A first official opportunity for cities bidding for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics to network and promote their respective bids is to set to come at this month's Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly in Washington D.C.
Bermuda Olympic Association President Judy Simons and General Secretary Philip Guishard will be attending.
Each of the five contenders had initially been due to send only four people to the annual event, due to begin on October 26 before the Assembly itself three days later, but this number has been increased by two following a request to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It will represent the first major chance to meet IOC members and key stakeholders since a five-horse race was officially launched last month, pitting together Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome.
This group of six must include the attending representatives from the respective National Olympic Committees of the bidding country, with many of the cities also likely to send Mayors and other leading political figures.
Sizes of the delegations were confirmed by the IOC's associate director of its Olympic Games Department, Jacqueline Barrett, who said that they are trying to find a balance between unnecessary expenditure and providing opportunities for necessary meetings at events such as this.
It came as she also revealed that members of The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsorship programme are also expected to advise cities during the process.
Many IOC members are expected to be present in the United States capital, including all those representing NOCs and involved in ANOC and the five constituent continental bodies.
insidethegames understands that concerns were expressed over Los Angeles having an advantage due to the greater number of American officials set to attend the event on home soil, with this one reason for the increase in size of the delegations.
In return, the US candidate is also expected to have a presence at the European Olympic Committees General Assembly in Prague from November 19 to 21, where the four other contenders will naturally also attend.
Following the scrapping of bid presentations during the SportAccord Convention, the ANOC General Assembly remains one of the few occasions for formal presentations by the candidates to a large-scale audience.
Almaty and Beijing each presented their 2022 Winter bids at last year's ANOC event in Bangkok.
This happens at the last General Assembly before the vote, meaning it will probably occur at next April's event in Rio de Janeiro, unless the yet-to-be-confirmed 2017 meeting is held before that year's IOC Session in Lima, where the vote for 2024 is due to be made.
No definite date has yet been set either for the decisive Session in the Peruvian capital, but it is expected to take place in September.
