There are 2,056 days left until the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., but Snohomish County WorkSource has already started planning how to capitalize on the games.
“There’s a lot of hard work ahead. The more we can get done soon, the better,” Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said.
In what was the first of many meetings, about 50 people listened to speakers Thursday night urge Snohomish County residents to start preparing for the Olympics now, including hiring people.
Managerial positions are predicted as the No. 1 job shortage for the Winter Games, said Roslyn Kunin, an economist and principal of Roslyn Kunin and Associates Inc., an economic, business and human resources consulting firm for the 2010 games.
“Managers have to work their way up from the bottom,” Kunin said. “So (I recommend hiring) entry-level people that can move up to that position, because businesses will need them by the time the Olympics start. You just can’t pluck someone out of college and have them manage.”
Kunin also said plenty of smaller events will occur in the Vancouver area leading up to the games that businesses can use to test plans and strategies for the actual Olympics.
“Opportunities aren’t going to fall into your lap,” she said. “Someone is going to think of something new and innovative and make a lot of money. Make that be you.”
About 250,000 people are expected to visit the region for the Olympics, pumping an estimated $10 billion in direct economic activity and hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
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