All aspects of 2012 are steaming ahead – venues appearing out of the ground and dramatically changing the skyline around the Olympic Park, cultural celebrations such as Open Weekend at full tilt, the education programme Get Set now in thousands of schools and colleges across the country, businesses winning 2012-related contracts and sub-contracts and creating jobs – vital in the current economic climate. Public support remains high, partly due to all our work with local MPs across the country to ensure they are up-to-date with everything going on, and are encouraging constituents to get involved with what's happening in their area.

Some MPs have a particularly direct interest, not least those whose constituencies stretch across the main venues and the Olympic Park. Their constituents will see some of the greatest benefits, but also some of the most disruption up to the Games – so it’s important that they know everything that's going on across the five Host Boroughs – Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

So we took Seb Coe from LOCOG and David Higgins from the ODA to spend 90 minutes with local MPs Clive Efford, Diane Abbott, Iain Duncan Smith and Nick Raynsford to run through current activity and take questions on all sorts of areas. Considering the current economic climate, it's no surprise that their number one area of interest was jobs and skills, where we were able to run through the latest numbers of borough residents employed on site and the ODA's plans for apprenticeships.

We also took their questions on LOCOG sponsorship success, the future of the Olympic Stadium, social housing in the Olympic Village, and there was a clear consensus on the need for everyone to focus on sports participation in schools and colleges. Thinking about the huge progress already being made in east London, there was a tangible feeling at the event that everyone couldn’t wait until 2012. The impact of the Games will be huge.