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"The ones who don't take this seriously make a big mistake," Heiberg said.
It was at a similar meeting in 2009 that Rio de Janeiro seized the momentum in the race for the 2016 Games, focusing on the theme that the Olympics had never been to South America and Brazil was an emerging economic force.
Last week, the IOC released a technical evaluation report on the 2020 bid cities to give members as much factual information as possible. The report did not rank or grade the cities, but Tokyo appeared to come out the best overall.
Istanbul is bidding for a fifth time, Madrid is back for a third consecutive time and Tokyo is trying for a second time in a row.
Istanbul is inviting the IOC to take the Olympics to a new region, to a predominantly Muslim country for the first time, to a city that connects Asia and Europe. Tokyo claims to be a "safe pair of hands" at a time of global economic and political uncertainty. Madrid, despite Spain's severe financial troubles, boasts that it would spend far less money than the others on infrastructure because 80 percent of its venues are already in place.
No city has more at stake than Istanbul, following the unprecedented street demonstrations across the country in June. Prime Minister Recep Tayypip Erdogan, facing the biggest challenge to his 10-year rule, has come under international criticism for his crackdown on the protests. Turkey's image has also been hit by a spate of doping cases in recent weeks.
"Although the games will be seven years ahead, what's going on (in Turkey) right now is important to the voting of the members," Heiberg said. "There will be many questions, absolutely. This is a good opportunity for Turkey, for Istanbul, to answer the questions and lay it out in the open how they think, what they're going to do about it."
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