Steven Hill
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樱桃视频now has three pairs of eyes at the Turin Olympics, representing our community and looking for ways for 樱桃视频to benefit from the 2010 games.
This week, Chamber of Commerce manager Denise Imbeau and District of 樱桃视频Coun. Patricia Heintzman joined Capilano College's Casey Dorin at the site of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
"The moment I got this job I thought I or someone from the Chamber should be at 2006, because the Chamber has taken a leadership role with regards to 2010, and I believe that is the community's expectation, or at least, those who are speaking up are certainly saying so," Imbeau said. "When I worked at Carney's still, we kept asking ourselves who would be going and hoped both the District and The Chamber would. Now of course, when I got there, the finances prohibited my going, although the will was certainly there. When I found out that District was sending a councillor, I forced myself on Patty, I can be quite pushy at times."
Imbeau's trip is being co-sponsored, she said.
"I am sharing accommodations with DOS, Carney's is paying my airfare, I have a small stipend from The Chief in return for some stories, pictures and such, The Chamber is giving me time off and I am paying the rest of my expenses, although I would be happy with more sponsorship, I didn't have the time to swing that before I had to leave," she explained.
She said she expected to learn a lot from the experience and bring first-hand knowledge of the games back to Squamish.
"I want a general sense of what the games will look and feel like, if people are accommodating, how easy info flows to a tourist or guest, I will tell you right now, as I sleep in a Milan airport overnight on a bench, the Italians so far have not been very accommodating," she said. "In fact, they gave me conflicting information at every turn.
"I think they were trying to take advantage of my foreignness; I will be looking for these things as opportunities to improve. We will get people to come once for the games, but if we want them back we need to be on our game."
With all the professional observing Imbeau has to do in such a short time, she said it might not even be possible to take in any of the Olympics themselves.
"I will not likely see any events, but I want to watch local businesses, see who is successful, who is hanging to dry, I want to see transportation issues, (as I said presently, I am hanging overnight in an airport because my flight came in after the trains and buses stopped, and there is no hotels) I want to see signage uses, and I want to see Susa mostly, which is a small town outside of Turin between Turin and Milan," she said. "Basically I am looking at what the average tourist will experience, have prices gone up? How are service levels? Are there any shortfalls etc.?"
She said the end result of the trip for Heintzman, Dorin and herself, is to come up with ways for 樱桃视频to benefit from the 2010 games.
"I think we need as much info as we can get to be in a position to leverage our position and town, for the most gain," she said. "We also need to be aware of what to not do, or to watch for.
"But perhaps most importantly we need to come together as a Team ourselves," she said. "We need a vision, focus and plan as to what part of this we are going to be. I hope I will get some sense of that while I am here."
