The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) said on Wednesday that three U.S. cities will meet to discuss how to bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Representatives from the candidate cities of Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco will meet in Orange County, California on Nov. 7-9, the USOC said in a statement e-mailed to Xinhua.

The two-day seminar, to be hosted by USOC, will brief the U.S. candidate cities on the USOC's long term vision and strategy, provide the cities with more practical insight on the future bid process and coordinate specific requirements for the remainder of the evaluation process, said the statement.

USOC president Peter Ueberroth will provide the keynote address, entitled "The Promise of the Olympic Movement for Our World", while Chief Executive Officer Jim Scherr will speak about "Vision of the USOC Toward Beijing and Vancouver and the USOC Game Plan," according to the statement.

"This seminar is the latest step in our pragmatic, but engaged approach to the domestic bid process," said U.S. IOC Member and USOC Vice President Bob Ctvrtlik, who will be kicking off the seminar with an overview of the process and the USOC's expectations of the cities moving forward.

"We are very pleased with the level of effort and commitment demonstrated by the cities thus far, and while there is still much work to do, we want to offer the cities the opportunity to delve more deeply into the relevant themes. Our ultimate goal remains tofind a city with the best chance to win internationally."

The USOC will decide whether to move forward with a 2016 bid by the end of year. If the organization moves forward with the process to submit a bid city for the Games, the USOC Board of Directors will make a choice on the USOC's candidate city in April 2007.

The Domestic Candidate City Seminar will include a variety of topics, including: history of the Modern Olympic Games, an overview of the bid process, International Relations vision and programs, communications guidelines, marketing opportunities, Olympic venues, building the budget and framework, and bid city partnership with the USOC, according to the statement.

During the second day of the seminar, the USOC will meet individually with each city's representatives to provide feedback on previous questions and to conduct a general question-and-answer session regarding their bids.

For the next phase of the evaluation, the USOC delivered guidelines to each of the cities last week for producing a domestic set of bid books. The requirements are based on the International Olympic Committee's Candidate City Questionnaire and include questions on all 17 themes in the international candidature city files. The bid books will be due back to the USOC on Jan. 22, 2007.

Following an analysis of the bid book content, the USOC will send an Evaluation Commission to each city for an on-site review. The USOC reserves the right to eliminate any city from consideration at that time or at any point in the process.

Final presentations by each of the remaining cities will be made to the USOC Board of Directors in April.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2006)