Coun. Patricia Heintzman
Special to The Chief
There is no better teacher than experience.
There is no better way to effectively communicate than by shaking a hand, looking someone in the eye and hearing passion in a voice.
Squamish's visit to Torino had three purposes. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, we needed to make sure 樱桃视频had a visible presence in Torino. Premier Gordon Campbell, VANOC's Jack Poole and John Furlong, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, Mayors Sam Sullivan of Vancouver, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones of West Vancouver, Whistler's Ken Melamed and Malcolm Brodie of Richmond needed to know 樱桃视频was in Torino as an active participant in the 2006 and 2010 experience. We were also there to make as many contacts as possible with decision makers. These decision makers range from coaches, athletes and team managers to media, event planners and business people. And thirdly, we were charged with reconnaissance, to observe and evaluate successes and failures, and to look for parallel opportunities for our community.
Although we were at the Games for only five days, we accomplished a lot in that short time. From our perspective, it was an overwhelming success. The challenge now for me is to communicate what I've learned to the people of 樱桃视频starting with boiling down five fascinating and productive days into a column for this newspaper.
Although there were originally supposed to be three of us from 樱桃视频Council in Torino (Mayor Sutherland andCoun. Jenson could not go at the last minute) I was to be the District's only representative there. At the 11th hour, 樱桃视频Chamber of Commerce manager Denise Imbeau also decided to head to Torino, aided by the fact that we could share hotel rooms and therefore minimize her costs. And it was certainly advantageous to have her in Torino with me because there was a lot of work to do in very little time. An added bonus was the fact we could, with Denise's Cable 10 experience and my handy digital video camera, do on-the-spot reporting and interviews. We hope to air a show on the Torino trip in the near future on Cable 10 to share the experience with the people of 樱桃视频and hopefully inspire our community to develop innovative and attainable initiatives for 2010.
As representatives of our community, we were invited to many events at British Columbia Canada House, an impressive log home built near the center of Torino in a Baroque Piazza. It was sponsored by the Provincial Government and was wholly constructed of pine beetle wood except for a majestic cedar at its center. This 270-year-old old growth tree found washed up on the beaches of Bella Coola provided Italians with much amusement. As TV personality Vicky Gabareau told us, Bella Coola in Italian means "nice ass". The house also featured an impressive multi-media presentation projected onto a massive screen showcasing the diversity and beauty of Canada and British Columbia. Crowds lined up for hours to get into the facility to see this show, to smell, touch and experience an authentic log home and to buy Canadian paraphernalia. There was also a live web cam from the top of Whistler Mountain and large touch screens where people could find out about a variety of communities in British Columbia. Denise and I kept touching the 樱桃视频button so that our community was constantly being featured on these large screens. BC Canada House was considered one of the "happening" "must see" places in Torino during the Games. Kudos to the provincial government for making it a phenomenal success.
BC Canada House was also host to a variety of events. Whistler held a number of "pub nights", the City of Richmond used it to tell the world about the Richmond Speed Skating Oval, the City of Prince George held an event to showcase its community and B.C.'s north, the premier hosted a breakfast for councillors, mayors and business people, Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean addressed the gathering at a City of Vancouver hosted event and the countdown to 2010 Celebration, and the closing ceremonies and the post ceremonies party were celebrated there as well. These events were extraordinary networking opportunities with media, dignitaries and athletes.
We talked to reporters and cameramen from NBC, CTV, CBC and other media always telling the 樱桃视频story; we are an oceanfront community in the heart of 2010, 40 minutes to both Whistler and Cypress Mountain where all the alpine and snowboard, luge, skeleton and bobsled events will take place, and only 25 minutes to the Nordic venue in the Callahan Valley. 樱桃视频is perhaps closer to more events than any other community in the Lower Mainland and therefore an ideal central location. I talked with Richard Coe, the Administrative Director of the United States Ski & Snowboard Association who expressed concern that Freestyle and Snowboard and Alpine events in 2010 were being held in two separate and distant venues at Cypress Mountain and Whistler. He was intrigued to know there was a city halfway between both venues. And I talked with Len Olender, Managing Director of Sportsworld Pacific, an event management company that makes all the travel and tour arrangements for a variety of teams and Sponsors. This is only a sampling of the contacts that were made at these many events and provided us with an amazing amount of possibilities for Squamish.
Premier Gordon Campbell was particularly impressed with Squamish's presence in Torino. Denise and I talked with him on a number of occasions about Squamish's role in the Games. I pitched one crazy idea that really intrigued him. During the Games, 樱桃视频could play host to the Sea to Sky Sustainability Summit possibly held at Quest University Canada. It would feature internationally renowned speakers and forum discussions about sustainability and the environment. The three pillars of the 2010 Games are sport, arts and culture and the environment. A Sea to Sky Sustainability Summit would be an effective way to bolster the environmental mission and mandate of these Games.
Premier Campbell was genuinely enthusiastic about the idea and we will be talking with him in the future about how we can make it happen.
A number of these "mini" conferences were held during the Games in Torino. For example, BC/Canada House hosted a BC Wood Products daylong seminar to teach the world about our forestry practices and promote BC lumber. The Olympics are a global stage like no other and it is up to us to maximize the opportunity and take full advantage of this world stage.
Both Denise and I were surprised at how little outlying communities had done to engage the visitor. It was difficult to find information about the towns around Torino or about any events that were going on in them. People were looking for the "off Broadway" of Torino but there was very little going on, or at least there was a failure to communicate the events to the public. As I watched Chief Gibby Jacob of the 樱桃视频Nation speak on behalf of participating First Nations [Chief Bill Williams of 樱桃视频was also involved in the closing ceremonies as were the Chiefs of three other First Nations] and invite the world to their traditional territory during the closing ceremonies, the name 樱桃视频was heard around the world. It was a proud moment for us all.
