London 2012 blog

British Airways is the natural airline partner for us, so there was a nice feel to the launch events this morning.

Seb spoke eloquently as ever, reminding everyone that BA was there through the bid, they delivered the bid book to the IOC in Lausanne - in fact, the stewardess who was with the bid book was there this morning. They've been engaged right through the 2012 story so it's good to continue - it's like they're part of the family, and now they're officially part of it.

My first event was at Waterside - the main British Airways HQ, on the outskirts of Heathrow. Willie Walsh, the BA chief executive was there along with Seb and Steve Cram, who compered, as well as a host of athletes. We had a fencing display from international fencers, Wheelchair Basketball and a fantastic rhythmic gymnastics performance.

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You read a lot about the Games in the papers and you could, if you wanted to, form a view and an opinion based entirely on what the media say. However one of the perks of working for LOCOG is that I can, on occasion, get out to other parts of the country and find out for myself what people are thinking, what people are saying and – in many cases – what people are doing to prepare for the Games in their area. And so yesterday I travelled to East Anglia, specifically Newmarket Racecourse, where the East of England region was launching its business plan for the Games – ‘Rising to the Challenge’. 



The Games will provide all sorts of opportunities for businesses, communities and individuals all over the UK. As with most opportunities, they need to be grabbed and for a region and this was a great example of how this is happening everwhere. 

We eased ourselves into the day with a quick T'ai Chi warm up (which may seem slightly odd, but in the context of what followed, actually quite run of the mill) before we got into the nitty gritty of the presentations, where the 'Rising To The Challenge' plan was presented and I also talked about the progress made on the project so far and what was coming up in the next year or so. The region is clearly in a great position – in planning terms, as well as geographical to take advantage of what London 2012 has to offer. 

Read more of “Rising to the Challenge in the East of England”

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Read more of “A warm Scottish welcome from Lloyds TSB”