Morgan:News:Bronze:Service is published regularly, but the articles are delayed by at least three months to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at
Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at:
Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) You can use Google to search the site, simply add site:morgan-news.com after your search terms.
Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2165MARKETING THE 2010 GAMES INVOLVES A LOT OF PUBLIC GROUNDBREAKING OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS
Two types of ground-preparation marketing for the 2010 Olympics are occurring this weekend. One is literally a sod-turning exercise. The other involves part of the committments of Canada's host broadcaster for the Games, which is now running five-second promotions for its role and the Games themselves.
This all comes as the marketing pulse of the Games quickens on the three-year-out anniversary before the start of the Games.
First, on the sod-turning side: The official ground-breaking ceremony of VANOC's Hillcrest curling venue and Vancouver's adjacent new aquatic centre, which is set for Friday morning at the site near Little Mountain, will include a host of dignitaries.
Jack Poole, VANOC's chairman, will represent the organization. Vancouver Park Board chairman Ian Robertson will host the event. Chief Leah George-Wilson of the Tsleil-Waututh tribe will be representing the Four Host First Nations that are working with VANOC; David Emerson, the minister in charge of the federal government's Olympic responsiblities and BC Premier Gordon Campbell will be there for the province, along with Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan. The federal, BC and municipal governments are all investing money in the capital construction of the projects.
The Hillcrest Curling Venue, built to LEED standards, will have 6,000 seats and four ice sheets. After the 2010 Winter Games, it will be converted into the a new Riley Park Community Centre, a home for the Vancouver Curling Club, an ice arena and it will eventually have a library.
Another event is one that starts this weekend on Canadian television, in an admittedly low-audience time slot.
The Sports Network cable channel (TSN), part of the successful CTV host broadcaster contract with the International Olympic Committee, gives its audience a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Canadian amateur sports.
A a six-part series called "Spirit of the Game", shot in high definition, which will be the main standard for the 2010 Games, begins its run on Sundays at 11 a.m.
The 30-minute episodes are hosted by Brian Williams, a Canadian broadcaster who was the voice and face of the Olympics with CTV's competitor CBC, the network that has had the Olympics broadcast contract for decades, but which will come to an end with the Beijing Summer Games next year. Williams, who left the CBC to follow the Games contract, will be talking with athletes, coaches and executives in the Olympics industry about various topics, some controversial, such as drug testing, the relationship between parents, coaches and athletes, and a story on how injured Canadian soldiers are recruited to become Paralympians.
The show is sponsored by VANOC's telecommunications sponsor, Bell Canada, on one of its broadcasting channels, so there isn't any negativity about the Vancouver Olympics.
Here, according to TSN, is a look at the summary of each episode:
Episode 1 - Sunday, February 25th
Williams discusses why Quebec's amateur-sports funding is larger than that of any other Canadian province, in total and per capita.
Episode 2 - Sunday, March 4th
The feature, called ‘Soldier On’, is about the Canadian Paralympic Committee working with the Canadian Armed Forces to recruit wounded soldiers for sports. Williams talks with soldiers and General Rick Hillier, the outspoken chief of Canada's Defence Staff.
Episode 3 - Sunday, March 11th
This episode is about doping in sports. The audience is shown how doping control at the Olympics works, and tours a lab to see how a urine sample is processed, and how officials determine if an athlete is clean or has cheated. Williams also talks with Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and a member of the 20-person Board of Directors of VANOC.
Episode 4 - Sunday, March 18th
This one is about skating, specifically about how the Canadian Olympic Committee and Skate Canada, the sports federation that supervises high-performance skating in this country, is planning to be competitive on the ice. Williams talks to skaters Brian Orser, Tracy Wilson and the new CEO of Skate Canada, William Thompson.
Episode 5 - Sunday, March 25th.
This episode takes a close look at the 'Own the Podium-2010', the C$110 million initiative of the federal government, the Canadian Olympic Committee and VANOC to win top spot in the medal standings for the Olympics at Vancouver 2010, and finish in the top three medal countries in the 2010 Paralympics.
Episode 6 - Sunday, April 1st
The last episode looks at the relationships between high-performance coaches and the athletes with which they work.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 22, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2164
MOUS SIGNED WITH CANADA'S THREE NORTHERN TERRITORIES AND 2010
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada's three northern territorial governments. It's the first such protocol the organization has signed since approving a deal with Quebec two years ago.
It's also the first such agreement negotiated since VANOC's new executive vice-president of Corporate Strategy and Government Relations, David Guscott, was hired late last year to help relieve VANOC CEO John Furlong's workload. It was Furlong who supervised the Quebec protocol.
Today's deal was negotiated with the three ministers Responsible for Sport and Recreation: Glenn Hart of the Yukon government, Michael McLeod from the Northwest Territories and the Louis Tapardjuk of Nunavut. Although each have small populations, the territory they cover stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic across northern Canada.
Furlong says they have "identified a number of potential areas of collaboration with 2010 that will help VANOC" successfully deliver on its "mission and vision" for the Games "while benefiting the territories in the areas of sport development and culture."
Furlong adds, "The Games represent an opportunity for distinct regions of Canada to be showcased on the world stage through the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The pan-northern approach the three territories have demonstrated in hosting the Canada Winter Games is an excellent example of how the country can come together, united by a passion for sport."
Yukon's Minister Hart noted the value of working collectively on projects of this scope. "Hosting the Canada Winter Games has afforded us the opportunity to develop expertise and familiarity with many of the organizational considerations related to an event of this magnitude. Many of the volunteers involved with the Canada Winter Games could fulfill similar roles during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games providing some value-added experience as well."
The NWT's McLeod says, "The appeal of Canada's northern culture is well recognized around the globe. From Inuit and Dene games -- which delight all audiences -- to throat singing and traditional dances, we are examining the development of a northern cultural delegation for the 2010 Winter Games."
Nunavut' Tapardjuk talks about the opportunities created by working together on national and international sporting events. "To have an opportunity for a small jurisdiction like Nunavut to participate in events like the Canada Winter Games and the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games adds benefits for not only our athletes and cultural performers, but it also helps us to foster so many positive outcomes for Nunavut as well."
Guscott has said there would be additional protocols negotiated with provincial governments.
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 22, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2163
NICHE OLYMPICS SERVICE COMPANY ADDED TO VANOC LICENSEE LIST
A Canadian company that has built a niche business on the Olympics since the Calgary Winter Games in 1988 has won a specialized licensee contract with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).
Ian MacDonald, president of Moving Products Inc. of Calgary, which has a 370 square-metre (4,000 square-foot) showroom in east Vancouver not far from the city's major container terminal, which it opened last July "in preparation for Vancouver 2010," has built his business around the Olympics. The company of eight people has been providing customized clothing, accessories and logistics in order to outfit athletes, corporate sponsors and their guests. Since 1988, McDonald's company has outfitted more than 300,000 people during every set of Olympic Games with more than 2.5 million pieces of sponsor-branded merchandise -- such as sweaters, backpacks, watches -- even stadium cushions.
Before and during the Olympics, sponsors prepare dozens of different packages to welcome athletes, coaches, friends and customers to the Games. MPI, acting as a broker, works with the sponsors to prepare and distribute tailored hospitality packages. The company says it's done this sort of thing more than 150 times. The firm provides merchandise design, co-ordination, production supervision, quality control and deals with Olympic graphics approvals from VANOC, and also handles shipping logistics and distribution management. It has an alliance with Schenker to provide warehousing and logistics.
Dennis Kim, director, licensing and merchandising, VANOC, says MPI has become the Official Premium Fulfillment Licensee, adding that Olympic and Paralympic sponsors and partners will now have an additional option for finding and organizing corporate premiums, uniforms and gift items for their employees, officials and guests. "Over the next three years, VANOC's sponsor and partner requirements for custom-branded 2010 Winter Games merchandise licensed by VANOC will increase." MPI says it is working with Johnson & Johnson to produce a "fully stocked amenity kit for clients' use in Bejing and Vancouver." The provincial government is a major sponsor of VANOC; MPI has already set up a line of merchandise available to BC government employees, starting with hoodies, but expects to have jackets and other products available in the next few months.
Kim says the company will work with VANOC's major retail sponsors, HBC, through its fulfillment division, HBC Custom Solutions to connect "VANOC sponsors and partners to our wide variety of licensed merchandise." He added that the showroom, with an attached office, will allow VANOC sponsors and partners to shop for custom merchandise with Vancouver 2010 logos.
"Local organizing committees select the official licensees," MacDonald has said, adding that there are fees and/or royalties payable for the licence. As a service licensee, the company acts as a broker between corporate sponsors and product licensees."
The company is well-known to VANOC -- it was a featured success story for the Bid Corporation years ago.
BACKGROUND
VANOC's official licensees, in addition to MPI, include Aritzia LP, Artiss Aminco, Cajo Designs, Executive Promotions, Filmar Sportswear Canada Inc, HBC, Kootenay Knitting Company, Mustang Drinkware, New Era Cap Canada, Panabo Sales, Paris Glove of Canada, Please Mum, RC Products, Sundog Distributing Inc., Trimark Sportswear Group Inc., Vancouver Umbrella and Wilson International Products.
RESOURCES
Ian MacDonald,
President
Vancouver Showroom
Moving Products Inc.
495 Railway Street
Vancouver, BC, V6A 1A7
Phone: 778.785.2010
Fax: 778.785.2011
E-mail: ian@movingproducts.com
Web: www. MovingProducts.com
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 22, 2007
Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2162
TRADE CONTRACTORS FOR 2010'S HILLCREST CURLING VENUE AND SWIMMING POOL ASKED FOR RESUMES
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is asking trade contractors to contact its project manager for the Hillcrest Curling venue and associated swimming pool if they're interested in working on the facility.
The refreshingly brief three-page expression of interest request was posted by Stuart Olson Constructors, a company based in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, which has taken over supervision of the project for VANOC, after the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Parks Board agreed to let VANOC take over the project to get it built in time for the 2010 Games.
Hillcrest will be the site of the 2010 curling competitions for both the Olympics and Paralympics. An adjacent aquatic centre, with a 50-metre lap pool and wave pool, destined to be one of the largest pools in the city upon completion, was to have been built by the City and Parks Board at the same time to save construction costs and share heating and cooling machinery.
Although it remains two adjacent structures with a common concourse, it's being treated as a single multi-purpose complex during construction. The total combined floor area is about 15,765 square metres (169,700 square feet). The structure itself will be primarily a combination of reinforced concrete and structural steel -- the kind of construction that has been the subject of significant cost inflation in the Greater Vancouver area in the last three years. The construction is expected to be to LEED Gold standards, according to VANOC.
The total budget for the complex is C$79.1 million, including post-Games conversion to its long-term use. VANOC is providing C$38 million for the curling-rink portion from its capital construction account, which is primarily funded by the Canadan and BC governments. The City of Vancouver is contributing an additional C$41.1 million, primarily for the aquatic centre.
Only those contractors who respond will be eligible for receiving future prequalification notices, requests for proposals or requests for tenders. The EOI deadline is March 7.
The EOI document lists the trade packages, which at this stage are primarily dealing with the shell of the complex. Specialty aspects, such as the heating/cooling system and the curling ice sheets and related facilities are not part of the packages listed. They were the subject of an RFP issued by VANOC in connection with its east Vancouver venues earlier.
BACKGROUND
The trade packages suggested so far include:
Architectural Woodwork
Asphalt Paving
Bulkheads & Adjacent Pool Floor
Ceramic Stone & Tile
Concrete Masonry
Concrete Paving
Curtain Wall/ Glazing
Damproofing / Waterproofing
Doors, Frames & Hardware
Elevators
Fencing
Fire Stopping / Smoke Seal
Glulam
Landscaping Soft / Site Furnishings
Lockers
Louvre & Vents
Membrane Roof / Flashings
Metal Roof & Wall Panels
Overhead Doors
Paintings & Coatings
Recreational Equipment
Resilient Flooring
Specific Purpose Rms (Teams/Sauna)
Steel Stud & Drywall
Swimming Pool Accessories
Toilet Partitions
Washroom Accessories
Water Features (Outdoor Pool)
Wave Pool
RESOURCES
Here's the link to the PDF file of the EOI document:
tinyurl.com/3by26h
Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on February 22, 2007