New York’s battle to be the host city for the Olympics focused on two main fronts this week.

NYC2012 and the other four contenders were represented at a two-day meeting of the European Olympic Committees in Tirana, Albania. This was one of the few events where the International Olympic Committee allowed bid teams to schmooze with IOC members and other sports officials.

The gathering was not bright on the radar for bid committees since it occurred so soon after the high-profile SportAccord conference last month, but the opportunity to draw even a vote or two from IOC members who were present was too important to ignore. There were no formal presentations scheduled in New York, so NYC2012’s managing director of international relations, Charlie Battle, was sent to tell New York’s Olympic story leaving the deputy mayor, Daniel Doctoroff, and other officials free to tell the story at home.

But the most significant domestic marketing event of New York’s bid to date – up to one hour of highly rated North American prime time television exposure – won’t even be led by an NYC2012 team member. Instead, bid executives will watch helplessly as Tana Goertz of West Des Moines, Iowa, represents their bid as she competes on NBC’s reality television show “The Apprentice” Thursday night. Ms. Goertz’s previous experience comes as an entrepreneur selling cosmetics on eBay, but on the show she’ll organize an NYC2012 athletics event. NBC will hopefully protect its investment in Olympic television rights for 2012 by editing the episode favorably for NYC2012. More on this next week after the episode airs.

The next major milestone for NYC2012 will occur June 6 with the release of the IOC evaluation report. Based on the bid books and its site visits in February and March, the IOC technical evaluation team will comment on all aspects of the bid and report problems or deficiencies. This feedback will contain the IOC’s first published opinions regarding the Jets stadium and New York’s questionable financial guarantee plan. NYC2012 and the other bids will be given the opportunity to formally respond to the report in writing which could be crucial if it points out a flaw that needs to be addressed.

Then, on June 19, the five Olympic hopefuls head to Accra, Ghana, to make presentations to African Olympic committees. This will be the last such opportunity before the final presentations on bid election day, July 6.

Meanwhile, as reported in The New York Sun yesterday,GamesBids.com, the Olympic bid Web site I publish, released an update to its highly regarded BidIndex – a measurement that ranks Olympic bids based on past voting habits of IOC members. New York’s score puts its bid in fourth, but that’s no reason for Olympic fans or NYC2012 to panic just yet.

The index looks past the technical aspects of the bids and instead focuses on elements that really matter to the voters, using publicly available details as well as information from Olympic insiders. Although New York stands fourth, the score puts it much closer to Paris, which is in first place, than Moscow, which is dead last. Additionally, the bid’s rating marked an increase that shows positive momentum, something that is critical as the campaign heads into the final lap.

The elements keeping NYC2012 from the top are challenges that can be overcome only by intense lobbying, and the bid committee is working on them.

One factor that was discussed in this column last week was geography. The common belief is that in 2012 it’s Europe’s turn to host, and because the 2010 Winter Games are in Vancouver, North America shouldn’t be considered again two years later. NYC2012 can’t relocate New York City, but it can try to convince IOC members that North America is a fine choice for 2012 – and you can bet the bidding committee is privately proposing several reasons to back this up.

The other factor is recent bid experience. Paris leads BidIndex, and is widely expected to win the 2012 Games based on its unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Games.

It is leveraging the feedback and experience from the last campaign to provide the IOC with exactly what the committee is looking for this time around. Usually bids need a “warm up” campaign before they’re ready to win, but it’s up to NYC2012 to convince IOC members otherwise.

So consider BidIndex to be a constructive challenge for NYC2012.

In five of the last eight bids, the perceived front-runner has lost the election, and now it’s New York’s turn to persuade the IOC that it’s the perfect place for the 2012 Games.