Client: 2010 Bid Corporation

Event:
International Olympic Commission Visit to Vancouver/Whistler
Candidate City for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

Event Profile
The mission-critical moment in Vancouver's bid for the Winter Olympics took place years before the hoped-for 2010 Games. In early March 2003, the International Olympic Committee's Evaluation Commission arrived for a detailed assessment of the city's candidacy.

In a tough three-way race with Salzburg, Austria and Pyeongchang, Korea, with potentially billions of dollars and thousands of Olympic dreams at stake, Vancouver and Whistler people pulled out the stops. Hundreds of individuals and dozens companies teamed up with the 2010 Bid Corporation to make a winning impression on the 18-member commission.

Solutions for Each "Olympic" Site
Mediaco took up a crucial role of `press conference setup': the provision of staging and audiovisual equipment and services at more than a dozen tour sites in both Vancouver and Whistler.

Destinations included both existing and potential venues, proposed sites for two Athletes Villages, a downtown media centre, and other locations where the IOC and Canadian officials met for discussions.

Mediaco developed site-specific solutions for each venue. Requirements varied from a user-friendly wireless audio system for the tour bus, to complex large-scale video projection for a colourful pageant of Canadian talent that rocked Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre to mark the tour's finale.

At the Lower Mainland EComm centre, the control centre for the region's emergency and traffic systems, Mediaco created plasma-screen computer projections to demonstrate EComm's capabilities to IOC members. All over the region, Mediaco crews were on the alert, ready to react instantly if the IOC visitors decided to test the city's logistical skills with unplanned departures from the itinerary.

World-class audio and broadcast feeds
Mediaco also designed, staged and operated the ongoing Media Centre, staging daily press conferences. The final press conference, with the full Commission on the dias to report on their findings, attracted dozens of media and required broadcast feeds for over 20 TV cameras and three live-to-air broadcasts. Carefully designed media optics and broadcast feeds to dozens of international and national camera crews won rave reviews from local, national and international media members.

At every location, perfect audio was the essence of success, regardless of conditions. On a snow-covered mountainside; in a huge, empty and unadorned convention ballroom; or a plastic tent in a windy industrial yard sited for the Vancouver athlete's village, the sound system to deliver those mission-critical IOC pitches had to be flawless, and flawless it was.

The IOC Commission declared itself favourably impressed with the bid overall. Subsequently, on July 2nd, 2003, the International Olympic Committee selected Vancouver, Canada to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.