It’s crunch time, and the five cities – Paris, London, New York, Madrid and Moscow – are travelling to a conference in Berlin to tell the International Olympic Committee (IOC) why their city should host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
The five bid cities are sending high-level delegations to the conference, and for the first time the mayors of all five cities will be at the same 2012 meeting.
More than 30 IOC members are expected to attend, giving the bid cities a major platform before the IOC selects the 2012 host city in July.
Each city has been allotted 10 minutes to make presentations on Sunday to the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, which covers 28 sports. Many of the federation presidents are also IOC members eligible to vote in Singapore.
The bid cities have had other opportunities to present their bids – at the European Olympic Committees in Dubrovnik Croatia late last year, and the Oceania Olympic Committees in Brisbane Australia earlier this month. There are two other opportunities in coming weeks – at the African Olympic meetings in Ghana and another European gathering in Albania.
But the Berlin conference reportedly offers the biggest stage. The bid cities can also set up exhibit stands at SportAccord, where sports leaders and others involved, such as sponsors, architects, lawyers, broadcasters, event organizers, technology experts and other specialists can meet and exchange ideas.
New York bid leader Dan Doctoroff said, “it’s the largest gathering of IOC members and leaders of international federations that there will be between now and Singapore. It’s a very important milestone and test”.
