Helios joins Baku 2020 bid team

Baku 2020 has announced that the Atlanta-based sports marketing firm Helios Partners has joined the agency team helping its bid to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the BAKU 2020 bid team reported.

Helios will assist the Baku 2020 team in developing presentations to the Olympic Family – with the first to the ANOC General Assembly in Moscow next week – as well as with messaging and strategic bid consulting.

Commenting on the appointment, Azerbaijan Minister for Youth and Sport Azad Rahimov said: “I am absolutely delighted that Helios has joined the Baku 2020 team. Helios has a fantastic track record helping cities with their Olympic bids. I very much look forward to working with Terrence Burns and his team as we present our bid to the Olympic Family over the coming months. Our Bid slogan, Together We Can, is all about creating great partnerships – within the Bid team in Azerbaijan, between the bid team and our advisors, and between the Baku 2020 Bid and the Olympic Movement.”

Terrence Burns, President of Helios Partners, said: “In many ways Baku represents one of the most intriguing opportunities for the Olympic Movement in years.  It is a unique blend of taking the Games to a nation, region and culture for the first time, but an illustration that if properly planned for, the Games are a tremendous investment - not a cost - for future potential Host Cities.  Baku will adapt the Games to its existing long-term development plans for the city; it will not change the city's plans to fit the Games.   This is a subtle, but profound difference in the Baku 2020 plan and could provide a prudent, responsible model going forward.”

Peter Mann, Chairman of pmplegacy, which has developed the Baku 2020 Applicant File and the Bid branding said: “It is great to be teaming up with Helios. The Olympic bidding world is a very small one, so we all know each other very well – and we work together extremely well, epitomising the Baku bid slogan: ‘Together We Can’.  The Applicant File that Baku has submitted has an inspirational vision, a robust venue concept and, most importantly, a sustainable Games plan with a strong legacy. I very much look forward to working together with Terrence to take Baku through to the next stage of this bid campaign.”

With offices in Atlanta, Beijing, London, Paris and Rio, Helios Partners has established itself as a world leader in the management of major sports event bids with a string of bid victories including the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Russia's bid to host the 2018 FIFA World CupTM, the Kazan 2013 Universiade and Sochi's 2014 Olympic Winter Games bid. Helios was also behind the winning bid of the sport of Golf, which returns to the Olympic Programme beginning in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.



/Today.Az/