Last week, nearly 30 businesses and business organisations from the West Midlands - including my own - attended an event hosted by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), which included a whole day of briefings about the scale and timing of business opportunities for the London 2012 Games.



The day got off to a great start with a brief welcome and Q&A session with the ODA Chairman, John Armitt. This was followed by presentations from procurement specialists Andrew Croston from the ODA and Richard Mould from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). In addition, three tier-one London 2012 contractors talked about their specific work on the Olympic Park, and what and how they would be procuring in the near future. 

Among all that, there was also time for a bus tour around the Olympic Park:

Two overall points about trying to win work from London 2012 emerged for me:

1) CompeteFor is very important for identifying and winning tenders from London 2012. Opportunities from the ODA/LOCOG and the tier one contractors will be placed on the system. But there is more companies can do to be successful.  Firms need to do their usual proactive stuff, like market research, trying to access the existing supply chains of London 2012 top-tier suppliers.

2) Although the London 2012 Games will finish in September 2012, I hadn’t realised quite how much 'legacy' work will be required immediately after that.  For example, converting the main Olympic Stadium down to 25,000 seats; converting the Aquatics Centre down to a few thousand seats after the Games; landscaping for legacy mode etc.

On top of these short-term conversion works, there is also the long-term legacy work to convert the Park to its ultimate state and uses. Plus the worldwide succession of major sports events. So anyone who thinks the London 2012 Games is a short-term one-off is very mistaken!

However, as well as the overall lessons for businesses, some interesting, quirky comments made by speakers throughout the day stuck with me:

- One criticism that we often receive from businesses is that the ODA top-tier contractors will already have existing supply chains in place. It's worth pointing out that ODA tier one contractors are putting many of their new opportunities on the CompeteFor system - in some cases up to 50 per cent. Also LOCOG, as a new organisation, has no existing supply chain, so has to start afresh when buying almost everything.

- The flats in the Olympic Village will not have kitchens in during the Games, to create space for an extra bedroom. After all, the athletes will have 24-hour catering. So after the Games these flats will be retro-fitted with kitchens – yet another business opportunity.

A long day, given the travelling from the West Midlands. But very instructive and well worth it. So our thanks to the hosts, the ODA.