It's a week of trains and cathedrals, last week in Durham and this week in Exeter. Today it was the South West  2012 team meeting. Like the other regions in England, as well as Scotland, Northern Ireland  and Wales, the South West  is looking to capitalise on the Games in London in 2012 to get social, sporting and economic benefits.

Of course the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be on home surf with the sailing in Weymouth and Portland. In advance of 2012, the team in the South West  is putting on some great cultural events and claims to be the best region – I couldn't possibly comment! But I am looking forward to Open Weekend  at the end of July, and the rest of the summer, with the sports events and beach activities in Devon, Somerset and Plymouth in particular – all inspired by the London 2012 Games. 

Business wins are important – not least at the moment – and we heard about the progress the South West  is making in winning Games-related contracts. We also talked about the tourism and business  benefits of the Games too for the South West  and agreed to work on that as well as attracting overseas teams to the area to prep in those weeks before the Games open on July 27th 2012. But there are things to do now, and we spoke, for example, about the Personal Best programme which gives an opportunity to gain some key skills and experiences and for those who successfully 'graduate' there's also the promise of an interview to be a Games volunteer.

Time for the train back to London  but of course I had to look inside the cathedral – what a roof!