaign should begin late this year to encourage aboriginal participation in sport, but it stops short of encouraging participation in the Games themselves.

VANOC's Brand & Creative Services department, working with its Aboriginal Participation section, has issued a snap call for any single photographer or photographic firm interested in taking the pictures for the poster campaign, and wants them to start the picture-taking sessions in August using subjects that VANOC will select. In order to get into the running, photographers interested in doing the work need to send an completed Invitation-to-Quote application form with five samples of their work and their eight-hour day rates by e-mail to a specific VANOC purchasing address by Friday, July 28. This is the first time that VANOC has accepted such a response by electronic means. The photographer is to be chosen by August 8, and VANOC wants the work to begin by August 14, although VANOC warns the schedule could change.

According to the terms of reference, "VANOC has a goal of achieving unprecedented aboriginal participation in the planning and staging of the 2010 Games, including the area of sport participation. VANOC is working to encourage greater aboriginal participation in sport in Canada. A poster campaign is an effective and powerful way in which VANOC can showcase and celebrate Aboriginal athlete role models, build winter sport awareness and inspire sport participation."

The poster series, says VANOC, is intended to involve two or more posters per year until 2010, with the photography for at least the first launch of the series to feature "Canadian aboriginal-athlete role models (male and female, including athletes with a disability)."

VANOC says the target audience for the campaign are aboriginal people in Canada, "particularly youth ages 12 and up." The key messages it wants the posters to covey: that aboriginal people in Canada are a part of the 2010 spirit and that the way to celebrate the spirit of 2010 is to participate in sport. The tone of the campaign is "to be inspirational, exciting, cool, youthful," with the pictures to match.

Once the photographer is chosen from those expressing interest and their portfolio is reviewed by a committee against those of others submitted, VANOC’s Brand & Creative Services department will provide a detailed creative brief, along with information about the Vancouver 2010 brand, graphic standards and creative considerations. It will also provide a contract that, among other things, contains a gag order: the selected photographer won't be able to tell anybody they're doing work for VANOC, nor can they use the work as a reference without formal written permission.

VANOC does holds out a small ghostly carrot for what is otherwise a short-term contract, adding that whatever photographer is chosen, they might be "potentially engaged to provide additional photography production services at VANOC’s sole discretion."

There don't appear to be any geographical limitations for the photographers applying, and VANOC says some travelling may be required by the selected photographer, but it seems focused on Canada.

RESOURCES

The Invitation to Quote has now been posted under VANOC's section of BC Bid, the provincial government's on-line bidding system:
www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca

--

VANOC's contact on this project:

Donna Lentz, Buyer, Procurement
Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010
Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
3585 Graveley Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 5J5 Canada
Telephone: (+1) 778.328.5036
Facsimile: (+1) 778-328-2011
E-mail: <donna_lentz@vancouver2010.com>

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2006

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1783
NOT MANY CANADIANS KNOW ABOUT OWN THE PODIUM 2010 -- BUT IF THEY DO, THEY LIKE IT

The good news is that a survey conducted by Canada's NRG Research Group indicates that 73% of Canadian who have heard of Own The Podium 2010 approve of its goal to make Canada the top medal finisher at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. A secondary goal is to place in the top three nations winning medals at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

In addition, the survey shows that 69% of the Canadians who know of it say that it is important for Canada to be in those positions in 2010. And almost one out of every two Canadians who know about it are more likely to do business with companies that support Own the Podium 2010.

The bad news: 76% of them hadn't heard of the program.

John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), says, "The performances of our athletes leading up to and in 2010 are a fundamental component to the overall success of staging the Games in 2010." VANOC has raised, primarily through corporate sponsorship connected with the 2010 Games, funds for half of the C$110 million budgeted to be paid toward the program over the years leading up to the 2010 Games, and the federal government has agreed to match the funds raised.

Dr. Roger Jackson, CEO of Own the Podium 2010, says, "These results are significant in terms of demonstrating Canadian support for high performance sport. With Canada's strong showing at the recent Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Torino, and the increased financial and technical support provided to winter sports, we are well on our way to achieving the goals of the Own the Podium 2010 initiative."

The survey results suggest Canadians see "important benefits" to achieving the positions, such as international recognition for Canada and increasing Canadians' pride in their nation.

Chris Rudge, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee says that "With the additional technical support provided by the Own the Podium initiative and the support of all the winter sport partners, I am confident that Canadians across the country will have many reasons to cheer when our athletes take the stage in Vancouver and Whistler."

Brian MacPherson, COO of the Canadian Paralympic Committee agrees: "Canada's Paralympic Team is at work right now to make these OTP podium goals a reality. Staff and athletes across the country are planning, training and innovating to make these the best Paralympic Games in Canada's history and to make the Paralympic Games a Canadian sport staple!"

RESOURCES

Canadian medal count at Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games:

2006 Torino, Italy
24 Olympic medals
13 Paralympic medals

2002 Salt Lake, USA
17 Olympic medals
15 Paralympic medals

1998 Nagano, Japan
15 Olympic medals
15 Paralympic medals

1994 Lillehammer, Norway
13 Olympic medals
8 Paralympic medals

==

The survey was carried out "courtesy" NRG Research Group. A total of 1,213 randomly selected interviews were done from May 18 to 29. The margin of error is +/-2.8%, 19 times out of 20.

RESOURCES

NRG Research:
www.nrgresearchgroup.com

Own the Podium background:
www.olympic.ca/EN/organization/news/2005/0121_background.shtml

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1782
The director of Nordic Sports for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is the first to make a formal call for 2010 Games volunteers.

In a notice that has appeared on the Whistler Nordic website, John Aalberg is asking Whistler area local Nordic clubs to provide a list by August 1 of individuals who are interested in volunteering in 2010 for the Olympics, the Paralypics or both, as well as for test events that happen between now and the Games.

VANOC, according to the notice, is "particularly interested in providing this opportunity to encourage local participation and utilize people with local accommodation. People interested in this will have opportunity to participate in the Olympic events. Interested people are asked to provide their certification level, event experience etc. Those without any level of certification are certainly encouraged and can pick up certification, training in the run-up period."

Also, there is request for persons to help in non-sport ways, according to the notice, in areas to do with marketing, secretarial or general assistance -- "whatever skill-set people can bring to help out."

The notice says that at the moment, VANOC is trying to get a sense of the number and potential qualifications of volunteers for the Nordic sport events.

VANOC has also provided the club with a "general 2010 requirement list (draft form)" for Nordic sport volunteers. According to it, the minimum requirements for person likely to be selected as a volunteer in this particular category:

1. They have to be an active cross-country official/skier, or a race/event organizer, and they must be a Nordic club member.

2. They must already have, or be willing to complete, "a minimum level X (TBD) CCC officials' education seminar."

3. They must be available to attend at least two 2-hour general volunteer seminars in the Sea-to-Sky area organized by VANOC, although dates for these seminars are not given.

4. They must be available to spend the entire period of the Games in 2010 -- from February 12 - 28 for the Olympics and from March 12 - 21 for the Paralymics -- as a sport volunteer, plus at least two full days ahead of each Games period "to undergo venue-specific Games training and receive all uniform equipment".

5. They must attend at least two test events at the Olympic venue during the two winter seasons prior to 2010.

VANOC has also listed some of the perks and responsibilties of being a volunteer under a heading on the note entitled "Accommodation and Goodies":

"If the selected Olympic or Paralympic official/sport volunteer lives outside a 1.5-hour driving distance from the venue, he or she will (during the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games) receive housing near the Olympic Paralympic venue, food (three meals at venue or at the housing location), and daily transportation between home or housing and Olympic/Paralympic venue.

"Each sport volunteer will also receive a full compliment of Olympic/Paralympic uniforms and memorabilia. Housing, food and transportation for the required Test Event attendance will be at a lesser scale (will be clarified later).

"All 2010 Games officials/sport volunteers must pass an RCMP security check."

VANOC estimates it will eventually need about 22,000 volunteers for all aspects of the Games.

RESOURCES

The note and contact info is on this website:
www.WhistlerNordics.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1781

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

MUNICIPAL STAFF AT TORINO DEBRIEF REVIEW COMMUNITY IMPACTS OF 2006 OLYMPICS

Among the 300 or so delegates to the Torino Olympics debriefing for VANOC in Vancouver are staff representatives from the four host communities for the 2010 Olympic Games: Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler. Their focus is learning about how Olympic organizers work with a venue-host city, and about the effects on a host municipality outside of the venue, such as dealing with traffic, the type and content of bylaws that might be necessary, and how to deal with the plethora of permits that are needed, often quickly. Richmond, for instance, which is just starting construction of the 2010 long-track speedskating oval as part of a large sports complex, is in the process of negotiating operating agreements with VANOC to determined responsibilities of which organization will pay for various things connected to the structure. The municipal staffers are also talking with Torino counterparts on how to use post-Games legacies for the benefit of the municipalities. Urban officials are also learning about handling test events, communicating with international media and working with the next Winter Games host city. Three cities are vying for the opportunity to host the 2014 Winter Games, but the finalist won't be chosen for about a year.

WHISTLER OFFICIALLY TO CONSIDER WHETHER 2010 SLIDING CENTRE TRACK 'TEMPORARY'

Whistler's municipal council is expected to adopt a bylaw during its July 17 meeting to designate the Whistler Sliding Centre track as a "temporary structure", and thus exempt the track from Whistler's standard plumbing and building regulations. Meanwhile, Whistler fire and safety officials are hoping to soon recommend the resort municipality consider development of a new or upgraded Emergency Operations Centre and that the officials will soon being work on a strategy for how the centre's operation would work during the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The concepts are part of the Whistler Fire & Rescue Strategic Plan. Officials say they will be involved in emergency response planning by becoming members of the VANOC Fire Advisory Committee.

PEMBERTON BUSINESS GROUP ASKS FOR GRANTS TO HELP STAFF LOCAL 'SPIRIT' COMMITTEE

The community of Pemberton is a few kilometres northeast of Whistler, and it's now been learned that the Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce has taken over the operations of the Pemberton Valley Spirit of B.C. Community Committee. The Spirit committees were set up individually and co-ordinated through 2010 Legacies Now, to aid local development connected with the 2010 Winter Games throughout BC. The Pemberton Chamber of Commerce felt it could help provide better staffing structure to help the Pemberton Spirit implement some of its ideas, but the Chamber is now asking for grants from Pemberton and the area's regional district and from Pemberton municipal council to help fund the staffing costs. The plan would be to fund a part-time administrator at first, but that the job would grow into full time as the 2010 Games at Whistler got nearer.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1780

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANCOUVER ASKED TO OK DISABILITY-FUNDS LINK FROM VANCOUVER FOUNDATION TO 2010 LEGACIES NOW

Vancouver City Council will be asked next Tuesday to approve the use of its bank account as a conduit to allow the Vancouver Foundation to transfer a total of C$750,000 in three equal C$250,000 annual grants to 2010 Legacies Now. The money is to be used for 2010 Legacies Now's work on urban disability programs in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The grants for the last two years are dependent on "positive results" from the spending on the "Accessible & Inclusive Cities & Communities Project" (AICCP) this year. The reason for using the City's coffers is because a foundation in Canada under tax laws can only legally transfer funds to a few types of recipients, and 2010 Legacies Now, though a non-profit society spun off from the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, doesn't directly qualify, but the City does. If the arrangement, which has been used occasionally before, is approved by at least eight City councillors, Vancouver Foundation would transfer the initial C$250,000 to the City, and the City would subsequently approve an equivalent grant to 2010 Legacies Now, and the process would be repeated next year and in 2008. Wendy Au, the City's Manager of Special Projects in the department of Vancouver City manager Judy Rogers, a member of the VANOC Board of Directors, says, "The City of Vancouver as host city for the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games will have to ensure that our City is accessible and activities inclusive to all our residents and visitors. The City will be furthering our goal to improve accessibility by working closely with Legacies Now and community organizations to implement Phase II of the AICCP initiative." The AICCP program was begun in 2004 by Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan and Tim Louis when they were both city councillors, and former BC New Democratic BC premier Mike Harcourt.

VANOC COMFORTABLE WITH VOLUNTEER NUMBERS, BUT MAY INCREASE TRAINING

VANOC's executive vice-president of Human Resources, Donna Wilson, has told the Vancouver Sun newspaper that she will "really look at our numbers to make sure we are comfortable" with the number of volunteers the 2010 organization needs -- currently estimated to be 22,000, down from 26,000 a year ago -- but she is quoted as disagreeing with the CEO of the Torino Olympic Organizing Committee that it had too many volunteers at 20,000, many of whom didn't have "meaningful" jobs, and that it should have spent more time training fewer volunteers. Cesare Vaciago of TOROC, in Vancouver with other members of TOROC to debrief VANOC about its experience running the Games last February and March, told Sun reporter Jeff Lee, "We had 20,000 volunteers the week before [the Games started], but we should have had 10,000 trained volunteers one month before because we could have taught them what they needed to do. We had too many volunteers and not enough well prepared." Lee reports that Wilson disagreed with Vaciago's numerical assessment but reinforced her view that volunteers need better training. As a result, she told Lee, "We're going to bring people in earlier, and train them up, so they can also be used to train other volunteers." VANOC already has a handful of volunteers -- compared to what they will eventually taken on. Some are currently being used to drive vans, provided by VANOC sponsor General Motors and fueled by VANOC sponsor Petro-Canada, to ferry VANOC employees.

SOME CLIENTLE OF WHISTLE-BLOWER CONTRACTOR CONNECTED TO VANOC

We reported on July 11 that ClearView Strategic Partners of Toronto had been contracted by VANOC to set up a whistle-blowing system for the 2010 organization. We can now report that ClearView also has three current corporate clients that are sponsors of the 2010 Games: Bell Canada Communications, which provides VANOC's telecommunications and is VANOC's largest tier-1 sponsor by far; Bell's subsidiary on the east coast of Canada, Aliant Communications, which is a tier-2 VANOC sponsor; and Rona, VANOC's tier-1 renovations materials supplier and sponsor. In addition, one of the people on ClearView's advisory panel, former Telus marketing manager Ann MacDairmid, describes herself as being "member of the bids for Expo 2005 in Calgary and the Winter 2010 Olympics," but, for clarification, which she does not provide, she was on the 2010 bid team for Calgary, when that city was up against Vancouver, vying to represent Canada. Telus also became a sponsor of the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler bid after Vancouver was chosen by the Canadian Olympic Committee to represent Canada in the IOC's subsequent 2010 rights auction. Bell, however, outbid Telus for sponsoring the 2010 Vancouver Games after VANOC was formed.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 13, 2006

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1779

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

MORE TENDERS TO BE OPENED FOR 2010 SPEEDSKATING OVAL

Tenders for the underground electrical work at the Richmond 2010 Olympic Oval sports complex will be opened Thursday afternoon. The original call for companies to be pre-qualified for the work closed December 9, and four firms were sent tender documents. They were Elgar Electric of Surrey (Greater Vancouver suburb adjacent to Richmond), Houle Electric of another suburb, Burnaby; Canem Systems Richmond, and Western Pacific Enterprises of Vancouver. The same process was followed for underground mechanical work, and four firms were selected to receive tenders. They were: Fred Welsh Ltd of Vancouver, Georgia Mechanical of Richmond and Keith Plumbing & Heating and Mitchell Installations, both of North Vancouver. Their tenders will also be opened at the same time on Thursday.

JAZZ FESTIVAL EXECUTIVE HIRED TO HELP RUN VANOC CULTURAL OLYMPIAD

Robert Kerr, the executive director of the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society and co-founder of Vancouver's highly successful International Jazz Festival, has been chosen as program director for the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. He starts working for VANOC September 1. The annual summer Festival, a big tourist draw for the Greater Vancouver area, has grown from an audience of about 10,000 in 1985 to more than half a million this year. The Cultural Olympiad is being set up and funding, mostly from the federal, provincial and municipal governments, along with some corporate support, is being moved into place in Vancouver and Whistler. In part, it's to help develop existing and upcoming talent to quality levels in preparation for the 2010 Games. The Olympiad is to continue throughout the province until January 22, 2010. That date (it was originally set for January 15 but updated much later), three weeks before the opening ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, marks the start of a five-week Arts Festival to "celebrate the Olympic Movement." VANOC's 2002 Bid Book says the organization will "will present a full spectrum of cultural activities, festivals... [along with] a broad selection of the finest creative works of other IOC nations... [and] new works will be commissioned, new talent will be showcased...". The book also predicted that "In more than 25 existing venues in Vancouver and Whistler the Arts Festival will present an unprecedented choice of free and ticketed, traditional and contemporary arts and cultural experiences. Throughout the Games, the Olympic Arts Festival will expand onto the sidewalks, streets and public spaces of Vancouver and Whistler, and into the sport venues and Olympic Villages." VANOC's 2002 Bid Book budget for cultural aspects, which is to be updated when its new business plan is approved in November, was C$28 million in 2002 dollars -- not counting the Opening, Closing and Torch Relay ceremonies -- but including the VANOC segment of the Torino Closing Ceremonies; VANOC has already said it spent about C$1.5 million on it.

TOROC CEO PANS 'MAG AND BAG' SECURITY SYSTEM

The chief executive officer of Torino's Olympic Organizing Committee, Cesare Vaciago, says in Vancouver that the so-called "mag-and-bag" security checkpoints at his city's Olympic venues were a waste of time and money. "Mag and bag are completely useless!" he said. He said the system, which involves searches and a metal detector, cost e20 million (about C$29 million), involved about 2,000 police officers and the cost of the metal-detecting equipment. The comment, said informally at a meeting in Vancouver hosted by VANOC to hear the post-mortem of the Torino Games, appeared to take VANOC officials aback.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2006

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1778
CANADIAN COMPANY TO SET UP WHISTLEBLOWER HOTLINE FOR VANOC

A Toronto-based company that has made its name over the last nine years helping Canadian, American and multi-national companies work with whistle-blowers has won a contract with the 2010 Organizing Committee to set up a system to report wrongdoing to senior VANOC management. But for the moment, any complaints are falling on deaf ears.

ClearView Strategic Partners, formed in 1997 by founder Ron Paquette, was to have received a one-year contract with renewable options for up to three more years for the service.

Phil Enright, the company's executive vice president of Sales and Marketing says the actual terms of the agreement are private, but that his company is still in the process of setting up arrangements to implement the contract.

"We're excited about being able to help VANOC, both their employees and the volunteers that come on line eventually... I think it's really wonderful of VANOC to do this. It's not something they have to do. They're not regulated or legislated to do it. I think it's really wonderful that they've said that, from a governance perspective, this is what major corporations across the country and around the world are doing. We're pleased and, I must say, a little bit proud to be part of it," adds Enright.

The company's major product is called ClearView Connects. It's is a web and telephone-based system "that is accessible 24/7/365 allowing employees and 3rd parties to anonymously and confidentially report incidents of wrongdoing, as well as other issues, concerns, suggestions and ideas for process improvement." The service is provided in English and French to VANOC as well as to other ClearView clients.

Among other things, the company allows anybody to log into its website and report any wrongdoing the person feels an organization is up to, or has done, and electronic versions of documents can also be attached to the report. The contents of the report are made immediately available to senior management of VANOC, whenever they choose to look at the file, but the identity of the person and their log-in information is kept confidential by ClearView. In fact, the identifying information is destroyed automatically after two weeks. It's only kept in case management wants additional information on the topic, and they then have to go through ClearView's system, which protects the whistleblower, if they want to ask any further questions.

ClearView was awarded the contract June 28, a month later than VANOC's own purchase schedule expected it would be awarded, however, if a VANOC employee, contractor, supplier or even a government employee with inside information about VANOc tried to register a complaint today, ClearView's system would not recognize the name of the organization.

The ClearView website system requires a whistleblower to type in the name of the organization before a complaint can be registered. Morgan:News:2010 today tried several different versions of VANOC's name, including "VANOC", "2010", "Olympic", "The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games" and "Vancouver Organizing Committee For The 2010 Olympic And Paralympic Winter Games". In each case, ClearView's system failed to recognize the name or acronym, although it did provide an option "Go ahead and submit report for organization named VANOC. Our staff will review your entry and try to resolve this."

Enright says it will be "a couple of months" yet before the service can start operating. VANOC indicates it is also in the process of setting up internal methods of implementing its side of the arrangement.

Without getting specific about the firm's terms with VANOC, Enright says the company's services start at C$7,500 but there is pricing factor that ranges from C$3 down to about C$1 depending on the number of employees a client has, and that count expands as clients include third-party contractors, customers and suppliers. VANOC's RFP specifies only employees would be included. VANOC expects to have about 1,200 employees by 2009; it has about 180 employees at the moment. VANOC has also said it will need about 25,000 volunteers to run the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

ClearView says it requires whistle-blowers, though they may be anonymous, to be honest when they make it report. In its instructions to whistle-blowers, it says, "It’s important to be honest (in fact, we make you agree to it)! ClearView and our client organizations treat the information that you submit using this reporting system very seriously. It's your responsibility to be as accurate and honest as possible in providing the information."

RESOURCES

The firm argues that, generally, "Significant numbers of employee’s are feeling disconnected and disengaged from their organizations. Employees express the fear of reprisal and retribution and are reluctant to report wrongdoing and share their ideas and concerns within their organization. ClearView’s objective is to provide employees with a way to feel more connected and engaged, and for employers to understand more clearly and quickly what employees are thinking and how they feel."

RESOURCES

Our previous story on what VANOC was looking for when it made its request:
'Company to provide protection for 2010 whistleblowers sought by Organizing Committee'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1624; Published on Friday, April 21, 2006]

ClearView's contact web page, with executive names and direct phone lines:
www.clearviewpartners.com/contact_us.htm

The company's home page:
www.clearviewpartners.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 11, 2006

Friday, July 07, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1777

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC CONSIDERS TEMPORARY VIP HOUSING IN WHISTLER

John Eastman, VANOC's managing director of Venue Construction, says the 2010 Committee is considering the idea of providing upscale temporary accommodation in Whistler if sufficient hotel and motel rooms can't be contracted in the area. "We're under a lot of pressure to find rooms in Whistler," he says. "Not just for athletes, but for officials, coaches and other members of their support team. And then you have to allow room for spectators there, so there's a tremendous challenge in finding the accommodation. We've secured a high percentage of what we need, but there are still other demands in Whistler. So we're still looking at whether there is an area there we could use for temporary, and provide a higher capacity than what we've got now. If we have to go above the accommodation in the Whistler Olympic Village, we're looking at providing temporary rooms." Eastman says VANOC is thinking about an upscale item, but still "Some sort of pre-fabricated trailer kind of thing, yes. The kind of thing they use at work camps, but up to a higher standard, obviously." Eastman says the decision on the concept has not yet been made. "We're still working with Whistler on it, and we're still trying to firm up the numbers of people we have to accommodate." There's no plan to put the extra housing in Squamish or Pemberton, which are nearby communities, because the Whistler Olympic Village is only 20 minutes from the venues, and the other areas are outside of the range set by the IOC.

GRANDMA LUGE TO APPLY TO WORK, NOT COMPETE, FOR 2010 GAMES

A report out of Falls Church, Virginia, in the United States says one of the real characters of luge has decided to ask if she can work at the 2010 Winter Games, instead of competing in them as, by far, the oldest luge Olympian -- ever. Anne Abernathy, nicknamed Grandma Luge ever since she competed in the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics at the age of 34, is retiring from the sport. She's competed in winter Olympics ever since Calgary, and would have been racing down the track at Torino last February at the age of 52 had she not broken her wrist during a training run. If she had raced, she would have been representing the US Virgin Islands -- a Caribbean territory -- in the Winter Games. "I just have no desire to get back on the sled," Abernathy told her local newspaper today. "After 23 years, the passion is gone." She was the first woman over 50 to compete in the Olympics and was the first six-time female Olympian. "I'm ready for something different," she said. "It's time to use my experience and knowledge to mentor and coach future Olympians." And why work for 2010? Simple: She needs the money to pay back her training and competition-travel loans.

SPOKANE WATCHED FOR PRICING, POPULARITY OF FIGURE-SKATING

An early idea of how well figure-skating might be received -- and the price levels for it -- is taking place. Organizers say the January 28 signature event of the week-long US Figure Skating Championships, scheduled for Spokane, an American city about two hours drive south of Vancouver in Washington State, has sold out, but there are still packages available for other parts of the Olympic-calibre event. he event runs from January 21st to the 28th. The Four Finals Ticket Package is expected to go on sale August 11, priced at US$298 (about C$330). An all-event package of tickets costs US$495 (about C$550). "With 2007 being the first year of the four-year Olympic cycle leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Games, the road to Vancouver runs right through Spokane," said Toby Steward, President of Star USA, the Spokane-based management company overseeing organization of the Championships. The 2007 U.S. Figuring Skating Championships, sponsored by State Farm Insurance, were awarded to Spokane in 2004. The event has been held annually since 1914 in cities in the United States. The state of Washington last hosted the U.S. Championships in 1987 in Tacoma. The Championships, which determine the 2007 US figure skating team, expect to host about 1,500 figure skating athletes, officials and coaches.

RESOURCES

The Figure Skating website:
www.spokane2007.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 7, 2006

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1776
PART 2 OF 2 -- A STATUS REPORT ON VANOC CONSTRUCTION

This is part 2 of two reports on the information provided by VANOC about its construction status; Part 1 was published June 14.

The information for this report was provided by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

First, some numbers:

Original Bid Book budget: C$470 million

Project Definition budget: C$580 million, which was developed a year ago.

VANOC is still awaiting the results of its request to the BC and federal governments of C$55 million from each to offset the cost of inflation, primarily, and that includes a contingency of C$51 million.

Most of the projects now have a detailed design budget that's based largely on awards of tenders, particularly to mountain venues, with about two thirds -- roughly C$385 million of the C$580 million committed. Eastman says that in the last year, VANOC has been able to refine the contingency down to C$36.1 million. "We're fairly confident that the C$36.1 million is going to be sufficient to carry us through to the completion of construction."

As for the reason VANOC is over the bid budget, he notes that, "[Construction] inflation over the period of time from when the Olympics were first bid and the budgets were first assembled, to today, a very conservative estimate is 40%. And some people will argue that it's a lot more than that. Certainly in some trades, and some disciplines, it is. What we've been able to do, by going out [into the marketplace for tenders] early, making scope changes, making some changes in venue design, we are now working on a C$580 million budget, which is an increase of 23% from 2002."

But, he adds, "These venues continue to pose challenges to us, but I think we're over the hill. We've got two-thirds of the contracts for the venues committed, and we're confident we can delivery within the revised budget of C$580 million, and on schedule."

We look at the major projects and Eastman separates them into two groups:

VANOC-controlled venues - Budget: C$348 million. About 50% (about C$175 million) of that budget is now committed. VANOC is responsible for managing the design and construction process.

In this group are the two biggest projects for costs, the Whistler Sliding Centre on Blackcomb Mountain north of Whistler, and the Whistler Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley. The group also includes Creekside; Cypress; Hillcrest Curling Venue, upgrades to the Pacific Coliseum, the Athletes Centre in Whistler, upgrades to BC Place and to General Motors Place.

Partner-controlled venues - Budget: C$195 million.
This group is managed and controlled by others. VANOC provides a fixed grant to those organizations for construction of a portion of the venues, while the other organizations provide funding for development of the projects for their own purposes. The costs, for VANOC, are essentially set, with the risk of construction falling on the government or organization that will end up with them.

In this group are the Richmond speedskating oval; the University of British Columbia hockey rinks; Whistler Sledge Hockey arena; Whistler and the Vancouver Athletes Villages.

Here, according to Eastman, is the status of the major projects:

-- Richmond speed skating oval
-- Actual contribution: $62.7 million (Bid Book contribution estimate: C$63.7 million).
-- Site clearing preparation and start of construction
-- Dominion Construction retained by City of Richmond to manage the venue.

The work program for this year involves substantial completion of the foundation works; the land is still under pre-load due to delta soil conditions. "There have been some concerns expressed over the past few months that the settlement is not controllable; we think it is controllable. I think we can guarantee a level surface of ice when the Olympics come in 2010. The pre-load has been on for six months; it will be coming off in the next few months, and real construction will start. We hope to have ice there in July, 2008, and final completion is targeted for September, 2008. The preload can't come out until the settlement is finished, but Richmond is proceeding with the design and award of the foundation contract, so there may be some areas that will come out or proceed earlier than others. They're still looking at whether to proceed with geothermal heat generation. "

-- Hillcrest curling venue
-- Being built "in association" with the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Parks Board
-- Current construction: $37.1 million budget (Original budget: C$28 million)
-- Environmental approvals/site preparation
-- To be constructed in conjunction with a City-financed aquatic centre.

"We're now working with the City to combine those two structures into one to get some economies of scale. For the Olympics, the curling venue is really just a big barn, which will have seating for 5,700. When the Olympics are finished, there will be another fit-out of that building which will provide community facilities for hockey, curling and other recreational uses, which will go into that building. In terms of spectator capacity, it's far above the largest that's ever been provided for a curling venue in the Olympics. We'll start construction in 2007. We are hopeful, if we receive environmental approvals, we can start some site prep towards the end of this year. completion is set for December, 2008. At Hillcrest, we're just at the project-development stage. We've done all the preliminary designs and costing, and that's going through a whole process of review to look at the prices and whether we need everything that's there, the whole program, together with the City. There's a lot of input from the City of Vancouver."

-- Hastings Park figure-skating, short track speedskating venue (Pacific Coliseum)
-- Construction budget: C$25.7 million (Original budget: C$23.1 million)
-- Ice slab widening to international size
-- Venue capacity: 14,000 for Olympics.

"We have started work on this venue by replacing the seats last year. We are in there now expanding the ice surface. It has to be expanded to accommodate the speedskating; that can't be run on an NHL-sized ice surface. We intend to complete this in 2007, but we have to work with the Coliseum to get into the building during the summer months to do the work so as not to disrupt community use. There will be some cosmetic work done to the venue after 2007, but it will be ready for competition in August, 2007.

-- General Motors Place (hockey main venue)
-- Original budget: C$5 million; probable current estimate: C$5 million
-- Capacity for the Olympics: 16,700

"The budget considerably increased during the design-development process, particularly when looking at the cost of expanding that venue to Olympic sized ice. Our agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation means we can run the games on NHL-sized ice, so we have been able to save that expenditure. We are now working on what other things we may have to do on that venue to get it ready for the Olympics. Construction will be during the summer in 2008 with completion that August. The impact now on GM Place will certainly be an awful lot less than it was originally when we had to expand that venue to Olympic-sized ice."

-- UBC Winter Sports Centre secondary ice hockey venue
-- Being constructed by UBC Properties Trust with contribution from VANOC
-- Current budget contribution: $37.6 million (Original budget: C$35.8 million)
-- Phase 1 Demolition and start of construction
-- Venue Capacity for Olympics: 6,600.

"Originally in the Bid Book, we were going to provide two ice surfaces. Now, we have agreement there will be an expansion and reconstruction of the Thunderbird Arena that was there, and we will leave a legacy of three rinks. The start date for work was last February. The existing buildings have been demolished. We're looking at a completion date of May, 2008. UBC Properties Trust has awarded a design-build contract. We found there was permafrost beneath the original arena, which went down at least 12 feet. It's just like trying to get rid of rock."

-- Vancouver Athletes Village
-- Constructed by the City of Vancouver
-- Construction contribution: C$30 million
-- Site preparation and shoreline rehabilitation
-- Will house 2,800 athletes, coaches and officials.

"The contract has been awarded to the developer for the buildings. The work is underway [by the City] for site preparation, utilities and services. The village itself will occupy about eight acres and will be split into three zones. A supply zone, on the west side of the property, the accommodation zone in the middle and the International Zone on the east, which will be used by dignitaries for entertaining, and social interaction between the athletes and the vendors."

-- Cypress Mountain, West Vancouver, freestyle and snowboarding venue
-- Current budget: $14.6 million
-- Site clearing/grading, start construction of snowboard venue and snowmaking reservoir

"This is going to be an extremely exciting venue, and being so close to the city, it's going to be popular. I was at the Torino Olympics, and the freestyle moguls and the other events that take place are a real show, with the music that creates a tremendous environment. This is the fastest-growing sport of all the sports that we have. The venue capacity will be 11,800 for the stadiums. There will be two; one will serve the freestyle, which is the aerials and the moguls and the other one will be for the snowboarding. There we will have a half-pipe and a snowboard giant slam site. Construction has started. The freestyle area has been cleared, and we're excavating now just above the existing parking lot. There's a lot of activity going on there now. We will substantially finish the freestyle venue this year, and next year we'll be focused on completing the snowboard venue. Also going into this venue, which will be a permanent part of Cypress, will be a complete, new snow-making system, which will guarantee snow under the appropriate conditions during the Olympics."

-- Creekside at Whistler Mountain (venue for all alpine skiing)
-- Current construction budget: $26.2 million (Original budget: C$23.1 million)
-- Snow-making system and course improvements

"More than C$17.5 million of the current budget is devoted to new snow-making equipment. One thing that's amazed me as part of this process, is that one thing the athletes don't like is natural snow. In order to develop a venue that they think is fair to all athletes coming down the hill, we need to prepare the snow well in advance, we need to use artificial snow so that it's uniform all over the hill. When I was at Torino, they got some snow just prior to the event, and use the all the weasel-workers on the hill getting rid of that snow. They don't want it. They want to create, basically, an ice surface, one that will give fair competition from the first start to the last start. We're a bit behind; we had planned to start a few weeks ago. We were awaiting our final environmental approval, but we now have it and we're running. We will complete the venue in October of 2007."

-- Whistler Nordic Competition Venue (for biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and nordic)
-- Current budget: $115.7 million; (Original was C$102 million)
-- Site preparation, grading, bridge construction, starting day lodge and sport buildings

"There are three stadia being developed in the Callaghan Valley, one for each of the main competitions. It's been planned that there will only be two events going on at any one time, to limit the demand on buses and access, and to services that look after the total venue. Each stadium has a capacity of 12,000, all of which will be bused in along the new access road, which is now being built by the [BC government's] Ministry of Transportation. There have been some major changes to this venue from the concept that was in the Bid book. It now has a much smaller footprint than originally envisioned. We have moved the ski-jump facility from one side of the valley to the other, to a hill that is better and more conducive to the particular slopes of those jumps. We're working on the outrun, the landing area of the ski jump now. We'll be letting for tender later this summer the actual take-off area, the in-run structure. We are also meeting our commitments to First Nations involvement in giving them opportunities to help develop these venues. Last year, we retained a First Nation contractor, RBV Ventures, and they are back again this year. They are 51% owned by the Lil'wat band. They are doing a lot of the grading work on the site. We also have another First Nations contractor, Newhaven, who are construction managers for the buildings that will be on the site. We started clearing last year, and we will be complete in October, 2007. One of the things that has amazed me is the width of the trails, which are a wide as a road, and the necessary bridges to cross creeks. We have about 18 bridges on the site."

-- Whistler sliding centre (bobsleigh, skeleton, luge competitions)
-- Current construction budget: C$99.9 million (Original: C$55 million)
-- Track foundation and footings, start of track structure and support buildings
-- Venue capacity of 11,600 during the Olympics.

"This has been, without a doubt, our most challenging venue. It was very difficult to price this facility without a really detailed knowledge of the design and the site. The bid was based on past construction costs of the three tracks which exist in North America, and then escalated to 2002 prices. Those sites have little relation to the site we're developing here at the foot of Blackcomb Mountain. There's a lot more site prep, a lot more infrastructure work, that has to be done on this site which they didn't face on the other sites. We're also really challenged in getting companies interested in building the facility. It is unique, it is extremely challenging work. It's a 1.7 kilometre track. It's going to be one of the fastest tracks in the world. The racers will get up to about four or five times gravity on one of the fastest curves. The geometry of the track changes all the way along it. You can't use forms for it. It's all built with shotcrete and to a very tight tolerance, on top of evaporator pipes, which have to be placed in the track for artificial freezing to make the ice for the tracks. The crew that's doing it all come from Labrador. The reason is that they were involved in the construction of the Lake Placid [New York] track in 1999. Other contractors really didn't want to take the risk on something as complex as this. We started clearing the venue last year. We are now well into construction, and we plan to finish it in October, 2007. The main contractor is Emil Anderson, and that company has a major subcontract with Underground Services Limited of Toronto, which has done a lot of shotcrete work. It's Underground Services that has the crew from Labrador. We looked at the whole of North America as a market for shotcrete work. We went to the Shotcrete Association, because this is such a specialized piece of work. The excavations you see for buildings in downtown Vancouver, the edges are all shotcrete, but it's rough. It doesn't matter if it's a few inches out or whatever. But with our project, we're looking a two millimetres tolerance, and the curves have to be exact for safety. The piping is being done by Ideal Welders of Annacis Island [near New Westminster]. One of the big challenges was getting pipefitters and, in particular, pipe welders. The Athabasca Oil Sands projects are taking all of those guys, and paying them a whole lot of money. There was actually only one bidder who could come forward and we were confident they had the people, the welders available to actually do the work. And they'll look all around the world for the steel piping. And I think you'll find that a lot of that piping will come out of China. Our contract with Ideal is for supply and erect, so we're not subject to any escalation in price from there."

RESOURCES

John Eastman's resume:

From 1982 to 1993, Eastman held senior positions in the design and construction of all three phases of Vancouver’s SkyTrain commuter transportation system. In 1993, he moved to Toronto where he was Project Manager for the design of a section of the proposed Eglinton Subway Line involving complex interchange arrangements with the Spadina Line.

He returned to Vancouver and in September, 1998 was recruited by Rapid Transit Project 2000 Ltd. to act as Project Manager for the 20 kilometre, C$1.2 billion Millennium Line extension of Vancouver’s SkyTrain system. In June 2001, he was appointed President and Project Director for Rapid Transit Project 2000 Ltd. with responsibility for the design, construction, testing and commissioning of the Millennium Line. This Line began revenue service in August 2002; 34 months after construction started.

He joined the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Rapid Transit Project in 2002 and was responsible for all technical aspects of the project, including the development of procurement and construction strategies, and performance standards. The project is a public/private partnership with a 35-year concession to design, build, operate and maintain the system. He was chairman of the evaluation committee and a member of the negotiating team that concluded the Concession Agreement last July.

In October, 2005, Eastman joined VANOC, assuming responsibility for the construction of all mountain venues.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 6, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1775

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

FJORD WINS 2010 LEGACIES NOW WEB DEVELOPMENT WORK

Fjord Interactive, a 152-employee business unit of Canada's largest national marketing communications agency, Cossette, has won the Request for Proposals issued this spring by 2010 Legacies Now for website design and development. The company -- with offices in