PROPOSAL:
the Brisbane Expo 2020 Olympiad



2020: A Year for Occasion
 
2020 will be the 250th Anniversary of Captain Cook proclaiming the Australian continent in the name of King George III. It will be the most significant

Australian anniversary since the 1788-1988 Australian Bicentennial, and especially significant for Queensland as this proclamation took place in Queensland,



at the to the purpose named Possession Island, Cape York Peninsula, on 21 August 1770. It is a Australian year bristling with occasion, not only on a

national and international scale, but also at the local level as well.
 
Brisbane: A City waiting for another Celebration
 

and otherwise, needs to capitalise on the success of these events by attracting another similar or grander event proposal. We also need to do so to prevent

the event possibly going to another state capital such as Sydney or Melbourne. Sydney recently lost the 2012 Expo bid and looks likely to bid for the 2020

slot as well.
 
Brisbane has the necessary event infrastructure, both in terms of physical and intellectual capital to host these joint events. We should relish this

opportunity to fine tune our skills in this regard and train new leaders at the same time.
 
The Brisbane Expo 2020 Olympiad and Universal Exposition:
the Brisbane expo2020lympiad

The Foundation Expo '88 proposal is simple and clear - re-unite the Olympics Games and Universal Expositions back to where they were at the beginning of the

games of the modern era - both held conjunctly at the same city at the same time (1900 Paris, 1904 St Louis).
 
A massive event requiring a massive injection of public spending and infrastructure capital, capturing the imagination of the sporting and cultural world,

and creating incredible synergies in the arts, sports, tourism, economics, diplomacy and government - both local, state, national and international.
 
A Joint Event such as this would be known as an exp0lympiad - a Universal Exposition and Olympiad - a term coined by Foundation Expo '88, and would consist

of a Universal Class Exposition - a Class I Exposition where the participants design and construct their Pavilions, and a Summer Games Olympiad.
 
Brisbane's 1988 World Exposition was an International Specialised Exposition on the theme of Leisure, where the Expo Authority for the most part designed and

constructed the participant Pavilions. Universal Expositions allow for greater architectural creative scope as the participants are required to design and

construct their Pavilions, and are based on a broad humanistic universal theme - the proposed theme for the Brisbane expo2020lympiad being 'Respect and

Preservation of the World's Indigenous Cultures' - linking in with the cross-encounter of cultures that occurred with the Cook exploration of Australia.
 
Time Table
 
The two events should be applied for separately, as they are responsible to different organisations, the Bureau of International Expositions, Paris, and the

International Olympic Committee, Geneva. The bid for the Universal Exposition should occur first, with a 2011 bid lodgement to the BIE in Paris, through the

Australian Ambassador. This will allow competing bid cities six months to respond, after which a member nation vote will take place. Then the 2020 Universal

Exposition will be awarded to the City with the most votes.
 
The bid for the Summer Games Olympiad will take place later, in 2013.
 
Whilst each event is bid for separately it should still be known to both organisations that Brisbane intends to host a Joint Universal Exposition and Summer

Games.
 
This allows only three years of preparation for the Universal Exposition, and five years preparation for the Summer Games Olympiad. Time is of the essence.
 
Competitors
 
Universal Exposition: Houston, San Francsico, Sydney, Manila.
Summer Games Olympiad: Cape Town, Delhi, Istanbul, Buenos Aires
 
Brisbane will not be without competition for the 2020 time slot, for Universal Exposition or Summer Games Olympiad. However, Brisbane increases her chances

of gaining the Joint Events with a proposal that is exciting, captures the public's imagination, and furthers the Olympics Games and Expositions movements -

and a Joint Event does just that.
 
To maximise the potentials here, an early bid lodgement to the BIE in Paris in 2011 is crucial. Although bid cities can bid between 9 years to 6 years in

advance for the 2020 Universal Exposition slot, once another City has put forward a bid we will have only six months to respond, which would not allow enough

of a time window to put together a bid. Hence a proactive bid lodgement, at the earliest time possible in 2011 is highly recommended.
 
Brisbane for the 2020 Summer Games Olympiad is not an impossibility either. The former Premier Peter Beattie MP has commented that he would like to see

Brisbane host an Olympic Games by 2024, and this has been supported in principle by IOC President Jacque Rogge.
 
Funding
 
There is no reason to say why this proposal cannot be totally funded by private enterprise, as was World Expo '88, and why it could not be a total success.

Ticket sales, media revenue, and post-event land development would all add into the funding mix.
 
Possible Sites
 


Seville's Universal Exposition should be the template here - a large site between 160 and 220 hectares, allowing for maximum infrastructure, recreational and

Pavilion expression, at a site that could be connected by standard transport and high-speed rail to the inner city. The Olympiad venues

would be as per the Commonwealth Games with some refurbishment. This would create an attractive inner city suburb at the event's conclusion that would be

very attractive to investors and developers, a new urban area with residential, hotel, retail, hospitality, and parkland space to rival or even better the

transformed World Expo '88 site, South Bank Parklands.
 
Next Steps
 
Collaboration with Brisbane City Council is vital in the bid proposal process. Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has already signified his interest in a 2020

Exposition, we need his extra support for a Summer Games Olympiad as well.
 
A Committee needs to be formed within Tourism and Protocol and Events Queensland to co-ordinate the task, and bring on board necessary other Government and

private enterprise players.

Contact

Foundation Expo '88 is the present liaison for the project proposal, contact John McGregor Executive Director at your earliest

convenience at executivedirector@celebrate88.com, or, tel (+61417) [0417] 434105.