The 2010 Winter Olympics are leaving legacies in this city far more than just the infrastructure and development. Vancouver is receiving a multimillion dollar ad campaign and is now a memory point for billions of people worldwide. With many visitors finally seeing the beauty of this region firsthand, many people are speculating the long term effects the Olympics will have for this region. The memories that many visitors are creating while they are here will last a lifetime and these memories will once again lead them back to this city to visit, or to possibly make their home.

For me personally, the memories of the Olympics far exceed that of winning our first gold medal on home soil or the many people I have had the opportunity to meet during the last few weeks. My favourite Olympic memory was being one of 5,000 performers in the ceremony cast that entertained 60,000 guests within BC Place and a television audience of over two billion people. It was an impressive ceremony that beautifully represented the best that this entire country has to offer. While the rehearsal schedule was a huge time commitment, this has truly been a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am so thankful to have received the chance to help showcase my country and my city to the world.

And while I too, could throw in my two cents about the long term effects the Olympics will have on this city and the real estate market, I think it’s important for those of us that have been lucky enough to enjoy the experience to take a step back, and take the time to create our own memories that we will be able to enjoy for the rest of our lives. For most of us, this will be the only Olympics that we will experience in our lifetime.

Now that the world has had the chance to see what we see everyday, the memories created here are quite possibly the greatest branding campaign we could ever receive. I am very interested to see the long term effects in the months and years ahead.

Meghan Schroeder