Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2347

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

VANOC GOLFING TO HELP RAISE MONEY FOR CANADIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE FOUNDATION
  • Yet another sponsorship activation this summer by VANOC sponsors, including VANOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee. On Monday, those two organizations are featured at the eighth annual Canadian Olympic Golf Tournament, a fund-raising event underwritten by VANOC's Tier 1 telecommunications sponsor, Bell Canada. The tournament takes place in Bond Head, Ontario, near Toronto. The 18-hole competition features COC's chief executive officer Chris Rudge and several summer and winter Canadian Olympians, including Therese Brisson, (hockey), Lori Dupuis (hockey), George Karrys (curling), Jayna Hefford (hockey) and Tracy Wilson-Kinsella (figure skating). There are also scheduled to be Olympic-themed competitions and demonstrations, a silent auction and a spiffy dinner. Money raised goes to the COC to help support athletes, coaches, national sport federations, as well as the Own The Podium 2010 and its Road To Excellence summer Games equivalent. In addition, 25% of the proceeds are to be directed to the Canadian Sport Centre of Ontario. The COC lists every VANOC sponsor and supplier, including all of the international ones arranged by the International Olympic Committee, in their effusive thanks for the support of the tournament.

    WHISTLER CREEKSIDE SKI TEST EVENTS SET FOR NEXT FEBRUARY
  • The International Skiing Federation has confirmed that the first test events at VANOC's alpine-skiing venue of Whistler Creekside will be held early next year, from Friday, February 21st to Sunday, February 23rd for both the ladies and men, and will be part of the organization's World Cup series that is sponsored by Audi. Alpine skiing for this includes men's super-G and women's downhill and combined events. Just before that, on February 9 and 10 the men's and ladies freestyle skiing events will be held at VANOC's Cypress Mountain venue near Vancouver.

    IOCC DIRECTOR URGES ENVIRONMENTAL-MOVEMENT COALITIONS TO HELP VANOC
  • Quote without comment: "If you care about the environment as much as the next person, I’m assuming that this reality is of concern to you. Even if VANOC is doing everything it can, clearly the environmental commitment is still being significantly compromised. So are we just supposed to sit back and watch the greenest games ever go dusty brown?... What if Vancouver/Whistler had a vibrant environmental community that could organize well enough to hold VANOC’s promises up proudly to the Olympic torch in February 2010 and not see them burn within it? I challenge our environmental community, and other interested stakeholders, to come together around this issue. We are so busy either protesting or avoiding the Games, that we are forgetting the most important thing. If the Games weren’t coming to Vancouver, they were going to happen somewhere else, and if you care about the environment, you realize that systems are interconnected. So let’s get our act together and jump on the opportunity to minimize the impact here, and leave an environmental legacy that no other city could have ever deemed possible. Now, I told you there was something you could do to address sustainability and 2010, here it is: Get involved... How much is the environmental pillar of the Olympics actually being compromised? What can we do to mobilize around this concern? How much money can we raise to contribute to ensuring our environmental commitment to the Games? What kind of assistance does VANOC need and what kind of partnerships can we build with them to make it happen?" -- Jessica Plescia, a member of the Board of Directors of the Impacts of the Olympics on Communities Coalition, which describes she describes as "the official sole Olympic watchdog for 2010," writing today on the activist website Newscloud.com.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 30, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2346


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    RBC TRIGGERS OLYMPIC-RELATED SCHOOL ACTIVATION
  • VANOC's Tier-1 financial sponsor, the Royal Bank group, today triggered the annual activation of one of its long-running Olympic-related marketing programs with the help of the Canadian Olympic Committee. Together, they chose eight grade schools across Canada to receive an Olympic-themed sports kit. The sports kit includes a variety of athletic equipment including basketballs, soccer and volleyballs, hockey sticks and pucks. The kit also provides them with 12 gold medals, 12 scrimmage vests and an Olympic Games banner. The program is in its 20th year. "The Canadian Olympic School Program was able to increase its membership to almost 11,000 educators this year," said Marc Gelinas, the Canadian Olympic Committee's director of Athlete and Community Relations. "We are thrilled that so many teachers from across Canada see the value of using Olympic stories and messages in their lesson plans, and we look forward to continuing to work with RBC to bring the spirit of the Olympic Movement to even more classrooms." The Canadian Olympic School Program links stories online about Canadian Olympians and Olympic hopefuls from various sports into "lesson plans and adaptable classroom-ready activities" in physical education, health, nutrition, reading, language and social studies for students in Grades 4 to 6. None of the winning schools was from Vancouver, Richmond or Whistler, communities where the 2010 Games will be held [for a list of the schools, see BACKGROUND, below].

    HBC TO ACTIVATE SPONSORSHIP WITH FUND-RAISING RUN JULY 1
  • Another sponsorship activation by another VANOC sponsor is due to take place in cities across Canada on July 1, the country's national holiday. The third annual Run for Canada, underwritten by VANOC tier-1 retail merchandising sponsor, Hudson's Bay Company. The 10 kilometre run, 3k walk and 1k children's run in 13 communities across the country is the largest fund-raising event for Canadian Olympic athletes. The run was initially launched in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital city, in 2004 and raised about C$100,000. Last year, the event was broadened to 10 communities and raised more than C$1.5 million. It's part of a pledge by HBC to raise C$20 million to support Canadian developing athletes by 2012, when its current sponsorship term with VANOC expires. Two hundred of Canada’s most promising athletes, as selected by the Canadian Olympic Committee, Commonwealth Games Canada and the Canadian Paralympic committee, each receive a C$5,000 bursary from the funds to help them pay bills while they train. Diane Gordon, Director of the HBC Foundation, says, “Our goal is to raise C$2 million dollars at this year’s run.” She expects 14,000 people in 13 cities will take part this year. Red Deer, Alberta, St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Windsor, Ontario have been added to the the list of cities involved last year: Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Algonquin Park, Toronto, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.

    OBSV TO BEGIN WORKING ON SYSTEM LAYOUTS SOON
  • Olympic Broadcast Services Vancouver, the IOC's subsidiary that provides the pool feeds for broadcasters at the 2010 Winter Olympics, expects to begin creating the first iterations of electronic layouts this summer of how international broadcasters will be integrated into VANOC's operations. The main broadcast centre for the Games is the expansion to the Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre, which is still under construction, but there will also be TV operations at each of VANOC's competition venues, in Whistler and the two Olympic Villages. In conjunction with this coverage, OBSV also provides various facilities and services to the international broadcasting companies, all of whom have purchased rights from the IOC to broadcast the Games to their home countries. In Canada, it's CTV and Rogers Cable, in the US, it's NBC. Other broadcast rights holders represent 51 European nations including the British Isles, the Arabic-speaking nations, South Korea and Brazil. Negotiations have yet to be finalized for 2010 for coverage in Italy, Australia, China and the rest of south Asia, and Spanish-speaking countries.

    BACKGROUND
    RBC/COC
    2006-2007 Canadian Olympic School Program Winners

    School Grade City
    Wishart Elementary School 6 Victoria, B.C.
    Acadia Elementary School 4 Calgary, Alberta.
    Gateway Drive Public School 3/4 Guelph, Ontario.
    Gateway Public School 4 Toronto, Ontario
    St. Joseph/St. Mary Catholic School 5 Kingston, Ontario
    R.L Beattie Public School 3/4 Sudbury, Ontario
    Ecole St-Georges 5/6 Shawinigan, Quebec
    Albert Street Middle School 6 Fredericton, New Brunswick


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 30, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:45 PM

    Tuesday, May 29, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2345


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    VANOC TO BRIEF DIPLOMATIC STAFF IN OTTAWA LATER THIS YEAR
  • VANOC's International Client Services says it will begin hosting the first of several briefings for the diplomatic and consular staff in Canada near the end of this year. The meeting is expected to take place in Canada's capital city, Ottawa. VANOC will be working along with the Canadian government's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada to set up the sessions. The goal of these briefings, we're told by VANOC, "is to keep foreign missions in Canada up to date on the preparation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, to educate them about the role of NOCs and NPCs, and to provide relevant information about ticketing, transportation, accommodation, accreditation" and the like.

    VANOC FILLS PARALYMPIC SPORT MANAGEMENT POSITIONS
  • VANOC now has its full compliment of managers for each of the Paralympic sports that will be taking part in the 2010 Games. The latest to be hired were Neil Houston, the sport manager for wheelchair curling and Max Saenger, the manager for biathlon. Those hired and working on the detailed planning for specific sports include Peter Bosinger, the manager for alpine skiing; Rob Bernhardt, the manager of cross-country skiing and Denis Hainault, the manager of sledge hockey.

    RBC OLYMPIC TOUR ARRIVES IN VICTORIA FRIDAY WITH WELCOME BY MAYOR
  • Victoria mayor Helen Hughes will be one of those attending the visit of RBC's Olympians Experience Tour -- the current sponsorship activation by VANOC's financial sponsor, the Royal Bank -- to BC's capital city on Friday. The tour, aimed at the public, focuses on bringing families to enjoy meeting Olympic athletes and taking part in things that help them experience Winter Games. It also promotes the 2010 Games.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 29, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2344
    VANCOUVER PARKS BOARD SCROUNGES FUNDS, CUTS SCOPE TO -- ALMOST -- COVER THE COSTS OF BUILDING VANOC'S KILLARNEY VENUE

    The Vancouver Parks Board staff have figured out away to fund most, but not all, of the C$2.4 million budget over-run in tearing down and rebuilding the Killarney arena that the 2010 Organizing Committee wants to use for a practice venue during the 2010 Winter Games.

    The Parks Board is doing the work in replacing Killarney and Trout Lake arenas for a total of C$14.2 million because it wanted to end up with new facilities instead of refurbished ones, and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) agreed to contribute a total of C$5 million towards the projects from its capital fund, money funded equally by the BC and Canadian governments.

    The Parks Board says it will pay for C$700,000 of the excess cost of the Killarney Project by pulling in money from various other project funds and contributing it to Killarney's capital budget. These include money that was intended for projects dealing with Stanley Park water and utilities, work on the New Brighton foreshore and the Brockton Point section of the Stanley Park sea wall, field house renovations and upgrading concession areas.

    About C$500,000 of the coverage comes from transferring allowances for "soft costs" of the Killarney project to the capital budget. By that, they mean reducing the contingency by C$200,000 to a total of C$583,000, and it was able to reduce its Development Cost Charges from its parent City of Vancouver by C$300,000.

    About C$1.2 million of the over-run was removed by reducing the scope of the building, which is being built to LEED Gold quality. That includes reducing the floor area of the building over the protests of the building committee, replacing the so-called green roof system with a "reflective roofing membrane system," reducing the landscaping, cutting back on the number of windows and skylights that were originally in the design.

    That brings the overage to C$700,000 and that's still unfunded.

    Meanwhile, the Board also approved a fixed-price, C$406,457 demolition contract to Haebler Construction Projects, the company that it earlier hired to manage the construction project. The demolition contract was awarded first so that Haebler staff, during the 11 weeks it's expected to take to tear down the old Killarney Rink, could get trade bids for the rest of the project in the company's project-management role. This was done to save time, according to staff.


    RESOURCES

    Roland Haebler
    President
    Haebler Construction Ltd.
    46 3rd Avenue East,
    Vancouver, BC
    V5T 1C3

    Phone: 604.874.0777
    Fax: 604-874-0841

    E-mail: info@haebler.ca
    www.HaeblerConstruction.com

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 29, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2343
    RICHMOND TO BEGIN SEARCHING FOR OLYMPIC OVAL SPONSORS FOR NAMING RIGHTS LATER THIS YEAR

    The City of Richmond wants to begin marketing the sports complex that will house the 2010 Olympic Oval for naming and non-naming sponsorships by the last quarter of this year, and is looking for a consultant to help finalize its plans and implement them as its agency-of-record over the next five years.

    The multi-purpose sporting and wellness facility is expected to be open in October, 2008. Richmond documents about the program say that the City plans to offer three distinct periods for sponsorship: before the 2010 Games to December, 2009, during the Games - from January 2010 to about June, 2010, and after the Games "June 2010 and beyond." As a result, say the documents, "each period of time will have unique aspects that will guide the type of partner, the level of activation, and duration of each of the partnership arrangements."

    But the documents say that Richmond is quite prepared to improve the sponsorship-level bundles through other things the City might have to offer if its necessary. As the documents put it, the sponsorship program "will focus primarily on the facility, but will also include options that may bundle service contracts throughout the City." This seems to involve various special events, but the documents are not clear on precisely what this means.

    The City hopes to receive at least C$10 million from the sale of naming rights for the complex. At least, that's how much was in its budget for constructing the C$178-million complex, but the financial pressure has been reduced now that two major financial components of the capital plan -- the sale of adjacent housing development property and senior-government legacy funding -- have come in much larger than expected. The City rejected an "unsolicited offer" for the rights two years ago, but the amount offered and who made the offer have not been disclosed.

    The documents say the City staff and the marketing consultant will work over the summer to detail the sponsorship level packages, do consumer research, compare and analyze various products of the sponsorship levels, develop the marketing campaign message plans and set up the necessary return-on-investment tools. Staff expect to complete the development work on the marketing by the end of September.

    As sponsors sign up for the programs, the documents say that Richmond and its marketing consultant will help them with their activation programs, pre-Games, during the Games and afterwards.

    Marketing consultants interested in doing the work only have June 8 to fill out Richmond's application forms.

    BACKGROUND

    The waterfront site for the complex includes the 33,000-square-metre (355,000-square foot) facility and the City Centre Waterfront Park, to be located within the 11.7 hectare (29-acre) Olympic precinct site on River Road, between No. 2 Road and Hollybridge Road in Richmond, on the banks of the Fraser River. The building, expected to become an icon of the 2010 Games because of its location and size, is planned -- for the long term -- to focus on recreation and high-performance sport, as well as on health, fitness, wellness, art and medical sciences. It will have a long-track speedskating rink in it until after the 2010 Games; that space will then be reconfigured for other sports programs.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 29, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:44 PM

    Monday, May 28, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2342


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    GLOBE PROVIDES BACKGROUND SERIES ON 2010 OLYMPICS, ABOUT RECRUITMENT...
  • The Report on Business section of the Toronto-based Globe & Mail newspaper has written an interesting background colour piece on aspects of recruitment at VANOC. An excerpt from the article, written by Patrick Brethour: "... The new employees, working in three teams, are supposed to fashion something out of the materials on hand that will be a symbol of the values of the Vancouver committee, which have been drilled into them all day long: team, trust, excellence, sustainability and creativity. One team builds a ski jump out of tongue depressors, while another constructs an elaborate podium set out of clay, building blocks and foam balls. The third team creates a stage with Olympic rings made out of pipe cleaners – and manages to find the correct colours for all five rings..." The link to the full article is below in RESOURCES.

    ... AND EMPLOYEE RETENTION
  • In an earlier, more general article about the Games for the Globe on the weekend, reporter Patrick Brethour reports the organization is hiring at the rate of 20 employees a week now, and it will be 40 per week this time next year. Then he adds, "Retaining key employees is a growing worry at VANOC, which has lost several key employees in recent weeks. The partings have been amicable, VANOC says, with the former director of ice sports, Dan Moro, even subbing in for Mr. Furlong at an Olympics event in Banff. Over all, staff turnover is low, around 4 per cent. But that churn comes when there are only a handful of mid- and low-level employees – meaning that every departure pinches. Still, the organizing committee is now seeking to head off any more headhunting with a detailed retention program, including bonuses and job placement after the games. And Mr. Furlong has a message for businesses seeking to poach off his hand-picked staff. 'It's no surprise to me that people would pick up the phone and try to take them away,” he says. “I'd like them to stop doing it, if they don't mind.' "

    TECHNOLOGY TIDBITS ABOUND AT VANOC
  • Things we learned this weekend: According to a Province newspaper interview of Ward Chapin, VANOC's chief information officer: 75% of his department's budget of C$343 million comes from value-in-kind donations from corporate sponsors; there are expected to be 90,000 accreditation passes issued, with computer links from the accreditation network to police and immigration; his department's master plan contains more than 1,580 tasks; a 464-square-metre technology lab is being established on the main floor of the low-rise building next to VANOC's headquarters tower; there will be "100,000 hours of testing between now and 2010"; they're currently planning the location of a secondary operations data centre that can be used to control the Games in an emergency; there will be 7,000 two-way radios used by the Games; cell-phone service around some of the venues, such as BC Place Stadium, will be beefed up to handle the increased traffic load; there will be 6,000 TV monitors used; 8,000 voice/fax lines installed, 500 WiFi access points; and 1,000 printers set up for VANOC. Meanwhile, we've also learned that Canada's national long-track speed-skating team has arrived in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond for a week-long summer training camp. About 60 athletes will visit the Richmond speed skating oval site that's now being prepared to receive next month the huge roof supports, each being made in three sections in the BC interior town of Penticton. The speed-skating team will be training and conducting school visits to talk about sports.

    RESOURCES
    The Report on Business's article about VANOC recruitment "Building a team on the fly"
    www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070527.wolympic28/BNStory/robNews/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070527.wolympic28

    The Globe's first, more general article:
    www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070526.wxcover26/BNStory/Front












    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 28, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #2341
    RICK HANSEN FOUNDATION TO HELP BELL CANADA PROMOTE 2010 OLYMPICS

    Bell Canada and the Vancouver-based Rick Hansen Foundation have agreed that the organization's namesake president and CEO will work with the telecommunications firm to support Bell's commitments to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and various community-relations projects.

    Bell is the major corporate sponsor of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), and the arrangement is seen as part of Bell's activation of its sponsorship. The Rick Hansen Foundation raises money for spinal cord research and helps people with disablities, particulary those caused by spinal-cord injuries. Hansen himself is a paraplegic, injured in a truck accident as a teenager.

    Bell, in exchange, says it will support the Rick Hansen Foundation's strategy of "engaging more youth" in British Columbia and Alberta. "To ensure youth can play a leadership role in Canada's journey to 2010 and beyond," a Bell spokesman says the company will invite young people selected from the Foundation's programs to be part of Bell's "Accessibility and Inclusivity Committee" which Bell says is "working to make the 2010 Winter Games the most technologically accessible and inclusive Games in the history of the event." Hansen will, among other things, provide advice to the Committee.

    Loring Phinney, Bell's vice-president of Corporate and Olympic Marketing says, "Rick is a Canadian leader with an inspiring message that reverberates across the country. Our partnership will further enable Bell to help connect every Canadian and youth across the nation to the Olympic and Paralympic experience."

    Hansen says that with Bell's support "We will be able to engage more youth in our programs throughout western Canada."

    As an ambassador of Bell's Olympic and Paralympic program, Rick will advise Bell on its 2010 organizational strategies, community relations programs and Paralympic plans.

    He will also talk to Bell employees and other audiences about overcoming obstacles and achieving personal bests.

    The Bell Olympic and Paralympic family includes local leaders from diverse Canadian communities. In addition to Hansen, in his role as an Ambassador, Bell is also supported by the Bell Champions, a team of nine Olympic and Paralympic athletes representing Bell across the nation.

    RESOURCES

    The Rick Hansen Foundation:
    www.rickhansen.com

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 28, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2340
    VANOC OFFERS C$250,000 TO HELP CITY OF VANCOUVER WITH C$2.2 MILLION IN NEW CAPITAL EXPENSES AT PNE VENUES

    Vancouver City mayor Sam Sullivan says that he will support a call by the Pacific National Exhibition for the City to spend C$2.22 million in capital upgrades to two PNE buildings on its grounds in East Vancouver's Hastings Park that will be key Olympic venues in 2010.

    The City says the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) has agreed to contribute C$250,000 to the work on one venue -- the Forum -- that up to now hasn't been in VANOC's capital plan; the money is in addition its leasing fee. And, if the work is approved, the rest of the capital budget for the work is expected to eliminate the PNE Reserve Fund given to the City by the BC government a few years ago when it turned the PNE over to the City.

    The Reserve was provided to mitigate the possibility the PNE would be shutdown, but that didn't happen. City staff are proposing to tap the Reserve to pay for the work because there there isn't anything in the City's Capital Plan, which is approved by voters, for doing such work on the PNE.

    The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) over the years has set up arrangements to lease the Forum building for its main accreditation and volunteer centre during the 2010 Winter Games, and it has long intended to use the nearby Pacific Coliseum for skating events during the Games. It has been working with the City and the PNE for some years to upgrade the Coliseum as a part of VANOC's capital plan.

    Vancouver City Manager Judy Rogers, who is also a director on VANOC's board, notes that "this work is essential in order to safeguard the value of key building assets at the PNE." It may be essential, but the City appears to have known about the issues for at least a year and hadn't yet done anything about them. Norwest Inspections Limited was contracted 17 months ago to have a look at the buildings and their roofing issues.

    The work, as a package for City financing, involves four projects:

    • Replacement of the Coliseum's 25-year-old roof - Budget: C$1,045,000 - it's a flat roof with two-ply SBS system for one part, and a sloped asphalt shingle roof for the rest. "Both the main and sloped roof areas are experiencing significant deterioration of the roofing membrane, ponding damage to the insulation, and leakage," according to the inspection report. The roof was also experienced C$139,000 worth of damage during last winter's severe windstorms, which collapsed the air-supported roof of another VANOC venue, BC Place Stadium. The Coliseum's wind damage hasn't yet been repaired and that work, paid by an insurance claim, would be rolled into the proposed roof replacement.

    • Replacement of the Forum's roof - C$867,000 - The 76-year-old building's roof is "in excess" of 25 years old. It has a central sloped section that is asphalt shingle, surrounded by vertical clad walls and areas of flat, built-up, roofing. "There is significant weathering and deterioration of the shingles and roof membrane, damaged and leaking gutters, and poorly sealed roof penetrations, all resulting in numerous leaks," according to the report.

    • Upgrading the Forum's heating systems - C$285,000 - This involves replacement of three 35-year-old large heaters. They are each two-million-BTU, fired by natural gas and they force heat through the building. One of them is operating at only 50% because of a cracked heat exchanger. They'd be replaced with equivalent units, plus there would be a new fresh-air intake system to bring the building up to the current building-code requirements. And, according to a City report, "The condition of these units poses an ongoing risk of carbon-monoxide contamination within the facility."

    • Upgrading of the Forum's washrooms and change rooms - C$560,000 - There'll be a lot of people using the Forum when the 2010 Games begin, dealing with volunteers and accreditation for VANOC. There are two male washrooms and a changeroom, two female washrooms and a changeroom, and one accessible washroom to be rehabilitated. The plan is to put in new ceramic floor tiling, new ceramic wall tiles, full replacement of ceiling tiles, full replacement of toilet partitions, replacement of toilets, urinals, sinks, faucets and related plumbing, new mirrors, replacement of lighting systems, installation of enhanced ventilation, replacement of heating units, replacement of doors and a new paint job. VANOC's C$250,000 contribution is going toward this work, so the city's share is C$310,000.

    The request for the appropriation comes at the same time as the PNE directors submitted to the city a glowing financial report that, among other things, includes a C$1.3 million capital budget. That budget also has a "site care & maintenance" expense line of C$453,250; these Olympic-related items weren't included in that capital budget.


    RESOURCES

    A 360-degree look at the Forum...
    www.pne.ca/venuerental/forum.htms

    ... and at the Coliseum:
    www.pne.ca/venuerental/pacific_coliseum.htm

    A satellite view of the PNE Grounds. The Coliseum is next to the "C" marker, the Forum is adjacent to the "A" marker:
    tinyurl.com/2xlp99
    or
    maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=coliseum,+vancouver,+canada&ie=UTF8&ll=49.284072,-123.042026&spn=0.008678,0.01663&t=h&z=16&om=1

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 28, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:36 PM

    Friday, May 25, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |General| #2339
    RICHMOND, WHISTLER AREAS TO RECEIVE ABOUT C$10 MILLION FROM FACILITIES SUBSIDY FUND BEFORE OLYMPICS BEGINS

    We now have more details about how C$133.6 million in the Olympic Legacy Endowment Fund will be allocated and how the cash flow stemming from it works for Richmond and the Whistler area, what the money can be used for, what it can't be used for, who can spend it and when.

    But the short form is that this Fund is generating a lot more money than planners expected for the Richmond and Whistler communities, and those communities are going to be seeing that money earlier than they expected.

    That's good news for taxpayers, governments and VANOC, since it's one of the few times people can be pleased that something the Olympics is doing that's gone over-budget is a good thing. It's also a good example of just how well planned these Games have been so far, since the structure and concept of the fund was developed during the Bid stage and approved within the MultiParty Agreement signed by VANOC and its supporting governments in 2002.

    The Legacy Endowment Fund is designed to support the operations of the type of venues of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) that usually struggle financially in former host cities. The key ones were those involved with cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski-jump, bobsleigh, luge, skeleton and speed skating.

    In VANOC's case, there are three facilities that deal with those: The Whistler Nordic Centre and the Whistler Sliding Centre on the one hand, and the sports complex that holds the long-track speedskating in Richmond. All three are currently under construction, with the Whistler area venues expected to be substantially completed and in operation within the next six months, and the Richmond complex expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2008.

    Planners also decided that a 2010 Games Operating Trust Board should be established to hold, direct and manage the Legacy Endowment Fund. It will also have the role of doing the same thing with any money that ends up in the Amateur Sport Legacy Fund which will be made up of 60% of the surplus of the Games. If the Games are as successfully managed as VANOC hopes, that second fund could be in the neighbourhood of C$60 million, but we'll leave aside consideration of that fund until it becomes apparent whether it will exist.

    The Legacy Endowment Fund was seeded with C$55 million each from the BC and Canadian governments, and so far it's gained C$23.6 million through investments is being split into three sub-funds: The Speed Skating Oval Fund, assigned to the City of Richmond, will receive 40% of the Trust Fund's disbursements, while the Whistler Legacies Society, which will oversee operations of the Whistler Sliding Centre and Nordic Centre Funds, will also receive 40%. The remaining 20% will be placed in a contingency fund. In essence, then, while the two communities each get half of the available cash, the Richmond complex will receive the larger share of funding on a per-facility basis.

    The governments and the directors of the Operating Trust Board have determined the priority and restrictions to the things the money can be spent on, and it's this, in order of importance: maintaining the fund's purchasing power, operating expenses and related capital expenses of the three facilities, athletes and coach development programs for the sports that use those three venues, and similar development programs elsewhere in Canada.

    Business plans have already been developed for each of the three facilities after considerable discussion between representatives of Whistler, Richmond and VANOC in the last year. That business plan includes a program that provides concepts for how each facility will be used, and its programs planned. There was incentive to get it right: the size of the share depended on how accessible the facility would be to high-performance sport development.

    In addition, all of the parties were involved in figuring out the operational details, which included operating and disbursement principles, sports-access guidelines, pre-Games operating budgets and trust agreement definitions with the idea of providing as much certainty as possible to planners overseeing the facilities and their operations.

    In February, the Trust Board decided they wouldn't capitalize the income from the fund's 2006 and 2007 fiscal years, so that the money could start being distributed by the end of this December - an expenditure review process is still being developed, so the money won't be forwarded on the percentage splits until that's ready. All of the income is available for distribution a 50/50 split formula between Richmond and the Whistler Trust Society; none of it is going to contingency. That income wasn't originally in the pot, so it's additional and unexpected funds for the recipients. The 40/40/20 division date, originally set for 2012, has also been advanced five years to this December 31.

    That means Richmond and the Whistler Society will each receive a guaranteed minimum of C$50 million over the next couple of years, with at least C$25 million being held as a contingency. A pre-Games payment of 5% of the minimum will be forwarded during fiscal years 2007, 2008 and 2009. Any unspent funds will be carried forward.

    The Contingency Fund won't be available before the Games but after them it will be divided on "demonstrated need" by the facilities. Each venue will receive a share of the contingency fund.

    That means that both Richmond and the Whistler Trust Society will each receive about C$67.9 million if they each receive half of the contingency fund, in addition to the main split. That's even higher than the C$55 million top end of the funding expected by Richmond planners when they developed the capital budget in 2004 for the Richmond complex (the low end was C$35 million.

    The earnings on that amount would be about C$3.4 million a year to help the annual operating funds of the three facilities, and about C$10 million for both Richmond and the Society would arrive before the Games even begin.

    It's even more good news for Richmond, because now the risk has been removed from two of the three major funding legs of the complex's capital cost. Earlier, the City was able to sell the nearby housing lands for considerably more money than it expected.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 25, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2338


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    VANCOUVER'S PEF FINANCIALLY STRAINING UNDER WORKLOAD OF OLYMPIC VILLAGE
  • The City of Vancouver's unique Property Endowment Fund, which is acting as developer of the 2010 Olympic Village, is under a lot of financial strain as a result. At April 1, 2005, before the Village project really began, it was sitting on a war chest of C$88.8 million. By the beginning of the following fiscal year, the Fund had only C$35.5 million remaining. By March 31, 2007, after the second year of work on the project, it had spent all of that C$35.5 million and another C$8.9 million as well, ending the year deep in the red. Its capital expenditure spending, not counting the administration of those expenditures, was C$59.6 million during fiscal 2007. The deficit is being covered by the City's lines of credit and, by 2010, it should recoup the costs of installing the non-building land services when Millennium Developments pays for the Village's land. The City of Vancouver also reports that its Olympic Village Trust Reserve has so far earned interest of C$1.9 million, bringing the year-end balance to C$30.4 million. A grant of C$30 million was originally provided to the Fund by VANOC from its capital construction accounts, which in turn were generated 50/50 by the Canadian and BC governments. City council has decided the Reserve funds will help pay for development of some of the non-market rental housing units for the Village. The city has also given a C$200,000 grant to 2010 Legacies Now for cultural activities, and a C$50,000 grant the same organization for general use. The city also paid 2010 Legacies Now C$33,216 for supplying it with unspecified goods and services. And the head of the City's Olympic Office, Dave Rudberg, received remuneration totaling C$196,119, plus another $8,809 in repayment for the cost of courses he took. Jody Andrews, the City's Project Manager for Southeast False Creek and the Olympic Village was paid C$130,669 in remuneration, plus C$11,539 for courses. By comparison, Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received C$119,178, plus expenses. The amounts are listed in a City financial statement covering the city's fiscal year to March 31, 2007, released today.

    2010 LEGACIES NOW TO EXPAND SCOPE OF VOLUNTEER WEBSITE
  • 2010 Legacies Now, the society spun off by the BC government to help do social development in support of the 2010 Winter Olympics, intends to expand its volunteers website so that it can become national in scope. VolWeb.ca is an offspring of one of 2010 Legacies Now's key concepts: help increase the number of experienced volunteers, volunteer managers and volunteer associations available around British Columbia, so that when VANOC begins recruiting volunteers early next year, it will have a broader, more experienced group from which to choose. But 2010 Legacies Now's goals are wider, longer-term and broader than that, and part of the concept is to help develop volunteerism as a long-term legacy stemming from the existence of the 2010 Olympics. VolWeb.ca was originally launched in September 2005. In 2006, another module was developed for it so that individual volunteer centre could manage the volunteer listings for their member organizations. The volunteer listings for this module can be viewed by the public without registering, and both event-based and on-going volunteer opportunities are listed. This module is also expected to be redeveloped. Recently, another module was integrated to allow an event's organizers to recruit and manage volunteers, and assign them to the various positions required. The 2007 Memorial Cup hockey championship was the first use of it. Planners say the redevelopment of VolWeb.ca this year will require some limited integration with the volunteer-management module. Web-development companies are being asked to contact 2010 Legacies Now to provide a response within the next 19 days to an RFP about the national redevelopment work.

    COQUITLAM'S 2010-RELATED SPIRIT FLAGGING
  • The City of Coquitlam, a Greater Vancouver suburb, turned its attention -- briefly -- on issues related to the 2010 Olympics. It's not hosting a venue, but city council has asked staff to actively recruit volunteers to service on its Spirit of BC committee, the group in most BC communities that deals with local 2010-related activities. Even chair Bill Melville recently stepped down for family reasons. Two more volunteers, in addition to a new chair, are being sought specifically to fill vacant seats in the areas dealing with arts, culture & literacy, and trade & investment. So far, the Committee has won a province-wide "show your spirit" contest; hosted an award-winning Slovak junior hockey team event; launched a branding campaign; and hosted two Spirit of BC Week celebrations. "While these initiatives have been successful," said Edie Doepker, leisure and parks service manager, in a report to council, "it has also become apparent that with the approach of the 2010 Olympic Games, the committee will need additional resources and a focused work plan" to ensure there are opportunities for Coquitlam residents to celebrate the Games in their own community. Meanwhile the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce -- which cover the Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody suburbs -- is asking for support from the city councils of those communities to lobby to bring the Olympic Torch Relay through the Tri-Cities in 2010. Coquitlam is expected to approve the request at a meeting June 11.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 25, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #2337
    VANOC CEO AND OTHERS DRAFT RESOLUTIONS TO EXPAND OLYMPIC TRUCE CONCEPT

    The UN General Assembly has expressed its support for the Olympics by unanimously adopting, one year before each edition of the Olympic Games, a resolution entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal,” but it's better known as the Olympic Truce motion.

    The resolution urges signatories to end conflict while they particpate in an Olympic Games, among other things. The UN has been doing this since 1993, with the draft wording provided by the organization planning the impending Games. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is scheduled to submit it in the first calendar quarter of 2009.

    Just what VANOC's version will say and suggest the world's member states do, however, is expected to be influenced by a set of recommendations reached and adopted by VANOC CEO John Furlong, who is a member of the Board of the Olympic Truce -- IOC president Jacque Rogge is chair -- and representatives of other sports and international organizations at a two-day meeting in Olympia, Greece, this month.

    The International Forum for Sport and the Olympic Truce drafted a dozen recommendations, but the key ones include the comment that VANOC and the organizers of the Beijing and London Summer Games be congratulated "for their vision and plans in which the concepts of Olympic Truce and harmony are some of the central themes in organizing the Games in their countries."

    They also urged some specific organizations "to collect and assess experiences, and compile lessons learned from sport and peace initiatives" and then "better communicate and market sport and peace initiatives at all levels,
    making effective use of the media, and to undertake symbolic actions to honour such activities."

    As well, the Forum recommendations hope to "encourage the academic community and Olympic University chairs to conduct further research on the impact of sport on peace building and its relevance as a tool for unifying divided communities in conflict and post-conflict societies, and initiate relevant educational programs for youth and educators."


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 25, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2336


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    IOC PENALIZES AUSTRIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE US$1 MILLION IN ANTI-DOPING SCANDAL
  • The International Olympic Committee's executive board has done the equivalent of fining the Austrian Olympic Committee US$1 million for its role in the doping issues that affected six of the country's athletes at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Officially, the AOC is prevented from receiving or applying for any grants or subsidies, whether direct or indirect, from the IOC in the amount. The EB also ordered the AOC to provide, no later than June 30, 2008, the results of its investigation into the matter and the internal organisational changes that have been implemented. Last month, the board banned the six athletes from ever again taking part in the Olympics. The six were from the Austrian biathlon and cross-country skiing teams who competed at the Torino Games. The IOC says it will use the fine equivalent to invest in anti-doping activities.

    INTRAWEST APPOINTS NEW CFO
  • The company that owns Whistler Blackcomb, one of VANOC's mountain venues, has replaced its chief financial officer. Michael Forsayeth starts at Intrawest ULC's Vancouver office on June 11, reporting to Alex Wasilov, president and chief operating officer at Intrawest. For the eight years prior to joining Intrawest, Forsayeth was CFO for Cara Operations, the largest operator of full-service restaurants in Canada, and a company that supplies airline catering, foodservice distribution and travel concessions. He was also at Laidlaw International as CFO and senior vice president of its Passenger Services Group, North America's largest provider of school bus and public transit services. He also served as their president of the Greyhound Canada busline and Laidlaw's Transit and Tour business.

    SUMMER GAMES MULTI-BRANDS CREDIT CARD IN MARKETING MOVE
  • This is intriguing: as you probably know, Visa is the exclusive credit card of the 2008 Summer Olympics through its international sponsorship arrangements with the International Olympic Committee (and Visa is also sponsoring the 2010 Games in the same capacity). In a marketing move announced today, two national-level corporate sponsors of the Beijing Games, Air China and Bank of China, have begun to offer a new co-branded Olympic credit card. The deal also allows participants in Air China’s frequent flyer program, “Air China Companion,” to earn travel points faster if they use the card. The organizing committee of the Beijing Olympic Games will also get a cut of the money generated by the arrangement. Air China (HKEX: 0753; LSE: AIRC; SSE: 601111) flies to dozens of cities, including Vancouver. Now, have a care for the graphic designer who had to fit the logos of the three companies involved on the card along with the Olympic rings, the cardholder information and the hologram -- and then get approvals for the logo positions in the design.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 25, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:28 PM

    Thursday, May 24, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2335


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    VANOC OFFERS MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS FOR ITS MAIN DATA CENTRES
  • VANOC is asking for proposals from companies interested in providing scheduled and preventative maintenance, as well as emergency-response services for its two main data centres at its headquarters in east Vancouver, near Boundary Road and First Avenue. The contract has two parts that define the level of service. Standard service is expected to run from this coming June 1 to January 31, 2010. Games time, which starts February 1, 2010 and goes to March 31, 2010, requires a major service commitment. VANOC's headquarters is a group of two buildings, a high-rise and a low-rise. The primary data centre is in the low-rise, which also has an integrated data-testing laboratory, and processes the Olympics network and control data, both on the main floor. The high-rise computer room, on the main floor along with the electrical room, processes VANOC's administrative data. Both buildings have modern air-conditioning and gas fire-suppression systems, as well as uninterruptible power supply systems. You won't be surprised to learn that everybody that works for the winning company will be subjected to a thorough security check, and even then they won't be able to get into either building without a scheduled appointment, except for emergencies. VANOC has also hired Borden Ladner Gervais, the former law firm of its Chief Legal Officer, Ken Bagshaw, to do the legal work connected with the RFP. Although the contract is supposed to start June 1, the proposal's closing date is May 30, and the RFP was only issued today, indicating VANOC's operations are behind schedule by several weeks on this aspect.

    GREATER VANCOUVER TRANSIT SYSTEM MULLS SERVICE LEVELS DURING 2010 GAMES
  • Doug Kelsey, the chief executive officer for Skytrain, the rapid-transit system in the Greater Vancouver area, expects a decision by the end of this year on service levels when the 2010 Winter Games are underway. Some of the options being considered are: whether buses and Skytrain should run 24-hours a day, and whether they should be free for passengers holding tickets for Olympic events during the Games. Part of the decision-making about the round-the-clock service involves whether late-night events, similar to the popular "White Night" events hosted at the Torino Winter Olympics last year, will be tried during the 2010 Games. Translink is in the process of purchasing 380 new busses to replace its aging fleet, but is retaining the retired vehicles so that it will have extra carrying capacity during the Games.

    TWO VANOC STAFFERS TO HELP CANADIAN TEAM AT PAN AM GAMES IN JULY
  • The Canadian Olympic Committee has appointed two VANOC officials to help support the Canadian team going to the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between July 13th and the 29th. Dr. Mike Wilkinson, VANOC's Director of Medical Services, was appointed to the position of Chief Medical Officer. In his role as VANOC's Director of Medical Services, Dr. Wilkinson is responsible for the planning and implementing medical services for the Games. He was hired by VANOC just last year. In his Olympic Committee role, Dr. Wilkinson is expected to be responsible for managing and supervising a health care team of various disciplines, as well as all the health-care support services that will be provided to the entire Canadian team. The COC also appointed Marc Rizzardo, the owner of the Metrotown Orthopedic and Sports Physiotherapy clinic in the Greater Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, as Chief Therapist. VANOC named Rizzardo to the host medical team for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. During the Games, Rizzardo is expected to work as a therapist for the hockey events.

    RESOURCES

    VANOC data-centre maintenance and emergency-response RFP details:
    There are two documents to the RFP. You can download both by surfing to:
    tinyurl.com/2jouf8


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 24, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 6:13 PM

    Wednesday, May 23, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2334


    Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

    ROUGH-HOUSING GROUP GETS PRESS WORLDWIDE
  • The stories about the APC personnel being charged by police with allegedly making threats and damaging offices where VANOC director Ken Dobell works are being picked up by newspapers and e-news sites around the world. It doesn't seem to be much of a topic in the blogosphere, however, except on a few anarchist websites.

    SECOND GROUP EYES BCE TAKEOVER
  • Cerberus Capital Management, LP and a group of Canadian investors, have begun formal discussions with BCE (TSX/NYSE: BCE), the parent company of VANOC sponsor Bell Canada and the 2010 host broadcaster, CTV, about taking the entire publicly traded firm private. The company's board of directors has set up a committee to discuss the offers, which first appeared with a group led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). The review is not expected to be completed for about six months.

    US BAPTISTS COMMISSION MISSIONARIES FOR 2010 GAMES
  • According to a report on a US Baptist website, 2010 athletes will have their own official missionary. Chad Chomlack and his wife Anastasia, of Whistler's The Church on the Mountain, have been commissioned as Mission Service Corps missionaries in a ceremony in Fallon, Illinois. They will, they say, attend to the Baptist spiritual needs of visiting athletes and spectators at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler and Vancouver. They be doing this through the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists, where they have been placed in the category of "resort missionaries." Chomlack, 34, says, "We'll be local missionaries before and after the Olympics, and will facilitate volunteers, serve as resident chaplains for the athletes, and share the gospel with people from throughout the world. It will be a great global gathering of people. The world will be coming to us in Whistler."

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 23, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2333


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    BELL CANADA FORECASTS C$10 MILLION PER YEAR FROM CONVENTION-CENTRE TECHNOLOGY
  • Bell Canada, VANOC's biggest corporate sponsor, is setting up staff to manage the C$15 million worth of technology it's invested in the Vancouver Convention Centre, which is where the international news media will be headquartered during the 2010 Games. The management is expected to have "full operational accountability" of the 10 main types of technology in the huge building and its adjacent C$800 million extension, which is still under construction, as of October, 2008. Bell expects revenue from managing the technology will increase 10-fold to C$10 million per year over the first three years, which includes the time from October, 2009 to April 2010, when VANOC will have full use of the buildings. Once the complex is converted into VANOC's International Broadcast and Media Centre, the Bell management group will be working directly with the Olympic Broadcast System and the US television Olympic rights-holder NBC as they set up in the building and organize their broadcast satellite farms and announcer locations and offices. They'll also be involved in helping VANOC's overlay team convert the Centre into an Olympic venue, ensure that VANOC gets as much value as possible out of their aspect of the Centre's technology and oversee Bell's Games-time operations once the Games begin.

    VANOC TO BEGIN DETAILED WORK ON ITS RATE CARD PROGRAM IN NEXT FEW WEEKS
  • Another business-development section of VANOC is expected to be expanded in the next few weeks. VANOC, as with other Olympics before it, will be running a Games-time rental program starting in the first calendar quarter of 2009 known as the 2010 Rate Card. The Rate Card program allows national Olympic and Paralympic teams, members of the media, representatives of international sport federations, as well as sponsors to rent a wide range of items ranging, such as tables, chairs, computers, telephones, office space, vehicles and so on. Products are sourced from VANOC sponsors and its commercial suppliers, but the department also does third-party procurement and the related contract negotiations. It will also set up an on-line order/fulfillment store as part of the program, then look after orders and confirmations, fulfillment, billings and deposit refunds. The Rate Card department, which reports to the Revenue section of VANOC's Finance department, is expected to supervise planning and implementing the 2010 Rate Card Program. They'll be doing catalogue development, pricing, dealing with all of the stakeholders, taking orders, billing, and running their side of Games Time operations. The planning is expected to be largely completed by the end of this calendar year, with all of the Rate Card's items, pricing, terms and conditions finalized during the first quarter of next year, just in time for VANOC's first annual meetings of international broadcasters, who'll get the initial run of copies of the Rate Card.

    BC TOURISM'S SUPERHOST PROGRAMS TO ADD OLYMPIC-HOST TRAINING
  • Tourism BC, a crown corporation based in Victoria, BC's capital, that is set up to help coordinate and perform province-wide tourism marketing to boost BC's C$9.98 billion tourism industry, is including 2010 Olympic-related duties to the job description of the person that manages its trademarked Superhost programs. These are customer-service training programs designed to ensure employees who pass the courses improve the quality of experiences by visitors where they are working. Normally, the manager's job supervises a complex network of relationships between tourism-related companies, community organizations and post-secondary institutions. As of this year, it will be responsible for implementing of Tourism British Columbia’s Olympic-related training plans. As one Tourism BC document puts it, the concept is to make BC "a world-class tourism destination as we move to 2010." Tourism BC, funded through a portion of the 10% provincial hotel room tax and an annual grant by the Tourism ministry, established a 2010 and Corporate Relations division a couple of years ago.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 23, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2332
    BUSINESS PLAN: 2010 ORGANIZERS EXPECT TO SPEND AS MUCH ON VENUE-USAGE DEALS AS ON SPORT

    Executives of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) have said several times that "The Games are primarily about sport and athletes," but VANOC's Business Plan says the organization expects to spend about C$88.6 million on venue management and only C$57.4 million on sport.

    In fact, VANOC expects to spend just about as much on payments for the use of the venues, without even factoring in management costs, as it expects to spend on all of the sports requirements by athletes and their representatives combined. VANOC is budgeting C$57.7 million of that C$88.6 million as the amount it expects to spend for venue-use agreements, compared with C$57.4 million on sport.

    The Plan says that the Sport section's "primary responsibility is to deliver the field of play" -- that's just about anything an athlete touches, so that it's set up the way the athletes want it -- as well as providing "sport equipment for all Olympic and Paralympic sport competitions." It adds that its Sport budget is largely driven by the level of service required -- "often dictated", as the Business Plan pragmatically puts it -- by the international sport federations, national Olympic committees and the International Olympic Committee.

    On the other hand, venue management, according to the Business Plan, operates the Games's competition and training venues, and ensures "that all client group needs and services are met, and that operational plans and procedures are developed, and then implemented for all venue activities."

    The Plan adds that "the significant components of the [venue-management] function's budget include facility rental, operating costs and test-event costs" along with staffing for training and communications. And, it confirms, "Facility rental costs include payments to private venue owners, including Whistler/Blackcomb Mountains, Cypress Mountain and General Motors Place."

    The Plan adds that test events, a separate category, are budgeted to cost C$16.1 million, while planning, staffing and administration are expected to cost C$14.9 million.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 23, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 6:10 PM

    Tuesday, May 22, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2331


    Here are two more moguls we ran into today:

    CANADIAN CHANNELS TO CARRY SUPER BOWL, OLYMPICS WITHIN DAYS OF EACH OTHER
  • CTV, its corporate cable-channel cousin The Sports Network (TSN) and Rogers Sportsnet cable channel will be broadcasting to Canada the two biggest sports events in North America in 2010. The companies have just landed the contract to, among other things, broadcast the US National Football League's Super Bowl in 2010, which is expected to take place in the Miami Dolphin's Stadium about two weeks before the 2010 Olympics begin, which the Canadian companies will also be broadcasting. The likely date is January 31, but it could be as late as February 7, which would make it only five days before the 2010 Opening Ceremonies. The 2010 Super Bowl and the 2010 Winter Olympics will both be broadcast in high-definition. The deal includes only limited digital rights, such as Internet distribution. The Super Bowl drew 3.4 million viewers when it was held last February, and 4.3 million in 2006. CanWest Global Communications Corporation had held the contract for the NFL games for the past 25 years.

    MORE TORCH RELAY MARKETING STAFF TO BE HIRED
  • VANOC is expected to hire its Torch Relay promotions manager in the next few weeks. The manager is responsible for all of the production side of the Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays. That includes such things as image strategies, sponsorship services -- such as sponsorship marketing plans and promotional programs -- community and torch-bearer programs, various protocols, as well as the development of both torches and the uniforms worn by the runners. The new manager is expected to report to VANOC's Torch Relay Operations Manager, who in turn reports to Jim Richards, VANOC's director of the Torch Relay. The Relay department -- which also includes the manager of Torch Relay Advance Operations, the manager of Torch Relay Promotions -- works with VANOC communications section as the strategic planning of all Relay-related communication activities are developed. That includes official presentations, media operations and relations, promotions, news releases and even on-site Relay activities -- the Relays will have their own PR teams working in advance of the Torches as they move along the path VANOC will eventually choose. Each community on the route will have its own local celebration teams. Dealing with applications of the Torch Relay brands is also part of the manager's work. The promotions manager goes on the road for about three months to supervise the immediate lead-up and operation as the torches go from location to location, and even that isn't likely to be an office job; they'll be expected to be working outside, in the elements, for up to eight hours a day. The Torch Relays are sponsored independently of the Games; Coca Cola and probably Samsung at least are expected to be involved.


    RESOURCES

    Some of our earlier stories on the Torch Relays:
    'VANOC to soon focus on its detailed strategy for Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays'
    [Morgan:News:2010:Number:2070; Published on Thursday, January 4, 2007]

    --

    'How the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays are expected to work'
    [Morgan:News:2010:Number:2135; Published on Wednesday, February 7, 2007]


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 22, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2330


    Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

    APC ALLEDGED TO HAVE TRASHED OFFICES OF VANOC DIRECTOR DOBELL
  • Three people trashed the secure seventh floor offices of the Vancouver Convention Centre today, according to Vancouver Police spokesman Howard Chow. The target appeared to be VANOC director Ken Dobell, who works there. The Convention Centre and its adjacent expansion project is to be the media headquarters of the 2010 Winter Games. The group that calls itself the Anti-Poverty Committee is reportedly claiming credit and making good on its statement last week that it would invade the offices of VANOC directors. They were able to get inside the offices after telling the receptionist they were delivering flowers. Dobell, who is also a consultant to Premier Gordon Campbell and the City of Vancouver, is also on the Board that directly oversees the operations of the Convention Centre.

    MORE TALKS PLANNED TO SETTLE BC PLACE LABOUR CONTRACT
  • Negotiations are expected to resume between the management of BC Place Stadium and the BC Government Employees Union, which represents the 250 security guards, ushers, housekeepers and technicians that work at what will be VANOC's venue for the Opening, medal and Closing Ceremonies. The employees voted 51% against a four-year contract offer that provided a 9.5% pay raise by the time the contract was completed, after the 2010 Games. A proposal for a sizable bonus if the contract can be signed by the end of this month is part of the impetus for talks.

    VANOC EXPECTS TO DONATE AMBULANCES, MEDICAL EQUIPMENT AFTER GAMES
  • Dr. Jack Taunton, chief medical health officer for VANOC, told delegates at a Pacific Northwest cross border workshop in Victoria that 55 new ambulances that are expected to be acquired for the 2010 Winter Games, along with 159 automated external defibrillators and about 50 cardiac monitors will be distributed to health centres after the Games are finished.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 22, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2329


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    ENGLAND LOOKS AT CALGARY FOR 2010 TEAM WARM-UP
  • Officials from the British Olympic Association say they recently visited Calgary, Alberta, to explore pre-Games preparation camp opportunities for Great Britain's 2010 Winter Olympics team, "following similar excellent arrangements prior to the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games." The officials made the stop in Calgary after completing their first fact-finding and scoping expedition to Vancouver to have a look at the status of the 2010 Games preparations. Following site visits and meetings with VANOC, the BOA's chief executive officer and chef de mission, Simon Clegg said: "There is no doubt that Vancouver will stage a stunning Olympic Games; the setting is spectacular and the venues are inspirational. The quality of the people we met, and the information available, lead me to believe that Vancouver has the potential to set new standards for the Olympic Winter Games." Clegg reinforced the significance of the Winter Olympic Games and what it means to corporate sponsors and the International Olympic Committee, as well as international sports federations, because of England's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, saying, "It is important that with all the focus on London 2012, we do not neglect the need to look after our winter athletes and to ensure that they too are provided with the best possible support and environment to enable them to reach their own Olympic aspirations. Vancouver will after all, be the final staging post for the Olympic Family before they arrive in London."

    OLYMPIC OVAL COMPLEX TO START ROOF CONSTRUCTION IN JUNE
  • The sports complex that is to house VANOC's long-track speedskating oval is now rising above its surroundings on River Road in Richmond, on the banks of the Fraser River. The first massive roof span is expected to be installed next month by a specialized crane, shipped from Japan. City communications chief, Ted Townsend, says the pouring of the foundation on the first level of the complex is almost complete, and work has begun on the second and third levels.

    BC TOWNS COMPILE VIDEO FOR NEWS MEDIA COVERING 2010 GAMES
  • The Penticton and Wine Country Tourism association's general manager, Lorraine Renyard, says her organization has hired a staffer to compile background video for use by the media attending the 2010 Olympics. She says that other central-interior BC cities, including Kamloops, Vernon, Kelowna and Osoyoos have joined in "to create a library of high-definition video footage in preparation for the 2010 Olympics," she says. "This footage will be available to various media outlets before, during and after the games. In addition, each partner will be provided with a promotional segment for their marketing initiatives." About 5,000 media are expected to come to BC to do background stories for broadcast while the Games are underway.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 22, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #2328
    NOTES OF IOC MEDIA EXECUTIVE'S SPEECH INDICATE THE DEADLINE IS DEAD FOR COVERING THE 2010 GAMES

    Anthony Edgar, the head of media operations for the International Olympic Committee, has told the delegates of the 70th International Sports Press Association's Congress in Liechentenstein, that the IOC understands that the concept of a deadline in covering the 2010 Winter Olympics is likely to be abandoned.

    According to a report from the meeting by Barry Newcombe, chair of the Sports Journalism Association in Austria, Edgar said a workshop the IOC held earlier this year with a sample of major online interests from agencies, newspapers and magazines confirmed that he is reasonably certain about the technology which will be required for media at the Vancouver Winter Games of 2010 and then London in 2012.

    "The deadline concept is finished," he quotes Edgar as saying, "the keyword of the future is 'instant'."

    Here are Newcombe's notes, offered in his blog on the Sports Journalists website, about the key points of Edgar's speech:

    1. The future is fully digital, and access to the Internet means increased transmission facilities with greater capabilities.

    2. "Big pipe" connectivity is the way ahead, with more and bigger photos and files in other formats, including video, audio and pre-formatted Internet packages. At the 2010 Olympics, fibre circuits will link all venues and the Main Press Centres.

    3. VLAN technology, which was used successfully in the 2006 Fifa World Cup, should become a standard for the future of digital photography, with a potential to extend usage to hundreds of news organizations. [Editor's note: VLAN, short for Virtual Local Area Network, is a digital method of creating independent logical networks within a physical network. Several VLANs can co-exist within such a network. A VLAN consists of a network of computers that behave as if connected to the same wire -- even though they may actually be physically connected to different segments of a LAN. Network administrators configure VLANs through software rather than hardware, which makes them extremely flexible. One of the biggest advantages of VLANs emerges when physically moving a computer to another location: it can stay on the same VLAN without the need for any hardware reconfiguration.]

    4. A recognition that newspapers are already multi-media, all have Internet sites, and communicate through other platforms. There has been an erosion and splintering of audience in all markets. The future of content is multiple formats -- text, photo, video, audio -- consumed over multiple platforms.

    5. Press must be able to transmit live files in multiple formats from anywhere to anywhere instantaneously.

    6. The backpack journalists of the future will use video cameras as reporter notebooks, and will compile multi-media stories that include video- and audio clips, as well as still photos taken from video, and text. Multiple formats are an expectation in all coverage.

    7. Wifi is not a media technology of the future, and is a limited, unreliable platform that cannot fulfil major-event reporting requirements. Should be used sparingly, and for text only. A high-speed, efficient, secure "in air" connectivity is needed to enhance mobility -- perhaps something like WiMAX. [Editor's note: WiFi is the wireless interface of mobile computing devices, such as laptops in local area networks. WiMAX provides wireless data over long distances, in a variety of different ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular-type access. In practical terms, this enables you, for example, to browse the Internet on a laptop computer without physically connecting the laptop to a network.]

    8. The individual journalist or photographer can best be served by cabled LAN-based connectivity in as many places as possible -- every seat in Olympic venue media workrooms should have power and a data jack for broadband connectivity.

    9. Remote editing to facilitate the work of publishing at a distance. This allows an expansion of the accreditation of media without an increased load on the host city.

    10. Quality and integrity of the Games' information system to be maintained at the highest level, and be media specific.

    11. Greater access to athletes with one-on-one interviews and remote access to interviews, flash quotes and press conferences are expected to be required in the future. Information systems should consider carrying audio/video of mixed-zone interviews and press conferences.

    12. Image centre an essential for today's digital photographers. The concept should be considered as a Media Press Centre for photographers, based on... the mountain Press centre for Winter Games, and be a one-stop shop for professional photographers and essential providers.

    13. Recognition of the critical importance of agencies' involvement with {VANOC] technology planning. Advanced planning to be brought forward, agencies and {VANOC] should meet earlier and more regularly. {VANOC] and agencies to be more integrated in defining core press-technology requirements at an early stage.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 22, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2327


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    2010 GAMES LEGACY OPERATING TRUST VALUED AT C$133.6 MILLION
  • The BC and Canadian governments, which originally seeded the 2010 Olympics Games Operating Trust with C$55 million each for a total of C$110 million, says the trust was valued at C$133.6 million as of March 31, 2007, which is the end of their respective fiscal years. The Trust was established in 2002 as a method of support the operating and capital maintenance of three VANOC venues -- the Richmond Speed Skating Oval, the Whistler Sliding Centre and the Whistler Nordic Competition venue -- "before and after" the 2010 Winter Games. This funding will be divided into three sub-funds: The Speed Skating Oval Fund, assigned to the City of Richmond, will receive 40% of the Trust Fund's disbursements, while the Whistler Legacies Society, which will oversee the Whistler Sliding Centre and Nordic Centre Funds, will also receive 40%. The remaining 20% will be placed in a contingency fund.

    VANOC TO PROVIDE GUIDELINES, MANUALS, EQUIPMENT AS PART OF LEGACIES
  • We passed on Saturday the 1,000-days mark before the 2010 Opening Ceremonies begin. Speaking of VANOC legacies, there are a few odds and ends to note, over and beyond the items, such as venues, which we've discussed over the years, that VANOC notes will occur after the Games are finished: Barrier-free accessibility guidelines developed for the 2010 Winter Games will be available to VANOC sponsors and stakeholders to be used by organizations and jurisdictions in their major-event planning and hosting. Some of the sport equipment VANOC acquires is expected to be donated to national and local organizations dealing with youth, sports, people with disabilities, the disadvantaged and aboriginal communities. As well, some of the medical equipment used during the Games will be turned over to communities. And VANOC and WorkSafeBC -- BC's version of the Workers Compensation Board -- are developing, or have developed, a series of training manuals and management programs for the Games; these are expected to be made available after the Games as a model for safety for future major projects and events.

    MAN CHARGED REGARDING VANOC BOARD THREATS
  • VANOC Board chairman Jack Poole has reportedly filed an affidavit indicating that he felt threatened by statements made recently by protesters who claimed to have the work locations and home addresses of directors on the Board, and that they would be "evicted." Anti-poverty protester David Cunningham was arrested, charged and released on bond over the weekend in Vancouver in connection with the issue. One of the bond conditions is that he stay away from VANOC. A side tempest developed when it was revealed police posed as a journalist from a Vancouver newspaper to lure Cunningham to where he was arrested.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 22, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 6:04 PM

    Friday, May 18, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2326
    VANCOUVER AND TRIBES REACH MOU AGREEMENT ON 2010 ABORIGINAL TRADE PAVILION CONCEPTS

    The City of Vancouver and the organization representing the tribes involved with the 2010 Winter Games have agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding on setting up a transportable aboriginal trade pavilion as part of the Olympics' "Live Site" area in Vancouver's business district.

    The MOU, which is to be discussed and likely approved by council next Thursday during a meeting of its City Services and Budgets committee meeting, is with the Four Host First Nations Society. It represents the Lil'wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh bands whose land claims cover the areas of Greater Vancouver and Whistler where VANOC is constructing venues, and it has official status with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and the International Olympic Committee.

    The MOU confirms the pavilion is to be built on the plaza of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre near the corner of Georgia and Cambie for the duration of the 2010 Winter Games, with construction expected to start late this year -- assuming the Society can completed arrangements for capital and operational funding from the BC and Canadian governments -- and be completed no later than 2009. The City won't charge the Society anything more than C$1 for the use of the space.

    Once funding is confirmed, according to Dave Rudberg, the City's general manager of Olympic and Paralympic Operation and Lesley Matthews, the City's managing director of Cultural Services, the two sides would work on a legal agreement dealing with the design and construction of the pavilion, as well as its operation, maintenance and post-Games use of the Pavilion.

    Funding can't be too far away; the Society has already issued calls for designers to work on the concepts of the 2,043-square-metre (22,000-square-foot) building's concepts. The pavilion would also incorporate the restaurant and upper floor of the city-owned building on the Cambie Street side of the plaza. During the Games, streets would be closed off to allow the entire area to be programd.

    The MOU does its best to keep all of the costs of erecting, running and removing pavilion to be paid by the Society; only some landscaping expense, covered by another city budget that's already approved, would be allowed under the MOU. The Society is also going to be responsible for all operations, servicing, maintenance and repairs of the pavilion. Operating costs will include gas, electrical, water, sewer and waste removal, all of which must be separately metered and paid by the Society.

    The MOU leaves open the possibility that a portion of the pavilion and possibly some native artwork could remain as a legacy of the Games after June 30, 2010, when the pavilion has to be formally removed, but those decisions will be made by March 31, 2010.

    The City and VANOC have been working on the development of the so-called "Live Site" and its programming on the
    and old, now empty property that was once occupied by a bus depot, and the adjacent Theatre plaza. The "Live Site" is expected to operate starting in October, 2009 and continue during the entire time the 2010 Winter Games are in operation. It is expected to also host a range of daily and nightly activities centered around a large television screen that will feature live broadcasts of the Games, ceremonies, live entertainment, as well as various recreational and cultural activities. Programming would also include the Theatre, as well as the adjacent
    Vancouver Playhouse and the Media Club.

    The Society has been charged with managing public access to the pavilion and security of it, but "Details regarding the security perimeter and required security provisions," will be built into the legal agreement between the City and the Society.


    Several similar Live Sites are being constructed or arranged in communities throughout BC, but the Vancouver one so far appears to be the largest.

    The pavilion would act as a trading house, restaurant and hosting location featuring the four tribes involved, but also including aboriginal items from across Canada.


    BACKGROUND

    The City is planning to do significant renovations to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre over the summers of 2007, 2008 and 2009, with it re-opening in October 2009. The City's plans to modify the Plaza, including the stairs along Georgia Street and the corner of Georgia & Cambie, opening up access and adding shelter along Hamilton Street and erecting an electronic sign on Georgia Street.


    RESOURCES

    This satellite view shows the location of the Live Site. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre is the grey-roofed building in the upper left, the plaza extends to the left of the building. The former bus depot land, now used as a ground-level parking lot is across Cambie Street in the centre of the image. The green arrow marks the intersection of Georgia and Cambie. That block of Cambie would be closed while the Games are on and the site is in use for the Olympics.
    tinyurl.com/3d657q


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 18, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2325


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    2010 LEGACIES NOW GETS C$1.4 MILLION TO IMPROVE "DISABILITY TOURISM"
  • With 1,029 days before the 2010 Paralympics start, the BC government is giving a one-time grant of C$1.14 million to 2010 Legacies Now to help the tourism industry focus on improving things for people with "disabilities, mobility impairments or other challenges." Employment and Income Assistance minister Claude Richmond says, "Tourism is a major economic driver in British Columbia. We know that people with disabilities can greatly contribute to the strength of this industry if we make sure that our spectacular attractions, and tourism infrastructure, are fully accessible to the sizable market they represent." 2010 Legacies Now is expected to use the money for its Accessible Tourism Initiative. By early 2008, it expects to have an "access ratings tool" for restaurants, hotels and tourism-service providers; a training program for tourism-service providers "to raise their awareness of the needs of people with disabilities;" and a "virtual resource centre that provides the information and connections that businesses and communities need to improve accessibility." Carla Qualtrough, director of Sport Tourism and Inclusion Initiatives for 2010 Legacies Now, notes that, "Businesses are recognizing that access makes good business sense," said "Making services and attractions accessible to the 12% of the population that have disabilities is good business. This number increases substantially when you include other people with mobility impairments, and when you consider our aging population." The 1,000 day mark from the Opening ceremony of the 2010 Olympics will occur tomorrow.

    PAVCO EMPLOYEES REACH CONTRACT FOR LABOUR PEACE DURING 2010 GAMES
  • An agreement has been reached on a four-year contract with support staff at BC Pavilion Corporation, which owns two of VANOC's major venues -- BC Place Stadium, where a number of 2010 ceremonies are expected to take place, and the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre, which will be used for about 10,000 international news and sports media during the Games. The agreement, which doesn't expire until well after the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games finish, covers 250 workers represented by the BC Government and Service Employees Union. These employees include security personnel, housekeeping staff and technicians. The BCGEU members this week are voting on whether to ratify the agreement.

    VANOC EVENTS SCHEDULE ON 4TH DRAFT, WITH TV STILL TO WEIGH IN
  • VANOC's vice-president of Sports, Tim Gayda, told the Vancouver Province newspaper, in a report published today, that he is still dealing with the international sports federations on the timing and schedules of the 86 competitive events that will take place during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and has not yet included discussions with TV broadcasters, who are next on the process list. Although he notes that the Pacific coast time zone is "almost perfect" for a winter Games and that he's now on the fourth draft of the schedule just dealing with the sports federations, "Because TV obviously is a huge factor, you get conflicts there," he said. The Beijing Summer Olympics, scheduled for next year, had to resolve a serious confrontation between Australian and American broadcasters, including harsh words by the athletes and their federations, over the timing of swimming events, which are extremely popular in both countries. Beijing eventually decided to hold the competitions in a time favourable to the US TV rights holder, NBC.
    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 18, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |General| #2324
    FEDERAL COURT JUDGEMENT SEEN AS POTENTIALLY WEAKENING VANOC CONTROL OVER ITS LOGOS AND TRADEMARKS

    The Federal Court of Canada has taken the Canadian Registrar of Trade-Marks to task for being, in essence, little more than a rubber stamp for approving so-called Section 9 marks, the same Trademark Act section the 2010 Olympics relies upon for control over most of its trademarks.

    The court has now published its April 18th decision in which Justice Michael L. Phelan ordered the Canadian Olympic Committee to return possession of a charity's signature "See You in Vancouver" trademark, and several others, so the charity could continue to raise money for Olympic athletes. The COC had registered the trademarks of the charity, the Canadian Athletes Fund Corporation (SYI Fund), 10 months after the charity had done so, using Section 9, which grants authority over the use of the marks if they are claimed by a "public authority."

    The decision, in essence, means that for such an authority to claim control over a mark in that way, it has to be using that mark publicly before anybody else. The COC is still considering whether to appeal the judgement.

    And, in the course of the case, Justice Phelan accepted the conclusion the COC was a "public authority", even though it was confiscating the commercial trademarks of others and in that situation not "benefiting" the public, that 30% of the support of the 2010 Winter Olympics came from government indirectly because of the COC, and without those funds, "the Games would not be viable."

    The charity, run by Jane Roos, has for years prodded the COC to provide more funding to Olympic-bound athletes, and tied its fund-raising trademarks to the cities of upcoming Olympics, such as "See you in Torino", "See you in Beijing" and "See you in Vancouver."

    Justice Phelan notes in his decision, "... The Registrar gives only the most cursory consideration of the issue of a requestor’s adoption and use, and no consideration of the use by third parties" before it approves a public authority's acquisition of trademarks. Later, he adds, "The Registrar is not simply a rubber stamp in the process of securing an official mark by way of adoption and use."

    He adds, "The Registrar’s anomalous procedures regarding official marks invites the very type of issues dealt with here. In regard to 'public authority', it is the Registrar’s practice to inquire into that matter and to require some evidence. As to 'adoption and use', the Registrar makes no inquiry and relies solely on an unsworn statement of counsel that the mark has been adopted and used. The [Trademark] legislation does not create a reason for such differential treatment, nor a justification for such differentiation. If the 'public authority' issue deserves some inquiry, similarly so does 'adoption and use'. The potential effect on third parties of the Registrar’s decision to publish certainly justifies some better level of diligence."

    As Justice Phelan puts it, "The Registrar’s decision to publish notice was neither correct nor reasonable."

    A part of the case was over who used the trademarks first. The judgement reveals that the charity registered the trademarks on October 24, 2003, and that the COC began "using" those marks "internally, starting in January 2004, by COC personnel for strategic and business planning discussions." And, the COC did so "verbally in correspondence, e-mails and memoranda." The only evidence of external use were that "marks were used on promotional items, such as pens and flashlight gifts." A COC order for them was dated August 31, 2004. If internal use was sufficient to establish use, notes Justice Phelan, "the very act of requesting... publication would, theoretically, constitute 'adoption and use'." All this took place just before the Athens Summer Olympics.

    Phelan reports that the COC, during cross-examination, refused to talk about any other use. "On the instructions of counsel, the witness refused (a) to produce any other invoices for other promotional items; (b) to produce any correspondence, e-mails or memoranda evidencing use of the marks; (c) to indicate what the wares or services were on which the marks were used or to which they were associated; and (d) the number of promotional items actually used outside COC."

    There's more: "The timing of the order for the pens/flashlights is sufficient to highlight the importance of the questions. The order was placed two days before the request for publication [of the COC's trademark action] was made to the Registrar.... the items were received around November 5, 2004, a few days after the publication of the notice, which is the date by which the marks had to be adopted and used."

    Justice Phelan says the Registrar, while simply accepting a one-sentence statement that the COC had adopted and used the trademarks, it spent a lot of time confirming the COC was a public authority, and thus authorized to use Section 9. Justice Phelan said the Registrar "received hundreds of pages of material to establish this criterion. The Registrar entered into an inquiry of the facts and engaged the [COC] in a dialogue to justify the contention that it was a public authority."

    Is the Canadian Olympic Committee a "public authority"? Justice Phelan decided the Registar was right in coming to that conclusion, but it's pretty convoluted, and the COC's relationship with various levels of government and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) had to be examined.

    In reaching its conclusion, the Registrar examined the Program of the COC, the Contribution Agreement between the federal government and the COC, the Memorandum of Understanding specifying areas of cooperation, the Multiparty Agreement the COC signed with VANOC to host the 2010 Games, and the Covenants of Canada, British Columbia, City of Vancouver and Whistler reached about the 2010 Games. "The financial result, quite apart from areas of input from government," says Justice Phelan, "is that 30% of the funding for the Olympic Games comes from government. Obviously, absent government, the Games would not be viable."

    The Justice adds, "The fact that the government funding goes to the Organizing Committee rather than the COC does not alter the issue of control. Control is both a legal and factual matter exercisable both directly and indirectly. Given the covenants, the cooperation, the funding and the overall involvement of government, the element of control exists at the COC level, even if it is exercised more directly in other related organizations."

    The legal bill for the SYI Fund was about C$80,000, and the court awarded the Fund costs in the case.

    BACKGROUND

    Jane Roos started her work with the SYI Fund in 1997 with the See You In Sydney Fund, which then became the See You In Salt Lake City Fund, and so on, with "See You in Vancouver" being the latest. It has raised about C$4 million to help about 500 athletes with grants of C$6,000 each. The organization helped 244 of 266 athletes at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. Roos, who donates her time to the foundation along with that of her husband, beach volleyball player Conrad Leinemann, says 85% of the donated funds go to athletes. "So much time and energy has been wasted. That's what bothers me most," she says.

    According to the Toronto Star newspaper today, David Bedford, the COC's executive director of marketing and communications, told it the interests of the COC's credit card sponsor, Visa, were hurt three years ago when a competitor gave C$500,000 to See You In Athens and published a press release indicating the credit-card competitor was helping Olympic athletes. "All we're trying to do is protect those companies putting in hundreds of millions to be part of the Olympics," Bedford said. "That's all this has ever been about."

    RESOURCES

    The full federal court decision:
    decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/en/2007/2007fc406/2007fc406.html

    The SYI Fund does business these days as "Can Fund", or "Canadian Athletes Now"
    www.canadianathletesnow.ca

    Our earlier story about the decision involving the COC:
    'COC loses battle over trademark use of "See you in Vancouver"'
    [Morgan:News:2010:Number:2267; Published on Thursday, April 19, 2007]

    Our earlier story on another challenge to VANOC's registration of its logo:
    'Canadian company formally opposes "arrogant" 2010 Olympics over inukshuk trademark'
    [Morgan:News:2010:Number:2313; Published on Monday, May 14, 2007]

    Canadian Olympic Committee:
    www.olympic.ca

    The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
    strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/welcome/welcom-e.html

    CIPO's database entry for the "See You In Vancouver" mark:
    tinyurl.com/2tugd2

    VANOC's logo, approved under Section 9, as entered in the CIPO database:
    tinyurl.com/3yc2bv

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 18, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2323


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    VANOC TO START LOOKING SOUTHWARD IN MORE DETAIL
  • VANOC expects to start expanding its relationships with some overseas national Olympic and Paralympic committees this year. It's starting to flush out its office responsible for dealing with the national Olympic committees of Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas -- that would be Central and South American countries -- that plan to participate in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The office, like those that have other national responsibilities, make arrangements and host the national Olympic committees (NOCs, as they're known by VANOC) when they visit VANOC and the various cities where venues are being constructed, and they conduct the venue tours necessary. The office also works closely with a number of other VANOC functions -- Accommodation, Transportation, Accreditation, Olympic Villages, Finance and the like -- to ensure that the needs of the NOC representatives addressed. They also get involved in making sure things like national flags and anthems approvals occur, that NOC attaches are briefed, that delegations are properly briefed and registered. And the office also gets involved with the volunteer programs that affect those countries, down to the detail of being involved in volunteer interviews, selection and training. Part of the job is to also meet with the NOC reps in their countries, or when their groups have joint meetings dealing with the Olympics or Paralympics.

    WASHINGTON STATE TOURISM SPENDING HIKE LINKED TO 2010
  • Washington State governor Christine Gregoire says she has pushed to expand the state's tourism industry during the past year. The increased emphasis on tourism will come in time to help with the significant opportunities for Washington as visitors travel to nearby Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics, she told a gathering of business people and tourism officials in the town of Walla Walla yesterday. The state had a huge gap between its potential for tourism and its investment in tourism, according to government officials. As a result, it has almost tripled the US$3.6 million it has been spending annually on tourism. Even so, she said that amount was the smallest expenditure of any of the 13 Western US states. By comparison, the BC government is budgeting C$17.2 million (US$15.8 million) on tourism this fiscal year.

    MOBILE MINI CITES 2010 AS ONE REASON TO EXPAND TO VANCOUVER
  • Mobile Mini, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: MINI) has opened a branch in Vancouver, citing the 2010 Winter Olympics as one of the reasons for the Tempe, Arizona-based firm's decision to broaden the industry of supplying portable storage. Steven Bunger, Mobile Mini’s Chairman, president & CEO, noted, “Vancouver is one of those cities where a well-priced asset purchase has eluded us. Therefore, we have established our own branch under the leadership of an experienced manager who has hired and trained his staff. The branch is open for business; our systems are in place; mailers and advertising are in the works; and we have brought in a broad selection of storage units and portable offices... Greater Vancouver's estimated population is 2.1 million which should swell as the city plays host to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.” The company says it has a total fleet of about 159,000 portable storage units and portable offices. The Vancouver branch is its 64th. Others are in the US, the United Kingdom and The Netherlands.

    RESOURCES

    Mobile Mini, Inc.
    Larry Trachtenberg,
    Executive VP & Chief Financial Officer
    Phone: 480.894.6311
    www.mobilemini.com

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 18, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 5:57 PM

    Wednesday, May 16, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2322
    VANCOUVER COUNCIL ASKED TO APPROVE C$650,000 PROJECT TO HELP CITY MEET 2010 OLYMPIC SOCIAL COMMITTMENTS

    Vancouver City staff are recommending council approve a three-year, C$670,000 lease-subsidy program that would help the City keep some of its 2010 Olympic commitments to the troubled downtown east side area of Vancouver.

    The program is one of a number of initiatives supported by the three levels of government -- the City, BC and Canadian -- involved with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) that are designed to help implement the Vancouver Agreement’s Economic Revitalization Plan as well as the Inner City Inclusive Olympic commitments. The objective of the Lease-Subsidy Program is to establish or expand local businesses within the downtown east side which are owned and managed by registered charities or welfare groups incorporated as societies, and helping them with about half the costs of their leases.

    The administration of the program would happen through a city-spawned organization called Building Opportunities with Business, which implements a number of similar programs for the City. There would be a formal evaluation of the program in 2010, to see if it was accomplishing its goals although administration and actual disbursements of any Council-approved leases could continue to the end of 2013. The people who run BOB, as its nicknamed, will be helped with a Business Advisory Review Committee to determine whether a proposal should be recommended to Council for approval of a lease subsidy. BARC is comprised of representatives from the Board of BOB, Downtown Eastside residents, business organizations and business people.

    One of the founding directors of BOB, when it was formed in 2005, was Linda Coady, Vice-President of Sustainability for VANOC, another was David Podmore, President and CEO, Concert Properties Ltd. Podmore is the chair of the BC government's new organization that has consolidated government ownership of BC Place Stadium, where VANOC's 2010 Opening Ceremony will take place, and the Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre, which will be the home of the international media during the 2010 Games. The chair of Concert Properties is VANOC's Board of Directors chairman, Jack Poole.

    BOB, in turn, will monitor the operations of the company receiving the subsidy to ensure that it's not defaulting on the lease.

    The business to be considered, according to the staff, will generally be in a storefront street-level commercial space and must not have any local competition unless there's good market demand for the goods or services, but consideration could be given to proposals that aren't on street level or are just outside of the area boundaries, "which demonstrate significant job creation potential" for people living within the downtown east side. Pre-subsidy lease rates would have to be normal for the area, or less, in order to qualify for the subsidy, and each one would have to be approved by the City's Real Estate services department to "prevent the subsidies from artificially inflating commercial rents in the area." The subsidies aren't just for leases; "consideration can be given to subsidizing the office needs" of a subsidized business.

    BACKGROUND

    The lease subsidy would pay for BOB-approved fees for legal or professional real-estate expertise, plus a percentage of the market lease cost, according to this schedule:

  • Year 1 of operation – 75% of the lease to a maximum subsidy of C$3,750 per month
  • Year 2 of operation – 50% of the lease to a maximum subsidy of C$2,500 per month
  • Year 3 of operation – 25% of the lease to a maximum subsidy of C$1,250 per month

    The maximum monthly subsidy is based on typical storefront sizes and rents in the area. Typical storefronts are a maximum of 3,000 square feet and rent for about C$10 per square foot per year on East Hastings to about C$20 on Water Street. Thus the maximum permitted lease subsidy would be calculated as a percentage of a market rent of up to C$5,000 per month using this formula: {($20 per sq ft x 3000 sq ft)/12 months.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 17, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2321


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:

    FORMER AG TO RUN VANCOUVER'S CIVIL CITY PROJECT
  • Former BC attorney-general Geoff Plant has been hired by the City of Vancouver as a commissioner to run its Project Civil City. We have a tremendous opportunity to use the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a catalyst to solve the public disorder problems that affect our city,” says Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, who has spearheaded the political aspect of the project. Council narrowly approved the project along party lines last December, and approved a C$300,000 budget for the first year of its office operations and work. The Civil City plan sets what Sullivan calls "ambitious targets" to reduce homelessness, curb the open-drug market, reduce aggressive panhandling and increase satisfaction with how public-nuisance complaints are handled.

    VANOC OFFERS LIST OF CRITERIA FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR THE 2010 GAMES
  • Dick Vollet, the vice president of Workforce, one of VANOC's departments, has offered a list of the main criteria that candidates will need to fulfill to be considered for a volunteer position. Volunteers will need:
    1. Previous volunteer experience
    2. To be available for the period of the Games and to have a flexible schedule
    3. To have or arrange their own accommodation within the Games region
    4. A positive attitude and plenty of enthusiasm
    5. Alignment with VANOC's values (team, trust, excellence, sustainability, creativity)
    6. To successfully complete the required training sessions
    7. To successfully complete RCMP security screening

    As some volunteer positions during the Games will require specific skills, potential applicants are expected to be encouraged to build their volunteer portfolios by getting involved in sporting events that British Columbia will host in the next few years. Applications for volunteers for some 2010-related test events are expected to begin in three or four months.

    PROTESTORS TO AIM AT VANOC DIRECTORS OFFICES NEXT
  • Quote without comment: "What we do plan on doing is targeting each and every individual on the VANOC board and holding them individually responsible for what they have done to the hundreds of people on the Downtown Eastside... We have found where their offices are, we have found where their homes are... We'll definatley be showing up at Jack Poole's offices [chair of VANOC's Board]. We're going to try to hit as many offices as we can. This campaign will be escalating. Hopefully there will be no need to have a campaign that's on-going and targeting their homes, like they've targeted poor people's homes... We're going to evict them from their offices like they've evicted hundreds of our brothers and sisters... This isn't a game. This is a struggle. This is a life-and-death struggle. We are going to struggle and win." -- David Cunningham, one of the organizers of a protest outside VANOC headquarters yesterday.
















    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 17, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2320
    2010 ORGANIZATION OFFERS MAJOR PLUSH-TOY CONTRACT FOR MASCOT LAUNCH LATE THIS YEAR

    The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has begun looking for companies around the world that are capable of making plush-toy versions of the two mascots -- one for the Olympics and one for the Paralympics -- it is expecting to launch late this year.

    The deal is expected to be one of the major marketing contracts offered by VANOC, since it will also allow the firm or firms it chooses to make premiums for all of VANOC's corporate and government sponsors, in addition to selling the toys to the Canadian public across the country.

    The companies it's looking for need to be able to "consistently design, manufacture and distribute a full range of attractive, high-quality, affordable licensed products," within and throughout Canada, according to VANOC. The organization's aim is "to reach consumers in every part of Canada through distribution channels approved by VANOC," using what is calls is a process of "controlled commercialization."

    The toys will be licensed to carry any of the VANOC logos and brands it owns, controls or creates between now and December 31, 2010 (including sell-offs), which is the end of the offer, but they will not be carrying anything to do with the Torch Relays, since VANOC intends to license and market the relays separately. Nor will they be carrying, at least as part of this program, any brands owned by the Canadian Olympic Committee or the Canadian Olympic teams, all of which are also separately licensed. The licensing offered is silent about whether it will, or will not, allow the toys to carry brands owned or controlled by the International or national Paralympic committees.

    There are some other restrictions on the companies who may be thinking of completing VANOC's application process by June 6. Companies are barred from taking part if they have department stores, or they are a specialty retailer "which has previously held licensing rights to produce apparel, team uniforms and merchandise" that carry Canadian Olympic Committee marks, or if they area a sporting goods retail stores "carrying a similarly wide number and variety of product lines." VANOC gave those rights to its tier-1 national sponsor, the Hudson's Bay Company, a few years ago.

    VANOC expects to provide a formal Request for Proposals in June to between six and a dozen companies that it considers could be serious contenders for the job. It's uncertain by just about everybody whether there will be enough time for a winner to be chosen and ramp up with enough product to have an influence on the peak Christmas buying season this year, but VANOC wants to know from every applicant exactly how long it would take them, from the time they get VANOC's graphic-standards documents, the two designs VANOC has chosen from the roughly 170 that were provided to it during a separate process, and the contract award, to do each of the necessary steps from prototype to completed toy, with VANOC approvals incorporated throughout the process.

    Depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the companies that apply, VANOC has left the door open to assemble a team of firms that may be used to cover all of its target-marketing channels, although it would prefer to only deal with one company.

    Sustainability and other VANOC social goals also play a large part in who wins the contract. VANOC wants to ensure the toys are made in ways that reduce their environmental footprint. "VANOC is seeking products and product-packaging methods and materials which complement and advance VANOC's commitment to social and environmental sustainability," according to the organization. As VANOC puts it, "Our procurement strategy includes the use of sustainable purchasing practices to minimize negative environmental impacts and to maximize social and economic opportunities for aboriginal and inner-city residents. We will use evaluation criteria that rewards suppliers with sustainability- and aboriginal-participation policies, programs and ideas that are strongly aligned with VANOC's sustainability objectives."

    And, of course, since children are the primary market (along with collectors) for the toys, VANOC wants written assurances of how the winning company conducts its quality-assurance program, particularly evidence to support safety compliance that's covered by Canada's Hazardous Products Act and the companion regulations for toys.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 17, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 5:55 PM

    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2319
    MAY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING COVERS MARKETING, VENUE AND FINANCE

    The May meeting of the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) was unusually long, but productive, according of VANOC Board chair Jack Poole.

    Here's an overview of what was discussed at the Board meeting, according to information released by VANOC, which does not include items that were discussed by its new in-camera policy:

  • VANOC CEO John Furlong gave a progress report that included "updates on the majority of the Organizing Committee functions and activities, including the recent release of the business plan, transparency recommendations, updates on villages, venues construction, federal legislation, GM Place venue agreement, accommodation programs, Olympic Truce, 1,000 day countdown activities, protest activity, International Sport Federations, ceremonies, Cultural Olympiad, mascot, Torch Relay" and an update on activities of the Human Resources department.

  • VANOC's executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, Dave Cobb, provided "an overview of the 2010 Winter Games ticket sales strategy, which will be presented to the International Olympic Committee in July, with details to be released publicly in 2008 following further development and approvals. VANOC anticipates that tickets will go on sale to the public during the summer of 2008." He also provided an update on the 2010 Winter Games mascot" development, selection and approval process." The mascot launched will happen "internationally" late this year. (VANOC's finance committee, later in the meeting, also reported on the status of negotiations with another company in the tier-3 Official Supporter sponsor, which involves a commitment ranging between C$15 million and C$50 million, and progress on a number of potential tier-4 Official Supplier sponsors, which involve commitments between C$3 million and C$15 million.) Board member Rusty Goepel said following the meeting that VANOC had raised "about C$800 million" so far in sponsorships.

  • The Board, "following a full tendering process," gave its agreement for VANOC management to finalize an Event Services (EVS) contract "to ensure an extraordinary experience for all spectators." As one of the largest workforces in the Games, EVS has the most visibility to Olympic and Paralympic spectators, "and plays a fundamental role in delivering a positive Games experience." Commonly known as the "face of the Games," EVS staff also influence venue operations. A VANOC spokesman says an announcement with further details will be made once the contract is concluded.

  • An overview of the Strategic Communications Steering Committee comprised of members of the VANOC Board and executive management team. The Steering Committee will work with VANOC's senior management to implement an integrated communications strategy that will guide VANOC's external communications activities and messaging.

  • An update was provided on VANOC's venue program: contractors have returned to the mountain venues as the snow recedes and the ski hills closed for the season. The Whistler Sliding Centre construction was back under full construction for its final year at the end of April. The Nordic competition venue was still under snow at the end of April "but contractors have now removed snow" and work is underway for its final construction year. At Cypress and Whistler Mountains, work has restarted on the lower elevations. By April 30, work was underway on all competition venues. VANOC CEO John Furlong says capital construction executive vice-president Dan Doyle maintains that "all completion timelines and budgets remain on target."

  • An update on government relations, highlighted by the second reading of Bill C-47 in the House of Commons on May 15 and 16. The Bill will proceed to committee hearings in the first week of June.

  • An update on VANOC's sport program, including the presentation of a 2007 Weather Impact Summary. VANOC staff, with Environment Canada's meteorologists mapped 2007 weather against the February and March dates of the 2010 Winter Games, and staff then checked the potential sport and operational problems if similar weather was to occur in 2010. Results of this summary and others in 2008 and 2009 will help the sport team develop its event schedule and will help other VANOC functions and stakeholders plan all logistics around the schedule.

  • An update on the report to the IOC Executive Board that was held recently in Beijing. The International Olympic Committee, according to VANOC, has decided to cancel its regularly scheduled visit Vancouver for its project-review meeting, scheduled for the last week of this month -- "That's good news," suggests Board Chair Jack Poole, "as we like to avoid meetings whenever we can," however VANOC says that a series of meetings will take place in Guatemala City early July when VANOC presents its status report to the IOC Executive Board.

  • The VANOC board also discussed a report from the Finance Committee including:

    -- Approval to proceed with final negotiations on a number of venue construction contracts for the upcoming season; contract awards will be reported by June.

    -- A report from the Audit Committee including an update that the terms of reference for the Audit and Finance Committees were being redrafted "to more clearly reflect the distinction between the duties of each committee."

    -- A report from the Governance and Ethics Committee which included the review of the terms of reference for the Audit and Finance Committees.

    The next meeting of the VANOC Board of Directors will be held July 18.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 16, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2318
    BOARD OKAYS MORE INFO, BUT WILL KEEP THEIR DEBATES IN THE BOARDROOM

    The Board of Directors of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) have unanimously agreed to provide more information about what transpires during their sometimes lengthy meetings, but they will not make any part of the meetings open to the public.

    The decision came during a closed-door board meeting, as a school-bus load of protesters arrived at VANOC's headquarters from downtown Vancouver, under the auspices of an ad-hoc group calling itself the Anti-Poverty Committee, to complain about transparency issues and social housing, and in the case of one APC leader, threatening to have protesters next appear at the homes and businesses of the directors.

    The protesters were met by a phalanx of Vancouver City police officers, but the protest was generally peaceful but noisy while a dozen TV cameras were pointed their way. They left without carrying out a threat to storm the building and invade the boardrooom.

    But VANOC board chair Jack Poole and CEO John Furlong were adamant the concept of providing additional information and formalizing other procedures were in the works following formal and informal requests by media organizations such as Morgan:News:2010, the Vancouver Sun and others, all the way back to the first news conferences of VANOC in 2004, but which only gathered sufficient steam in the last three or four months.

    They both said that the main concept behind keeping the Boardroom closed was to allow "frank and open" discussion among the Board members, with Furlong adding that it was never his intention to recommend to the Board that it be even partially opened.


    The package of info, prepared for the Board by Furlong includes:

  • Posting the Board of Directors' meeting agenda on VANOC's website five days before each Board meeting and maintaining a schedule of Board and Board Committee meetings;

  • Hosting a media briefing following each Board meeting with the Board Chair, the CEO and other directors or members of the VANOC senior management team that will be needed to elaborate;

  • Issue brief reports on decisions taken at the Board meeting that are" not protected by obligation or by contract." Examples of in-camera matters involve such things as status reports that are background for decisions that will be taken and reported later, such as ticketing at today's meeting -- since that process and its planning needs approval from the International Olympic Committee before it can be publicly discussed, or how the mascot program will go when it's launched late this year. Other items for in camera include personnel matters, legal briefings, proprietary and contractual discussions;

  • Hosting regular briefings -- monthly throughout 2007 in months where there is not a Board meeting or quarterly report, and on a more frequent basis throughout 2008 and 2009 as the Games approach;

  • Continuing to deliver an annual fall update to the Vancouver Board of Trade which will be broadcast across the province, with a transcript of the update to be later posted on VANOC's website;

  • Placing an annual supplement in major newspapers and posting to its website -- at least until there is a media sponsorship approved, which would affect where such supplements run, to inform the public on the progress of the Games as outlined in VANOC's business plan.

  • Conducting new quarterly website on-line forums "to ensure that all Canadians can communicate directly with VANOC."


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 16, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 5:54 PM

    Monday, May 14, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2315


    Here are three more moguls we ran into today:
    PROTESTERS SAY THEY'LL BE AT VANOC HQ WEDNESDAY
  • The so-called Anti-Poverty Committee says a protest is being organized outside of VANOC's headquarters starting at 1 pm Wednesday afternoon. The Committee says it will provide free transportation to those who need it from the downtown east side of Vancouver to the headquarters building in east Vancouver, near the city's boundary with the neighbouring suburb of Burnaby. The protest is timed to correspond with a meeting of VANOC's board of directors who will be discussing -- behind closed doors -- a presentation by VANOC CEO John Furlong about whether Board meetings should be opened to the public in some way, among other things. As the APC puts it, "The Vancouver Olympics Committee (VANOC), the ruling elite of the 2010 Olympic games, have been allowed to conspire in peace behind closed doors while outside people’s homes and land are destroyed. At their next secret meeting join us in confronting them face-to-face at their headquarters. Because they will not open up – drive them out!"

    POOLE SAYS HEADHUNTER AND ACCIDENT ON HIS ROAD TO VANOC CHAIR
  • Jack Poole says a call from a headhunter and an accident when he was 15 were key events in his life that, in his mind, propelled him to become the unanimous choice of VANOC's 19-person Board of Directors to be its chairman. Poole, who is 74, told a graduating class of 122 students at H. J. Cody School in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, said that he had dreams of a career in the National Hockey League when he and two friends were struck from behind by a car as they were walking on the wrong side of a road. His leg was badly shattered, and he decided to go to university and get an education instead of sports. Many years later, he was thinking about retiring when a headhunter approached him about chairing the Board of the fledging Olympic organization, and that there were about 100 other contenders for the job. The Red Deer, Alberta, Advocate newspaper today quotes him as saying, “If it weren’t for that accident, I could well have no education, probably have no teeth and Vancouver might not be hosting the 2010 Olympics.” Poole told the students, according to the newspaper, to expect their plans to change in life.

    VANOC PLANS TO PROVIDE LIVE GAMES RESULTS VIA WEB
  • VANOC's website will be providing live results when the 2010 Games are running, according to a VANOC planning document. That, an online store, and a number of other, so far unidentified, web-based applications are expected to be operating behind the scenes at the VANOC web development system. The section looking after those applications is scheduled to be developed over the next three years, starting in a month or so.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 14, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2314


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    WADA CONSIDERS CHANGES TO INTENSIFY SANCTIONS
    IF ATHLETES DOPING IS "AGGRAVATED"
  • The Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency, based in Montreal and
    run by Dick Pound, a member of VANOC's Board of Directors, is working on updates to an international anti-doping code that contain a call to increase sanctions in doping cases involving certain “aggravating circumstances,” such as being part of a larger doping scheme or the athlete having used multiple prohibited substances. Whether to incorporate the provisions would be decided at a meeting in Madrid, Spain, in November. “There is a universal recognition among governments now that doping is a serious threat to public health,” said Pound. “This is demonstrated by a range of government actions, including the remarkably swift ratification of the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, the timely fulfillment of contribution commitments to WADA, and the expanding engagement of countries in anti-doping either through national or regional programs, among other important activities.” WADA also reported that it recently led two international symposia on investigations involving the participation of national anti-doping organizations, the International Olympic Committee, International Federations and government agencies.

    IN KAMLOOPS, A LITTLE YING...
  • Quote without comment: "The Olympic spirit, if one was to suspend any sense of skepticism and accept John Furlong's speech Wednesday in Kamloops as the gospel. The VANOC 2010 CEO was positively rapturous as he compared the Vancouver-Whistler Winter Games to everything from a great business opportunity to a chance for each Canadian to search their soul for the meaning of life. A tad overblown, perhaps, but we still agree with Furlong when he says the Games will benefit B.C. for years and years to come. Don't believe us? Then check history for the goofy comments made by those opposing Expo 86, and look where we are now." -- Editorial in today's newspaper Kamloops This Week.

    ... A LITTLE YANG
  • Quote without comment: "John Furlong, chief executive officer of the 2010 Winter Olympics, told a Kamloops Chamber of Commerce lunch that Kamloops can play an important role in staging the Games. He told us the Games are well supported here. And then the audience waited through a long speech and two blah blah blah videos to find out what our role could be. We never did find out... Furlong, who has the ability to be a scintillating speaker, worked hard at delivering a rousing call to arms on behalf of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee. But he must have been tired... Perhaps some people were inspired. Maybe it was just the jaded who thought the speech lacked substance. It certainly was laden with enough platitudes and cliches to fill a book... When people come to town to talk about the Olympics, they should bring more than motivational speeches with them, particularly when the speeches aren't all that motivating.... Everyone at VANOC is on the same page apparently. Not only do they work together but also act with great integrity in all they do. They are almost saints. He noted that if we were to talk to anyone working for VANOC, he or she would tell us the same thing. He forgot to add, 'if they were actually allowed to speak publicly, that is.' " -- Susan Duncan, an editorial in today's Kamloops Daily News.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 14, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #2313
    CANADIAN COMPANY FORMALLY OPPOSES "ARROGANT" 2010 OLYMPICS OVER INUKSHUK TRADEMARK

    A Canadian company has begun the formal process to oppose the use by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) of its main inukshuk logo.

    Genfoot Incorporated, of Lachine, a Montreal, Quebec-suburb, has filed opposition documents with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) in Ottawa, Ontario, after trying for more than a year to convince VANOC to accept conditions to how the 2010 organization can license the brand, according to company president Gordon Cook.

    "We're trying to be the good corporate citizen," says Cook, "and we don't want to rip off [VANOC], or the Olympics. We approached them with certain conditions about our inukshuk, and they're just blowing us off, you know, and they're getting us a little upset, whereby we may have to take certain different courses that we prefer not to do. But they tend to be kind of arrogant." Cook says VANOC was first approached by his company about 18 months ago, shortly after VANOC's lawyers filed the inukshuk logo with CIPO.

    Genfoot does business under the Kamik brand, which has a logo that is remarkably similar to the brand in use by the Vancouver Olympic organizers. VANOC's brand was launched in April 2005, while Kamik has been using its logo since 1998, which is when it was first registered in Canada -- although Cook maintians it's been in use in Canada for about 20 years -- and it's since been registered with trademark offices "all over the world," says Cook. "It's a considerable amount of time, way before VANOC came up with it. It isn't something that we registered hearing they were going to do so."

    Kamik makes and sells various types of footwear, such as running shoes, sandals, hiking shoes and rain boots for adults and children. The company has dealerships in every province in Canada, every state in the US, as well as several national-line distributors in both countries, and does business through distributors to 41 other countries, primarily in Europe.

    Meanwhile CIPO records indicate that the International Olympic Committee, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, has now taken ownership in the VANOC inukshuk brand.

    "Our European patent attorney tells me the Olympics are very arrogant, and our attorneys in the States told us it's the same thing there," says Cook.

    VANOC's general position is that it has registered its mark as an official government mark, which supersedes trademarks registered by companies, even nationally. "But can you imagine," suggests Cook, "if they had gone ahead and registered the Nike 'swoosh', that Nike would let them get away with it? Or any other major logo?"

    The general thrust of the conditions that Genfoot wants VANOC to abide by in its use of the logo is that it not license a corporate competitor to Genfoot or Kamik to make footwear carrying VANOC's inukshuk brand. "It would be devastating for us if they go and license a competitor to us with that inukshuk. That's what we want to prevent."

    Cook says that VANOC and his company are on "a collision course," and that even if there is a question over VANOC being able to usurp a nationally registered logo in Canada -- "which I don't think is right," says Cook -- "but that doesn't apply in the United States," he adds and so his company is opposing VANOC's ability to license the brand there and in other countries.

    The original CIPO registration of the VANOC inukshuk specifies that it can be used on, among hundreds of other things, "footwear, namely shoes, boots and slippers... athletic shoes, beach footwear, bridal shoes, casual shoes, children's shoes, evening shoes, exercise shoes, fishing shoes, golf shoes, infant shoes, medical personnel shoes, orthopedic shoes, outdoor winter shoes, protective shoes, rain shoes and ski boots..."

    RESOURCES

    The homepage of Genfoot's subsidiary, Kamik, shows the logo:
    www.kamik.com

    ... as does the home page of VANOC:
    www.vancouver2010.com/en

    --

    Gordon Cook
    President
    Genfoot Inc.
    1940, 55 Ave
    Lachine, Quebec
    H8T 3H3
    Telephone: 514.341.3950
    Toll Free Phone: 1.800.341.3950
    Fax: 514-341-3362

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 14, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2312
    ALBERTAN PIPELINE COMPANY BECOMES OFFICIAL SUPPLY SPONSOR TO VANOC

    TransCanada Pipelines has become, in what appears to be a primarily financial transaction, the Official Supplier in the Natural Gas Pipeline Operator category for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

    The company (TSX, NYSE: TRP), headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, owns about 59,000 kilometres (36,500 miles) of pipelines across Canada, has about 5,300 employees, has about 360 billion cubic feet of natural gas in storage, generates about C$2.4 billion from operations that nets it about C$1 billion per year, and also generates about 7,700 megawatts of electrical power annually.

    The amount of the sponsorship was not revealed, but the category means it is more than C$3 million but less that C$15 million.

    The deal gives TransCanada 2010 Olympic branding marketing rights in Canada until December 31, 2012, and official supplier status as well to the Canadian Olympic teams to compete at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010, and the London Summer Olympics in 2012.

    VANOC's other official suppliers are, to date, Birks Jewellers, Dow Canada (ice coolant chemicals), power supplier Epcor Utilities, furniture supplier Haworth Canada, networking equipment from Nortel, wine from Vincor Canada, baked goods from Weston Bakeries and recruitment support from Workopolis.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 14, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2311
    AMERICAN FIRST TO REPORT LOTTERY SCAM CLAIMING TO BE CONNECTED TO 2010 GAMES

    The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says people, "should not assume that everything bearing the Vancouver 2010 logo is genuine."

    VANOC says a Denver, Colorado man, Charles Anderson, called the 2010 organization after getting a suspicious letter that he had won a $50,000 lottery prize from VANOC. "Right away I noticed the logos didn't look right -- they were kind of fuzzy and the colours weren't really sharp," said Anderson. It was the first reported scam involving the 2010 Games, and Games officials say it's unlikely to be the last.

    VANOC says Anderson told them he knew that the 2010 Winter Games were in Vancouver, yet the envelope bore a Toronto return address, listed its headquarters as being in Ottawa, included a contact number with a New Jersey area code, and the prize was supposed to be delivered by a company that couldn't be found in the phone book or on line.

    "There were a whole bunch of things that didn't hang together -- it just raised too many questions," said Anderson.

    Constable Ben Hitchcock, a technical examiner with the Technological Crime Program of Canada's RCMP, says more scam artists will likely try to turn a profit by claiming false association with the Vancouver/Whistler Olympics. "The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are a highly visible event, backed by the Olympic Games branding," Hitchcock says. "As such, there is the possibility that criminals will use this information to craft e-mails enticing victims to bogus websites. With the increase in the online auction fraud, there is a strong possibility that counterfeit apparel, tickets and other items may appear on these sites."

    VANOC says, "Vancouver 2010 will never request that you provide your confidential information over e-mail. Any information from us, whether it related to ticketing programs, volunteer or job opportunities, online merchandising or other Games opportunities, will always be featured on our website at vancouver2010.com."

    VANOC says Beijing organizers recently uncovered a website selling bogus tickets to the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, while the website for the London 2012 Summer Games lists 14 reported scams. VANOC won't be offering tickets to the 2010 Games until the summer of 2008.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 14, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 5:34 PM

    Friday, May 11, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2310

    Here are three more moguls we ran into today:
    2010 COMMERCE CENTRE OPENS VANCOUVER OFFICE
  • The BC Olympic Secretariat’s 2010 Commerce Centre opened its new downtown Vancouver location today. Colin Hansen, the minister responsible for BC's involvement in the 2010 Olympics says, "The 2010 Commerce Centre... is to assist B.C. companies in securing Olympic-related economic opportunities, developing business strategies and pursuing new partnerships leading up to, during and after the 2010 Winter Games." The renovate facility in government space in Robson Square provides services already offered by the 2010 Commerce Centre website, but adds visitor offices, meeting rooms and presentation space featuring the latest technology for use by members of the Olympic family, B.C. businesses and economic development organizations, as well as visiting delegations. There will be an estimated C$4 billion in Games-related business opportunities available leading up to 2010, maintains Hansen, and BC, he says, is committed to ensuring all businesses have the resources to take advantage of them. The 2010 Commerce Centre helps develop international partnerships and alliances.

    IPC TRIES AGAIN TO GET AWARD NOMINATIONS
  • The first round of calls earlier this year for nominations to the 2007 International Paralympic Awards produced few responses, so the IPC in Germany is beating the bushes again. "We are seeking those who posted an exceptional performance and made outstanding contributions to the Torino Paralympic Winter Games and the Paralympic Movement in 2006," says an IPC spokesman. The award winners are scheduled to be announced in October and presented in November at a ceremony held at the same time as the IPC General Assembly meeting, which this year is in Seoul, South Korea. The award categories include several connected to the Torino Winter Paralympic Games last year: best male athlete, best female athlete, best team performance, best paralympic games debut and exemplary paralympic games official. There are also some media and scientific award categories.

    REPORTER CONTRASTS OLYMPIC ASSIGNMENTS FOR ACCREDITED AND UNACCREDITED MEDIA
  • Quote without comment; "Salt Lake was my first Olympics, [in 2002] and probably my toughest-ever assignment. If you work in TV, but aren't the rightsholder, you are treated worse than a sewer rat. You can't take a camera into any facility. Well, not only were we not a rightsholder, but the Canadian Olympic Committee wouldn't even give us a media pass. So, we couldn't even access the Main Press Center. All we had were cell numbers for the various Canadian team contacts. We had to get athletes to meet us in parking lots, IHOPs [International House of Pancakes], anywhere we could. To their credit, most of them were great... I joined [the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] -- the rightsholder -- for the last two, and was on the inside. I covered nine different sports in Athens. It was fantastic... Canada's other winter athletes had a superb season this year [2007]. This country is poised to be among the best overall in Vancouver/Whistler 2010 -- alongside Germany, Russia and the U.S. But for a lot of Canadians, there's just one medal that counts: men's hockey. People here will be proud of their speed skaters, snowboarders and skiers, but nuts over hockey. This will also 1) be the final time the NHL players go, 2) on home ice and 3) after Canada lost in the 2006 quarterfinals, the expectations will be enormous." -- CBC Sports broadcaster Elliotte Friedman.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 11, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2309


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    VANOC AD AGENCY RFPS ON HOLD
  • We don't know why, and VANOC isn't saying, but there's word that two tandem Request-for-Proposal processes for VANOC ad agency work has stalled. One was for an agency to develop the creative aspects of the advertising, and the second for an agency to plan and buy the media for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The RFPs closed in February, with the idea the contract would be awarded in March, but there's no word yet, although it's said that the process will resume "shortly." Nobody else is talking either, for fear of a gag clause that's in the RFPs' legal language.

    VANOC TO CO-HOST SPORTS MEDICINE CONGRESS IN JUNE 2009
  • The Medical Services department of VANOC and the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine (CASM) are expected to organize a Sports Medicine Congress from June 1 to 7, 2009 in Vancouver, according to a CASM document, which says the conference "will be open to sports health-care practitioners from all national Olympic committees and national Paralympic committees." It adds that, "In conjunction with the Congress, an advanced course with lectures, practical sessions and interactive workshops will be available to interested physicians working with sport teams." CASM is a non-profit group of physicians that deals with physical activity.

    AMERICAN OLYMPIC SNOWBOARDERS SET UP AT MT. HOOD, OREGON
  • The US Snowboarding's half-pipe Olympic team says it will probably arrive at Mt. Hood's Meadow resort for its inaugural training camp each year leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, so it can become familiar with Northwest snow conditions. The U.S. halfpipers normally hold their spring camps at Mammoth Mountain in California. But coach Mike Jankowsky, who lives in southeast Portland, moved the camp closer to his home this year because of a higher snowpack on Mount Hood, a willingness by Meadows to add another four feet to each side of its 18-foot superpipe, and the mountain's proximity to Vancouver and its snow conditions.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 11, 2007

    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 5:24 PM

    Thursday, May 10, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #2308
    GENERAL ELECTRIC CANADA SAYS IT'S EXPANDING ITS BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER AND WHISTLER THANKS TO 2010 OLYMPICS

    General Electric, one of the international sponsors of the 2010 Winter Games, says it has been involved in a number of contracts in Whistler area's operations of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), according to Jim de Leon, General Manager of Canada Olympic Enterprise Sales.

    For example, GE's Water & Process Technologies division, in partnership with VANOC sponsor Epcor, "has been awarded a contract valued at $1 million to implement its Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design-certified Zenon membrane system at the Nordic water and waste-water treatment plant." de Leon says, "We can also bridge that deal into additional opportunities in electrical, security and lighting for other GE businesses."

    Other GE divisions that have been involved in contracts with VANOC, its contractors, suppliers or government sponsors include Consumer & Industrial, Security, Water & Process Technologies and Modular Space. "The GE team is engaged and absolutely committed to delivering first-class products and services to the Vancouver Games," says de Leon. "This is a fantastic opportunity to share best practices and deliver quality products which will be showcased on the world stage." de Leon says he ensures "my time is dedicated to working with VANOC and various levels of government officials -- as well as our sales teams across Canada -- to secure new business opportunities."

    The company says its Water & Process Technologies section also, "recently won a major contract for supplying a membrane system for the new Convention Centre in Vancouver" which VANOC will uses as the media headquarters during the Games. The company adds that GE Healthcare will be the lead supplier for the two polyclinics that are eventually to be located at the 2010 Olympic Villages in Vancouver and Whistler to look after the medical needs of the athletes and their support teams.

    de Leon says the Olympics connections have also helped the company in breaking the ice with other buyers. "The build-up to the Olympics offers the biggest and fastest growth opportunities over the short-term. It has already allowed a number of GE businesses to enter markets they have never been able to access in the past. Additionally we've been fortunate to win with established businesses such as our Healthcare business, which recently closed a $25 million order for a local hospital. Now the trick is to tie all the other businesses in to win with that same end-user and contractor community. We're getting tremendous business and headquarter team support that wouldn't be available if it weren't for the Olympics."

    de Leon says the Olympics will allow for the possibility of GE businesses having a much larger and longer presence in BC, that if it wasn't involved. "GE Canada's work won't stop when the Olympics end, it will only have just begun. Even though many of the jobs have been designed around the Olympics, they're based on building a bigger, stronger GE presence. When 2010 arrives, we will have raised our visibility substantially and repositioned ourselves in a growing market. We will have established very strong relationships within the Province and local municipalities. Our growth will continue well beyond the Olympics."

    GE Canada says its Capital Solutions section is currently pitching the City of Richmond on doing a batch of work "ranging from credit cards to asset management" as a result of its Olympic connections, and the fact that Richmond is also connected with VANOC. Meanwhile, GE's Corporate Marketing is reportedly creating Olympic-themed outdoor advertising in the Vancouver International Airport.

    Earlier this year, GE sales and marketing groups held a cross-business conference in Vancouver. About 30 senior sales staff met for a day to discuss business opportunities associated with the 2010 Olympic Games and the B.C. market. "The Olympics represent a terrific springboard for GE to make a lasting commercial impact in this growing market," says Bradley Smith, manager of GE's Corporate Initiatives. Dave Doroghy, VANOC's director of Sponsorship Sales was a keynote speaker, providing an update on VANOC's current and future construction, as well as its planning efforts for the Olympics.

    GE sales and marketing programs connected with Olympic games are lucrative for the company, which estimates it generated $41 million during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino in additional revenue across all of its businesses. These also included internal incentives, distributor programs, retail-level promotions and branding work.

    The company has also been doing some research in Canada on itself and whether it's brand is yet connected to the Olympics. Based on research conducted among executives and consumers in Canada, GE's Olympic sponsorship is having a positive impact on the companies' image, particularly one some aspects of what it calls its "brand personality." The research shows that those who are aware of the connection -- admittedly not many yet -- are feeling more favourable to the brand as a result of knowing it's attached to the 2010 Olympics.

    de Leon says that, "Every team member is willing to share leads and contacts with others and as we continue to bridge the gaps, I foresee GE being a much stronger long-term player in the British Columbia market."

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 10, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2307


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    LAST "LOST" MAY BE BUMPED IN CANADA BY 2010 GAMES
  • The popular North American television program "Lost" may be the first clash with 2010 Olympics programming promises made by Canadian host broadcaster CTV. The producers of "Lost", for the first time for any major TV series, have announced their show will end in May, 2010. In addition, they will only produce 16 shows per season leading up to that time, and that each season will be run sequentially each week with no reruns. If you back up the calendar 16 weeks, it means that the final season of "Lost" is scheduled to start in February, 2010, the same month as the 2010 Olympics. CTV has essentially promised that it would provide solid coverage of the 2010 Games each evening while they're running, which means it's also likely that the last programs of "Lost" won't appear on CTV until well after the season has begun on American channels -- channels that can also be seen in most of urban Canada.

    SALES CENTRE FOR FIRST VANCOUVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE CONDOS OPENS NEXT MONTH
  • The Millennium Water is the name of the first of the 2010 Olympic village apartment blocks to go up for sale, with occupancy scheduled once the 2010 Winter Games are finished with the building in the summer of that year, and it's been converted from athlete barracks to residential condos. The marketing centre will open next month at West First Avenue and Cook Street, with sales scheduled to begin in mid-September by Rennie Marketing Systems of Vancouver. Prices are expected to range from C$6 million to C$450,000. Eventually, about 1,000 housing units will be marketed in the Village which itself will be the core of a larger neighbourhood in southeast False Creek. A website has been set up [see, RESOURCES, below].

    IPC SUSPENDS CANADIAN ALPINE SKI ATHLETE FOR DOPING
  • The International Paralympic Committee in Germany reported today that it has suspended Kimberley Joines, a Canadian alpine skier for nine months for having tested positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. The comparatively light punishment was imposed because it was her first doping offense. The IPC, like the International Olympic Committee, follows a strict trial-like procedure for any athlete that tests positive for chemicals on the public anti-doping list. Joines tested positive for carboxylic acid metabolite of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol at a concentration greater than 15 nanograms per milliliter at the 2007 IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in Aspen, Colorado, on January 17. The suspension is retroactive to that day, meaning she could still be eligible for competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics. That particular flavour of the drug is typically used as to control nausea or stimulate appetite during cancer treatments and to help relieve glaucoma in some circumstances, but the details of Joines's case were not immediately released by the IPC.

    RESOURCES

    Rennie Marketing Systems' Millennium Water website:
    www.millenniumwater.com

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 10, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 3:57 PM

    Wednesday, May 09, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2306
    VANCOUVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE EXPANDS WITH ADDITION OF THE LAST OF THE PRIVATE LANDS

    The City of Vancouver and the developers of the 2010 Olympic Village have reached a deal with the private owner of a quarter-block of property across the street from the Salt building to buy and incorporate the land into the Olympic Village. The terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed.

    The deal allows more retail space to be located in the Village after the Games, as well as more market and affordable housing to be built on three-quarters of the whole block, in a more efficient way, by construction two eight-storey apartment buildings and a five story one next to what is currently being called "Pocket Park" on the remaining quarter. The park is next to the family-oriented affordable housing portion.

    The property, at 125 West 1st Avenue where it meets Manitoba Street, will be incorporated into the overall land the City will first lease and then sell to Millennium Development, under an arrangement reached last year, once the 2010 Games are over, and the Olympics have left the Village in southeast False Creek.

    Although it was always expected by the City that the land would eventually be incorporated into the Village's land, virtually all of which was owned by the City already, that couldn't happen until the property's ownership was resolved. The delay, however, has mean that its development will have to be rushed, as it's already behind the tight timetable for building the village in time for the November 1, 2009 deadline to turn the buildings over to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC). VANOC reports that it supports including the additional site in the Olympic Village.

    Vancouver city hall staff say that the property has to be rezoned from industrial to that used by the Village, and that requires a public hearing. To speed things up, however, they're collapsing a lot of the paperwork that normally accompanies development of such an area into information that will be made available at the hearing, so that, if the rezoning goes as expected, Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architects Group, which has already designed the revised buildings, can immediately get started on the first stages of the work it needs to do before construction can start.

    BACKGROUND

    The property, known as Lot 317, is being consolidated with the rest of the block, known as Parcel 5, which is zoned CD-1. Once it's consolidated and its zoning changes from industrial to the same CD-1, assuming the public hearing May 23 goes well, the whole developable area will be be known as Expanded Parcel 5.

    There are 99 units of affordable housing, using the City's definition, and 58 of market housing that are proposed for the Expanded Parcel 5. Retail areas are proposed for the street-level frontage along Manitoba Street.

    Floor area allocated to Parcel 5 and proposed for Expanded Parcel 5

    Residual floor area in existing CD-1
  • and allocated to Parcel 5:
    -- Residential Affordable: 7,776 m2 (83,699 sq. ft.), plus
    -- Residential Market: None approved for Parcel 5, equals
    -- Total Residential: 7,776 m2 (83,699 sq. ft.), and
    -- Retail: 221 m2 (2,383 sq. ft.)


    + additional floor area to be added to Olympic Village CD-1 By-law
    -- Residential Affordable: 1 363 m2 (14,675 sq. ft.), plus
    -- Residential Market: 3 681 m2 (39,618 sq. ft.), equals
    -- Total Residential: 75 044 m2 (54,293 sq. ft.), and
    -- Retail: 538 m2 (5,792 sq. ft.)

    = amended CD-1, with the totals for Expanded Parcel 5:
    -- Residential Affordable: 9 139 m2 (98,374 sq. ft.), plus
    -- Residential Market: 3 681 m2 (39,618 sq. ft.), equals
    -- Total Residential: 12 820 m2 (137,992 sq. ft.), and
    -- Retail: 759 m2 (8,175 sq. ft.)


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 10, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2305
    2010 BOARD OF DIRECTORS WANTED HIGHER OPERATIONS CONTINGENCY, BUT SETTLED ON C$100 MILLION

    The Board of Directors for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) originally wanted a larger operations contingency than the curiously even C$100 million built into VANOC's business plan.

    But Jeff Mooney, the executive chairman and controlling shareholder of A&W Food Services of Canada and a corporate member of the 20-person Board, says that the C$100,000,000 figure was eventually achieved by negotiations during discussions between VANOC's senior management and the Board as management gave the Board more and more comfort in the rigorousness that went into developing the operations budget components. Mooney was nominated to Board last November by the City of Vancouver.

    As Mooney puts it, "It was a dialog, and of course the Board, in the end, had final approval of what numbers to send to the governments," as the Canadian and BC governments both needed to sign off on it before it could be made public.

    Mooney, who has 33 years of business experience, adds that, "We wanted as large a contingency as we could get, within reason. Things will change, things will happen and you don't know exactly what will happen. You hope for the best, but you want to be safe. I know it's a rounded number, so it looks like somebody said, 'We'll put a $100 million in there.' We would have liked to have it a little larger, but we ended up feeling that C$100 million would give us a good-sized sum... there was a lot of work done with the IOC [International Olympic Committee], people from Salt Lake [2002 Winter Games], etcetera, to get costs really tight. Getting costs tighter by putting a lot of energy into looking into the numbers, you get more comfortable with what range you want to have for a contingency. That was important for me."

    Mooney also said that the C$100 million, which is roughly 7% of the C$1.65 billion budget, was based on a specific dollar figure, rather than a percentage, because the Board felt it made things easier for VANOC's management to deal with as it worked to keep the budget under control.

    "From my experience," says Mooney, "and from that of everybody else on the Board, it's always better to have management working in dollars rather than percentages. You want to look at both, obviously, but if you're really going to have to look someone hard in the eye on a hard decision, you want to be working in dollars."

    He says the Board has begun to work with VANOC's executive management team on how it and the Board will keep the budget balanced. Management, he says, "has developed a process, which is very good of them, which will allow them to control transfers in and transfers out of the contingency." As a purely invented example, he says, should management discover the Nordic Centre's operations will be C$5 million more that budgeted, management has to show the Board where VANOC is getting the C$5 million to compensate. "I don't want to be hearing that something is up 10%. I want to make sure that if C$5 million is going to be spent in one area that C$5 million is coming from another area. It just makes it a common language when you're talking about such things. If you're talking about percentages, it's easier to get lost in the weeds."

    RESOURCES

    Jeff Mooney's photo and business resume on VANOC's website:
    www.vancouver2010.com/en/OrganizingCommittee/AboutOrganizingCommittee/BoardDirectors/JeffMooney


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 9, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2304
    2010 ORGANIZATION TO TAKE A DEEPER LOOK AT THE AMOUNT OF TAXES ITS OPERATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO PAY

    The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has begun a detailed review of the amounts and types of taxes it and its related operations should be paying, and, strategically, what it ought to do about them, as it works to find more reductions in its operations budget.

    VANOC's vice-president of Finance, John McLaughlin, says the review is "to understand what taxes we have to pay, and most of the work has now been done in interpreting what our obligations are around GST and PST and that sort of thing. But there's still some work ahead of us in terms of working with the departments of Finance to get clarity on what impact it's going to have on operations." He's referring to the BC and Canadian financial departments primarily.

    VANOC is a non-profit corporation under Canada's tax laws, and so it doesn't pay corporate income taxes, but during the initial negotiations with the federal and provincial governments, it was agreed that it would pay some specific Canadian and provincial taxes. It's required to withhold Canadian taxes on some of its dealings with foreign individuals or companies. In some cases, where federal tax policy means the Canadian government collects taxes as well as provincial taxes in flow-through plans, remissions to VANOC affect both federal and provincial taxation.

    VANOC also is paying the 7% BC provincial sales tax (PST) that's required by British Columbia on most purchases of tangible goods and external legal services. But it also expects some of the provincial taxes to be returned or given remission in other ways, because of the way the province normally applies PST forgiveness to similar major events in previous years. McLaughlin says that, where the PST applies, it's included in its Business Plan estimates, and where VANOC's finance people think it will be forgiven, it's not in the estimates. It's difficult to easily figure out but assuming that half of VANOC's C$1.65 billion budget, minus the C$100 million contingency is covered by PST payments, BC could be expected to recover about C$18 million though this tax by the operations of the Games.

    VANOC also has to pay import duties for goods coming into the province for use by the Games.

    McLaughlin says, "We expect we'll get remission on importation of goods, which is typical and done before, such as on the Pan-American Games. It's a fairly common thing, so it's not specific to us, and we're hoping to get that done. On import duties, it affects both federal and provincial taxation. On PST in all other things, we pay the full load and we're not asking for any kind of remission on that."

    VANOC is also subject to Canada's 6% Goods and Services Tax (GST), assessed on virtually all products and services it purchase, including Value-in-Kind from sponsors, which it treats as though it's buying at normal retail rates even though the sponsor is providing the VIK at its own cost, usually a manufacturing or distribution rate. VANOC is not automatically entitled to a full recovery of its input tax credits, even though it's a non-profit. (In some provinces, the GST is called HST, or harmonized service tax, because it is a single percentage tax that incorporates both the provincial and federal goods and services taxes; BC has elected not to participate in that program.)

    Assuming that most of the C$1.6 billion budgeted spending of the Games, minus the C$100 million contingency, is affected by the GST, it means the federal government would recover about C$90 million in GST alone.

    McLaughlin says that the tax review is not expected to result in being relieved of having to pay the GST or HST, as it's incurred.

    When VANOC won the bid for the Games, it signed a Host City contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and VANOC is expected pay foreign or Canadian taxes in its dealings with members of the Olympic family -- generally the IOC, the IOC operation that provides the pool feed for broadcasters Olympic Broadcast Services and the international sponsors that are contributing to supporting VANOC through the IOC's Olympic Partner program.

    The Canadian, in its budget for this year, said that pending negotiations it would likely waive any non-resident withholding tax liability of the IOC and IPC for any payment made after 2005 and before 2011; it would amend the Income Tax Act to ensure that non-residents, particularly athletes, wouldn't be taxed as a direct result of their participation in the Games; and that it would remit up to all of the customs duties, excise taxes and GST or HST on goods imported into Canada for use by the Games.

    McLaughlin says he expects it will take "six to 12 months" to get the tax strategy review sorted out.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 9, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2303
    VANOC'S MASTER SCHEDULE FOR 2007 LISTS ITEMS OF INTEREST TO GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS ALIKE

    [Editor's note: This is part one of a three-part series on VANOC's planning schedule between now and 2010]

    An executive summary of the master schedule for the 2010 Winter Games during the balance of this year shows that the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) expects to have Canadian brand legislation approved by Parliament by the end of the year.

    And the schedule, further out, also shows VANOC will submit its call during the first quarter of 2009 for the United Nations to declare an Olympic Truce among warring nations while the Games are underway.

    The schedule, however, primarily lists a range of events and their expected completion or start dates for a variety of activities of interest to business.

    For instance, by the end of this June, VANOC expects to have:

  • Completed the first of six sponsor workshops and marketing clubs between now and the fall of 2009 to brief them on its current marketing plans and their co-ordination,
  • Completed its requirements for computer hardware, software and services,
  • Completed its Torch Relay marketing plan,
  • Completed an inventory of medical equipment supplies that it will need to have available during the Games and being to procure those supplies that won't be available,
  • Presented management recommendations to its Board of Directors on ways to increase the transparency of its Board meetings (that Board meeting is scheduled for next week, and will be closed to the public as VANOC CEO John Furlong makes the presentation)
  • Published its latest quarterly report on its business affairs,
  • Published its semi-annual progress reports for the Olympic and Paralympic committees of countries around the world that expect to attend the Games, as well as the semi-annual project review and progress report for the International Paralympic Committee,
  • Completed its semi-annual International Olympic Committee co-ordination commission meetings, which require progress reports and project reviews,
  • Completed the first of seven iterations between now and the end of 2009 of its drawings for the venue overlays and offered the current version for stakeholder feedback,
  • Published its first annual Sustainability scorecard and report (it is expected to be comprehensive with information presented in a way that can be tracked and compared annually, like an annual financial report, and it is scheduled to be released either at the end of this month or the beginning of June by the vice-president of Sustainability, Linda Coady).

    Between the beginning of July and the end of September of this year, VANOC expects to have:

  • Begun high-level planning of the operational concepts of its functional divisions and its venues (Over the next two years, increasing levels of detail are expected to be added progressively until the operating plans are completed in the fall of 2009. The operating plans are expected to include all of the components needed by the functions and venue management to operate the Games, as well as the service-level descriptions,policies and procedures, staffing plans, technology and material needs, space requirements and contingency plans. These all have to meet the needs of VANOC's government and corporate sponsors, the national Olympic and Paralympic committees that represent the athletes and team officials that accompany them, the international sports federations, the media, the rest of the Olympic family and spectators),
  • Finalized VANOC's brand-protection strategic plan and its accompanying communications plan,
  • Completed its aboriginal licensing and merchandising program,
  • Selected the producer of the Olympic ceremonies, including those that will open and close the Olympics and Paralympics, and begin development of the shows,
  • Completed planning for VANOC's community-information programs,
  • Launched its education program for the Cultural Olympiad, which accompanies the 2010 Games and includes the Olympic and Paralympic Arts Festivals,
  • Figured out the delivery model for servicing its events,
  • Settled on the locations of the accredited anti-doping laboratory,
  • Set up agreements with Vancouver Coastal Health (the regional hospital-management organization), other public health services, the Sports Medicine Council of BC, and the Emergency Health Services organization to deal with medical issues during the Games,
  • Completed another iteration of the overlay drawings,
  • Completed the process it will use for setting up a fabrication plant in east Vancouver for overlay materials,
  • Developed a servicing plan for VANOC's sponsors that have marketing and other rights at the 2008 Beijing Games,
  • Finalized its ticketing contractor and its ticketing plan so it can go to through its approval process through the IOC (VANOC is currently talking to the three short-listed respondents to its ticketing contractor Request for Proposals)
  • Held its first annual IOC Press Commission meetings (the Commission, an IOC body, is responsible for advising Organizing Committees on how to provide the best possible working conditions for the world's news media during the Games. It's work is important to the IOC -- as well as to VANOC -- because it's the media that tells the public about the importance of the IOC's work and Games, which in turn affects the Olympics brand perception. The Commission consists of IOC officials, media representatives, national Olympic Committees representatives and athletes and they meet with VANOC management).

    Between the beginning of October and the end of the year, VANOC expects to have:

  • Launched its Olympic and Paralympic mascots,
  • Figured out how it will dispose of all of its assets when the Games are completed,
  • Launched its online VANOC retail store, the only place where its full range of branded merchandise will be available (superstores in Vancouver and Whistler are to come later, and various retailers, through distribution agreements it's already reached and expects to reach, will have partial selections of merchandise),
  • Got its east Vancouver overlay fabrication shop started,
  • Done another iteration of its overlay drawings as new sponsors come on board
  • Completed construction and begun operation of the following venues: Cypress Mountain snowboard run (other parts of Cypress Mountain venue opened earlier this year), Whistler Nordic Centre, the Whistler Sliding Centre, Whistler Creekside and the Pacific Coliseum.
  • Completed a model plan for operating the venues,
  • Figured out its payment process and schedules for the thousands of rooms in Greater Vancouver and Whistler areas it has arranged for the people who will be arriving from out of town to help set up and run the 2010 Games
  • Completed its difficult accommodation plan for media in the Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton areas,
  • Figured out a plan for allocating the accommodation by its various client groups,
  • Recruited its doping-control officers and begun the initial training and certification in co-operation with its anti-doping contractor, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport,
  • Developed its plan for its spectator guide project,
  • Completed its plan for its Rate Card project plan (the Rate Card is for the goods and services available for hire during Games time)
  • Published the first quarterly report of its 2007/2008 fiscal year (which begins August 1),
  • Published its annual financial report for the 2006/2007 fiscal year (which ends July 31),
  • Published another of its semi-annual progress reports for the national Olympic and Paralympic Committees that will be fielding teams for the Games
  • Completed a head count review for the number of people needed to operate the Games, including staff, contractors, secondments and volunteers


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 9, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2302


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    BOARDS OF VANOC SPONSOR RONA AND VANOC VENUE MANAGER PAVCO INTERLOCK
  • Doris Daughney, the former chair of the BC Pavilion Corporation and now a director of the revamped board of directors for the BC Pavilion Corporation that oversees two major VANOC venues owned by the BC government, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of one of VANOC's major sponsors, Rona. VANOC's renovations sponsor supplies quite a bit of the materials VANOC contractors use for work on its venues. Daughney is president and director of Canwest Wholesale, a company based in the Greater Vancouver suburb of Richmond. Pavco now controls BC Place Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Games are to occur, as well as the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. The convention centre's C$800-million expansion building, now under construction, will be taken over by VANOC in the spring of 2009 for use as the Games's international media and broadcast centre until April 2010. Another new director, appointed today, is Robert Sartor. Alberta-based Sartor is president and CEO of Forzani Group Ltd., the largest retailer of sports products in Canada. The Forzani Group includes Sport Mart, Sport Chek, Sports Experts and Intersport retailing operatioins. Rona also announced that Jean Gaulin has replaced André Gagnon, who is retiring, as Rona's chairman of its Board of Directors. Meanwhile, Rona released its first-quarter report today showing that while sales were up about 10%, it didn't make as much profit this quarter as it did a year ago. It still made about C$9 million in profit during the quarter, but it made about C$16 million during the quarter last year. The company has 668 corporate, franchise and affiliate stores, as well as eight distribution centres, across Canada, and they generate almost C$6 billion in annual retail sales. The work Rona's doing with the 2010 Games, as usual, didn't factor into any aspect of the company's management analysis of the quarterly report. In essence, the company said, "Consumer confidence was shaken by more difficult economic conditions in the manufacturing sectors of Ontario and Quebec, whereas in the western part of the country, a strong economy continues to support construction and home renovations."

    COC BEEFS UP VANCOUVER OFFICE IN FRONT OF 2010 GAMES
  • The Canadian Olympic Committee is strengthening its Vancouver office with additional management as the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2010 Winter Olympics near, and you'll begin to hear more about the organization as a result. A former marathon runner who took part in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Games, Bruce Deacon has been hired as manager of the COC's Education and Community Relations section, and Marianne Limpert will become co-ordinator of its Education and Community Relations program. Deacon's coming from the job of managing the Research and Innovation section of the BC Ministry of Advanced Education. In addition, Lisa Wallace has been hired to help Deacon by working in the role of program manager for his division. Limpert also reports to Deacon, who in turn reports to Marc Gélinas, the organization's Director, Athlete and Community Relations. Limpert will begin her duties on Monday while Deacon and Wallace will start work about two weeks later on June 4. Gélinas says he expects that, "Together these three individuals will help the COC enhance our education, youth and community programs leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver." Deacon will be responsible for the overall direction and strategic planning of the COC's education and youth outreach programs, including the Canadian Olympic School Program, which is supported by VANOC sponsor RBC, the Olympic Academy of Canada and the Adopt an Athlete program. Deacon will continue developing the COC's relationship with the National Board of Directors and Regional Chapters of Olympians Canada, as well as implementing the COC's community initiatives he helps develop. Limpert's job is to help manage the COC’s community and education programs including the Olympians Canada chapters, the Provincial and Territorial Olympic Academies and various community events. Limpert, a silver medalist who was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame last April, was on the Canadian swim team at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Games.

    VANOC SPONSOR BELL DOES DIGITAL-BUNDLE DEAL WITH HP FOR BELL CUSTOMERS
  • While the Chinese-government owned Lenovo continues to mull over whether to extend its international sponsorship agreement to supply desktop computer to the 2010 Winter Games, VANOC's big telecommuncations supporter, Bell Canada, has just done a computer-and-Internet combo for Bell's retail customers with Hewlett Packard Canada. Under the deal, consumers get Bell's Sympatico high speed service bundled with a new HP Compaq Presario desktop or HP Pavilion notebook computer, both with 'round-the-clock customer service and support, for about C$60 a month.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 9, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 3:03 PM

    Tuesday, May 08, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2301
    2010 MEDALS HOCKEY VENUE EXPECTED TO GENERATE RECORD-BREAKING C$48 MILLION SURPLUS

    The main hockey site for the 2010 Winter Games is expected to produce an estimated surplus of C$48 million, believed to be a record for the most money ever generated by a Summer or Winter Olympics venue, according to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

    VANOC's executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, Dave Cobb, took the unusual move of discussing an overview of the agreement-in-principle today, even though the venue contract is not yet signed, following the disclosure of some of the details of the deal during a civil court case now underway over how the ownership of Orca Bay, the company which owns General Motors Place arena and the Vancouver Canucks National Hockey League team, which uses it as its home base.

    VANOC expects to generate about C$70 million in gross revenue from the building during the 36 days it will have exclusive use of it in 2010, compared to about C$22 million in expenditures, all of which are accounted for under its operations budget, which is raised from private sector financing.

    It is the only venue that will not require government provided capital expenditures, although it was originally proposed that it would need about C$10 million in such work until VANOC was able to persuade the International Olympic Committee to play its premier mdedal hockey games on NHL sized ice, instead of the larger international size.

    As VANOC CEO John Furlong puts it, "It will be the perfect venue for the Games'" hockey events, "and it will have the best technology for a building like that anywhere in the world."

    VANOC and Orca Bay's ownership have agreed that VANOC will pay C$18 million -- plus C$110,000 plus inflation per day in rental, in exchange for exclusive use of the arena for 36 days from January 28 to March 4, 2010 -- for a total rental rate of nearly C$4 million. VANOC says the rental rate is competitive with similar facilities in North America.

    In exchange for that expense during the exclusive-use period are full and exclusive use by VANOC and its sponsors of the 96 corporate suites that rink the arena, all ticket revenues, the removal of all Orca Bay corporate sponsorship activities during that time -- particularly brand displays to be consistent with IOC policy for a "clean-view" venue, a state-of-the-art scoreboard system, an unspecified number of "rent-free opportunities" at GM Place in the lead-up to the Games, and revenue from all arena-owned parking.

    VANOC expects sell outs for the Games, but is budgeting for conservative 95% in ticket sales for the hockey games that will be played there during the Games.

    No Olympic venue with corporate suites has ever turned over those suites to Olympic organizers before during exclusive use periods.

    The deal does not include GM Place concession revenues, which are expected to continue to flow to Orca Bay, but most of the food and beverages sold by the concessions during the Games in the 17,000-seat arena are expected to be supplied by VANOC's corporate sponsors, which so far include Coca-Cola and its corporately related beverage products, and Weston Foods baked goods. Other food suppliers are expected to be appointed before the Games begin.

    The government minister in charge of BC's Olympic responsiblities, Colin Hansen, says it's not appropriate, as the government's opposition party Olympics critic, the NDP's Harry Bains, has done, to compare the deal VANOC has done with the venue agreement that covers BC Place Stadium, across the street from GM Place and owned by a BC crown corporation, because they are much different buildings with much different functions in the Games.

    VANOC's Board chairman Jack Poole says a better comparison is the Vancouver City owned Coliseum arena, which is another VANOC venue. "The numbers that we're spending in upgrades at the Coliseum is very, very close to the number that we're putting into GM Place. That was a big factor in the initial discussions with Orca Bay. They were quite concerned that taxpayer's money was going into a taxpayer-owned facility in competition with a privately owned facility like GM Place. And they felt that, at the end of the day, that they should be treated almost the same... and they are being treated almost the same."

    The stadium, which can seat up to 60,000, is to be used for VANOC's opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the free nightly entertainment ceremonies that will be held after medals are awarded during the Games. Bains claims the arrangements VANOC has negotiated with it mean it will essentially get free use of the building during the Games, and calls it a BC government "give-away" to VANOC.

    "In the case of GM Place," Hansen notes, the payments are "100% out of VANOC's operating budget. It does not affect the provincial or federal government's contributions to the Games. The BC Place provision is set up quite a bit differently, in that the concession revenues, which are estimated to be in the neighbourhood of C$8 million will, in fact, still come to the province through BC Pavilion Corporation. There are also some upgrades to BC Place that will be done to make sure it is more accessible" for the disabled, and that, he says, is coming from the BC and federal taxpayers from VANOC capital expenditures, and is part of a previously announced government budget.

    Furlong says that it's also important to keep in mind that, from a VANOC programming viewpoint, "we're in the stadium for -- in terms of ticketed events -- about six hours." Furlong also said that a goodly portion of the Stadium expenditures are for the "look and feel, and the magic you have to have" for spectator experience, which he says will be "world class."


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 8, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2300
    VANCOUVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE PROJECT MANAGER NAMED DEPUTY MANAGER OF VANCOUVER CITY

    The project manager for the Vancouver Olympic Village has been named as one of two new deputy managers for the City of Vancouver.

    Jody Andrews, who has been with the a complex, high profile and multi-stakeholder development since its inception more than 18 months ago and who has an engineering degree, was appointed today along with James Ridge. Andrews begins his new job today, however he is expected to continue to oversee the management of the Olympic Village project until a transition strategy to a new project manager can be developed. Ridge starts June 8.

    The City of Vancouver agreed to supervise the development of the Vancouver Olympic Village because it will form the core of a new, larger residential and retail neighbourhood after the 2010 Games have been completed.

    Andrews has spent 19 years in municipal government, all but three of which have been with the City of Vancouver. His career highlights include being the Assistant City Engineer of Departmental Services in Vancouver, as well as the Chief Negotiator for the SkyTrain Millennium Line rapid transit line with the City of New Westminster.

    The pair are replacing two veteran deputy managers who announced their retirement earlier this year.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 8, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2299


    FURLONG TO TALK TO KAMLOOPS EXECUTIVES TOMORROW
  • VANOC CEO John Furlong is expected to be in the BC interior city of Kamloops on Wednesday to talk to its local Chamber of Commerce about how smaller communities outside the Lower Mainland can benefit from the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympic Winter Games. Deb McClelland, Chamber president, says she would like to have a short promotional film about the Kamloops broadcast over TSN, CTV or Sportsnet, the Canadian Olympics host broadcasters. “A big slam dunk for us would be to have Kamloops featured as a vignette during the Olympics on their broadcasts,” she told the Kamloops This Week newspaper. McClelland, a member of the business subcommittee of Spirit of B.C. Kamloops, said the group is working on making this kind of video possible.

    SPLIT CONTEMPLATED FOR VANOC HOCKEY VENUE PAYMENT DURING OWNERSHIP SQUABBLE
  • A civil trial involving an argument over the ownership of General Motors Place, the main hockey venue for the 2010 Winter Games, was told today in Vancouver that the previous owners wanted to split 50/50 the C$18 million VANOC was to provide for using the big arena and other revenue from the arrangement with the new potential owners. That came as a surprise to the group bidding for the purchase, because it would be the full owner of the arena by the time the 2010 Games were held.

    GOVERNMENT, GROUPS FRET ABOUT BEARS IN CALLAGHAN VALLEY
    Flags raised over grizzly bears in Callaghan Valley during construction
  • The BC government's environmental ministry and some private environmental groups are worried about the potential for trouble between grizzly bears and VANOC logging and construction crews working on trails this summer in the Callaghan Valley. Several bears have been spotted in the valley, which is the site of VANOC's Whistler Nordic Venue.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 8, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2298
    2010 ORGANIZATION OFFERS BALANCED-BUDGET BUSINESS PLAN OF C$1.63 BILLION TO OPERATE OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES

    The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says it intends to raise at least C$1.63 billion from the private sector and spend no more than that to operate its Games, and that includes a $100 million contingency, according to its first public business plan.

    It's also somewhat less than the C$1.7 billion budget figure mentioned by several senior VANOC managers over the past nine months.

    Today's revenue figure includes a record-setting C$579.7 million in gross television and broadcast revenues from the International Olympic Committee, as well as another record, C$201.4 million gross from international corporate sponsorships that flow through the IOC to VANOC, and another C$35 million in various other funds from the IOC. In fact, 69% of VANOC's operating revenue has now either been received or is committed by major organizations. The balance is, for the most part, revenue that still has to be earned by VANOC through confirmation of additional international and national sponsorships, ticketing, branded merchandise sales and the like.

    VANOC CEO John Furlong, who presented the operations plan, said several times during his presentations today that "we will not spend the money we do not have. This budget will remain balanced." Meanwhile, VANOC board member Jeff Mooney, who is on the Board's Finance Committee and who is also president and CEO of A&W Food Services, says that in the 35 years he's been in business, the quality of work that went into preparing the Plan was "the best I'd ever seen." As he spoke, he was flanked by other members of the Board's finance committee, senior government consultant Ken Dobell and financier Peter Brown, who voiced their agreement.

    The summary document of 196 pages has been dubbed Version 2.0, because the first version, described as a "top down" preparation was vetted by the BC and Canadian governments two years ago in response to a technical deadline, but was never released to the public because it was prepared before much of VANOC's senior management had been hired and before staff had a chance to see the Torino Winter Games in operation.

    The plan has been approved by: VANOC executive management, VANOC's Board of Directors via its Finance Committee, the International Olympic Committee via its 2010 Commission, the Canadian government, the BC government and the Canadian government. The final governmental approvals came "in the last couple of weeks."

    And even this document is subject to change. Version 3.0 is expected to be prepared during 2008 and released around the end of next year. As Furlong puts it, "This plan will guide our decisions as we approach the staging of the 2010 Winter Games in a fiscally disciplined way, leaving benefits and legacies that will last long after the Olympic flame is extinguished. With fewer than three years to go until the Games, we are certain there will be changes and adjustments –- likely many of them –- all aimed at producing the best experience for all Games participants."

    Nor is the document and its batch of appendices the entire plan. Again, Furlong: "While the document is of considerable length, it does not, and cannot, possibly address all of the activity and planning that is already completed or is still in front of us. The truth is, VANOC’s planning will continue with added layers of detail and refinement right down to Games time. There is an extensive body of work behind this plan -- detailed financial estimates, function plans and schedules. These will continue to evolve as the project advances."

    Over the next few days, we'll provide breakouts of specific area of the Business Plan, with a focus on future of the organization, however VANOC has provided the document in PDF form; for the link, see RESOURCES, below:

    Here, then, are the main estimates of revenues from VANOC:

    IOC FUNDING
    IOC Contribution: C$579,700,000 - primarily broadcasting rights
    Less – the cost of the IOC providing Olympic Broadcast Services (C$178,000,000)
    IOC Net Contribution C$401,700,000
    Other IOC Revenue C$35,000,000 (Total of above: C$436,700,000; Received or committed: 100%)
    IOC International Sponsorship Program C$201,404,000 (Received or committed: 71%)

    VANOC CONTRIBUTION:
    Domestic Sponsorship C$760,000,000 (Received or committed: 81%)
    Ticketing C$231,854,000 (Received or committed: 0%)
    Licensing & Merchandising C$46,026,000 (Received or committed: 39%)
    Paralympic Revenue C$40,000,000 (Received or committed: 100%)
    Other C$110,502,000 (Received or committed: 2%)

    TOTAL REVENUE C$1,826,486,000
    Less: Marketing rights royalties (C$197,217,000)

    NET REVENUE C1,629,269,000 (Received or committed: 69%)

    --

    EXPENDITURES BY MAJOR VANOC DIVISION
    Revenue, Marketing and Communications C$126,427,000
    Sport, Paralympic Games and Venue Management C$186,436,000
    Service Operations and Ceremonies C$548,130,000
    Technology and Systems C$398,500,000
    Human Resources and Sustainability C$153,144,000
    Finance and Legal and CEO Office C$116,632,000
    Project Contingency – Games Operations C$100,000,000
    Total Expenditures C$1,629,269,000

    BACKGROUND
    VANOC accounts for its C$580 million capital budget separately from its operations budget. That budget which is taxpayer financed, 50% from BC and 50% from the Canadian government, hasn't changed from previous reports, and isn't expected to change.

    RESOURCES
    VANOC's business plan is available as a one-megabyte PDF here:
    www.vancouver2010.com/resources/PDFs/07_05_08_VANOC_Business_Plan_EN_e.pdf

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 8, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 2:58 PM

    Monday, May 07, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #2297
    NORTEL EXECUTIVE SEES VANOC'S TECHNOLOGY STRUCTURE AS A WATERSHED EVENT FOR TELECOM INDUSTRY

    The Chief Technology Officer of Nortel says the decision of the 2010 Winter Olympics to base all of its telecommunications on Internet protocols is a watershed event internationally for an industry that is increasingly supplying a major supporting structure of international commerce and consumer activity.

    And, John Roese, whose company recently became a major supplier to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), adds, VANOC's decision, major validation of a method where "voice, data, video broadcast, mobility and every other communications service" is now essential to the world's communication.

    Roese says, "This is exciting because the moment that mainstream events on the world stage -- some three billion people will see the Games in person, on TV and/or on the Internet -- can take for granted that a technology will work, and just simply should be the technology of choice, is the moment when we have passed the legacy tipping point. What it says is that we are no longer hedging our bets with legacy technology because we have confidence that IP technologies are core to telecom."

    On May 1, Nortel became VANOC's Official Converged Network Equipment Supplier, following a decision by Nortel's long-time customer Bell Canada, to be equipment supplier for the Games' wide area network. Bell Canada is the exclusive telecommunications services provider and the major corporate sponsor of the 2010 Winter Games, and VANOC's decision was based on its recommendations. Roese says, "The net result is that from a networking technology perspective, Nortel equipment will provide the foundation for the communications experience of the Games."
    The Olympics don't like to be involved in leading-edge technology, because the technology it uses has to work reliably, be readily understood by its technicians and have methods to make its systems redundant.

    Roese says the IP-protocol decision has more significance than just an equipment deal, for Nortel, for Bell, and the telecommunications industry as a whole: "It should now be clear that we are indeed entering a new era of communications and that, in this era, the technologies that have led us to this point must now be trusted to simply work flawlessly. This means that carrier-class resiliency is expected everywhere, that scale matters because this technology will be used to support not just single businesses but the entire world, and that our future efforts must be focused on using the modern platform as a basis for all telecom functions. The reality is that the telecom industry of the future (and even the present) is about an ecosystem of technologies and applications that come together on a set of common elements, such as IP and web services and ethernet."

    The Nortel CTO says, of his company's support of the 2010 Games, that, "We have the potential to deliver the kinds of communications experiences that are needed by business and by world events like the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. That experience is about applications working to support infrastructure and vice versa. It is about carrier and enterprise boundaries blurring. And, it is about wireless and wireline networking being just two elements of an end-to-end seamless system."

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 7, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2296


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    NEW HOTEL TO BE BUILT NEAR VANOC'S VANCOUVER MEDIA VENUE
  • Okabe North America, the company that owns Coast Hotels and Resorts, says it intends to build a C$60-million hotel at 1180 West Hastings Street in the downtown business core of Vancouver by the fall of 2009. That puts the 20-storey, 220-room, full-service complex only two blocks from the Vancouver convention centre, which will be home to the thousands of media representatives descending on the city to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics Games. Most of the support crews will be arriving about mid-2009, while the main media influx will occur in January and early February of 2010. The hotel will also include private boardrooms, a business centre, a gym, a landscaped podium roof deck with an outdoor lap pool and hot tub., as well as a new 100-seat restaurant. The architect is Downs/Archambault of Vancouver, the project manager is Delta Land Development and it is to be built by the Scott Construction Group of Vancouver. Work is expected to start on the property in June. Vancouver's Inside Design Studio Inc. will deal with the interior design.

    WHISTLER GIVES NOD TO FISCAL MANAGER FOR 2010 OPERATING TRUST BOARD
  • The Resort Municipality of Whistler is nominating Lisa Landry, the municipality's manager of fiscal planning to serve as its appointee to the seven-person 2010 Games Operating Trust Society. The non-profit organization has been formed by VANOC and the governments with which it's involved, but will come into its own as the 2010 Games are winding down, as it will take over the operation of the VANOC-owned venues, such as the Whistler Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley and the Whistler Sliding Centre. The society also oversees and manages the Legacy Endowment Fund. The society's job is also to recapitalize the Legacy Endowment Fund of C$110 million, and to provide operating and maintenance funding for the main venues built by VANOC. The Trust also provides funding to continue high-performance sport programming for Canadian athletes, primarily at these venues.

    VANOC SPONSOR PARENT TO PROVIDE C$300,000 TO HELP CANADIAN CHILDREN STAY FIT
  • George Weston Limited, the parent company of Weston Bakeries, which became VANOC's latest official supplier, says it will donate C$300,000 to YMCA organizations across Canada. The donation is being made under the company's "The Wonder Play, Dream, Grow Community Spirit" program that funds community-based programs that help children stay fit through play. The program will also include funding to build several playgrounds and training facilities in communities across Canada.

    RESOURCES

    A photo of Shu Naito, Vice President, Okabe North America, with a model of the new hotel:
    www.ccnmatthews.com/docs/Shu%20Naito.jpg

    Coast Hotels contact info:
    www.coasthotels.com/contactus/overview.html

    Downs/Archambault:
    www.da-architects.ca

    Delta Land Development:
    www.deltalanddev.com

    Scott Construction Group:
    www.scottconstructiongroup.com

    Inside Design Studio:
    www.insidedesignstudio.com

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 7, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2295
    HUMAN RESOURCES RECRUITEMENT STRATEGIES DEVELOPED TO EVOLVE AS GAMES APPROACH

    Information from the Human Resources department of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) shows that it will begin in the winter of 2008 the hiring and training processes for the 25,000 volunteers it estimates it will need to help run the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics.

    The processes are expected to be completed by December, 2009, according to the information.

    The estimated 1,400 full-time employees are expected to have been hired by July, 2009, along with another 3,500 short-term employees who will have been hired by that July as well. VANOC currently has about 250 full-time people.

    The information shows that there will be six main types of personnel: full-time paid staff; seconded employees from governments, Olympic and Paralympic organizations and corporate sponsors; "co-located" employees from the same sources; contracted employees and consultants; volunteers for both pre-Games work, as well as during and shortly after the Games are completed; and interns or co-op students from various educational institutions. The recruitment sources are expected to be, primarily, those who have worked at other Olympic Games, specific interest groups, the business community, the general public, educational institutions and volunteer organizations.

    One of VANOC's major goals is to ensure its personnel stay on the job until they're laid off in the spring of 2010, so retention, performance rewards and outplacement is essential. The mission and recruitment strategies of the VANOC Human Resources department between now and the end of 2008 are to offer or instill the concept that the work goes beyond simply being involved with staging the Games, but that it is a "nation-building" exercise. They are also being told that working for VANOC is a "once in a lifetime opportunity," that it's a "professional and personal learning opportunity that will be the equivalent of 10 years experience in three years", that it's an "exciting and challenging environment where they will be working with talented people, that it's an "opportunity to give back to Canada and their community" and they will learn to believe in the "Olympics and the value of Olympism."

    The recuritment marketing strategy switches as they hire during 2008 (there is some overlap that year with the previous strategy) and 2009, since the hiring will be for a relatively short term. At that point, VANOC will be talking about how the recruit will be given an "event-operation experience," as well as "Olympic and Paralympic experience"; they will have "continued accelerated professional learning", and that there will be an outplacement process at the end to help them get jobs after the Games.

    The strategies the department was to achieve include having:

  • "An engaged and inspired workforce that together creates a positive legacy experience for BC, Canada and the world";

  • "An aligned workforce that understands their contributions to the [VANOC] mission and vision and who embody VANOC’s values";

  • "A committed workforce that is passionate and optimistic about the Olympic and Paralympic Games";

  • "A diverse, talented group of individuals that leverage and appreciate each other’s skills and abilities"; and,

  • Having a workforce that wants to "welcome the world to Vancouver, BC and be a world class host". [Whistler, Richmond and West Vancouver, which are also areas that are hosting Games venues, are not specifically mentioned, but the information provided was in note form. -- Ed.]

    The HR department will have five sections dealing with various aspects of the personnel. They're entitled Recruitment & Selection; Orientation, Training & Development; Performance Management; Health & Wellness; and, Rewards & Recognition.

    The ingredients that VANOC hopes to instill in its employees and volunteers: that they develop in "a passionate culture with strong vision, mission and values", but to do that, VANOC has to "Hire the right people; people that hold the vision strong." That includes a tactic of hiring "a strong mix of Games experience and local talent". The department intends to provide "extra performance rewards for strong performance overall" and emphasize the team concept, but if a mistake in hiring is made, VANOC's principle is to "Move quickly if there is no 'fit'."

    The department information shows that about 50% of the personnel on the VANOC payroll will have been released or otherwise laid off by VANOC by March of 2010, which is when the Paralympics, the last component of the Games, is finished, but the exodus will start well before that: VANOC's executive vice-president of Capital Construction, Dan Doyle, for instance, expects to be leaving the organization by late 2009, as his job will have been completed by then. The information also shows that 98% of VANOC's employees will have been laid off by the end of April, 2010.

    A skeleton crew will then supervise the dismantling, return, sales, distribution and auctioning of the materials used to stage the Games, while another component of those remaining will finalize the important financial wrap up of the Games, which is expected to be completed by December, 2010. All of VANOC's second-tier sponsors have marketing rights that expire on December 31, 2010. It's during that last six or seven months that VANOC, sponsors, governments and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) work out the financial exchanges that will determine whether VANOC ends up in with a surplus or deficit.

    For instance, monies advanced by the IOC to VANOC in advance of TV revenues being received are reconciled with the amounts actually received, the IOC's holdbacks on various financial flows, such as the 5% held back on the TV-rights auctions are accounted, along with amounts contracted to be provided to the IOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee from cash generated by the sales of Canadian marketing rights to sponsors.

    The skeleton crew will also hand over to the Canadian Olympic Committee during that time the administration of the marketing rights of major VANOC sponsors that extend to December 31, 2012.

    BACKGROUND

    Here's some general demographics of the current VANOC employee profile:

  • Veteran (born between 1922 and 1945) 2% of the workforce
  • Boomers (1946 – 1964) 27%
  • Gen X (1965 – 1978) 57%
  • Millennials (1979 – 2000) 14%


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 7, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #2294
    VANOC, COIN DEALERS STILL ARGURING ABOUT MARKETING 2010 COINS SETS

    The running argument between the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and coin dealers in North America about which companies can sell the Canadian Mint's Olympic coin series on line continues unabated a month after it began.

    The argument is enmeshed by the web of sponsorship arrangements VANOC has made with several of its major corporate sponsors including the Mint, the Royal Bank, Petro-Canada and Visa, plus the marketing rights VANOC has negotiated with the International Olympic Committee. We've now learned that you can now add to that web the separate marketing arrangements the Mint has made with a number of its distributors. And the whole thing is fueled by the fact that implementation of many of these arrangements conflict with the normal marketing and distribution methods of the coin-collection industry.

    Essentially, VANOC has arranged with Petro-Canada and the Royal Bank, which gets the coins from the Mint, to retail the collector coins across Canada, but consumers are told it's preferred they pay for them with Visa credit cards, although other credit cards are accepted. The arrangement essentially bypasses the standard coin-collecting retail shops. VANOC's deal with the Mint doesn't prevent the Mint from selling Olympic coin sets via its main distributors to coin shops, but the available evidence seems to be that the Mint at first neglected to let its distributors know that marketing the sets online or outside of Canada was not allowed.

    It hasn't helped that there is conflicting and evolving information emerging from the Mint and VANOC, and that lawyers are involved. Nor does it help that some dealers are allowed to advertise online, while most are not.

    The issue first came to light April 11 when All Nations Coin -- an independent company whose operation is in leased space in the downtown Vancouver flagship store of yet another VANOC sponsor, the Hudson's Bay Company -- who was told by VANOC that he had only a couple of days to remove his Olympic coin promotion from his corporate website, or he'd be prosecuted for trademark violations.

    Brian Grant-Duff, president of All Nations says that he bought several thousand dollars worth of Olympic coins from authorized Mint distributors in collector sets, just as he has done for nearly two decades with various other collector sets produced by the Mint, and, as usual, Grant-Duff advertised them on his corporate website. He eventually complied, after getting stern communications from both VANOC and the Mint. There also seemed to be conflicting information about whether Canadian coin dealers could, or could not, sell their coins sets to collectors outside of Canada.

    VANOC says the primary reason most Canadian dealers are not being allowed to sell online is licensing rights. "We have the territorial rights to sell within Canada," VANOC's manager of Media Relaions, Chris Brumwell told the industry publication, Canadian Coin News (CCN), adding, "Rights in other countries are held by their national Olympic associations, such as the USOC [United States Olympic Committee]."

    Dennis Kim, VANOC's director of Licensing and Merchandise, adds that, "To ensure we can meet our obligations of only selling within Canada we must have controlled distribution channels. Understandably, the Internet is not restricted by Canadian borders, and to meet our obligations to sell merchandise only within Canada, partnerships have been formed with a small number of online operators."

    There is apparently only two such operators in Canada so far -- Gatewest Coin of Winnipeg, which is where the Mint's headquarters is located, and J&M Coin & Jewellery of Vancouver, which is where VANOC's headquarters is located. A total of five are expected to be eventually approved.

    "We have an agreement with VANOC," Pam Aung-Thin, vice-president of Communications at the Mint told CCN. "As part of that, it includes the proper reporting of sales of the Olympic products, and this includes revenues outside of Canada. The Mint has signed agreements with dealers in Canada that sell the products." Each such dealer, among other things, is required to provide the Mint with reports of Olympic product sales. "Any sub-distributors also have to sign agreements and provide sales reports. Internet rights are given to the Mint and to direct distributors. As part of our agreement with VANOC, we can only provide a limited number of agreements for dealers and distributors to advertise and sell on the web. The criteria for this is determined by VANOC."

    VANOC and the Mint have since issued documentation to unauthorized coin dealers outlining not only the restrictions on online marketing, but also specific instructions about how the point-of-sale area is to look when displaying Olympic coinage at retail shops.

    CCN reports that "In order for dealers to get Internet rights, VANOC has to evaluate the website -- its layout, where the products are placed, etc. There are very strict guidelines they use. When sub-dealers such as Grant-Duff buy their product from other dealers, VANOC has no control over what is being done on his website, as well as the dozens of other small-time dealers across Canada. When you advertise on the Internet, you are selling worldwide. VANOC only wants people who already have significant exposure in the U.S., such as Gatewest or J&M, to sell online."

    Kirk Parsons of Colonial Acres in Kitchener, Ontario, which purchases its coins from both the Mint and distributors, told CCN his company has been "fighting with the Mint for months on this one." He said that when he tried to get clarification from the Mint, the Crown corporation told him everything was being controlled by VANOC. When he asked VANOC, he said it told him he to contact the Mint.

    Both Parsons and Grant-Duff say they do a substantial business through online sales. In Parson's case, he estimates about 85% of his business is done via online marketing, while Grant-Duff's share is smaller than that, but that a majority of his customers find him on line. "It's horrible... I've been losing tons of money a day," Parsons told CCN. "I offered to give the Mint a C$100,000 order to bump my numbers, but they don't react to that. It's getting to the point that all us dealers are going to call up our local MPs and lawyers." Added Grant-Duff: "Most people trying to order these coins from me online are doing so because they are in a remote location (of Canada) where they don't have a local coin dealer."

    An elderly coin collector living in New York City contacted Morgan:News:2010 to talk about how frustrated he was in his attempts to get a set of the coins from his regular Canadian suppliers. Living on a pension and confined to his apartment by his health, he says he buys virtually all of his collector sets either on line or by mail order. "I can't just walk into a Canadian bank or a gas station to get them," he says.

    RESOURCES

    Gatewest Coin's website: It's not apparent from the website's home page that the company offers Olympic coins, but a search of its online store reveals that it is selling coins and sets authorized by VANOC in 29 different ways, and each one has its own page that is linked separately by the listings. However, it only accepts orders from within "North America", which is not defined but appears to be only Canada and the United States.
    www.gatewestcoin.com

    --

    J&M's website: It's home page also does not list the fact that it sells Olympic coins. The only way for somebody new to get to the company's 2010 Olympic page is by searching for "Olympic" in its catalogue search field at the top of the page, and then selecting the "Vancouver Olympic Coins, 2010 Games" in the listings that appear. The link below is a shortcut to that page. On it, in large block lettering is this warning: "NOTICE: BY ORDER OF VANOC, THE COINS AND SETS LISTED ON THIS PAGE CANNOT BE SOLD OUTSIDE OF NORTH AMERICA. ORDERS TO THE U.S.A. ARE NOT CURRENTLY POSSIBLE BUT WE ARE MAKING ARRANGEMENTS TO DO SO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE." The page provides a list of eight coins and sets available for purchase.


    J&M's home page:


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 7, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:29 PM

    Friday, May 04, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2293
    BC GOVERNMENT REJECTS WHISTLER'S PLANS TO USE NEW HOTEL TAX FUNDS ON OLYMPIC PROJECTS

    The provincial government has rejected Whistler's proposed use of additional resort-only shares of the BC hotel tax for 2010 Olympic related developments in the municipality, forcing it to rejig its rolling five-year plan.

    Whistler, along with 13 other resorts in British Columbia, had begun to receive as of last July the cash equivalent of four points out of the 10% hotel tax on short-term accommodation following an announcement by BC Premier Gordon Campbell, in addition to the two points already provided by the government to all communities.

    As a result, Whistler financial staff drafted this year's rolling five-year financial plan, and had allocated a large portion of the four points to Olympic-specific expenditures. Whistler estimates that this year, each point of tax is worth about C$1.5 million, for a total of C$6 million. However, Diane Mombourquette, Whistler's general manager of Economic Viability, says, that after meeting with the staff of the BC Ministry of Community Services, to finalize the five-year plan, the concept of using the additional funding for Olympic spending was rejected, forcing the municipality to rejig its method of financing the projects.

    Mombourquette says, "These expenditures have now been allocated to the 2% hotel tax, and the 4% has been allocated to larger capital projects and ongoing programs that benefit the resort up to, during and following the Games."

    She says the Whistler 2010 Games office will now be funded from the 2% portion of the hotel tax, along with about C$1.5 million in contributions to the 2010 Games Reserve fund. "A number of operational initiatives have been redefined to meet the criteria of the 4% hotel tax, and a number of capital projects that were previously funded through other reserves have been reallocated to the 4%. An annual contribution to the Athlete’s Village of $2 million is included under Employee Housing and Infrastructure recognizing the use of the facility following the Games."

    That last comment is a reference to Whistler's Affordability Reserve. The new tax regime had prompted Whistler to set that Reserve, ostensibly to be used to build socially affordable housing "and other initiatives." However, the first project earmarked for funding from the Affordability Reserve, according to the original version of this year's five-year plan, was to help pay for the residential housing component of the Whistler 2010 Athletes' Village. It's to receive C$2 million per year for the next four years.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 4, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC
    Government| #2292
    OWN THE PODIUM PROGRAM INCREASES TARGETED SUPPORT AS TALKS UNDERWAY TO STABILIZE ORGANIZATION'S FUNDING

    The C$110-million, five-year program to put Canada at the top of the medal winners during the 2010 Games expects to tighten its focus and funding over the next 12 months on sports and athletes likely to win medals.

    Meanwhile, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and the federal government, who have each pledged to pay for half of the program, are continuing to meet with the Canadian Olympic Committee on how to ensure the Own the Podium (OTP) program's funding can remain stable through to 2010.

    Two full competitive winter seasons remain until the 2010 Olympic Games, now being increasingly billed as "Canada's Games" are held in February and March of 2010. Own the Podium 2010 CEO Roger Jackson says that now is the time to increase OTP's support to specific national sport organizations that continue to demonstrate they are likely to achieve "a high degree of probable medals in 2010."

    These sports include curling, hockey as well as both types of speedskating: long track and short track. Collectively they captured 18 world championship medals in 2007. Other World Championship medal winners this past season included the sports of alpine, freestyle, snowboard, figure skating and bobsleigh. Jackson says that support will also be provided to biathlon, cross-country skiing, skeleton, luge and the newest entry to VANOC's event schedule, ski cross.

    In addition, OTP will also continue to spend on its so-called Top Secret program, a series of 33 projects aimed at improving, mostly with technology, the speed, stamina and other performance attributes of winter-sports athletes and their equipment.

    Behind the scenes, however, stabilizing the OTP's incoming cash flow has been an issue in the last half year.

    The OTP has been in operation for two fiscal years now -- its fiscal year ends March 31, the same as the federal government's. In the first year, its operations budget was C$19 million, compared with C$20 million last year. This year, says Jackson, the budget is C$23 million, and that's fully available as he starts the year.

    Cathy Priestner, the executive vice-president of Sport, Paralympic Games and Venue Management for VANOC, and the person who conceived of the OTP program before she was hired by the 2010 organization, says today that while VANOC is on track for raising its C$55 million component of the OTP funding through negotiations with its corporate sponsors, "the challenge VANOC has is the actual payments, the activation programs and the flow of the dollars that come into us and ultimately go to Own the Podium."

    The private half of the funding comes from VANOC sponsors Bell Canada, General Motors of Canada, HBC, McDonald's, Petro-Canada, RONA and RBC Financial Group, although none of those organizations have released details of their cash flow payments. The British Columbia government has also contributed C$5 million, which has already been paid. The Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee and VANOC also provide professional services and other resources to OTP.

    Priestner says VANOC has been "working closely" with the Canadian government, which is also contributing C$55 million through its Sports Canada department, and with the Canadian Olympic Committee, which is working with Sports Canada to supervise the program, "to find a way to address that... we should have a solution very, very shortly."

    The latest federal budget, which has been approved, allowed the federal funding of the OTP program to be advanced -- that is, it would no longer be tied to matching private-sector cash flows -- in case that flexibility was needed to deal with OTP cash flow issues, and there were also moves earlier this year that moved the OPT program more under the federal government's umbrella. Jackson told Morgan:News:2010 today that "there is no cash flow problem" for OTP as it goes into its current fiscal year and unfolds its own spending plans.

    Lane MacAdam, the executive director of Sport Excellence for Sport Canada, "The original plan was that there would be even contributions from both government and non-government sources and, as Cathy's identified, there are some timing issues vis-a-vis the corporate support. I think there's great confidence that funding will be secured and in place and, in fact, in Budget 2007, the government of Canada is prepared to consider re-profiling its annualized contribution to ensure there is no interruption in the program as we head into these critical years leading to the Games."

    Chris Rudge, the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, noted that most organizations have facilities in place to deal with cash flow issues, such as bridge financing. "The COC also has a credit facility in place in the event there's any kind of potential dip, we would make sure the cash flow into the program is not interrupted, and that falls in line with the money coming in from VANOC and the plan that they have in place, so I don't see this as being an issue at this point."

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 4, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2291


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    PORT MOODY COURTS CHINA FOR 2010 OLYMPICS TRAINING
  • The Coquitlam Tri City newspaper reports today that Port Moody mayor Joe Trasolini lobbied Chinese sports officials last month to consider Port Moody as the location for Chinese athletes to train before and during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The discussions took place during his recent trip with other mayors to Beijing. The mayor told the newspaper that he has also met with the Chinese consul general in Vancouver to discuss the same issue, and that additional high-level meetings on the subject are being arranged. The newspaper quotes him as saying that China has "expressed complete enthusiasm to make it happen," he added. "They know the community and how close it is to downtown Vancouver, they know we're working with Vanoc on this." A meeting with representatives from China's sports bureau, which is responsible for such decisions, is in the works, according to Trasolini. Port Moody has also lobbied South Korea for the same thing but Trasolini told the paper he has received no response from that country. "I am very confident one or more of the Chinese Olympic teams will make Port Moody the base for their practices before and during the Olympics," the paper quotes him as saying. "The only problem is accommodation and I am hoping the Suter Brook hotel will be finished by then. I am lobbying Onni very heavily to have the hotel finished by 2009." That's a reference to the developer of a high-end 140-room Port Moody-area hotel scheduled for completion in 2009. Port Moody is east of Vancouver at the end of Burrard Inlet.

    GM CANADA TO SPONSOR 10 HIGH-PERFORMANCE CANADIAN COACHES
  • VANOC sponsor General Motors of Canada has named 10 high-performance Canadian coaches will receive C$$10,000 for skill development through the company's "Making Dreams Possible" program. Four of the 10 coach winter Olympic sports, the rest coach Summer Games sports; each coach is paired with an athlete in the sport. The company says it is first part of its C$1.2 million pledge to support Canadian athletes and their coaches as they prepare for future Olympic competitions. The four winter-sport coach/athlete pairs are alpine snowboard coach Mark Fawcett and athlete Matt Morison of BC, alpine ski coach Tim Gfeller and athlete Shona Rubens of Quebec, pairs figure-skating coach Sophie Richard and athlete Bryce Davison of Quebec and skeleton coach Kim Cousins and athlete Lindsay Alcock of Alberta. Fawcett, who is the Canadian alpine snowboard team's head coach, says, "Matt and I will use these funds to support incremental training initiatives, and to give us access to equipment that ensures he is developing into the best athlete possible." Frank Trivieri, general director of marketing for General Motors of Canada, adds that, "We are working closely with the Coaching Association of Canada to help put more athletes on the podium than any other country in 2010. The Making Dreams Possible program is an important extension to our Olympic and Own the Podium sponsorships. Coaches play an integral and often understated role in growing and developing our Canadian athletes."

    NEW VANCOUVER BASEBALL CEO CONTEMPLATES VANOC BUSINESS
  • It was an odd comment for somebody who can't quite shake the 2010 Olympic organizing committee's reach, but Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reporter Dale Meggas reports today that the new president and chief operating officer of the Vancouver Canadians baseball club said it. Meggas, who reported the comment, did so while telling the story of how a trip to Orlando, Florida, to attend a conference about the business of baseball led to Aileen McManamon getting her new job. McManamon told Meggas she met with the Canadians' ownership, Lignum Investments chairman Jake Kerr and A&W Canada chairman Jeff Mooney, both of BC, during that Florida trip. Mooney, you'll recall, is also one of the Vancouver City nominees to VANOC's 20-person board of directors. And the Canadians, you'll recall, have as their home base Nat Bailey Stadium, is being refurbished right next door to a Vancouver City's construction project that's underway -- under VANOC's supervision -- to build the Hillcrest Curling venue for the 2010 Winter Games. The initial planning for the venue's area was to eliminate the Nat Bailey stadium. McManamon settled in Vancouver about 10 years ago, worked with the City on its background research for the Torino Games. Before that, she was a former executive director of the Canadian Institute for Market Intelligence. And what about the odd comment? In the article, Meggas quotes McManamon as saying, "I've always been a baseball fan, and I was looking for a change in my career. I was just coming off working for the City of Vancouver with the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. We have the 2010 Olympics coming here, but my background is in business. The Olympics are about pulling off the Games, and not about good business."

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 4, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:25 PM

    Thursday, May 03, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2290
    2010 CONSTRUCTION CHIEF PREDICTS VENUES WILL BE UNDER THE C$580 MILLION CAPITAL BUDGET

    The executive vice-president of Capital Construction for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) says VANOC's 15 venues will come in under the C$580 million budget set last summer by the federal and provincial governments who contribute to it.

    Dan Doyle told the Canadian Design-Build Institute's conference in Vancouver today that there are still a number of challenges to get through for that to occur, such as dealing with the tight schedule and adverse weather, but says that six of the 15 venues will be complete this fall, that all of the competition venues will be available for athletes to use for practice by the fall of 2008, and all of them, including the Olympic Villages, will be completed by the fall of 2009.

    But he adds, "I can tell you one thing, and it is this. We are going to provide some spectacular venues on time and under budget. A little over a year and a half now, the proof will be in the pudding. The venues will be there, and they'll be used. Athletes will be training on them."

    The capital construction budget is C$580 million, including contingencies, the cost of which is shared 50/50 with the Canadian and BC governments. Doyle confirmed VANOC's operational budget, to be released by VANOC next week, will be C$1.7 billion "and there won't be one tax dollar in it."

    Doyle, who had a long career with the Ministry of Highways and who had recently retired, was hired to replace VANOC construction executive VP Steve Matheson, who was fired by VANOC CEO John Furlong a year ago for reasons that have never been disclosed.

    Doyle, who told the conference that he didn't go through VANOC's regular interview process to get his job, said that considering the rapid rise in construction inflation, VANOC should have applied for enough money to bring the budget up to C$700 million when VANOC's vice-president of Finance, John McLaughlin, asked the BC and federal governments for C$55 million from each of them in additional funding in late 2005.

    Noting that construction costs had inflated by 15% between 2002, when the Bid Book construction budget was published and the time it was necessary to ask for more money, he added, "Governments, who don't like to be told things like that, don't like being reminded that it was 2002 dollars [for construction delivered in 2008], so we should have gone back and asked for a budget of C$700 million to do our projects. We asked for C$580 million after rationalizing everything that we could... However, Doyle added, that the C$580 million allotted will be "the right amount of money" to accomplish what VANOC needs to do.

    He says the request for additional money set off a chain reaction of auditing. In the year he's been on the job, he says, "I've had five audits done on our work. We've passed every one of them. But I expect I'll have five more before I leave" when the construction is complected in late 2009.

    Doyle also says that one of the challenges to the construction project is that he "has a lot more bosses that I could ever have anticipated. Each of the International Olympic and Paralympic committees, and national ones, and each of the sport federations all have a say in what I'm doing at the venues. On a weekly basis, they're out inspecting our work... so far, we've passed their tests."

    Doyle says that he's also set up a small, volunteer advisory panel of outside construction experts who aren't involved in building the venues to provide advice, one of the recommendations of a government-sponsored construction review report, and that he conducted an eight-hour session with them yesterday, after earlier ensuring they toured each of the venues. The meeting, he says, was "invaluable." He said they made a number of recommendations in construction approaches at each of the venues. "It was great advice. I've spent a lot of years building things," Doyle said after his presentation, "and I always appreciated getting advice from people who were offsite." Doyle says he intends to implement the advice: "Absolutely. I wouldn't have them around if we weren't trying to make ourselves better."

    Those on the advisory panel include Anibal Valente, the vice-president and district manager of PCL Construction Vancouver; Tom Johnson, the vice president of Engineering and Technical Services of JJM Construction in the Greater Vancouver suburb of Delta; Henry Wakabayashi, the chairman of Pacific Liaicon and Associates. Wakabayashi led a team of senior construction managers a year ago in mounting the first major review, commissioned by the federal government, to ensure VANOC really did need an extra C$110 million to complete its venues. It submitted its report in May, 2006, and the governments agreed to the additional funding six months later.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 3, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2289


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    GM PLACE TO MAKE LOTS OF MONEY DURING 2010 GAMES, SAYS VANOC
  • VANOC has moved quickly to offset the revelation during a civil court case that it's planning to pay C$18 million to secure General Motors Place for the time it will be needed as the major hockey venue of the 2010 Games. Dave Cobb, the executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications for VANOC says an agreement in principle has been reached on the details of the venue agreement for the arena, "and we expect to be able to announce the full details in the near future." Cobb says that as a result of the agreement, VANOC's operating budget will receive "substantial revenues generated by the venue during the Games." That he says, "Will make General Motors Place the biggest revenue-generating sport venue at the 2010 Winter Games, and one of the largest revenue generating competition venues in Winter Games history." Cobb says that there are a number of "new components" of the agreement that will result in "this being a positive and beneficial partnership for both parties." The C$18 million payment by VANOC, "and all financial elements of our venue agreement with General Motors Place, will be accounted for in VANOC's operating budget." Revenue generated by GM Place during the Games, he notes, "will go towards the successful staging of the 2010 Winter Games and the legacies of amateur sport in Canada," which is also true of all revenues generated by the Games; they will also go towards paying expenses.

    ALPINE CANADA BOLSTERS 2010 DEVELOPMENT TEAM
  • Alpine Canada, the federation that develops skiers across the country, today named a record 55 ski racers to its 2007/08 team, adding 19 men and women to the list of athletes who last season amassed the country's best performance on the World Cup circuit. "With the 2010 Olympic Winter Games less than three years away, Alpine Canada's president and CEO, Ken Read, said adding athletes is critical to creating the intense internal competition that will deliver Olympic medallists. Among this season's additions are 12 women -- which the organization is calling "the 2010 acceleration team" -- who are considered to have sufficiently high potential that they can focus on gaining experience against tough international competition. Funding from the "Own the Podium" program, with money raised from the federal governments and the private sector through VANOC negotiations, and from increased resources generated by the national federation through its own fundraising and sponsorship efforts, says Read, enabled the increase, and that, he suggests, should make the Canadian team comparable in size to other major ski-racing nations. "The record size of the 2007/08 team shows what we can do with added resources," said Read. "We continue to seek the C$2 million to C$3 million more that is needed each year to truly match the resources of the world's best."

    TWO CURLING GOLDS KEY TO WINNING TOP MEDAL SPOT AT 2010 GAMES
  • Quote without comment: "This here summer vs winter-sport funding story has an interesting thought from Canadian Olympic hero Roger Jackson [now CEO of Own the Podium]. Namely, that Canada needs Olympic gold (x2) from both their 2010 curling teams to have a hope of making the host nation's overall team goal. Canada has, we must note, never won double gold at the Olympic Games. 'Winter sports have been underfunded in the past,' says Jackson. 'We've had some winter sports in Canada with no international athletes. The overall depth is weak. We have depth in hockey, curling and speedskating and we need two golds in hockey, two golds in curling and medals across the board in speedskating if our goals in Vancouver are to be met in 2010. Those three sports could account for two-thirds of our medals in Vancouver. The one sport in this country that has the attitude of it's 'Gold or Go Home' is hockey. We need to get that (attitude) in other sports.' " -- quoted in a posting today to the official blog of The Curling News, Canada's curling trade journal, by the editor.

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 3, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:21 PM

    Wednesday, May 02, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #2288
    BELL OLYMPICS VP SAYS 2010 SPONSORSHIP DEAL TURNING OUT TO BE COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL

    The vice-president of Corporate and Olympic Marketing for Bell Canada says the company's 30-month-old, six-year sponsorship deal with the 2010 organizing committee has been a significant success for the firm commercially and socially.

    Loring Phinney -- who was hired from his job as vice-president of the Vancouver-base PR agency Cossette Communications to the newly created position in June, 2005 -- is responsible for Bell's sponsorship programs, marketing of its rights to Olympic and 2010 branding, Bell's National Events Team and the company's philanthropic and community-investment programs. He is also responsible for the company's community affairs nationally and its corporate communications in Western Canada. The sponsorship was announced October 18, 2004.

    "Our enterprise clients want to know how these Games are going to benefit them," he says. "The reality is that the build-out of our technology and how we're managing our VANOC client, is a great microcosm of how we actually want to run our business... every piece of the company that can be relevant to delivering the flawless Games is involved."

    Phinney, in a lengthy interview with Morgan:News:2010, says there is more than one way to answer a question about whether Bell's C$200-million sponsorship deal with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) -- one of the largest Olympic sponsorships ever fashioned -- has been worthwhile to the company.

    "Especially in western Canada," says Phinney, who says Bell had a team of about 30 people who travelled to the Torino Games to see behind the scenes how it would do things the same, or differently, for 2010. "I think we are already seeing positive signs of the sponsorship success coming out of [the Torino Winter Olympic Games] last year, with momentum heading into Beijing next year. But ultimately, with our [technology] build-out, our proofs will be in 2010, when we deliver the Games. We're optimistic and we feel bouyed by our success to date, but we'll see it in 2010. That's where the rubber will hit the road."

    The deal gave Bell wide-ranging marketing and branding rights for the 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games and their Canadian Olympic teams, among many other things, and VANOC has already begun receiving the annual cash payments portion of Bell's sponsorship funding, while Bell has largely completed the main fibre-optic links that will enable VANOC's venues to be linked for high-speed data flows and high-bandwidth broadcasting feeds.

    Bell, in turn, is now involved in a wide range of corporate and community-relations activities connected with supporting the 2010 Games and the BC government's 2010=related programs. In addition, the Montreal-based firm, which is dominant in eastern Canada, has become much more competitive in western Canada, territory traditionally held by its corporate rival, Telus, thanks to Bell's decision to take part in Olympic-related tours by 2010 Legacies Now of the province's cities that have had a strong business component to its audiences.

    Establishing a competitive beachhead in western Canada, armoured with the big guns of the Olympic brands, has opened a lot of doors for Bell's major corporate divisions -- its about to start work, for instance, on a recently funded C$360,000 technology project, unrelated to the Olympics, with the City of Vancouver -- and that strategic move was one of the major business rationales for securing the sponsorship.

    "When we looked at the opportunity of being part of the 2010 Olympics -- and we've been a part of the Olympic movement for a long time as a partner of the Canadian Olympic Committee -- we knew the value of the brand association with the Olympics. We saw it from three different perspectives," says Phinney. "On a local level, the Olympics allows us to accelerate our growth in the west. We have great growth trajectories on both the consumer and business units in the west, and we saw this as a great way to accentuate and accelerate that. We were already growing; this was a way to grow a little faster by putting the infrastructure in the ground. But at the same time, one of the biggest benefits we brought was because of Bell's national scope, we have the ability to promote and speak to the values of the Olympics across the country. That's why we call it 'Canada's Games'. We want to make it clear that our 28 million customer connections enable us to promote our association with the Games in every community in the country."

    The third perspective, Phinney says, is what he calls, "internal engagement," and he says its something that a lot of 2010 sponsors take seriously. "We understand that to compete with the new telecommunications infrastructure, we need to be performance-based. We really believe that the attributes of the Olympics, when you align that with performance culture change, is a great advantage for our people, to understand what it takes to change, what it takes to perform like an Olympian as we evolve our business."

    To that end, Bell hires and uses nine Olympians as inspirational models for its employees, called the Bell Champions program. "We did that because we understood very quickly the link between athlete performance and corporate performance. One of our objectives this year is to have every employee hear an athlete's story. When we spoke to these athletes to find out how their performance linked up to our corporate DNA, we found an unbelievable linkage. You talk about facing adversity as an athlete, that lines up quite well in facing adversity in a company that's changing a lot. You talk about overcoming challenges by a Paralympian, and you understand what it's like to overcome challenges in a corporate environment. These Olympians are spectacular spokespeople for helping our people understand the connections. We know from our surveys of our employees that when people hear from an Olympian, they have a clearer sense of performance and what it means in their work environment."

    Bell has activated its sponsorship in a range of diverse ways -- it's contributed C$15 million to a VANOC project called Own the Podium and other athlete-support programs, it sponsored production of the Bell Spirit of The Games TV series, Bell and VANOC have contributed C$3 million to the cost of building the Squamish - Lil'wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, it has contributed C$1 million to helping the troubled downtown east side of Vancouver -- a city hall issue, it has sponsored the Chill program that helps troubled teens with snowboarding lessons through 2010 Legacies Now, and it helped promote a tour by the popular Canadian band 'Barenaked Ladies' that raised C$50,000 for the Own the Podium program, for examples.

    Phinney says all of these projects match Bell's corporate vision: accelerating corporate growth, being seen as part of 'Canada's Games' through brand association, and getting Bell's employees involved. "You can look at each of those disparate parts aligns. "Let's use the example of 'Barenaked Ladies'. One of our biggest strategies in our consumer division is provision of content. Our business unit is successful when people use their devices to access content. That band partnership does several things: it accentuates our relationship with the Olympics by speaking to the value of Own the Podium, it drives content over our platform that generates revenue across the board, it gives us hosting capacity for our enterprise clients in each market across the country, and it gives great opportunity to engage our people across the country."

    The Olympics manager says Bell's role, which makes it different from other 2010 sponsors, is that its role involves how people will experience the Games. "When it's not Games-time, the ability of our products and services to be relevant, through things like the 'Barenaked Ladies' tour allow us to maintain a momentum throughout the lead-up to the Games. We also have a pretty great story to tell and we're building the communications infrastructure for the Games, so our ability to have something to say all the time is key. So you look at what we're providing: content and connectivity, [Olympic] brand -- as a piece of the equation but not by itself enough, and community.

    Phinney says Bell wants to leave legacies in its market "that are relevant to our business, but we want to make sure that we are not being perceived that the Olympics is not the only thing we are about. If you look at the things we've done, and the announcements that we'll have coming in the short term, what you'll see is connective tissue that links them back to our key business objectives. They may look disparate, but they all align with our business trajectories."

    He says that the unique aspect of the sponsorship for the company is that it has so many points of contact that it can activate its sponsorship in a wide number of ways between Olympic Games and still be relevant, unlike sponsors that have to wait until Games time interest is strong, which is in the few months immediately before, and during, the 2010 Games.

    He says that while the company will focus some of its activation efforts on the Canadian Olympic team going to the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, it will continue to make announcements this year and next that will remind people of the company's link to the Own the Podium program, while talking about the company's technology. "How many other sponsors have the ability, every couple of months, to talk about our fibre-optics build, our wireless build, our Olympic-venue connectivity. There are some pretty interesting facts to be told as we build our first Internet Protocol Olympics." He notes that the company's technology stories are "strongly relevant" to its enterprise clients, and potential clients.

    The tours that Bell has taken with 2010 Legacies Now as it goes from community to community in British Columbia, providing speakers to business about how to benefit from the Games, is also part of Bell's activation straegy, he says. "It's about brand-building, it's about being associated, it's about sharing our story. Hopefully, you'll be able to come to see the Legacies Now tour this year. What you'll see, in very rich content, is the role we play. That is our key differentiator. We are so unique to the flawless execution of these Games that it's a story that we must tell over and over."

    Phinney says Bell's technological investment -- the fibre optic links between venues, the mobile broadcasting, possibly even the Nimiq 5 Bell satellite that is to be launched in 2009 to support high-definition TV broadcasting -- is part of the support for the 2010 Games and that during the Games, much or most of it will be dedicated to handling 2010's requirements. "At the end of the day, when we look at our infrastructure build, we saw it as a chance to accelerate our growth. And so putting a fibre ring to Whistler is critical to building our business along that corridor. Enhancing our wireless capacity along the Sea to Sky corridor actually enhances our business; it allows people to carry a signal direct, all the way along, on a Bell phone."

    He adds that Bell's 2010 technology is state-of-the-art "in a cautious way," and that come 2010, the whole system will showcase Bell's capacity. "You'd be very impressed to see some of the schematics around my office... VANOC is making sure there are a lot of redundancy and back-up systems in place. You cannot afford to make a mistake during the Olympics."

    Phinney says that during the next couple of years, Bell's marketing of 2010 will rise and fall with events, and that Bell, along with other sponsors, will be pacing themselves. "You can't go hard sell all the time. One of the pages in our program suggests that right now we be limited in market, in terms of our business units, but maintain a brand focus. So things like 2010 Legacies Now, Own the Podium, they maintain a low buzz. But, in fact, our focus right now is on internal culture change. We're taking the opportunity right now to build out the infrastructure of our internal communications plan."

    Bell will provide about 600 employees from across the country "serving and delivering the technology solution here in Vancouver" and Whistler for the 2010 Games. "That's a wonderful opportunity for 600 people. It's also a huge logistical challenge. What we're looking at right now is how we identify those people. How do we create an incentive-based performance model, and ensure these people earn the right to this wonderful opportunity to be involved in the Games." Bell's people will be taking part in the Torch Relay, and providing support for other 2010 roles. For instance, he says, the company's sales incentives will be based around being able to go to Whistler in 2010.


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 2, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2287


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    OWN THE PODIUM TO CHART NEWEST COURSE ON FRIDAY
  • Dr. Roger Jackson, the CEO of Canada's Own the Podium 2010, is expected on Friday to outline how the C$110-million program, co-sponsored by VANOC negotiations with some of its corporate sponsors and the federal government, will focus its funding over the next 12 months. It's expected that the funding will be further focused to develop athletes who are most likely to win medals in the 2010 Winter Olympics than during its previous fiscal year. Own the Podium 2010 is a sport technical initiative -- it's Calgary-based officials are reluctant to call it a program -- designed to help Canada become the number one medal-winning nation at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, and to place in the top three medal-winning nations at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. Cathy Priestner Allinger, VANOC's executive vice president of Sport, Paralympic Games and Venue Management, as well as Chris Rudge, the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee and Brian MacPherson, the CEO of the Canadian Paralympic Committee and also expected to be involved in the discussions.

    VANOC OFFER TO ORCA BAY OVER GM PLACE REPORTED TO BE C$18 MILLION
  • News reports about the civil trial today over the ownership of Orca Bay, the company that owns General Motors Place, the prime hockey venue for the 2010 Winter Games, suggest that VANOC offered C$18 million for the use of the big downtown Vancouver arena for the time it would be occupied by the 2010 Games and its preparations. VANOC is currently expected to begin external and some internal work on GM Place starting in the summer of 2009, and then fully occupy the building about the end of January, 2010, when the rest of the conversion to its 2010 Games role will be completed. The Olympics will occupy it for February, 2010, then take a week to get it back into readiness for the return of the Vancouver Canucks NHL hockey team, which uses it as its home ice and which will have been on an extended five-week road trip during that time.

    VANOC'S MAIN SPONSOR IN TOUGH FIGHT WITH COMPETITORS
  • Bell Canada's first fiscal quarter report indicates the company, VANOC's major corporate sponsor, is still in a major battle with its competitors on all fronts, including the use of Internet technology by consumers, the lucrative enterprise market and consumer phone service. Bell said, however, it considerably improved its customer service wait times in the past few months.

    RESOURCES

    Bell's first quarter statement:
    www.bce.ca/en/news/releases/corp/2007/05/02/74247.html

    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 2, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #2286
    BC'S OLYMPIC SECRETARIAT OFFERS CONTRACT FOR DIRECT-MARKETING SUPPORT OF 2010 COMMERCE CENTRE

    The BC Government's Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat is looking for companies willing to do an elaborate direct marketing campaign over the next two years in an effort to sign up businesses at the government's 2010 Commerce Centre.

    The Secretariat is the department the government set up in the BC Economic Development ministry to be a one-stop shop for its various responsibilities and initiatives connected with hosting and leveraging the 2010 Winter Games. The 2010 Commerce Centre, a sister department within the ministry, is primarily a website designed to connect businesses with Olympics-related procurement and related programs, although it's not limited to the 2010 Games. Companies have until May 22 to apply to the Secretariat if they're interested in doing the work.

    The Secretariat, set up a pilot project in 2005, run by Innovative Information Inc. of Vancouver, to run a similar program using Amacus, the firm's proprietary contact-management software. The Secretariat says about 4,000 e-mail addresses were generated by that process. The Secretariat would consider Innovative Information for the full program, but also wants to see if other firms can offer the same capability to get the e-mailing list of business people up to its goal of 15,000.

    The essence of the campaign, which has optional one-year extensions to the contract, is to find out which business people are the best ones in a company to receive 2010-related procurement information by e-mail, call them up by phone and convince them to registered with 2010 Commerce Centre, helping them through the sign-up process as they do it, if necessary.

    The campaign will also require the direct-marketing contractor to provide a call centre, which will keep government business hours of 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, to answer any questions businesses might have about the process or getting procurement information, with the Secretariat requiring a maximum of two hours for call-backs.

    But once signed up, 2010 Commerce Centre expects to expand its relationship with the business people from just providing e-mail notification of procurement opportunities, it will also market the "2010 Business Network", which is essentially an expansion of the information already received from notifications.

    BACKGROUND

    Here's what the "Outreach" direct-marketing program contractor will be asked to do:
  • Figure out the strategy for reaching the decision-makers in a BC business -- the Secretariat envisions this aspect as having to "Design, plan and execute an interactive enrollment campaign"
  • Create the message to BC businesses on why they should be involved in opportunities for 2010
  • Design promotional materials related to the concepts and get them distributed, which the Secretariat figures should integrate "multiple communication channels including web services, email, fax, and voice."
  • Drive the resulting traffic to the 2010 Commerce Centre website for sign up for its free services
  • Provide a customer-service centre to support the applications of all of these business people
  • Maintain communication with the businesses that have signed up
  • And reports -- the government loves reports -- "A 10-20 pages summary report on the project should be provided at the project's conclusion."

    RESOURCES

    John Cousineau
    President,
    Innovative Information Inc.
    2775 W 42nd Ave
    Vancouver, BC V6N 3G4
    Phone: 604.264.7607
    E-Mail: <jcousineau@innovativeinfo.com>
    www.innovativeinfo.com

    Amacus (Contact software published by Innovative Information Inc):
    amacus.net


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 2, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:15 PM

    Tuesday, May 01, 2007

    Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #2284


    Here are three moguls we ran into today:
    ORCA BAY OWNERSHIP BATTLE HAS 2010 OLYMPICS THEME
  • A long-simmering dispute between three major BC development families in the Greater Vancouver area over the ownership of Orca Bay, the company that owns General Motors Place, VANOC's medal hockey venue, has arrived in the courtroom. And, the theory of the plaintiffs' case includes aspects of the 2010 Olympics. The civil court case, underway in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver, involves the claims by key members of two of the families -- Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie -- that the third, Francesco Aquilini, who now owns Orca Bay, dropped out of an arrangement the trio had set up to buy 50% of Orca Bay from its American owner, John McCaw of Seattle, in 2004, so the the entire holdings of Orca Bay could be purchased by Aquilini independently a short time later. The court heard yesterday that potential payments from VANOC for use of GM Place for the 2010 Winter Games have had an "enormous relevance to this matter from the beginning." The trial is expected to last for about two months, with a decision likely to be reserved for several months after that. VANOC has yet to complete its venue-usage negotiations with GM Place.

    2010 PROTEST PHOTOS APPEAR ON WEBSITE
  • A page focused on the protest images of the 2010 Winter Olympics has been created on the public-shared photo website Flickr. It reports it has nine members, including administrator Richard Eriksson, 29, and has a library of 24 protest images and photos published so far. The web address is in RESOURCES, below. Eriksson, who lives in the Greater Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, says that after he posted a photo on the site, "the Vancouver Public Space Network commented at length explaining the use of Olympic imagery." He says people "don't have to oppose the Olympics to be a member of the [Flickr] group, which is interested solely in documenting the resistance."

    WHISTLER FILM FESTIVAL CHOOSES 2010-RELATED SHORTS TO PRODUCE
  • The concepts for four films that are no longer than five minutes and that tell Whistler stories leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralymics have each been chosen and awarded C$5,000 for production by the Whistler Film Festival. The films will be released during the Festival, scheduled to run from November 29 to December 2. Bill Evans, festival director of programming for the Festival, says filmmaker Lenny Rubenovitch of Whistler will create "First to Go Up on Snowboards," a look at the first snowboarders to brave the ire of thousands of skiers as they took their boards onto Whistler Mountain. Lisa Fernandez of Pemberton will film "Extreme Seniors," about Whistler’s athletic and inspirational seniors. Vancouver filmmaker Graem Luis and his film "Journey to the Rainbow" looks at the arrival of Whistler pioneer Myrtle Philip to the area, and how her contributions shaped the community’s future, and Vancouver's Armen Evrensel film "Vincent Massey and the Pots," has a cultural theme, and follows the artist as he creates pottery from start to finish and shares his thoughts about Whistler life.

    RESOURCES

    The Vancouver Olympics Protest photo page on Flickr:
    www.flickr.com/groups/vancouverolympicsprotest/pool/


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 1, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #2283
    HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL STUDY REPORTS VANCOUVER CITY MANAGER FACED MAJOR DILEMMA IN DEALING WITH 2010 LEGACY FUNDING

    A new Harvard Business School case study of Vancouver's involvement in the 2010 Winter Olympics reports Vancouver City Manager Judy Rogers worked behind the scenes to ensure this year's City budget would provide funding for Olympic-related legacies.

    The 27-page study, prepared by two Harvard Master of Business Administration students and their professor, says Rogers, the City's appointee on the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), faced a tough decision as political division on City Council threatened to jeopardize a proposed C$5 million per year of financing the City's Olympic Reserve Fund. The study is dated March 21, but only made public today.

    The MBAs, Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse and students Catherine Anthony and Joshua Callahan, outlined the Vancouver manager's dilemma this way: "[There were] serious concerns among some residents and, particularly, businesses, about the impact that the fund would have on services and property taxes. She acknowledged that if the Council did not to approve a tax increase beyond the planned 4% for 2007, it would be difficult to generate enough funding for the proposed Olympic Legacies Fund without hampering the City's normal level of services... Should she recommend that the Council approve the Olympic Legacies Fund and raise property taxes, at the risk of alienating the majority of Vancouver's business owners and a significant group of residents? Or was it better to maintain the planned 4% tax increase and pursue the Fund, and risk a reduction in the City's service levels?"

    The authors noted that, "With the whole world watching to judge if Vancouver would be ready to host the Olympics and live up to its promise to offer 'the most sustainable and inclusive games ever,' there was a lot at stake." Their conclusion, "Scaling back the City's ambitious focus on creating legacies was not an option for Rogers."

    The authors quote Rogers as saying, "VANOC is working hard to ensure that Vancouver 2010 will be the best possible Games, for athletes and audiences watching the Games here and at home. As City officials, our focus does not stop there: we are doing everything we can to make sure the Games are the best Games we can imagine for Vancouver and for Canada. I want to create a strong legacy. I want my grandchildren's generation to benefit from this."

    Council today approved a 4.8% general increase in property taxes for this year, in addition to changes in land values, and endorsed earlier arrangements that meant non-residential taxes -- primarily for business -- would be held at last year's rate levels, allowing that portion to rise only as changes in land value did.

    The Olympic Legacy Reserve Fund, proposed to build to C$20 million, was designed to provide for public involvement -- of communities, citizens and businesses -- allow the City to meet various Olympic-related sustainability objectives, and to make it possible to be a good host to visitors and residents participating in the Olympic experience.

    The authors also quote VANOC officials as saying that because a number of its major venues exist and only need renovation or moderniztion, VANOC could afford to take on social-agenda issues that other Olympic organizing committees did not do.

    "We are a large city, and already have first-class venues," they quote David Cobb, VANOC's executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications. "We can focus on the smaller things and take on causes that other Olympic Organizing Committees didn't have time for."

    Among other things, the authors write, Vancouver saw the Olympics as an opportunity "to build human capital" in the city. "Technical expertise would be built in areas such as green construction, sustainable development, and event and facilities management. There would also be an ability to involve tens of thousands of people as volunteers, increasing the sense of civic pride and community among Vancouver residents," they write.

    “We’ve lived by our looks,” Sue Harvey, Vancouver’s Managing Director of Cultural Services, is quoted in the report as saying, “Now we have to show we have depth.”

    The authors also say Vancouver regarded the Games as a catalyst for investment in the low-income downtown east-side area "through the development of social programs and for bringing its underserved minority communities, especially the aboriginal population, into the economic success of the rest of the city," they write.

    "Each level of government has interests. We created VANOC to organize a sporting event and figure out how leverage that event at each level. Vancouver is looking for deliverables—economic leverage, sustainability and inclusivity,” they quote Rogers as saying.

    The report's authors also conclude that VANOC sees one of its major duties is protecting its reputation, and that of the Olympics in general. It quotes VANOC's chief revenue and marketing executive vice-president, Dave Cobb, as saying, "Every marketing deal is about companies wanting to be associated with athleticism and sustainability programs. Employers use these associations to attract and retain employees and to market themselves as sustainable enterprises. Our biggest challenge is maintaining our reputation, since sponsors take a huge leap of faith by signing long-term agreements. Most negative media is on budget issues—both Athens and Torino got obliterated by the press—and we want to avoid that. We have to run efficiently and keep a balanced budget."

    BACKGROUND

    VANOC is in the process of publishing a series of reports by a research/writer it commissioned that indicates considerable benefit flow to cities that host Winter Olympics. The Harvard report shows clearly the authors aren't sure that's the case. As the Harvard Business School case study puts it, "The increased participation of countries and athletes had caused a dramatic rise in the cost to stage the Games. Calgary’s budget [in 1988], including capital expenditures, was $636 million. Of this total, $310 million was contributed by government entities. The 1994 Lillehammer Olympics cost $1.6 billion including capital costs, while generating just $390 million in revenue. Lillehammer’s organizing committee was jointly owned and financed by the local and national governments. For the 2006 Torino Games, the operations budget of $1.4 billion was dwarfed by the government-financed capital costs of $2.2 billion. Direct revenue to the organizing committee did not even cover the operational costs, as the event finished with an operating deficit of $37 million... spending on the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics was $1.3 billion (nearly as much as the total operating budget, which was estimated to be $1.4 billion). Of the $1.3 billion provided to Salt Lake City, approximately $1 billion was for public infrastructure costs, with much of the remainder going to security." For reference, VANOC's operational budget, expected to be released next week, is expected to be about C$2 billion. Its capital budget, provided by the Canadian and BC governments on a 50/50 split, is essentially capped at C$580 million.

    --
    Harvard Business School says its case studies "are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data or illustrations of effective or ineffective management."


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 1, 2007



    Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #2282
    CANADA'S NORTEL TO SPONSOR VANOC'S INTERCONNECTION REQUIREMENTS

    The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) and Canada's networking machinery company, Nortel, have reached a six-year, supplier-sponsorship deal that considerably reduces one of VANOC's larger operational budget line items.

    Nortel [NYSE/TSX: NT] -- the Ottawa, Ontario-based company only goes by that one-word name, but its legal name is Nortel Networks Ltd. -- now has exclusive rights, including some marketing rights, to the category of Official Converged Network Equipment Supplier for the 2010 Winter Games. What the obtuse category name means is that Nortel will supply all of the network-communications equipment to VANOC and its sponsors that are required for what will be the first converged Games network based entirely on Internet protocols (IP).

    In doing so, it will be providing the converged local area network (LAN) equipment to VANOC at 15 Games venues in both Vancouver and Whistler, as well as at the Vancouver 2010 headquarters and at VANOC's many supporting non-competition venues, such as the two Olympic Villages and VANOC warehouses.

    The supplier category involves funding that ranges from as low as C$3 million to C$15 million, but neither VANOC nor Nortel will detail the budget of its sponsorship.

    The 2010 Winter Games will be the first Olympics to converge all of its voice, video and data traffic over a major IP-based network backbone. This will also be the first Olympic and Paralympic Games to use VoIP, the new digital way for transmitting phone calls, for all event locations, allowing athletes and support staff to have portability through a phone number that follows them wherever they go.

    Here's how Nortel fits with other communications sponsors of the Games:

  • Bell Canada is providing all the fibre-optic lines that will support the Games's requirements for high-speed data links that will carry, for instance, all of the high-definition TV signals from the venues to the broadcasters satellite uplinks in downtown Vancouver.

  • Atos Origin is providing all of the networking software and expertise to handle the data flow and exchange, and some of the major security technology, such as accreditation, and dealing with data interchange, such as getting timing results from sponsor Omega to various places.

  • Nortel will provide all the networking equipment that allows the convergence of all of that data flow and control.

    One of the pieces still missing is the company that will supply as a sponsor all of the desktop and portable computers to be used by VANOC staff and volunteers to support the Games. Lenovo, the Chinese-owned computer company that bought IBM's desktop-laptop business in New York state a few years ago, performed that duty during the Torino Olympics, but its sponsorship expires with next year's Summer Olympics in Beijing. It was supposed to have made a decision about whether it would sponsor 2010 starting at some point about six months after the Torino Games, when it had finished assessing the success of its sponsorship, and by about year's end, according to VANOC CEO John Furlong, but there's still no public word from the company.

    Bell Canada earlier selected Nortel to supply the wide-area network (WAN) equipment Bell will use to build VANOC's core network so that "secure and reliable" communications can take place amongst all event locations. Bell Canada says it is using use Nortel VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), Metro Ethernet and IP equipment and related software to create and deliver a dedicated carrier IP network for VANOC that securely converges all voice, video, and data communications.

    With Nortel's selection by VANOC for the Games' LAN network and by Bell Canada to supply equipment for the Games' WAN network, Nortel equipment will be used end-to-end for the 2010 Winter Games.

    Nortel's six-year Official Supplier partnership with VANOC provides sponsorship rights for the 2010 Winter Games, plus marketing and sponsorship rights for the Canadian Olympic teams that will be going to the Olympic Games in Beijing in the summer of 2008, Vancouver's winter Games in 2010 and London's 2012 Summer Olympics.

    Ward Chapin, VANOC's chief information officer, says, "With all of our athletes and event staff relying on this network, absolute network reliability and security are of paramount importance. Nortel's rich history of designing and deploying some of the world's most reliable and robust communications infrastructure is why we asked Nortel to design and build our converged LAN. Nortel's support to Bell Canada in building the Games WAN will also increase the seamless power of the network while lowering costs to build and operate the network."

    Justin Webb, the vice president of Bell Canada's Olympic Services, adds that, "We are working together closely to create a network for VANOC that delivers uncompromised performance, security, and simplicity, from the core infrastructure down to the individual user."

    RESOURCES

    Nortel's management:
    www.nortel.com/corporate/exec/index.html

    Nortel's Investor Relations web page:
    www.nortel.com/corporate/investor/index.html

    --

    Here's some of the Nortel equipment that will be used:

  • Bell Canada expects to use:

    -- The Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600
    products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?parId=0&segId=0&catId=E&prod_id=44781&locale=en-US

    -- The Nortel Optical Multiservice Edge 6500
    products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?segId=0&parId=0&prod_id=44721&locale=en-US

    These are designed to create a high-bandwidth network that connects all of VANOC's venues and supporting sites. They'll be used with:

    -- The Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 5000 Series to bring the communications together all all of the sites.
    products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?parId=0&segId=0&catId=E&prod_id=42141&locale=en-US

    Bell Canada will be providing network-based VoIP within all VANOC sites and competition venues using:

    -- Nortel's Communication Server 2000-Compact...
    products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?parId=0&segId=0&catId=C&prod_id=29385&locale=en-US

    -- ...And IP Phone 1100 Series sets:
    products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?segId=0&parId=0&prod_id=54460&locale=en-US

    Nortel will also directly supply LAN, WiFi, management and network security equipment and software to VANOC for all venues and supporting sites. Nortel Global Services will also be provided to support the design and deployment of the network.

    products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?segId=1&parId=1&prod_id=51742&locale=en-US


    Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on May 1, 2007


    • posted by Peter Morgan, Editor at 1:06 PM