Media will visit Whistler and other Olympic sites as part of this week’s World Press Briefing. (ATR)World Press Briefing
The eyes of the world are on Vancouver this week for the VANOC World Press Briefing. More than 200 reporters, photographers, editors and news directors along with international sports press officials arrive Monday for four days of meetings and venue tours.
Organizing committees stage one or two of these briefings in the lead-up to the Games. This briefing is the one and only for Vancouver 2010.
On Tuesday, the delegation tours venues in Vancouver and on Wednesday the buses head to Whistler.
On Thursday the media visitors receive a series of briefings from VANOC at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Main Press Centre for the Games.
VANOC sponsors and tourism agencies will promote their products at lunches and dinners while other groups are using the week to gain attention for their causes.
Women’s Ski Jumping USA, the group campaigning for the addition of women’s ski jumping to the 2010 Games, has a Tuesday morning news conference in the convention center lobby to give an update on in its gender discrimination lawsuit against VANOC.
Watchdog group Impact on Community Coalition and the pro-native, anti-globalization Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) are both planning events. ORN is holding a rally Thursday at noon followed by a 3 p.m. news conference at 524 Main at Pender.
The busy schedule has led VANOC to postpone its final board of directors meeting from Wednesday to Dec. 9.
Torch Relay Route
The path of the Olympic Torch Relay through Canada will be revealed Nov. 20 at a news conference in Vancouver. The relay will last about two months prior to the Games, with a flame lighting in Olympia, Greece in just over a year from now.
Unlike the controversial Beijing relay, the Vancouver relay is expected to be a domestic only event.
Tough Week for VANOC Sponsors
Vancouver 2010 corporate partners have been hit hard by the global economic crisis and are shedding thousands of employees after announcing billions in losses this month.
Sun Microsystems announced 6,000 job cuts across its global operations Nov. 14. Canadian media giant Canwest laid-off 560 people -- 5% of its workforce -- on Nov. 12 and ended the week announcing an $824 million fourth-quarter loss.
Network specialist Nortel is facing bankruptcy after a $3.4 billion third-quarter loss and is laying-off 1,300 people.
General Motors, which lost US$2.5 billion in the third quarter, is seeking bailouts from governments in both the U.S. and Canada. It will layoff 3,600 workers and cut production at 10 plants, but warned it may run out of cash by the end of 2009.
Air Canada shares hit record lows after announcing a third-quarter loss. Its parent ACE Aviation is seeking a buyer for the company.
Teck, formerly Teck Cominco, has put its gold assets on sale to pay off the US$5.8 billion loan that it used to buy a coal company. Teck is the official supplier of metals for the gold, silver and bronze medals to be made by the Royal Canadian Mint.
2010 Security Exercise
The RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit began its three-day Operation Bronze tabletop exercise Nov. 12. A full-scale dress rehearsal for Games security is coming next July.
In another security development, documents released via public disclosure laws shed light on a presentation made to the 2010 Coordination Commission last February. Vancouver security chief operating officer Bud Mercer told the IOC panel during a meeting at VANOC headquarters that his 150-person group would directly employ 500 by Games-time.
Mercer outlined security force responsibilities, including traffic control and aviation security, but made no mention of marine security. All venues have been designated level 2, 3 or 4 on a threat assessment scale.
"If the threat level increases, the security level for one or all of the venues can be increased to respond appropriately to the threat,” according to Mercer’s Powerpoint presentation. Nadine Hoehne (left) and Kee Joseph at the VANOC aboriginal licensing and merchandising fashion show. Hoehne is holding a handmade inukshuk made in the northern Canadian territory Nunavut and licensed by VANOC. A third of royalties will support a fund for aboriginal youth programs. (Bob Mackin photo)
Native 2010 Souvenirs
Aboriginal breakdancers, rappers and models sporting Olympic souvenirs combined for a unique fashion show Nov. 12 at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver.
Models from Lower Mainland First Nations showed off products from the VANOC aboriginal licensing and merchandising program, such as an Olympic pin, a laptop bag and a hand-made inukshuk from Nunavut. The souvenirs, in hues of green and blue, are based on the designs of native artists Jody Broomfield and Xwa-lack-tun and retail at HBC stores across Canada, Vancouver International Airport and vancouver2010.com.
A third of VANOC royalties will go to a 2010 Legacies Now-administered aboriginal youth fund. Neither VANOC nor FHFN would disclose sales projections.
“There’s so much more to come,” said FHFN executive director Tewanee Joseph. “When we host potlatches, we host naming ceremonies, it’s not what you take, it’s what you give.”
Vancouver's Financial Officer Resigns
After much speculation, it has been confirmed that Estelle Lo, Vancouver's chief financial officer, did resign. Her departure is effective Nov. 17.
Lowas in Hong Kong during the civic election campaign when the Globe and Mail reported that she quit over the Olympic village financing scandal.On Oct. 14, the city council met in secret to approve a $100 million bailout loan for troubled developer Millennium.
Lo's status with the city was not officially confirmed until Nov. 17, two days after Vision Vancouver's Gregor Robertson won the mayoralty by 20,000 votes over NPA candidate Peter Ladner.
With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.
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