Venue Training

On Saturday morning the fog had well and truly settled into the valley. It was also raining and a warm start to a wet day. It is Saturday Jan 30th and there were lots of things to get done today.

At 6 AM I popped out of bed and started my day. I had a chat with Gray before he went to work and then made myself some breakfast. My first activity of the day was to attend the Event Services Venue Training that started at 10 AM. I had to drive to Callaghan Valley (about 60 km from Pemberton where we are staying). I left early to ensure that I was there on time and I managed to swing by the local Starbucks for a Chai latte. The drive from Pemberton to Whistler was uneventful but the traffic started to build as I approached the town centre. The town of Whistler is starting the “lockdown” as some of the streets and parking facilities are being closed for the duration of the Olympics. VANOC is closing many facilities starting Feb 1 as they use the locations for operations, guests and various operational activities. I went to a local washroom this morning that I knew about but it has been closed for the duration of the Olympics. A nice paper sign indicated the nearest location of a public washroom and it happened to be several blocks away near the BC Liquor Store. Parking will be an issue anywhere in the area as they are closing a huge parking lot (the day lot) starting Monday. I guess we will resort to the vastly expanded public transportation for the duration. However both Tara-Lee and Bree have passes for parking as they work in the core of the village and we may be able to use that parking should we want to go to town for dinner or something like that. But I digress.....

I continued my drive south and found the turn for the Callaghan Valley and drove the last 10 km from HWY 99 until I reached the checkpoint entering the venue. The venues are very secure and only those who have the access rights get through. This venue is called the Whistler Olympic Park and it will be the home of the ski jumping, cross-country skiing, biathlon and the Nordic combined (ski jump followed by a cross-country sprint). All of these events are called the Nordic events and the three sports have their own locations in the park. It is the largest site for the Olympics and there are activities there every day of the Olympics. There is an expectation that there will be 12,000 folks at the park each day. That will include spectators, media, athletes, Olympic family (IOC etc), security and workforce. The training session commenced at 10 as planned and there were 200 volunteers in the room with about 25 staff and organizers. They introduced the Sport organizers and each of them talked about their sport and their team’s efforts. The presentations went on for 90 minutes and a great deal of information was shared. I have not done my Job Specific Training so there were some blank spots for me but overall the information was valuable and added perspective to the venue. We then broke out into teams and I joined the Event Services (EVS) team outside for a walk through the venue. It was still raining and the valley was pretty well socked in with fog/cloud/low ceiling. There were about 25 EVS volunteers for this session. The other volunteers were sports specific folks as well as other functional areas.

For the next 2.5 hours we visited each area and were informed about the plans and procedures for each sub-venue. The ski jump area is fantastic and has seating capacity for about 2700 people and lots of standing room available. It will be very interesting to see the jumpers in action. At the cross-country venue there is seating capacity for another 2000 people and there are several standing areas available. The Biathlon location was the best looking as all of the “appearance” has been completed for this sub-venue. There is extensive use of the logos on material stretched to cover large open areas with colourful banners. This location is set up for another 2000 seated guests plus standing areas in various vantage points. Each spot has a warming tent for people to get out of the weather and concessions, merchandise shops and of course the back operations for the workforce. The sub-venues are divided by long walkways that meander through the forest and the overall site is about one km square. I am looking forward to seeing this environment in the sunlight as the venue is nestled amidst some breathtaking mountains. We broke up about 2 PM and I drove back to Pemberton just in time for Freddi to drive to Whistler for her Venue Training at the Sliding Centre.

Freddi’s training was about 3 hours long and she had a tour of the facility where they will be doing the Bobsled, luge and skeleton runs. She walked the venue and was informed about the specifics of the sport as well as her duties while at the venue. She had the opportunity to meet her co-workers as they are a small team of 3 or 4 folks dedicated to Accreditation at that venue. It is starting to take shape and we both have a better perspective of the expectations of our participation. The teams seem to be well organized and the overall impression is that VANOC and their teams are doing a bang-up job.

Once were all back home we and all of the hockey games in Canada were complete we had a nice big dinner with all who had congregated during the day. A small workforce went to work in the kitchen and effortlessly produced a great meal (Mexican style) for 10. It was a full but very enjoyable day as we shared time with friends and family while learning about our new environment.

(Note: the images on today's blog are from the Vancouver 2010 web page http://www.vancouver2010.com/ - click on Photos .)