London 2012 blog

The first 'Meeting of Minds' took place on 20 June. Eight businesses drawn from diverse sectors came to London 2012 headquarters to meet up with one of our tier one contractors. It was a very informal occasion designed to offer small businesses an opportunity to come and talk with London 2012 and a main contractor to better understand what it takes to do business with us. We were joined on this occasion by Jackie Connolly from the London Borough of Newham and Hemant Mistry from the London Development Agency (LDA) programme 'Diversity Works for London'.

Each business took five minutes to explain who they were and what their aspirations for participating in the London 2012 supply chain were. These were many and varied, from a wish to become involved in discussions over which tiles to use in the Aquatics Centre to how to sell ice cream to construction workers.

The tier one contractor explained their plans and progress on the Olympic Park and showed some useful pictures and diagrams. They were keen to share their own journey towards success in gaining a contract on the Olympic Park site and explained to the gathered businesses the efforts they had made over time to ensure their own business growth.

Spencer from the tier one contractor said afterwards that the 'session was useful... we’re all in the same flotilla steering differently sized boats'. That’s absolutely right Spencer and we are pleased you were so willing to come and offer your time. Some businesses are steering quite small boats at present but we believe business opportunities with London 2012 can really help them grow. Ernie from a coffee supplier was one of our supplier companies. He has sent us a great message:

'Thank you once again for the invitation to the recent 'Meeting of Minds' seminar in Canary Wharf. I thought the various presentations were very informative and it was thoroughly exciting.

'Following the event, I am pleased to announce that I have had a chance to make a formal presentation to the tier one contractor. They have now decided to use our coffee services! Thank you for the initial invitation, and for a very well organised event. I can confirm that the seminar had resulted in a profitable experience for our company.'

You can just smell the coffee aroma now!