London 2012 blog

At the end of last week, the Culture, Ceremonies and Education Team set off on an adventure to Eton Dorney for their first Team Strategy Away Day.

Not only was this a useful day for introducing those members of the team that hadn’t yet met (!), but it also gave us the opportunity to update each other on recent progress and planning for the Culture, Ceremonies and Education Programmes, away from the frantic pace of Canary Wharf.

During the day, we rattled through our current plans for the Cultural Olympiad, our Ceremonies Programme – and in particular, the Beijing Handover Ceremonies (just 17 months away…and counting!) and the Torch Relays, plans for the Olympic Park and the Education Programme.

This is not to say all our planning is done – far from it – but it was an extremely helpful opportunity to sit down as a whole team and to set next steps and priorities for the coming months.

We were also given a very useful tour of the Eton Dorney site and whilst I can’t quite recall quite how many millions of litres of water the site holds, it was fantastic to combine sport and culture by hosting our meeting at an actual Games venue and to see the ways in which the centre is already being used daily by young people and local communities.

It also helped us in beginning to visualise actually what the experience might look like in 2012 for athletes and spectators alike and what our role in enhancing this experience might be.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for a quick ‘go’ (probably not a technical term!) on the lake this time around but ideas are already floating around for another suitably inspirational (and sporting) venue for Away Day number two.

Culture, Ceremonies and Education Team - Post Race!