The Pacific Games Office hosted 13 Chefs de Mission (CDM) from across the Pacific and Samoa for a three-day seminar featuring presen­tations and venue tours by the Games Organizing Committee last week.

The seminar provided information on key areas such as Sports Services, Games Village Operations, Games Op­erations, Security, Catering and Ac­creditation.

The key objective of the seminar was to provide information to all CDMs ef­ficiently to assist in their preparations for the upcoming Pacific Games in Apia on July 7-0.

“The Chef de Mission plays a vital role for each of the participating Pa­cific Games Authorities,” Falefata Hele Ei Matatia, CEO of the Pacific Games Office said.

“Rather than having each CDM visit individually, we thought it would be best to have everyone come to Samoa at the same time, so the office sent an invitation out to all the participating PGAs with over half taking up the in­vitation.”

Falefata explained that having a large group of CDMs come at one time allows the Organising Committee to communi­cate information and lead tours in one go, as opposed to 13 separate times. The idea was to do it all at once to allow the Committee to concentrate all resources on final preparations for the Games.

Andrew Minogue, CEO of the Pacific Games Council, said the CDM meeting has in many ways been beneficial for the CDMs and the Samoa 2019 Organis­ing Committee.

“For the Chef de Missions, the main benefit is they’ve seen the venues, they’ve met the Organising Committee, they know who to talk to on the various issues, so it’s going to make their job easier back home putting their team together understanding what’s facing them here in Samoa,” said Minogue.