Opening the session on Making The Event Pay, Wang Wei, Executive Vice President & Secretary General, Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games 2008 (BOCOG), provided an overview of the sponsorship strategy for the upcoming Games in China. He reported that BOCOG expects to add three more sponsors in its 'Partner' sponsorship category. This is the top tier of three local categories below the IOC’s Top VI Programme (the others are 'Sponsor' and 'Supplier'). There are currently seven Partners signed up - Bank of China, Air China, China Mobile, Sinopec, CNC, Volkswagen and Adidas. The new ones will be in natural gas, insurance and personal care. The 10 Partners (three international and the rest Chinese companies) will generate $600 million in revenue. BOCOG's total organising budget is $1.625 billion, likely to rise to $2 billion, and total revenue is on course to cover and possibly exceed that.

One of BOCOG's principles is to put greater emphasis on cash deals. The proportion of cash to value in kind (VIK) revenue is about 65% to 35%. Sometimes at past Olympics there has been a tendency of VIK value to be "wasted," because the VIK component of a deal is more than is needed. BOCOG has put a protective clause in its sponsorship contracts saying that if a sponsor's VIK contribution exceeds the value of the actual cost, then the sponsor must pay that excess VIK value in cash.