World Union of Olympic Cities (WUOC)
Lausanne Summit - Beijing 2010
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(L to R) Beijing Vice Mayor Liu JINGMIN, Zhang MING, Secretary General, Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA), Beijing Mayor Guo JINLONG, Marc-Daniel GUTEKUNST, Richard BUTCHER, ATLANTA DITC Vice-President for Sports International, Government Relations (VP SIG), Jiang XIAOYU, Vice Chairman, Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA)/Executive VP of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (2008), in charge of media and communications, opening and closing ceremonies, torch relay, culture activity and media operations
Beijing, China (October 14 - 16, 2010)
The 3rd edition of the Lausanne Summit for Olympic Cities took place between the 14-16 October 2010.
The Summit was another highly stimulating, interactive, knowledge sharing experience. The audience was treated to a variety of topics.
Topic 1: Identifying the missing link: Activating the interfaces between the Olympic Games and city developments to create a long-term urban strategy.
With the Games in the past, it is important for cities to quickly identify the interfaces which can be leveraged to incorporate and use the Olympic legacy in their urban strategy. What is meant by the term “interface”? Is it infrastructure left over from hosting the Games? Political structures put in place to have a more focused and efficient organization of the Games? Human capital produced by hosting the Games in the form of knowledge and expertise? New services which could be transferred or outsourced to other cities to generate economic return?
Topic 2: Today’s youth is tomorrow’s future: Creating an urban strategy by creating sustainable projects to activate a cities social capital through the education of youth.
Today’s youth is tomorrow’s future. How can cities incorporate the Olympic ideals, legacy and heritage left over from having hosted the Olympic Games into a long term urban strategy? How can cities that are either planning to host the Olympic Games or who harbour Olympic ambitions incorporate the Olympic ideals, heritage and legacy which they will one day inherit into a long term urban strategy? Today’s youth is tomorrow’s future. How can cities incorporate the Olympic ideals to educate youth to fight against obesity, inactivity, and discrimination to promote a healthy, equal and ethical future?
Both Dr. Marc-Daniel GUTEKUNST and Richard BUTCHER represented Atlanta Mayor Kasim REED and the City of Atlanta.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim REED’s message to the Lausanne Summit – Beijing 2010 was very well received.
On October 16, 2010, during the WUOC General Assembly, Dr Marc-Daniel GUTEKUNST and Richard BUTCHER presented the 2012 WUOC House concept proposal for the London 2012 Olympic Games on the campus of University of East London. Mr. Nirmal BORKHATARIA, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Director of Finance University of East London, and Dr. Paul FORD, Director of Olympic and Paralympic Partnership Operations University of East London joined the ATLANTA DITC Team for the 2012 WUOC House presentation. The presentation was extremely well received. The same day, during Beijing Mayor Guo JINLONG’s Reception and Closing Ceremony of the Summit at the Summer Palace, in his closing remarks to the audience, IOC Vice President Ser Niang NG mentioned the 2012 WUOC House in very positive terms. Mr. NG later on indicted that he was very supportive of the WUOC House, and was looking forward to visiting it during the London 2012 Olympic Games.
