36 degree heat, unbelievable humidity, overlooking the Indian Ocean, wearing a kilt, caked in sun block with the Union Jack tied around my London 2012 T-Shirt – I was standing amongst a crowd of well over 50,000 spectators.
Last week I swapped my spreadsheets and sums at LOCOG Finance for sunshine and shades as I along with 10 other members of East Kilbride Athletic Club made our annual trip to the World Cross Country Championships.
Cross Country usually conjures images of wet, windy and muddy conditions but with the 35th IAAF World Cross Country Championships being held in Mombasa, Kenya on Saturday...
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The 2012 Editor, 29 March 2007
Sandy Hollway, Chief Executive of Sydney 2000, this week paid a visit to see London's progress on preparing for its Games in 2012. Hear what he had to say:
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Read more of “Sydney's hopes for London 2012”
Last Wednesday the LOCOG Programme Management and Risk Team spent the day at the headquarters of the International Paralympic Committee or IPC in Germany.
We journeyed to Bonn to review in detail the LOCOG project plan - our 'Master Schedule' - and the final draft of the high-level organisational plan - 'the Games Foundation plan'.
We have been working with Arno Wolter, the Paralympic Games Director, and his team for the last few months. This work has been groundbreaking for two reasons.
To start with, this is the first time there has ever been one consolidated plan managed by an Organising Committee...
Read more of “Paralympic planning with the IPC”
It's a very busy time for us in the Olympic Delivery Authority's Human Resources team, as we are still doing lots of organisational set-up work, including reviewing our HR policies and recruiting staff.
Because of this, I don't seem to get much opportunity at the moment to get out and about to meet people outside of the ODA and our partner organisations. This week was therefore a bit of a treat for me in that I went to two separate external events.
My first foray was to do a presentation to about 50 HR people at an event on leadership and talent...
Read more of “Talent spotting for 2012”
This week has marked the end of the statutory consultation period on the Olympic Planning applications and as expected the emails and letters giving comments have been flying in thick and fast.
At one point on Monday our email enquiries inbox completely jammed because of the size and amount of documents being sent. We've received going on for 300 responses so far, with quite a pile still to go through, count and book in.
During the consultation the Planning Decisions Team spent 8 days standing with our exhibition in local shopping centres and libraries in the four Boroughs talking to...
Read more of “Taking in views of the Park”
It’s a wonderful vision.
The whole of the UK linked together by Live Sites - a permanent network of 2012 giant outdoor screens in public squares? A piece of dedicated space in major cities and county towns around the UK?
So when the Lloyds TSB partnership was announced last week which included their wish to be involved with the Live Sites, it was a very helpful early indication of how others are also seeing the concept as an imaginative way of ensuring that the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games connect with the rest of Britain.
Read more of “Magic on a big screen”
You can’t beat a sneak preview of a famous building in the buff – raw and stripped of all its cosmetic finery.
Last week I joined a London 2012 party on a tour of the new Dome. Its transformation into a vast indoor arena, entertainment centre, gallery, music venue and nightclub is almost complete.
In 2012 it will be home to Olympic Gymnastics, but for a few more months it’s still a building site. The sheer scale of the facility is as astonishing as the ambition that is creating something like a small town huddled under the famous Dome canopy....
Read more of “London: THE capital city”
We were delighted to welcome Seb Coe to the
East Midlands on Tuesday.
A gloriously sunny day greeted Seb as we took him to Boston to visit one of the region’s Pre Games Training Camp hopefuls, the Princess Royal Sports Arena.
At Boston we were taken around the completely accessible facilities and Seb met some of the town’s school children, who were enjoying a whole range of activities in the vast sports hall and out on the running track.
Boston has the unenviable reputation as being the least active town in the country and a great legacy of the...
Read more of “Getting young people active in the East Midlands”
I've just spent four days in Malaysia with other Young Ambassadors like me from the UK and SE Asia to develop our leadership skills and get more people involved in sport.
I had to work in a group with seven others to organise and run a one day sports and culture festival for 300 primary school students.
The trip was a life changing experience - it introduced me to new cultures and I made loads of new friends. The highlight was when the primary school children said they wanted to be like us. It was fantastic to know that we had made a...
Read more of “Spreading the word of sport in Malaysia”
Today I was out and about in Newham, which of course will be on the doorstep of the Games.
We began the day at Langdon School, where I was presenting medals in their sports assembly.
The kids were being recognised not only for their sporting achievement but also for their enjoyment of sport.
The school put on a fantastic and inspiring display of sports, drama and music which are at the core of their day to day activity.
Several of the children from Langdon came out to Singapore with us when we won the bid, so it was nice to catch...
Read more of “Inspiring sport in Newham”
The 2012 Editor, 15 March 2007
London 2012 Organising Chair Seb Coe and Acting Chair of the ODA Sir Roy McNulty have given statements on today's budget announcement.
Read more of “Statements on the budget announcement”
The 2012 Editor, 15 March 2007
Yesterday London 2012 announced its first domestic sponsor, Lloyds TSB, at a launch event involving gymnasts, the London Eye and past Olympians. View the celebrations and hear Seb's thoughts on an important day on the road to 2012:
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This morning it was exciting to be at head offices of Lloyds TSB in Scotland for the Banking Partner announcement.
I met employees and gave my view on why the project is so important, but they needed no convincing. There was a great sense of celebration, a real feeling that it was a special day and a real sense of pride amongst the staff that their company was the first to get on board.
With a branch on every high street, Lloyds TSB are perfectly placed to make sure this enthusiasm reaches everyone in the UK.
Whenever I've been on the road...
Read more of “A warm Scottish welcome from Lloyds TSB”
Last week I attended the London 2012 Forum, which Mike Sinclair-Williams has also described.
The theme of that meeting was sustainability in Games-time transport, physical development and the operation of the Games themselves. The tour of the Olympic Park site after the meeting really helped me to ground my understanding of the planning of the Park.
I was struck by its compactness and how central it is to the city and the visit gave me lots of ideas about the huge potential the Games has to influence so many things in east London.
Read more of “A sustainable 2012 week”
We were delighted to announce Lloyds TSB as our first domestic partner for the Games today.
As the official Banking Partner, Lloyds TSB now has exclusive access to the British Olympic and Paralympic teams between now and 2012 and will benefit from exclusive marketing rights.
The announcement is indicative of the progress we have already made and will continue to make on the Games. Signing domestic partners is of course vital to us as it provides part of the £2bn cost of staging the Games, as well as personnel, technology, infrastructure and other essential services.
Read more of “Welcome, Lloyds TSB!”
The 2012 Editor, 14 March 2007
Lloyds TSB has today been announced as the Banking category sponsor for the 2012 Games. Watch the bank's 'Inspiration' video:
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This morning I was shown around the Dome - they've just announced they're due to open in June, ahead of schedule.
We have a great view of the building from London 2012 HQ, but I had no idea the scale of what they've done inside - it's quite extraordinary, there's a whole city under there.
For us the centrepiece in 2012 will be the arena, hosting the 2012 Gymnastics and Basketball events. But surrounding the arena will be a whole community, with shops, restaurants and entertainment.
Read more of “Down at the Dome”
I was delighted to accept an invitation from Sports Minister Richard Caborn MP to speak at the UK Trade & Investment’s Global Sport Conference last week.
The conference was a good opportunity to tell some of the leading figures from sports and industry about the excellent progress we have made over the past year – our Transport Plan is in place; the Olympic Park Masterplan has been locked down; major demolition work on the site has begun; and the planning application for the Olympic Park has been submitted which outlines our vision for one of the largest new urban parks in...
Read more of “Delivering the 3Ds”
The first ever IOC publications and editorial services workshop took place in Vancouver last week.
Facilitated by the Head of Media Operations for the IOC, the primary objective was to give the publications teams from the Vancouver, Beijing and London Games the opportunity to learn from Torino and Sydney, as well as to discuss and debate the future strategy around publications e.g. electronic vs hard copy print.
It was a great example of the Olympic Games Knowledge Managment (OGKM) in action.
The OGKM was introduced in Sydney 2000 and is a comprehensive handover of data, information, lessons learnt and recommendations based...
Read more of “Printed matters”
The ODA published its Procurement Policy last week after a four month consultation period which over 60 companies and groups took part in.
The Policy sets out exactly how the ODA intends to procure, including the online future opportunities services and e-tendering service – which work together to enable business to plan ahead and bid efficiently.
Our e-tendering service will also enable smaller and medium size businesses to identify the ODA’s tier one contractors and target their supply chains.
The ODA intends to use competitive dialogue again, after our positive experience with it when we appointed our Delivery Partner, but only for...
Read more of “Procuring a contract for the Games”
