London 2012 blog

It all started with Nicky from our Government Relations Team copying me into a flurry of emails between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Duke of York’s Office and our Consulate in Milan. The purpose? A meeting with the Mayor of Milan and her team; the Duke of York, our Ambassador and Consul General; and representation from London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 to discuss Expo 2015.

On March 31, Milan was named as the location for the 2015 Expo. The Milanese bid committee is now reforming into an Organising Committee taking the form of a public company. The Expo will run for 6 months from May to October 2015 with the theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. There will be 7,000 events, 29 million visitors, 70,000 jobs, 36,000 volunteers and investment in the region of €20bn.

The Expo site covers an area of 2.2m square meters in a run-down area of north west Milan. There are a number of interesting projects associated with it, including construction and extension of tube lines, new motorways (crossing Lombardy and linking Milan to Brescia), the new Outer Eastern Orbital Road, the Water Way and Land Way, creating a 20km trail for walking, running and cycling. The Green Rays project will create a further 72km of cycle paths.

Much of this resonates with what we are doing here for 2012.

The purpose of our visit was for the Duke, in his capacity of Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, to build the relationship with the city of Milan and the Expo 2015 Organising Committee, with the view to creating a bridge to compare experiences, exchange ideas and offer the contribution of British companies.

When the Duke headed off to open a new trade terrace at the consulate, I met with representatives of the fledgling Expo 2015 Organising Committee led by Paolo Glisenti, Secretary General; they were particularly interested in London 2012’s approach to Sustainable Procurement.

This was followed by a round table meeting with The Duke of York, Mayor Moratti and her team, HM Ambassador, HM Consul General, a cocktail party given by Mayor Moratti for the Duke of York, finally followed by a working dinner at the Mayor’s private Residence.

All in all an exciting day and a fantastic opportunity to showcase the progress we are making at London 2012 and the potential contributions British companies could make to Expo 2015.

The similarities between the journeys both cities are on were clear and I am sure that this was only the first of many opportunities we’ll have to compare experiences and exchange ideas.