During this process we hold meetings with every department within the Organising Committee (LOCOG) and key external agencies to establish exactly how the venue will operate during the Games and determine what space, staff and equipment will be needed. For example, the athletes and spectators flow paths within the venue cannot cross. This has made accreditation zoning in NGA1 slightly more complex then it would be in normal operation.
The MVE will finish in late August and we will then use the 'model' as the framework by which we will plan all other venues.
In September we move onto the Aquatics Centre and continue our staggered rollout of the operational planning framework across all other venues.
The process is broadly the same whether the venue is new, like the Aquatics Centre and Velodrome in the Olympic Park; existing, like Wimbledon and Wembley; or temporary, like Horse Guards Parade where a 15,000 arena for Beach Volleyball will be put in place and taken down afterwards. The main difference, of course, is that we can visit the existing venues but with the new and temporary ones we need to rely on plans and our imagination!
Right now it seems like a daunting amount of work to get through. But if you're involved in venue management it's the ultimate challenge. If you're an athlete you want to be tested at the best event in the world and I guess that when you work in Venue Management it's just the same.
At Games-time, we'll be providing the Venue Management team for all competition venues and some of the non-competition venues. These teams are responsible for coordinating the activities of all departments within the venue and for ensuring they are run safely and efficiently.
I know that my growing team relishes the challenge of running 36 venues concurrently during one short summer. But we are under no illusions that it's going to be a big challenge!
