When the Swiss Cottage leisure centre played host to the Get Set London roadshow we had a very special guest join us for the fun.
Camden has a long history of athletic achievement and Susan Halter is one of the borough’s oldest sporting ambassadors. Susan swam in the 1948 UK Olympic Games aged just 19 and sixty years later is still winning medals for the sport, so who better to affirm Camden’s support for London 2012?
Read more of “Special guest to join the fun”
The 2012 Editor, 29 February 2008
Watch a video about the VeloDream competition and find out who won.
Read more of “Video: VeloDream competition winners”
I am a Senior Engineer (working towards chartership with the Institute of Civil Engineers) on the Enabling Works in the north of the Olympic Park.
On the Park I am currently in charge of the temporary bridges, which is a contract bigger than any I have been put in charge of before. This contract was for the delivery of two temporary bridges (approx. 42m and 52m clear span) which were to span the River Lea. These bridges are to enable the earthworks to proceed without having an impact on local infrastructure.
One of the temporary bridges:
Read more of “Working on the Olympic Park - temporary bridges”
With only about six months to go until the Beijing 2008 Games kick-off, my training to qualify is starting to pick up pace. But it was great to take some time out this week to meet all of the schoolchildren that reached the final of the 2012 ‘VeloDream’ schools design competition.
This competition was their chance to design their own dream cycling venues for a future Games and all of the schools I met deserved to reach the finals of the competition for the imagination and hard work that had gone into their design entries.
My visit to the VeloDream finals:
![shanaze-reade]()
Read more of “VeloDream: inspiring children to use their imagination”
On Wednesday last week I was able to attend the London 2012 Business Network road show held in Perth. Many other businesses joined me, to better understand how we can gain from the many opportunities that might arise from London winning the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The event organising committee did a sensational job and the event went down without a hitch - and that wasn’t just because I was on the committee. The speakers had some really good information to share. It was informative and realistic – not promising the earth. The practical level of the information was what impressed...
Read more of “Getting businesses in the Highlands and Islands involved in 2012”
Three brightly coloured pods lit up Finsbury Park as the Get Set London roadshow arrived in Haringey. Residents, commuters, runners and walkers were all in for a treat. The event offered the perfect chance to find out exactly how Haringey is going to benefit from the 2012 Games - a hot topic for local residents.
On entering the 'everyone’s Games' pod I was shown around the diagnostic equipment to find out which sport I would be best at competing in (if I was a little younger)! My personal favourite was the jump mat although I’m sure the weighty Mayoral chain...
Read more of “Sport and music - the roadshow at Haringey”
What a great day we had down at the Get Set London roadshow in the Downham Leisure and Health centre! It was been brilliant. The interactive sport element worked really well - from the rowing machines to the batak, it’s all about encouraging people to test their strength and review how fit they are. I do hope that it will encourage the people of Lewisham to get fitter in time for 2012.
Read more of “Inspired by Get Set Roadshow”
Zahra and Philippa, 28 February 2008
As London has been chosen to host the 2012 Games, selected students from our school were chosen to go and see what will soon be the Olympic Park where the Games will take place.
Us - Philippa and Zahra:
We went to the Olympic Park and saw some work being done. We were shown on a map were everything was going to be built. We drove around the site in a minibus and a tour guide told us lots of facts about the site and what will happen to the area after it has been used for the Games.
Read more of “School visit to the Olympic Park”
The last thing I had expected on my first day back from a week-long holiday in Mallorca, was to interview 70 very excited schoolchildren who were on a two-day visit to London. However, the first thing I ended up doing on my return from holiday was interview 70 very excited schoolchildren in east London. The pupils were the national finalists in VeloDream, a competition for UK schoolchildren to design their own dream Cycling venues for future Games.
Five secondary and five primary schools had been invited as finalists to a jam-packed, two-day visit to the capital, ending in the announcement of...
Read more of “Interviewing VeloDream finalists”
It's an exciting time for Welcoming the World - we have just started with around 550 young people who will be picking up cameras and photo-documenting their local area. The students are then going to make presentations, portfolios or short films with soundtracks to show what they think is important or unique in their area.
We’ve spent the last couple of weeks visiting the schools within the 5 Host Boroughs for planning sessions for the project. We rode our bicycles along canals, vibrant high streets and across parklands to get to the schools. Because this project will be using film and...
Read more of “Host Boroughs through the camera lens”
Hello everyone around the world we're Ashley (11) and Jacqueline (12) and we live at Waterden Crescent, by the Olympic Park site.
Last Friday we went to the Olympic site with other children from our street. We learnt about the dangers of a construction site and how we must make sure that we are kept safe and watched a play called ‘don’t go there’. It was about two people called Dean and Dona.
Dona was teasing Dean to go on to the building site without protective gear. But he ignored her, but she kept on teasing until he finally agreed with her. He got his foot stuck...
Read more of “Keeping safe living by the Park site”
I was so honoured to be invited down to the roadshow on Saturday in Woolwich. When I arrived at the market all I could see was a massive yellow pod in the middle of the market place that was already buzzing with people. The roadshow is such a great idea and really highlights the fun factor about The Games!
It is truly awesome that the Olympic and Paralympic Games is coming to London! I just can't believe that I will get the opportunity to go to the Games and maybe even perform in front of my home crowd - it doesn't...
Read more of “The London Roadshow visits Greenwich”
I am one of the three photographers working on the ‘My World’ project getting schoolchildren across the five Host Boroughs to go out and be photojournalists covering their own lives and communities.
On the streets with the schoolchildren:
I’ve spent most of my career looking at social issues both in the UK and in many countries across Africa.
Many of these children involved in Welcoming the World don’t realise that they are living in an extraordinary time and place. I hope that by looking at their lives and communities through photography they will come to see...
Read more of “My World”
As part of our consultation programme with key partners, the ODA invited the London Assembly Transport Team for a briefing on the exciting upgrade plans we have for Stratford regional station and to give them a tour of the site. We are speaking to Stratford’s businesses and other interested parties regularly at the Stratford Town Centre Forum and will develop a communications programme at the station itself to keep people informed during the spring. The GLA team are really interested in the work we have been doing, and are extremely knowledgeable about the plans for the area.
The upgrade is...
Read more of “Planning transport with key partners”
The Olympic and Paralympic Games mean everything to everyone, and I am very excited that they are coming to the UK. The Games don’t just present a challenge for the athletes, but they also present a challenge for us. We can’t compete in the Games as athletes, but we can get involved in so many other ways, and the London 2012 Business Network showed us how we can make this happen.
I went to the Perth London 2012 Business Network roadshow last week to find out how my specialist wood machinists business can get involved and find out about opportunities for the...
Read more of “Opportunities for Scottish businesses”
Sue, Culture team, 25 February 2008
I have a confession to make. I am thirty eight years old and growing older by the day. I have a sixteen year old son and a fourteen year old daughter. But it has gradually dawned on me that perhaps being old enough to have teenage children disqualifies me from advising on young people’s voices.
I will be working with Steve Mannix, Cultural Programmes Advisor, and the rest of the Culture team to try and figure out how young people really can have a say in the way LOCOG delivers its culture programme.
So what does qualify me for this...
Read more of “Young people's voice - a daily education”
I’m on The Clore Leadership Programme - a training course designed to strengthen leadership in the cultural sector. We have up to two years to complete the course that includes a three-month secondment, a three-month research project plus two residentials and several bespoke training courses. I’m spending my three month secondment here, at London 2012, working with the Culture team on the launch of the Cultural Olympiad.
The Clore Leadership gives me the support to definitively consolidate my experiences in the arts and through the secondment to experience a working environment outside of my comfort zone. Working at LOCOG is a huge departure from...
Read more of “My life in the arts”
Moment of the week? No doubt about it – nothing else comes close – and it’s been quite a week, so this is saying something...
It happened amidst mountains of mud and dust. Double decker-sized trucks roaring past in all directions are groaning under the strain of thousands of tons of earth. As far as the eye can see, a wild moonscape of exposed, heaving ground.
We were bouncing around in the back of a 4x4 experiencing the Olympic and Paralympic future.
'You're on the 100 metres track right now,' said Lucy, our guide from the construction company, 'and we're just about to cross...
Read more of “Getting down and dirty”
I have just come back from a trip to Scotland where I was banging the drum for London 2012 and encouraging Scottish companies to compete for work. London 2012 is for the whole of the UK and we want to help companies in Scotland make the most of the opportunities it creates.
On the first evening, Morag Stuart (Head of Procurement, ODA) and I had dinner in Edinburgh with Norman Quirk, Chairman of the Scottish Chamber of Commerce. The aim of this meeting was to identify how the Chamber of Commerce can get word around their 9,000 members about London 2012 business opportunities.
Read more of “Encouraging companies in Scotland to compete for work”
I’ve met a lot of people who remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard we’d won the right to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. I was at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds at the 2005 Artsmark award ceremony for schools, and the host opened proceedings with the news. The place erupted. Teachers, young people, WYP and Arts Council staff – everybody. I still feel that thrill, that sense that this is going to change everything. As a born-and-bred Londoner who hadn’t actually been living or working there since 1996, I also...
Read more of “Amazing experiences”
