A four day information seminar last week was attended by the three cities bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games – Annecy, Munich and PyeongChang. The seminar was held by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland to assist Applicant Cities on how to respond to the IOC’s questionnaire in phase one of the bid process, which is also called the candidature acceptance procedure. It also gave the cities a complete overview of the complexity of organizing the Olympic and Paralympic Games and what will be expected from them should they continue as Candidate Cities in phase two of the procedure.
At the seminar the three bid cities were given the opportunity to learn about the Olympic and Paralympic Movement, meet with those who have organized or are organizing Olympic and Paralympic Games, and receive all the information needed to bid.
The bid city delegations spoke to representatives of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to get more information about the Paralympic Games, the Paralympic sports program and legacy opportunities.
The seminar reportedly covered all aspects of the bid process and the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games such as Games benefits, legacy, finance, the Organizing Committee’s structure and public authority interface and infrastructure.
IPC CEO Xavier Gonzalez said, “the seminar is an excellent opportunity to set the right expectations from the beginning and stress the importance of the Paralympic Games already in the bidding process. With every bid we see more interest form the cities which is a very positive trend”.
