Business owners and community leaders looking to capitalize on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games are being assured they will all have an equal opportunity to win business contracts – provided they are competitive.
“Not only will we be competing internationally at the sport level, but we will be competing internationally at the business level,” Gordon Goodman, director of business development for the BC Olympic Games Secretariat, told more than 700 delegates at the Spirit of 2010 Business Summit held in Vancouver last week.
“This provides an opportunity for new companies to enter the international marketplace, and existing companies that are already there to get a bit of a marketing boost. It’s also a very high-profile environment, so we will be scrutinized very closely on how we are offered contracts, on how partnerships are formed,” Goodman noted.
John Les, the B.C. minister responsible for the Games, has announced the establishment of the 2010 Commerce Centre to aid businesses looking for Olympics-related opportunities.
The first phase of the centre, to be operational by the end of the year, will be a website that will offer one-stop access to timely information about the business opportunities resulting from the Games and will include a business registry of B.C. companies and suppliers. A permanent storefront centre will open in 2006.
In the keynote address to the sold-out event, co-sponsored by the provincial government and RBC Financial Group, Les vowed that labour disruption won’t be a factor at the Olympics, although “we’ve had no particular discussions with organized labour around 2010.” Premier Gordon Campbell originally had been scheduled to make the speech at the sold-out event, which was held the day after his government narrowly averted a massive general strike by workers showing support for hospital workers who had been legislated back to work.
“We are providing a climate where every one of their (union) members is going to have more work than they know what to do with,” Les told reporters after his speech.
Goodman said the Commerce Centre will be the key for B.C. businesses to be successful during the Games.
But, he added, “it won’t be an advocate for one business over another. It also won’t get in the way of the competitive process.”
He also advised businesses to adopt long-term strategies, and to look for entrepreneurial opportunities. “Build the Olympics into your business plan, don’t build an exclusive Olympic business plan,” he urged.
John McLaughlin, CFO for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), said the details of the procurement process are still being developed.
Invitations for expressions of interest have already been issued for the Whistler Nordic Centre and Sliding Centre, two of the five new athletic venues planned. He said VANOC will spend almost $2 billion on goods and services during the planning stage of the Games.
Rich Patterson, sales and marketing manager of Canadian apparel manufacturer ROOTS, advised delegates at the summit to consider all avenues of supplying goods and services rather than just going after formal Olympic licensing.
As a small company, ROOTS first outfitted the Canadian Olympic Team at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. At the Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 there were four-hour lineups to purchase ROOTS merchandise, and the company is now the premier outfitter for several Olympic teams.
The day-long summit, which sold out just four days after being announced, also dealt with strategies for tourism, human resources, and trade and investment.
Economist Roslyn Kunin told delegates that between now and 2015, the largest numbers of jobs will be available in health services and the accommodation, food and recreational services areas.
Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports, which paid $820 million (US) for U.S.
television rights to the 2010 Games, said the television network will be bringing about 2,000 employees to Vancouver for the Games and will have a presence in the city beginning after the 2006 Games end in Turin, Italy.
“The unspoiled beauty of this part of the world is just second to none,” Ebersol said, adding, “I’ve never seen a city better organized in its bid than Vancouver.”
