Representatives of the corporate sector supporting Paris's bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games all gathered in the panelled halls of Paris City Hall.

They were welcomed by Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë and Sports Minister Jean-François Lamour, and joined by Bertrand Landrieu, Prefect of the Ile-de-France Region, Denis Masséglia, Vice-President of the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF), Marie-Pierre de la Gontrie, 1st Vice-Chairman of Ile-de-France Regional Council, Marie-Claire Restoux, Technical Advisor to the French President's Office, Guy Drut, IOC member, and Alain Danet, honorary IOC member.

Paris joined the race to host the 2012 Games on May 21st, 2003, and is counting on especially strong support from firms for its campaign.

The firms and institutions that attended the meeting included, in particular:

Accor, Adidas, Air France, Axa,
BNP-Paribas, Bouygues,
Caisse d'Epargne, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Crédit Agricole, Creyf's Intérim,
Danone, Dexia,
EDF,
Française des Jeux, France Télécom,
Gaz de France, Groupe Lagardère,
Kodak,
La Poste, L'Oréal, LVMH,
McDonald's,
PSA,
RATP, Renault,
Société Générale, Sodexho, Suez,
Total,
Unibail,
Vivendi Universal, etc

All those firms have been invited to give their firm and active support to Paris 2012.

The types of support that can be provided by state-owned and private companies and tangible steps to be taken in conjunction with Paris 2012 will be co-ordinated by Arnaud Lagardère, CEO of the Lagardère Group.