Banff resident Lisa Vinderskov has always had a passion for working with youth in sports and now, as the newly chosen games manager for the 2014 Alberta Winter Games in Banff/Canmore, she can flex her public relations skills while promoting something she believes in.
“I can promote anything I believe in,” Vinderskov said. “I think it’s an incredible opportunity for our community and an incredible opportunity for the youth in our community.”
After receiving 41 applications for the position and conducting phone and in-person interviews, the Alberta Games host society selected the Banff resident based on her background, experience and overall enthusiasm for the job.
“This is a huge piece of the puzzle,” said chair of the host society Bob Ellard. “Lisa has a tremendous background in terms of being able to deal with events like this. She’s well known and respected in the community.
“She came to the interview with an enthusiasm about the future, the things she was going to bring to us and how she was going to do it,” he added. “She was definitely the right person.”
According to Ellard, the panel in charge of selecting the games manager voted unanimously for Vinderskov, adding the position requires a multi-faceted skill set.
“This is our chief executive officer if you want,” he explained. “It’s a big job, a ‘Jill of all trades’, I guess, in that she’s going to be leading all of our staff and executing a lot of work put in place by the volunteers.”
In addition to adding several more senior employees over the next couple of months, the chair noted there is still a lot of other work to be done to get ready for the event, which takes place in February 2014.
“Right now I’m taking an incredible amount of information,” Vinderskov said. “Everything from the provincial body to each of our directors and understanding where everybody is at. Our number one priority is to set up a home (headquarters) in one of the two areas.”
So far the support from both Canmore and Banff has been very positive, Vinderskov noted and, coupled with the excitement from residents within town, could make this one of the most successful Winter Games in the province.
“All the committee and directors seem to be really on track,” she said. “We have such an incredible group of people. Both communities have shown an openness to be involved. Parks Canada has been very open and co-operative.
“Both the tourism bodies have shown their ability to help out wherever they can,” she added.
Having lived in Banff since 1994 and operating her own tourism marketing and events management company in the Bow Valley, Vinderskov is confident the two communities can once again create the energy that brought the first Alberta Winter Games to Banff in 1976.
“To pull this off we have to have both communities working together,” she said. “It’s really exciting to come full circle. It will be the best games ever and we really want to do that by involving the communities.
