By Marc Smith

A once in a lifetime experience occurred today. I held in my hands all 6 of the Olympic and Paralympic medals! A first in modern Olympic history the IOC allowed the host nation to exhibit and make available to the general public actual Olympic medals. Here’s the story of my Gold Medal experience.

7am I arrived at the SFU Segal Graduate School for Business at Granville & Pender. Actually during Feb 12th to 28th it’s been transformed into the Canadian Mint Pavilion. In front of me were about 100 dedicated people mostly local Vancouverites.

In front and behind me were 2 people soon to become my Canadian Mint tour buddies Arjuna and Vena. We spent the next two hours sharing our Olympic experiences, passing on tips of what to see and what wasn’t worth the wait.

Vena, Arjuna and Marc - the start of our golden experience

8:20am A good buddy Gus, who works in a building overlooking the Pavilion came by with an order of coffee and some fresh conversation. Always a nice treat

The Pavilion Staff came out and started to arrange the line ups, which by now was easily 300+ people long, into the classic zig zag formation with the help of stanchions. A wee bit of confusion ensued as to where to go when to go etc… after 12 days I would have thought this would be a piece of cake.

9am the doors open and wait expect to be allowed in. Wrong, similar to the Zip Line it’s a managed flow of approx 10 people let in at a time.

9:20am We are inside! Oops now we are in another lineup, at least we are warm dry and have easy access to washrooms . Within 10 minutes we are moving again, greeted by Pavilion Staff and offered one white glove. Ok I have to admit at this point Arjuna, Vena and I looked at each other and exclaimed “I feel like Michael Jackson”

Our Michael jackson moment

9:30am Gloves on hand we proceed to the 2nd floor to enter our 3rd line up. This one is the one we have been waiting for. To touch Gold. Along the way a kiosk has been set up to allow visitors to exchange quarters for the Olympic Quarters produced by the Canadian Mint.

Over the next 30 minutes we are met by Pavilion Staff making sure everyone in the lineup has a white glove on.

10am Pavilion Security gives us a quick run down of what to expect inside the medal room (only 10 allowed in at a time) and what we can’t do. No photos would be allowed that in any way represented or suggested a victory sign, medal above head or medal held close to the body. These images are restricted and are only allowed for the privilege of Olympic athletes that have earned their medals. Absolutely fair enough!

10:20am We are allowed in!!!! Daniel Mallett, Olympic and Paralympic Medals Project Manager, gives us a brief explanation of the medals and then invites us in to see and touch the 6 medals.

Here’s Daniel’s presentation to us. Sorry for the poor lighting but the screen behind offset the exposure.

10:40am We’re through. Elated excited and feeling privileged to experience the glory of our medals up close. Arjuna Vena and I exchange contact details and promise to share photos. Another connection is made. GO CANADA.

Marc Smith is Vancouver based event planner and will be reporting daily on various events happening around Vancouver. http://twitter.com/amuseconsulting