I was the nominated British judge at the European Synchronised Swimming Championships, Eindhoven, The Netherlands earlier this month. It is the major European event of the year and with the Olympic qualifiers less than 5 weeks away, there was a real sense of excitement but also pressure on both swimmers and officials to put in some good performances.
Officiating at major events has taken on extra interest for me as LOCOG begins the meticulous preparation of the customer experiences to ensure that all our client groups, from athletes, spectators, partners to, of course, technical officials have a truly memorable experience. Every opportunity...
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The Sporting Champions programme is all about encouraging people, particularly young people, to feel more passionate about sport so I was incredibly excited when London won the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2005 as it will be such an inspiring event for the capital and for the whole country.
With only four years to go until the Games come to the UK, it was great to have the chance to be involved with the Get Set London roadshow when it came to Hammersmith & Fulham on 26th March.
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Hi and welcome to my very first blog!
My name is Gabre Minkah and I've been introduced to London 2012 via an award from the Cultural Leadership Programme to undertake a six month 'peach' placement as a Youth Culture Associate for the creative industries - specifically fashion, film, dance and carnival.
As a Youth Culture Associate I am an advocate and champion for youth involvement for the major projects of the Cultural Olympiad. My role here is to ensure that youth involvement and engagement is at the heart of all we do. To achieve this I will be working with...
Read more of “The creative industries of tomorrow”
The 2012 Editor, 28 March 2008
Watch a video filmed at the Olympic Delivery Authority's 'discover' event, discussing archaeological items found on the Olympic Park.
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27 March 2008
What a month it's been. I can't believe I've only just started here - 6 weeks and counting! In case you missed it, the 'Inspire mark' was announced this month - as part of the commitment to make London 2012 'everyone's Games'. The cultural sector is the first of six areas which will use this mark and will allow not-for-profit cultural organisations, who are inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic Games, to be officially part of the Cultural Olympiad.
If you're a not-for-profit cultural organisation and you'd like to be involved, you need to have an idea and then check...
Read more of “Get to know your Creative Programmer”
I work in the Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive, where I get to curate London’s archaeology.
Part of my job is outreach work and today I was involved in an event organised by the ODA at the Museum In Docklands. The event was to launch a series of archaeological activities connected with the redevelopment of the Olympic Park.
Teaching some school children about the Olympic Park finds:
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I’m the Project Manager working on the demolition phase on the Olympic Park. I assist with the preparation of all risk assessments, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSSH) assessments and method statements (instructions on how to safely perform a task) which have to be in place before any work is undertaken.
Immediately before work starts it is my job to brief the workforce on the operation they are about to undertake, to emphasise the risks that I’ve assessed they may encounter, detail to them the control measures I’ve put in place to minimise these risks, and ensure each operative...
Read more of “Demolishing the Olympic Park for construction”
Last week I joined my parliamentary colleagues on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for a tour of the Olympic Park site. The PAC will play a key role in the next few years examining the way public money is being spent to deliver the 2012 Games. We all want to make sure that the Games is a fantastic national event but we also want to ensure that the public money going into the Games is spent efficiently, effectively, and in a way that achieves best value for money for the public. With such a high profile like 2012, I have...
Read more of “Driving regeneration for years to come”
The annual Islington Primary Sports Hall Athletics Championships took place at the Sobell Leisure Centre last week and had a special addition this year – the Get Set London roadshow!
Hundreds of kids who were competing in the contest as well as lots more school groups from across the borough came along to get their taster of how fun sport can be and to find out more about London 2012.
The event was packed with everyone wanting a go on the Batak and rowing machines and when Jonathan Edwards arrived to open the event it really gave them a treat!
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The Nations and Regions team managed a busy programme for Seb, at Plymouth on March 13th. The visit had been arranged to support the South West England team's ambition to deliver a lasting legacy inspired by the 2012 Games.
We were met by our guide for the day, Nigel Rowe, Chair of Plymouth Community Sports Network. Our first stop was the Sir John Hunt Community Sports College, named after the leader of the historic 1953 expedition to Mount Everest.
Located in a socially disadvantaged part of the city, this school’s mission is to build students’ self esteem, using sport as the...
Read more of “Seb spreads Games fever in the South West”
It’s a bit like standing on a high diving platform – you’re second in the queue and the diver in front completes a perfect “10”. As your toes curl over the edge and you stare down below you suddenly remember you’ve not yet learnt to swim….
That was just one of the emotions pulsing through me earlier today at the Torch Lighting Ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games, here in Ancient Olympia. In the most exquisitely simple ceremony in the Temple of Hera, the rays of the spring sun are concentrated by a parabolic mirror to ignite the first Torch of...
Read more of “From a mile along the Thames to eighty thousand miles around the world”
The Edmonton Leisure Centre in Enfield welcomed the Get Set London roadshow to on the day of its official opening. The leisure centre is a major addition to the range of leisure and sport facilities for people in the borough so the presence of the roadshow was a great addition to the day and gave them the opportunity to show support for the Games in London in 2012.
It also gave young people from within the borough the chance to engage with the opportunities that London 2012 will provide and find out more about the facilities in their neighbourhoods. Several...
Read more of “Going for Gold along with the Get Set London roadshow”
(English below)
Yn sgil buddugoliaeth wych Cymru ym mhencampwriaeth y Chwe Gwlad, teithiais i bencadlys Gemau Olympaidd 2012 yn Llundain i gyfarfod â Sebastian Coe, a’i dîm yn LOCOG, i siarad am y ffordd orau y gall Cymru gyfan fanteisio ar y Gemau. Mae ein timau mewn cysylltiad â’i gilydd yn aml, ond roedd yn help cael eistedd gyda’n gilydd yn ei swyddfa yn Canary Wharf a thrafod ystod o faterion y mae pobl o bob rhan o Gymru yn siarad â mi yn eu cylch pan fyddaf yn eu gweld - o’r bwriad i weithio gyda phlant a phobl ifanc...
Read more of “Cymru’n dod i Lundain - Wales comes to London”
I recently went on a visit to the Olympic Park; I was amazed at the progress that has been made already.
It was pleasing to see that among the important issues identified were the sustainability of energy, with a view to minimising carbon emissions, and that 90% of materials generated from demolition within the Park would be reused or recycled.
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To all you great and wonderful people out there who read my first blog on this site, here’s the update on that Fencing competition I went to in Edinburgh.
The journey by train was quiet but the rain at the other end was almost freezing. I’m convinced it must have frozen most of my brain cells, hence my inability to do anything tangible on the Saturday. To be honest, I fenced worse than a beginner and only managed to win two out of 12 fights.
Me fencing:
Read more of “Change on the Olympic Park”
The London 2012 design review sessions are an opportunity for The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Design for London to advise the ODA and their design teams on the quality, sustainability and legacy of the designs for the Games. This month we had the chance to discuss the latest key venues with a series of design review sessions at the 2012 offices.
The Games will put London’s architecture and landscape design in the world’s spotlight in 2012 so it’s important we create buildings and public spaces of great and lasting quality. The design review sessions were a...
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On the day that McAlpine and Nuttalls were meeting for the handover of the Stadium site it was good to get out and take a look at the progress as we enter the Easter Break.
Sam Stevens of CLM and Graham Hughes, an old colleague from my Laing days, took me on a tour of the demolition activity of the StageCoach bus station site, then on to the site of the materials entry plaza to see the drainage works and site preparation.
From there we went down to the Nuttalls offices to meet various teams, including Halcrow and Atkins and then over...
Read more of “Handover of the Stadium site”
Forget Maria, Joseph or Oliver – the biggest talent hunt ever is underway courtesy of Blue Peter…
On Tuesday 18th March my career went retro as I was back on the studio floor at BBC TV Centre. But this time I wasn’t donning a Dalek costume or Feung-shui-ing the pets, I was there to monitor the launch of Blue Peter’s biggest ever competition in my capacity as Content Producer for The Handover Ceremonies.
Well into my fourth week with London 2012, amongst the variety of my roles, I have been working with Head of Ceremonies Martin Green and Press Officer Adrian...
Read more of “Blue Peter starts talent search for Handover Ceremonies”
Much of the focus on our plans for the Olympic Park so far have focussed on the main venues we're building for 2012 and beyond, and the new parklands and open areas we're creating to house these new world-class facilities.
But today was my chance to present the latest plans for an important piece of infrastructure that I think will become an iconic part of the Olympic Park in its own right – the Olympic Park wind turbine.
Read more of “Wind turbine: bringing the infrastructure to life”
The 2012 Editor, 19 March 2008
The following article appears in today's edition of The Sun newspaper:
Our athletes are already in training our businesses should be too
Says Lord Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee
In a little under five months, I will be in Beijing, watching our athletes going for gold in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. As someone who has competed in two Olympic Games, I know only too well the hard work that goes before that - and, believe me, it starts some years before the Games themselves.
So as we approach Beijing, the training and preparations that shape the daily routines of an...
Read more of “Businesses - grab these opportunities”
