On August 24th next year, during the Closing Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, there will be a moment when the Olympic Flag is passed from the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London. That moment marks the official start of the London Olympiad and its four year programme of Cultural, Educational and Ceremonial events.
I was delighted, therefore, to have the opportunity to join Bill Morris, Director of Culture, Ceremonies and Education and Martin Green, newly appointed Head of Ceremonies on a visit to Beijing for meetings with our counterparts in the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) exactly one year out from that date.
Myself (left) and Bill Morris (centre) with Lisa Li, Wang Ning and Zheng Wen of the BOCOG Ceremonies Team:
Following an excellent barbeque on the appointed evening, hosted by Wang Ning, Executive Deputy Director of BOCOG and Chief Director of their Production Centre, Bill made a toast and we raised a glass of their (very good) local wine at exactly 9.22pm – the moment when, 12 months later, the world’s focus will briefly turn from the vast spectacle of an Olympic Games delivered on that unique Chinese stage to wonder what London will offer the world four years from then.
We will have a fixed window of 8 minutes following the flag protocol to provide 2 billion global viewers with an invitation to join in once more with the world’s favourite sporting celebration when it comes to our shores.
The handover ceremony is a small segment within a huge show (especially in the context of China). Although shrouded in secrecy, we can expect their Closing Ceremony to be on a massive scale with a cast of thousands and with the latest theatrical technology used to breathtaking effect. Our job is not to compete with that spectacle, but to create a counterpoint performance that is an invitation to the world, offering a glimpse into British personality and our Olympic objectives.
As guests within the Beijing Closing Ceremony, we will be highly dependant on the use of their already installed equipment and on their army of technicians and stage managers to deliver our show with us. For that reason it is vital that be build a close and positive relationship with our opposite numbers over there. That was the primary objective of this visit and I am delighted to report that it proved very successful.
BOCOG has elected to create an external group, referred to locally as The Production Centre, which has responsibility for the creation of their Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Already it has a population of around 300 and is intended to grow to a peak of perhaps 800 team members (many of whom are volunteers).
We will be very dependant on this group of people to help us to stage our segment within their show, so we are obviously concerned to understand their capabilities, which are largely unknown to us. However, the more we learn of their technical knowledge, their track record of major stadium and public event delivery and, above all, their positive attitude towards us and our needs, the more confident we are that we can make this work very well.
The previous day The Production Centre management and creative teams had both welcomed us warmly and despite the growing pressure on them to deliver the biggest and most challenging events bar none, they devoted a significant amount of time and people to listening to our plans, revealing some of theirs as relevant and pledging a close collaboration to come. As the visit progressed, we became increasingly confident that we have every possibility of growing the close relationship and trust that we will need to make this first London 2012 Ceremonies event a success.
