Snap of 21st Summer Deaflympics Progress

Frog Race at the Dragon Boat Festival

Professional Knowledge Program For Volunteers

One of several 2009 Summer Deaflympics advertisting methods

A reception process for foreign visitors

One of 21st Summer Deaflympics venues

Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf, with the support from the Taipei City Government, won the bid for hosting the 21st Summer Deaflympics, Taipei, 2009 (T2009) in February of 2003. There are 3 years left to the Event from now. During the preparation from 2003 to 2006, every achievement of the Organizing Committee (OC) is so brilliant, especially in 2006. The major accomplishments of T2009 at this stage are:

PROMOTION

1. Walking for Health Event on New Year's Day: T2009 displayed at Walking for Health Event on January 1, 2006, which is organized by the Hope Foundation. There were 5,000 people participated in the Event. The Hope Foundation is directed by Ms. Jeng Ji, who was a world famous female athlete.
2. Frog Race at the Dragon Boat Festival: T2009 organized a promotional event of Frog Race at the Da-Jia Riverside Park on May 31, 2006, the day of Chinese Traditional Dragon Boat Festival. The Frog Race is also a fundraising event as the same as “Duck Race”. People can donate T2009 by “adopting” a floating Sky Frog, the T2009 Mascot. There were 100,000 people watching the race by the river, and about 10 million people in Taiwan learned the news of this event from the media.
3. Bicycle Parade: Famous deaf sportsmen participated in a bicycle parade which was host by Taipei City and Taipei County Governments. The event caught 30,000 people’s eyes on Deaflympics.
4. Promotion At Important Sports Over Taiwan: T2009 made promotions at various national sports events in Taiwan and impressed 3 million people through displays and media.
5. Volunteer Oath-Taking Rally: Thousands of volunteers took an oath to serve at T2009 at the 3-years-to-go event on September 10, 2006. The rally was witnessed by Dr. Ying-jeou Ma, the Mayor of Taipei City, Dr. Chuan-Show Chen, the Minister of National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Ms. Shih-hsin Chen, the Olympic Tae Kwon Do gold medalist of 2004, and showed a great popularity among Taiwan. This event also attracted a great deal of media to report and caught eyes of 2 million people on it.
6. Taiwan Deaf Culture Exhibition: In order to make all circles understand Deaf Culture and Deaf Community, and to show abilities of the Deaf, Taiwan Deaf Culture Exhibition took place for five days (Sep 9-13) at the Taipei Arena during the 3-years-to-go event. There were 3,000 inspectors every day.
7. Count Down Clock: The Korean company – Samsung donated a count down clock to T2009 at Taipei Arena Square. The clock is shaped into a 12-meter-high gesture, and will be unveiled by Mayor of Taipei City, President of Samsung Company and Chairman of T2009 Foundation on December 9, 2006, at 1,000-days-to-go Ceremony.
8. Request for Proposal on Corporate Identity System (CIS) of T2009: In order to carry global marketing out, T2009 provides 10,000 US Dollars as a prize to request for proposal on CIS. The award-winning works will be announced on the day of 1000-days-to-go Ceremony.
9. ING Road Running: ING Antai Life is a global company and they host Road Running Event every year, the biggest road running event in Taiwan. It will take place in December and is estimated at about 100 thousand runners to participate in. T2009 will promote there.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

1. The Sign Language Training Course: T2009 opens sign language training courses such as basic, advanced, ASL, etc., as well as training class for teachers to meet the needs for sign language service. There are 600 people been trained at present.
2. International Work Shops: In order to make T2009 staffs have international view and speciality for services, we invited specialists on practical affairs of sports event management, Deaflympics, and venue operating from USA, Australia, Greece, Italy to give lessons.
3. Professional Knowledge Program For Volunteers: T2009 hosts 1 or upwards professional programs every month in average. The volunteers learn better ideas of devoting and serving for Deaflympics from the program. More than 600 volunteers have been trained.

VOLUNTEER RECRUITING
We have 1,200 people signed up to be T2009 volunteers. It is expected to top 2,000 volunteers at the end of the year and to reach our basic goal 3,000 before March of 2007. To satisfy the wish of all to be involved in T2009, the OC provides an allocation of 5,000 volunteers for enthusiastic people to extend their international view, fulfill their various goals of life to serve the guests and to be self-experienced without any recompenses. Foreigners are welcome to join us.

ADVERTISING
In order to expand the popularity of T2009, the OC take advantage of several ways to advertise, such as: light boxes at the international airport and MRT Station, flags of activity, representing by well-known people (Dr. Ying-jeou Ma, the Mayor of Taipei, Ms. Shih-hsin Chen, the Olympic Tae Kwon Do gold medalist of 2004, Ms. Hsiao-shu Wang, deaf fashion model), posters and handbills, souvenirs, website promotion (http://www.2009deaflympics.org/en/about.html), channel of sponsors (more than 80 branches of White Sugarcane Shabu Shabu), media, global advertising (to ICSD Members), promotion in campus (by giving lectures to the students of more than 20 universities and colleges).

In addition, T2009 also sets up a spokesman system. Mr. Yu-ping Chao, President of T2009 Foundation, serving as the first spokesman, Dr. Kong-ting Yeh, Chief Executive Officer of T2009, serving as the second spokesman, who both deliver information related to T2009 to the public.

SOCIAL RESOURCES COLLECTING
In order to offer a perfect service to foreign friends, the T2009 OC needs to collect resources values at nearly 200 million NT Dollar(cash or goods and materials) by ourselves. Now the sponsorship plan has been finished, and divided the main sponsors into four levels as Gold Dragon, Silver Dragon, Yellow Dragon and Red Dragon. It offers all kinds of feedback service with the particularity of the Games for benefiting mutually and having a win-win situation.

THE WARM-UP MATCH
In the last April, China Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf was granted by ICSD to host the 2nd World Deaf Swimming Championships in August 12-16, 2007, which will be a touchstone of service function of T2009. All preparatory work of the Championships will be also dealt by the old staff of T2009. We welcome all swimmers from everywhere in the world to come to Taiwan to enjoy our warm reception.

VENUE & FACILITIES
T2009 venues in principle are centralized in Taipei City, Taipei County and Taoyuan County. The distance among the venues of 18 events is about 40 minutes to drive. The competition venue of 2007 World Deaf Swimming Championships is at the swimming pool of National College of Physical Education and Sports in Taoyuan County.

THE FOREIGN GUESTS VISITING
In order to make people from all around the world understand the situation of preparation of T2009, the OC has already made a perfect reception process and welcome foreign friends to visit. So far there are more than 30 foreign quests visited us including: Ms. Natalie Dean, Group Manager of Marketing & Communications of Melbourne Deaflympics 2005, Mr. Yannis Pyrgiotis, Technology Officer of Athens Olympic 2004, deaf sports delegations of the 1st Asia Pacific Deaf Sports Technical Seminar (about 20 guests from 10 Asian countries), Mr. Reed Gershwind, ICSD Swimming TD, and Dr. Don Hancock, Mr. Sporty Jeralds who both are experts from IAAM, International Association of Assembly Managers.

DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETITION AFFAIRS
There are 18 sports events in T2009 altogether. The OC has already accomplished the cooperation agreement with 18 individual sports associations in Taiwan, all of them are glad to spare no effort to support all kinds of T2009 competition affairs and technological works. A temporary competition schedule can be checked on T2009 official website: http://www.2009deaflympics.org/en/about.html

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION
T2009 OC headquarters has been moved into the Taipei Arena (Address: 4F., Taipei Arena, No.2, Sec. 4, Nanjing E. Ed., Songshan District, Taipei City 105, Taiwan, R.O.C., Tel: +886-2-25772009, Fax: +886-2-25772852). In order to promote the business more efficiently, T2009 OC set up 21st Summer Deaflympics Foundation which has 7 groups including Administration, Marketing, Community Coordination, Venue, Competition, Board & Lodging, and Information to provide various services for the Games. T2009 Foundation operates as an independent juridical person. Mr. Yu-ping Chao, Secretary General of Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf is serving as the Chairman of the Foundation and Dr. Kong-ting Yeh, professor of National College of Physical Education and Sports as the CEO.