IOC Talks New Era of Bidding at Smart Cities Summit -- On the Scene

(ATR) Providing a comprehensive overview of Olympic Agenda 2020 and applying those reforms to the 2024 candidature process was the theme as IOC staff members addressed delegates at the Smart Cities & Sport Summit in Lausanne.

IOC director general Christophe De Kepper, associate director of Olympic candidatures Jacqueline Barrett and Youth Olympic Games associate director Antoine Goetschy spoke to approximately 200 delegates representing 60 cities convening in the Olympic capital on Wednesday (October 14).

De Kepper began his presentation offering background information about implementation of the 40 reforms unanimously approved in December 2014: "To quote our president, we opened the windows to let fresh air in. And we have also opened our minds."

He said that during a one-year period some 1,200 ideas from 270 contributors were considered in shaping and implementing Olympic Agenda 2020.

"It was a lengthy process and we tried to do it in the most efficient way," De Kepper said.

De Kepper informed that it led to the creation of 14 working groups assessing five clusters of recommendations: the uniqueness of the Olympic Games, focus on athletes, Olympism in action, the IOC’s role of unity in diversity and IOC structure and organization.

Of the reforms, one of which permits OCOG’s to recommend additional sports for their program, De Kepper said, "it brings flexibility and local flavor to the Olympic program." Regarding Tokyo 2020 being the pioneer, putting forth five new sports to the IOC early last week, he called it "a game changer."

Another key outcome of Olympic Agenda 2020 was the reshaping of the Olympic Games candidature process to make it more flexible, allowing more cities, through decreased costs and use of existing venues, to aspire to become an Olympic host city.

"This is a large-ranging change by the IOC making bidding more attractive to help cities achieve their local strategies and objectives," De Kepper said.

Barrett Pleased With Start of 2024 Bid Process

Jacqueline Barrett followed De Kepper outlining and explaining procedures and details of the new Olympic candidature bidding process.

Barrett, who has worked on the candidature evaluation process for 12 Olympic Games, said the IOC’s newly created invitation phase was successful, resulting in five viable candidates cities in the race for 2024.

"We were discussing with the cities in advance rather than just letting them pop their letter in," Barrett told Around the Rings, referring to the September 15 submission deadline. "It’s been a great process and we’re delighted with this competition."

The five cities – Rome, Paris, Los Angeles, Budapest and Hamburg – will now cooperate and communicate frequently with the IOC over the two-year process which is broken down into three phases. The 2024 host city will be elected in Lima, Peru in 2017.

"In terms of the candidature process, for us it’s getting all of the cities to the final line," Barrett said. "That’s what we’d love to be able to do."

However, Barrett was realistic admitting that situations or problems could arise resulting in the IOC Executive Board needing to eliminate a city from the race.

"There’s always the possibility and that’s why built into the process is the possibility of the Executive Board to take that decision [to eliminate a city], because in our global economic times you never know what might happen to change something."

Barrett offered details of the three phases: vision, Games concept and strategy; governance, legal and venue funding; and Games delivery, experience and venue legacy.

"It’s a process we shaped through Olympic Agenda 2020, not because something was broken, but because we wanted to make sure that the Olympic Games stay relevant to all cities around the world," Barrett said.

"We want the Games to be fabulous for athletes, but also really meet the needs of the city and region in the future," she said.

Barrett is looking forward to another new component of the revamped bid process put into action – workshops between the bid cities and IOC. The plan is for at least one workshop to be scheduled per phase.

Each of the five cities will meet individually with the IOC at the next workshop in Lausanne, November 16-20.

"It’s better value for the cities because we’ll really concentrate for a whole day-and-a-half with each city," she said.

Barrett said that she and her team are anticipating an ongoing dialogue and progressive information exchange with the five cities along the road to the IOC’s host city selection in 2017.

"At the end of the day, I just want us to be able to say how proud we are of the cities and we feel that we’ve given the best of ourselves and helped them do it."

Written by Brian Pinelliin Lausanne

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