The Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM) on the Games' venue operation was convened in Beijing Wednesday morning, with Olympic experts taking their first-hand Games experiences in the area to the seminar.

The two-day venuisation seminar is intended to target the preparatory work for the Games-time operation and will help attendees nail down the know-how of integrating the venue operation plan into the 2008 Olympic master schedule.

The seminar will also help define the venue planning procedure for the Beijing Games and train personnel allocated at the competition and non-competition venues. The training of the latter will involve the application of the planning procedure for the competition venues to the non-competition venues.

Chief organizers of the Beijing Olympics will be able to obtain from the seminar useful knowledge about the missions in the days to come and the necessary support they are to provide for the accomplishment of the venue operation.

Lecturing the workshop were Katharine McLennan and Matthew Jackson with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) OGKM, Lisa Hindson of the IOC Venue Operation, and Roula Kokkota from the organizing committee of Athens 2004 (ATHOC) -- the latest edition of the Summer Games.

Vice Mayor of Beijing and BOCOG Executive Vice-President Liu Jingmin delivered a keynote speech at the seminar and BOCOG Executive Vice-President Li Binghua chaired the seminar.

Representatives of BOCOG departments concerned, the competition and non-competition teams, the Beijing 2008 Project Construction Headquarters Office, the Beijing 2008 Environmental Construction Office, and other stakeholders took part in the seminar.

A section of the IOC's Olympic Games Department, Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM) offers Olympic Games Organising Committees (OCOGs) services, including workshops, seminars and a network of experts with Games experience on a range of Olympic topics that will occur throughout the OCOGs' lifecycle.

(CRI July 27, 2006)