What if you had to do your job in front of the entire world?

Staging the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games provided the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) with a challenge of almost unimaginable proportions. The Games may have only lasted a few weeks, but it took a team of logistics experts and years of preparation to make it happen.

Imagine what you could learn if you had access to one of the logistics professionals who worked behind the scenes at an event of this magnitude? 

Now you have your chance! 

At Closing Ceremonies, you will learn from not just one, but from THREE logistics experts who were part of the combined team that made it all happen. All had different areas of responsibility and will share their experiences with you. You will also discover that after the last medal had been awarded, Canada’s logistics team had to go into overtime.

The session will conclude with a Q & A period.

No matter what your role is in your company, getting an exclusive backstage look into the logistics involved at the Winter Games represents superlative conference value and is something you can’t afford to miss. 

Jeff White, CITT, General Manager, Pacific Overseas Forwarding Inc.

Freight requirements for an Olympic Games are daunting. This is made even more difficult by the specialized equipment needed for Winter Games. For example, a four-person bobsled weighs about 210 kg and is 3.80 metres long. 

For this monumental task, VANOC turned to Jeff White, CITT, and Pacific Overseas Forwarding. Together, they were directly or indirectly responsible for 85 Olympic teams, 41 Paralympic teams, Olympic vendors, sponsors, rights holding broadcasters, editorial media and Olympic broadcasting services. 

You will also hear from Jeff about their “Freight Concierge” service concept whereby trained staff - positioned at Olympic venue service desks - provided on-site labour and shipping services to the entire Olympic Family. And learn more about how and why they provided first and last mile services to key venues for competing freight forwarders not granted access to secure Olympic sites.    

Ian Murray, Director, Canadian Pacific Logistics Solutions

For the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games, Canadian Pacific Logistics Solutions (CPLS) was responsible for working with vendors to help manage the logistical side of the event. Their scope of responsibilities involved getting equipment and goods in and out of Vancouver and Whistler.

It also meant developing the innovative solutions needed to efficiently bring goods in from Europe and North America. 

Ian Murray will provide insights to the approach CPLS took to respond to the many logistical challenges and requirements the role entailed to help deliver one of the most successful Olympic Games in recent history.

Tony Beck, Director Logistical Operations, VANOC

Simply creating the checklist of things to do for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games was a job unto itself. And at Closing Ceremonies, you will learn from the man responsible for making a large part of that Olympic-sized checklist happen.

Tony Beck, Director Logistical Operations for VANOC, was responsible for a multitude of logistical management services. Working behind the scenes, he helped make Canada’s Winter Games run as smoothly and seamlessly as they appeared on television. 

Tony’s role required the orchestration of a myriad of Winter Games related logistics functions. His areas of responsibility included:

• Warehouse operations
• Customs and freight forwarding
• Trucking and distribution for all goods flow to and from all venues
• Order management
• Reverse logistics and all post Games logistics/ asset dissolution operations 

Share in the experiences of a logistics professional who saw the Winter Games from almost every possible logistics related angle.