Nov 18, 2008 10:37 pm US/Central
Eye On The Gold: Chicago's Olympic Dreams
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
In the first of a CBS 2 series "Eye on the Gold: Chicago's Olympic Dreams," CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports with a rare and exclusive look behind the scenes of Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid.
This is a crucial week for Chicago 2016: Preparing to face the biggest group of International Olympic Committee members yet with just 20 minutes to make a good first impression on dozens of voters. To put it mildly, every second counts. CBS 2 was given unprecedented access as they decided what made the cut.
"My introducing the team takes a lot of time," said Chicago 2016 CEO Pat Ryan.
We sat in on strategy sessions.
"Right now we're looking for pictures of Valerie Jarrett," said program specialist Kiratiana Freelon.
We watched Friday's flash presentation taking shape, and listened to translators.
"A lot of times French is more wordy than English, so it's a big challenge to get it to match," said Leah Drew, international relations.
Tuesday night, as staffers put together kits to be handed out with bios in English and French, members of Chicago's team are on their way to Istanbul where European IOC members begin their meeting on Friday. A golden opportunity for Chicago to reach between 40 and 50 voting members.
"In the presentation we really have to get across what Chicago and Chicago 2016 can do for the Olympic movement," Ryan said.
As Pat Ryan and World Sport Chicago President Bill Scherr fine-tune their parts, the design team is adding pictures of Mayor Daley to the presentation. Daley will make his first presentation to IOC members in Istanbul.
"They're actually working with those pictures right now," Freelon said.
They're also adding more pictures of President-elect Barack Obama, who's now an even bigger part of the bid. And whose election night celebration was a major plus.
"We probably couldn't have paid for a much better commercial than the election night footage from Grant Park," Scherr said.
In fact, it did so much that the bid committee is now cutting down a video with beauty shots of Chicago - and adding a second video featuring young people training for Olympic sports. It's a video designed to show the impact Chicago's Olympic dreams are already having on Olympic hopefuls.
"We can create that sense to the IOC that we're not waiting for the games to come here, we're starting now," Ryan said.
In addition to the presentation in Istanbul, Mayor Daley will be invaluable, Ryan says, for one on one and small group meetings with IOC voters.
Voters are no longer permitted to visit candidate cities after the Salt Lake City scandal. But that hasn't stopped Chicago's ambassadors, who estimate they've already had face to face meetings with more than a hundred of the 120 voters at Olympic events around the world.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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