Canada's Northern House, among the best "free" 2010 venues, is closed after this Friday
Now that Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Games are over many of us wish them back. But it wasn’t so long ago the public had a less generous opinion of the pending Olympic experience. Polls as late as January indicated widespread ambivalence about the Games in their home province, although it was clear that the Torch Relay built goodwill beyond BC’s borders.
Then, almost as if the light went on, Canadians fell in love with hosting the Olympic & Paralympic Games. The change in mood was so sudden and so ebullient, that it came as a complete surprise to Games veterans. Even Jacques Rogge described Vancouver’s enthusiastic embrace as unprecedented.
Many theories exist now on why it worked so well, but there is no doubt in our minds that the key ingredient was the numerous free activities, which thanks to social media were properly promoted.
At CityCaucus.com alone we received 2.5 million page views, 2500 comments, and thousands of Twitter and Facebook shares during the Games, and hundreds of calls and email inquiries from as far away as Texas and Toronto.
Where governments and VANOC couldn’t agree to promote where to be for free, we gladly stepped in to volunteer our help. What was an Olympic anomaly – providing dozens of free attractions for the citizens of a host city – is now something no future Games can do without. And Canada must lead the way during London 2012 and Sochi 2014.
