VANOC Board of Directors Meeting -- July 18, 2007

• 119th International Olympic Committee Session in Guatemala: VANOC presented a progress report to the IOC’s Executive Board and to the full International Olympic Committee session in Guatemala earlier this month.
• IPC Visit (June 18-21, 2007): A 10-member delegation of staff from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) met with members of the VANOC team to provide transfer of knowledge sessions on Medical and Paralympic Family Services. The IPC’s visit also served as a one-and-a-half-day project review which included updates from VANOC in 13 areas. VANOC’s vision for the 2010 Games is appropriately aligned with the IPC’s own objectives for raising the visibility of the Paralympic Games, creating a remarkable Games atmosphere and leaving a positive legacy for sport.
• Government and Partner Relations: The VANOC team has focused heavily on supporting the passage of Bill C- 47, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act, over the past few months. The bill received Royal Assent on June 22, 2007.
• Release of the Vancouver 2010 Sustainability Report 2005-06: In June, VANOC released its first sustainability performance report, a report which will be updated annually.
• Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Village: Detailed planning and design work continues with the City of Vancouver and Millennium Properties. The City has completed significant components of the site preparation and servicing, including utilities installation, road building and waterfront reinstatement. Millennium has been excavating the development parcels since January 2007. Waterfront hard and soft landscaping works commenced in late May to ensure the waterfront can be opened to the public during the construction period.
• Whistler Olympic and Paralympic Village: Good progress is being made onsite with utilities installation and road building. The Whistler Development Corporation (WDC) submitted its first Development Permit application (for 42 town home units on Parcel A) for consideration by the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) at the end of May, which will allow foundation work to start by late summer. Architectural design work is also progressing well on two apartment-style buildings to be located in the core of the Whistler Olympic and Paralympic Village.
• Accommodation Update: The Accommodations team has now secured over 80 per cent of VANOC’s room requirements, including approximately 14,000 rooms in Greater Vancouver. The Organizing Committee is continuing to work with hotel properties to secure additional accommodation to ensure all room requirements can be met. In Whistler, approximately 4,000 rooms have been committed to date and dialogue with the owners of properties continues. The Accommodations, Technology and Finance teams are also working to design and implement the business processes required to operate the reservation system.
• Cultural Community Event: On June 12, VANOC invited the creative community and the Vancouver media to attend an overview of VANOC’s Culture and Celebration, Education and Ceremonies programs. Over 450 participants took part, with many more following up online. A Request for Proposal for programming partnerships for the 2008 Celebration was announced, attracting 188 proposals from arts and entertainment professionals from across BC and beyond.
• Communications Update: On June 26, VANOC launched its new Intranet site called ICE, which will serve as a critical internal communications tool as VANOC’s workforce team grows. An Extranet is under development that will be named SNOW. In June, VANOC also reached a significant milestone in the development of its advertising strategy. After a thorough and competitive process, a pan-Canadian group called The Hyphen Alliance was selected as VANOC’s creative and advertising agency, made up of Hyphen Communications (Vancouver), Downtown Partners (Toronto) and bleublancrouge (Montreal). Final measures are also underway to select the media buying agency that will assist VANOC in developing plans for strategic advertising.

• A ticketing update was provided, with confirmation of next steps in the Vancouver 2010 ticketing planning strategy including the planned public release of ticket sales information in the fall of 2007.
• VANOC’s Games-Time Operations Steering Committee (GTO) provided an extensive report on progress being made within the Organizing Committee as its 53 functions focus on important Games-Time planning.
• Also included in the senior management reports were: an update from the Sport department; an update regarding the approval of Bill C-47; and an update from VANOC’s Strategic Communications Steering Committee.

• Although the slow snowmelt at higher elevations of the mountain venues triggered a need to reschedule in some areas, the overall venue schedule remains on track.
• The last of 350 foundations for the Whistler Sliding Centre was constructed in mid-June and the first roof beam was recently erected at the Richmond Oval.
• The first of the prefabricated sections of the ski jump structures have been transported to site at the Whistler Nordic Venue.
• Grading for the snowboard half-pipe at Cypress Mountain is well advanced, while Rinks B and C at the UBC Winter Sports Centre have now been handed over to UBC for use. Contractors have moved into the Pacific Coliseum to undertake the planned ice plant renovation works. Construction results at Hillcrest/Nat Bailey Stadium Park are now increasingly evident as excavation is completed and foundations are cast.
• Scheduled completion of the Whistler Athletes’ Centre is slated for fall 2008. The design for the High Performance Centre has been completed and a Request for Proposal has been issued for the wall panels. A general contract for the remaining work is to be tendered imminently, with work scheduled to begin in August.
• A meeting of VANOC’s Construction Advisory Committee was held at the Hillcrest site on June 21st. The Committee was established pursuant to agreements with the Government Partners that are funding the VANOC venue development program, and its members include: Klaus Biebach, Dan Doyle, Tom Johnson, Anibal Valente and Henry Wakabayashi.

• Mascot update
• Ceremonies update