Morag Stuart from the ODA brought us up to date on where they are with the procurement of the various stadia (all on time and budget) and what their approach to procurement has been since the start – 85% of their contracts have now been procured, so the spotlight will move very much to LOCOG procurement from now on. There was much discussion about where in the UK these various contracts have been placed (about 50% in London), though she was keen to point out that the steel company for the main stadium was from Bolton, with the raw product coming from Corus in South Wales.
Next up were Geoff Newton, Leon Clarke and Mike Mulvey from the LDA and they dealt with the real nitty-gritty issues such as CompeteFor, Business Link, Accessing Finance, Support for East London Businesses, attracting Inward Investment and tourism.
Finally, Richard Mould and Angela Salt from LOCOG talked about how business opportunities with the Organising Committee will begin ramping up towards the end of this year, and how they are approaching this. It is key that businesses from around the country are involved in the procurement process, as there are just over £1bn of opportunities to be had – some of which is via sponsorship.
As ever there was a lively series of Q&As.
At the end, as Chairman of the London 2012 Group in Parliament, I made a passionate plea for there to be some thinking about what the Games are for in the 21st century, stressing it is important that the Games are held in Latin America and the Middle East and/or India by 2024.
My Olympics
Follow your favourite countries and sports