Penticton Western News
By Kristi Patton
Published: November 10, 2009
A $50,000 commitment to participate in a festival during the Olympics in Richmond has left some sitting at the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen directors table scratching their heads.
Armed with what some directors perceived as only a little knowledge of what the O Zone festival in Richmond is or what exactly they were being offered in return for the $50,000 commitment, the RDOS weighted vote was 58 per cent in favour of going ahead.
“It’s not a tradeshow, people are there for the Olympics and I don’t think it is money that is well spent. It’s all really being piece-mealed together. If you don’t do it right it could look real messy,” said Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells. “This is really not how I do business. There are so many unknowns … there are too many questions.”
The O Zone Festival is touted by the City of Richmond as an “unparalleled opportunity to showcase your community to the world.” It is expected that 15,000 Olympic visitors will walk through the 60 acres of space per day. The RDOS will get a spot on B.C. Street in the O Zone, which is designed specifically to provide an opportunity to promote a city or region at the largest free festival of the 2010 Winter Games. The O Zone will also feature multicultural programming, headliner entertainment, encounters with Olympic athletes, simulcasts of Olympic Games competition on giant screens, a ice art installation and world championship ice carving, a outdoor skating rink, arts exhibitions, food and beverage stations, special fireworks evenings and more.
Oliver Mayor Pat Hampson and Penticton director Dan Albas both noted that they would prefer to see the money be put into an idea that would target a potential market rather than a one-off event that may actually only attract very few people to the area. Others around the RDOS board table see this as an opportunity to show the world what the region has to offer not only as a tourism selling point but in business as well.
RDOS chairman Dan Ashton said this is an opportunity to showcase the region to the world rather than all the focus be on the Lower Mainland.
“I don’t know how well we will be represented and this is a chance to do that … a stack of business card and the right connections and you never know what could happen,” said RDOS chairman Dan Ashton.
Director Bill Schwarz said the area D economic development officer would give her full attention to the project with the help of other RDOS economic development officers.
“This is one opportunity for us to decide what we want to tell the world about us rather than what they say about us. We can write the script here,” he said.
Annette Antoniak, economic development officer for area D, is the former president and CEO of the B.C. Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat. She helped put together the B.C./Canada pavilion in Turino for the 2006 Winter Olympics and more recently the B.C./Canada pavilion at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Along with the Penticton and Summerland EDO’s the group will be working with the various Chamber of Commerce and Tourism agencies in the region.
“We do have a short window but we have a very motivated group of professionals here in the South Okanagan and we are going to get together (Tuesday) to discuss programming ideas and how we are going to move it forward,” said Antoniak. “The intent is to work with all the industry sector groups that represent the region … this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we want to make sure that we put our best foot forward.”