Space -- as well as tickets -- may be tight. There won't be enough air-conditioned skyboxes at the National Stadium, known as the 'Bird's Nest,' for all the VIPs during the opening ceremony, says John Pauline, an architect who helped oversee the construction of some major Olympic venues. Many corporate chiefs will be seated in 'special' seats -- more plush than most, but without air conditioning. That could be uncomfortably sticky in the enclosed stadium in August, traditionally Beijing's hottest and most humid month. And like all guests, they will have to arrive hours early.
Among the CEOs expected to attend the Games are BP PLC's Tony Hayward; Blackstone Group LP's Stephen Schwarzman; Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s H. Lee Scott Jr. and Terry Leahy, of rival British chain Tesco PLC; Rupert Murdoch, of News Corp., and Motorola Inc.'s Greg Brown. Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang may be there, though a representative says his plans aren't final. AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson plans meetings with customers, partners and employees while he is there, a company spokesman says.
Also on the list: the top executives of dozens of Olympics sponsor companies, including McDonald's Corp.'s Jim Skinner, Volkswagen AG's Martin Winterkorn and General Electric Co.'s Jeffrey Immelt. Many of these companies will hold board meetings in Beijing.
The Games draw chiefs of countries, too. George W. Bush will be the first sitting U.S. president to attend an Olympic Games opening ceremony on foreign soil. Despite controversy over some of China's policies -- as seen in the demonstrations during the recent Olympic-torch run -- the number of heads of state planning to attend the opening ceremony is roughly double the number who attended the opening of the Athens Games four years ago.
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