This year’s Business Forum at the Ambassadors Conference on 7 September closed with an event organized by the Munich 2018 Bid Committee to inform the heads of German missions abroad about Munich’s bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2018.

The evening event in the Telekom Representative Office, Berlin, was opened by Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office. She spoke of the fascination the Olympic Games exerts on us all, and underscored the Federal Government’s strong support for the bid.

Bernhard Schwank, the new Chief Executive of the Bid Committee, Michael Vesper, Head of the Supervisory Board and Katarina Witt, Chair of the Bid Board, presented the core messages of the bid and explained the “Two Park” concept developed by the cities of Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Munich’s bid was evaluated very positively by the IOC when selecting the Candidate Cities. Indeed, Munich received top marks in seven of the eleven categories.

During the Applicant City phase, support for the bid had to be sought primarily at national level. Now that Munich is an official Candidate City, the international campaign begins in earnest. The Federal Foreign Office has a presence worldwide through its missions abroad. The heads of these missions will now, in compliance with IOC rules, raise awareness of Germany as an outstanding country for winter sports, which produces a large number of top athletes and has considerable experience of organizing high-level sporting events in a manner appreciated by the participants.