I attended the meeting held in Brighton to discuss the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Along with the eight other artists there and the members of the London 2012 Ceremonies team I felt it an immense privilege to be at the table and included in the discussion. It was fascinating to realise how commonly felt the main feelings associated with previous Opening Ceremonies were.
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Brian, Composer, 27 February 2009
No matter what you think about the Olympics there is no doubting or ignoring its impact, presence and significance. It is of course about many things - competition, endurance, celebration of the diversity of human life, overcoming obstacles, pushing boundaries, exploring frontiers, breaking records or in the words of that great explorer Captain Kirk...'going where no man has gone before.' It is about the best that man can do.
Now, I aint much of an athlete myself (although I have been known to haul my backside around the squash court from time). No, I am a composer, and as such...
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I am the Project Ecologist on the Olympic Park and I am responsible for managing all ecological issues across the Park. In this video I talk about progress we have made cleaning the Park's waterways and how we aim to retain existing trees across the Park.
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Leon, Culture team, 26 February 2009
Ceremonies aren't things cobbled together with three weeks to go by a couple of choreographers in a dance studio. In fact, we have already begun our journey towards the creation of the biggest shows on earth here at London 2012, three and half years ahead of opening night.
Within weeks of the Handover shows last year work began on taking the next steps towards the moment when London, and the whole of the UK steps in front of the rest of the world to welcome them to our Olympic and Paralympic Games.
We have now started working with the best brains from...
Read more of “Thinking about the Opening Ceremonies: Big, important, inspiring stuff”
On Tuesday night I attended the London Planning Awards in City Hall for the Royal Town Planning Institute. Not quite the Oscars but in London’s planning world a very significant calendar event!
The Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA's) entry was short listed in the 'Best Conceptual Award' category for the
Inclusive Design Strategy and Standards. The Strategy and Standards establishes a planning process endorsed by the
Planning Decision Team (PDT) that details how we will deliver accessible design throughout the
Olympic Park.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson presented the awards and commended the Strategy and Standards for...
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Some may say hosting an event is inherently unsustainable: building the stage, the travel, the catering, the lighting, the handouts...I tend not to agree.
Taking learnings from events such as the
Visa London 2012 Party, the Beijing Debrief, Coordination commissions, conferences, office meetings etc we have developed Guidelines for corporate and public events to help us. They help us think more clearly about how we can host the events in the lead up to 2012 in a more sustainable way. (The Games themselves are, of course, a whole other issue to address.)
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The aim of the Young Ambassadors’ Programme is to create a network of young people (aged 14-19) each year who, acting as positive role models, spread the Olympic and Paralympic message and ideals, increase participation and promote healthy active lifestyles amongst other young people.
In 2006, I was given the opportunity to apply for the position to become a Young Ambassador for the borough of Havering. The journey to date has been phenomenal and I have experienced so much that I never thought I could. Some of these experiences have included speaking to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and...
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People wouldn’t necessarily associate fitness with drawing skills, but a sportsperson’s training regime is not all so dissimilar actually to the one that I undertake each day as an artist. Luckily for me, I only have to spend the time running a pencil backwards and forwards across paper to keep fit.
But my skills were certainly put to great use last !
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Our Head of Ceremonies, Martin Green, has embarked on an ambitious programme of workshops to promote a national debate on the 2012 Ceremonies. Hundreds of creative people in every region and nation of the UK are giving up their time to join the programme: not to write the running order for the Opening Ceremony – that comes much later – but much more important at this stage, to define our ambitions.
What statement does London and the UK want to make in the 2012 Opening and Closing Ceremonies? What image do we want to present to the world? How should...
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Any followers of my sporadic blogging will have seen that a few months ago we were wishing the Special Olympics GB Skiing team well before they jetted off to Idaho to compete in the World Winter Games (
read my last blog).
Well I thought we were due an update on how the team have been getting on and the latest from Idaho is that we have 13 medals coming back with the team!
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Recently the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) ran a fantastic creative challenge with architecture students from the University of the Arts. The aim of the day was to look at potential ideas for seat colour patterns for the
Handball,
Basketball and
Water Polo venues.
The two-day event began with a visit to the site to gain a sense of the size and scale of the venues. All the students were given presentations by representatives of the venues, the Park and the brand. This finished with a great lecture by Oxford Professor Philip Maini on the occurrence and rules of patterns in...
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The 2012 Editor, 17 February 2009
The latest version of our
London 2012 online map went live just a couple of weeks ago and we're delighted at the positive response. Take a look, for example, at the
article in today's Evening Standard.
Read more of “Exploring the London 2012 map”
In my role as Director of Sport at Amwell View School and Specialist Sports College, I encourage all of our pupils to lead a healthy, active lifestyle and seize every opportunity to get involved and give their best.
In teaching children with severe learning difficulties, I understand the importance and value that PE and sport plays in enriching their lives.
The teaching staff, and the children especially, were very excited to meet LOCOG Chief Executive Paul Deighton during his recent visit to Hertfordshire to see how our county is preparing for the London 2012 Games.
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I was eagerly anticipating my site visit to the Olympic Park, especially as I had heard such positive comments, but I was keen to see for myself what progress had been made and to try and envisage at this early stage what the Park may be like in 2012.
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Medical health care planning for the Games in 2012 marches on and five experts have joined the team here at LOCOG to plan the clinical care for the wide range of people who are entitled to varying levels of free services at Games-time: approximately 250,000 accredited people (athletes, IOC Family, workforce, partners etc) and all spectators when they are in the Games boundary (venues, common domains etc).
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Watch this video as I take you on a tour of the new Energy Centre where the distinctive steel frame of the superstructure is now complete.
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Last weekend myself and three colleagues (Emma, Comfort and Kristina) all went along to the 6th 'London Schools and the Black Child' conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster. This is the largest one-day educational conference in Britain aimed at debates on the new strategies to tackle the many challenges faced by young black people in London. Amongst many distinguished guests, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, Diane Abbott MP and comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien were in attendance.
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Chris Bell, 12 February 2009
I head up the Buyer Engagement Team (BET) at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) which was introduced to ensure we get as many eligible organisations using
CompeteFor as possible. CompeteFor is the chosen site of London 2012 for the publication of all Games related contract opportunities and we specifically engage, train and support contractors to post London 2012 business opportunities. We are tasked with opening up the full supply chain which results in us dealing with businesses that win contracts directly from the ODA, then opening up their subcontract opportunities and recycling this approach for each new winner of...
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To help the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) main contractors meet their obligations around community engagement, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) group was set up last year to make sure that the local community are involved with the London 2012 Games. As a result, a number of contractors, on an individual basis, are now active in the community.
Late in 2008, I had an idea that if all the contractors worked together on a larger scale project, and if we included the ODA itself and its Delivery Partner, we could make a significant difference to people’s lives.
Just by chance, I was...
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A broad section of Scottish businesses had the opportunity to meet with key contacts in the
Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the
London Organising Committe of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), as well as some tier one contractors last Thursday at a 'meet-the-buyer' event organised jointly by
Scottish Enterprise and the ODA.
The event was part of an ongoing programme of work that we have with London 2012 in promoting businesses opportunities from the Games, ensuring that Scottish businesses and Scotland as a whole can reap economic benefit from them.
The day was very full and...
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