Engaging with businesses who want to be involved in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is one of the key elements of the ODA Supply Chain team’s role, where I work.

On Friday, 30 May representatives of the Supply Chain Team including Lee Taylor, Mark Lawrenson and myself along with the ODA’s Community Liaison Manager, Gemma Rapson headed off with the ODA exhibition stand and a selection of various handouts to the leafy town of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. We were there to attend the 2nd annual Broxbourne Business Fair to meet local businesses and tell them how they might get explore opportunities for involvement in the London 2012 Games:

The event was opened by the Lady Mayor, Councillor Carol Crump-Eynon and soon afterwards the venue was bustling with the chatter of local businesses networking and showcasing their products and services from 40 different exhibition stands. Exhibits ranged from local hospitality venues, to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), to personal fitness, and everything in-between.

We were delighted to meet a diverse range of people representing various organisations, associations and themselves on the day including local MPs and figureheads of the community to business owners and passers by who dropped in to have a look around the stands. It gave us the chance to experience first hand the enthusiasm, expectation and desire to get involved in the delivery of the Games in 2012.

The venue for the event was located near to Broxbourne, which will be a major attraction during the Games as it will host the Canoe/Kayak events at the new Broxbourne White Water Canoe Centre. The local community were keen to hear all about this from Andrew Croston, our Corporate Procurement Manager who gave a short presentation on the Olympic Procurement Challenge, the latest view on progress, CompeteFor and the wider 2012 opportunities. The Supply Chain team were also on hand for an audience Q&A which followed.

On the stand we offered information and advice on how interested suppliers could get involved, exchanged business cards and specifically directed organisations to add their details to CompeteFor, the electronic brokerage service which matches suppliers to London 2012 opportunities. We also handed out a further box full of ‘Supplier Guides’ to take the distribution total to in excess of 10,000 copies and now into our third print run!

As a new member to the team it was Mark Lawrenson’s first attendance at such an event and it was good to see him still smiling at the end of a busy day of networking, even if he was a little hoarse after all that talking!

To find out more information about London 2012 business opportunities visit the London 2012 Business Network