Over the past few months we at arcalife have tried progressively harder to talk with VANOC over an obvious opportunity that will benefit all Canadians at little cost. We’d like the opportunity to provide a richer experience for Canadians and international visitors wanting to secure and share their memories from the Olympic Games in an online scrapbook or space for people to record those special moments.
VANOC says it already has something like this in place. Rumours are abound about the troubled CODE project, security and privacy issues and infighting with the Canadian Tourism Commission. There are significant concerns where people’s memories will reside after the Games are finished and the websites close down. Should this not be properly addressed by a site that is specifically designed to enhance legacy? Arcalife is a leader in this space, and hey, we’re a small business based out of Vancouver!
You might think that timing is an issue – if you weren’t around in 2006 when the contract deals were made. The problem is that lots of companies were around, and from the look of things, local web firm Raincity Studios and colleagues tried their damndest.
It seems that no matter how good the opportunity, the scope is set, the desks along with the resources at VANOC HQ are reducing by the day - they have gone mobile and good luck finding them in the nooks and crannies of Whistler. As for the idea of helping local businesses, it’s well off the radar.
Talking with Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson a few weeks back at the California Market access bootcamp, his view was that “…unfortunately, VANOC is so focused on their objective that they aren’t able to look beyond it, to other opportunities...”. This is certainly our experience to date.
Does VANOC or any other Olympic body have an objective that encourages leaving a lasting imprint on local businesses and communities, or is this just global big business played out in a tightly defined locale? It leaves us with the impression that VANOC has already fallen short of the Olympic ideal, as a result of politics, BC bureaucracy and backroom business deals.
I believe that the Games will be successful, fantastic, exciting and competitive and that Vancouverites will extend the warmest of welcomes to all of our international visitors. I believe the Games will provide general prosperity for Canada and it’s corporate giants, but when it comes to smaller local businesses, the jury is out. We certainly feel left out in the cold and I would like to hear from others who have had similar experiences, or better, yet, from VANOC.
