So, firstly, in terms of how soon you’ve managed to get in and get stuff going on, are you pleased with what’s happened so far?

Firstly I think, it’s incredible to me that six months have gone since I started. It really doesn’t seem that long at all. Time goes so quickly here. I think probably, the best description I’ve heard from anybody of working for an organising committee is “It’s like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant”. It really does feel like the pace of the organisation is huge. And obviously, having a role such as Paralympic Integration which spans the whole of the organisation, there’s a lot of connections which have to be made really quickly. What I’ve found phenomenal is the enthusiasm and the quality of the people who are here. It’s just been brilliant working across the business, getting to know so many new people and working with them over a short space of time to get some really quality results done. So, it’s been phenomenal. I think we’ve achieved a lot. The way I kind of think about these things is that – for me – it splits down into two distinct areas really. There’s Games Operations. That’s obviously everything which you’d imagine that it takes to put on the Paralympic Games – transport, villages, venues infrastructure etc. Then the whole communications and engagement piece. So, looking at things like the communications strategy, the brand narrative, broadcast contract… and I think, by differentiating in that way, you’ve got two clear areas. A lot of the Games Operations stuff can be really clearly and fully integrated into what we do on the Olympic side – with nuances and differences where necessary. Whereas, I think, all the stuff which comes under communications is where we really can start to make some significant difference with the Paralympics – being distinctive, differentiating where necessary and moving the thing on. So, a lot of work in both of those blocks, but it’s been fantastic so far… let’s carry on in that vain.

Okay, so, one of the great things we had most recently in terms of the second one of those – the communications – was obviously the channel Four broadcasting deal. Tell me about that and what you think it will mean for the Paralympic Games and the way that audiences will be able to engage with it on TV.

The tender process that we ran for the broadcast rights for the UK for the Paralympic Games was a fantastic piece of work to be involved with, to be honest. It was brilliant from the outset. There was so much excitement and enthusiasm around it, and every organisation that pitched for the work was excellent. It was a fantastic position to be in – to actually be choosing between organisations, all of whom could do a really fantastic job for us. It made it a really invigorating process. Channel Four – their excitement, their enthusiasm, what they were looking to do, what they were telling us – just came across as fantastically exciting and, just offering us the potential to move the Games forward and tie into the sort of thoughts we were having on our brand and communications strategy. And it’s great to work with them. Obviously, there’s a tremendous history of Paralympic sport with the BBC, and the BBC have done great stuff, and they’re going to continue, hopefully, to have involvement across the piece. But Channel Four offered a really appealing, attractive package and fundamentally – the most important thing which underpins all of this – we have Paralympic sport on terrestrial television so everyone across the nation can get involved, can enjoy it and be inspired by what they see.

What Channel Four brought to the table was a compelling package. Not just about what they’re going to do at Games time, which is obviously incredibly important, but just a real commitment to do stuff now. To have an understanding of just how important it is to get Paralympic sport broadcast between now and Games time. To assist in delivering on that promise which we’ve said from when I first arrived here – we want an educated audience for Paralympic sport, excited, enthused by it. Not just coming to the stadia, but switching on their TV, knowing what they’re about to view and being excited by that prospect. Channel Four get that. They really understand that and what they’ve committed to in terms of documentaries, in terms of strands throughout all their programming – not just at Games time, but crucially, in that time period between now and Games time was incredibly compelling.

The Games time offer from Channel Four is superb. We’re talking in excess of 150 hours. It’s larger than… Paralympic sport will have never had that kind of showcase. It‘s extraordinary. And just to give some commercial context to it as well – the fact of needing to really move the thing forward to get the public across the nation into Paralympic sport, Channel Four have committed to a marketing campaign. The largest in their history. Not just for sport – the largest in their history. :larger than what they put behind the launch of E4, larger than what they put behind the launch of Film 4. That, backing Paralympic sport, is tremendously exciting.

Brilliant. Okay, from the operations side of things then – what kind of progress has been made so far?

It’s interesting how quickly things develop on the park. I know when I first started here, the roof was just going on the Aquatics Centre, and you know go round the Park and it changes at such a pace. It almost reflects the pace of what’s happening within LOCOG – you know, from a people point of view, and getting all the work done here. It’s like a physical representation of what we’re all feeling. There are a number of really quality pieces of work which have happened over the last six months. I think one which I’d highlight is the tender process that we ran for the automotive sponsor. And again, there were great offers that came to the table, but from a Paralympic point of view, what we puit into the tender process was to say “we want you to come to us and tell us how you’re going to make the transport accessible – not just in terms of the passengers, but in terms of, if we have volunteers who may have a disability who might want to be drivers – who have the right skill set to be drivers – how are you going to make that happen?”. And it’s fantastic that, for the first time for any Games, both Olympic and Paralympic for that matter, we’ve got vehicles which have the potential to have adaptations so we can have disabled volunteers as drivers at the games. So, accessible for volunteer - accessible for passengers. That’s a fantastic joined-up bit of thinking, and a great piece of work, demonstrating how you can link together and join transport with communications, with commercial and really make effective change both within the business and externally. And make a really positive statement about what’s possible from an organising committee.

And that’s BMW who came on board with those ideas?

It is, it is. BMW… I think they’re going to be great. All of our partners are excited by the Paralympics and I think BMW have demonstrated just in that little piece of work, just what a great partner they’re going to be.

You mentioned obviously, the amazing progress that’s going on with the Park, but also on the Village as well – it’s kind of moving ahead of space. Can you talk a bit about the types of things that you’re looking at in terms of accessibility within the Village for the athletes or officials and so on?

It’s phenomenal, what’s happening across the Olympic Park. It’s a piece of |East London which will never be the same again, transformed in the most fantastic way, in an incredibly short space of time. And by the Paralympics being completely integrated into this whole planning and delivery process, it means that we’ll have a Village out there which will have access built into it from the outset. We’ll have stadia such as the Olympic Stadium, such as the Aquatics Centre - it was always a swimming pool in my day, but Aquatics Centre it is - which will be blueprints of accessible, inclusive design. It’s a fantastic physical legacy to leave East London – to leave the country – which demonstrates what can be done just with a bit of creative thinking. I think, one of the key pieces of work is looking at how we don’t just have access, but we have inclusion. One of the great examples of that is, often at sports events, all of the wheelchair users will be sat in the same place – generally at pitch level, at the touchline; football being an obvious example of that. That’s good, and it’s access and that’s all fine and it’s a good move forward, but what we’re looking at doing is to take that to a new level as well and to have the wheelchair seating positions spread out throughout the seating bowl. So, if a wheelchair user comes with his wife, or her husband, they can actually sit with their wife or husband. If they come with their family, they can sit with their family rather than having to sit with other wheelchair users, just by virtue of the fact of them being wheelchair users. What we’re looking to do is enable people to access the Games in a way as anybody else would access the Games, regardless of being a wheelchair user, having mobility needs… whatever it is. They have the same access which actually takes it to the level of being fully inclusive.

The great thing about the Village – which will become the Paralympic Village for Paralympics time – is, it’s such a compact site. So, from an athlete’s point of view, this is a great Games. When you look at the Paralympic footprint, it’s smaller that the Olympic footprint because there’s no central zone of venues. So the majority of stuff - bar rowing at Eton Dorney, sailing at Weymouth and the road cycling – all the rest of the Paralympic sport is happening on Olympic Park, in the river zone, obviously at Greenwich Park and the Barracks. Now, that’s the first fantastic thing – to have Village which is also on the Park. So it means travel times for athletes are dramatically reduced than at previous Games. That’s pretty fantastic. And for the athletes living in the Village – there’s accessible bathrooms, accessible rooms built into that structure from the outset. And because Paralympics has a smaller number of competitors than Olympics, it means that you can use slightly more of the Village site than you would if you were stacking people right up the eleventh floor say, and it means that it can be a much more low-rise Village for Paralympics. So you’ve got that opportunity- that flexibility – within the structures which are out there.

Okay, so aside from the physical legacy that will be left after the Games, obviously, at London 2012, we’re trying to achieve something. We’re trying to educate people about the Paralympics and about disability sports, about arts, and leave a much more social legacy, I guess. Have you seen progress made? What have we achieved so far? What are we looking forward to?

The physical legacy tells its own story. It’s incredibly impressive at the Park. But that would be as nothing if we didn’t have an allied human legacy as well from the Paralympic games. And, almost to take the most essential nugget of what we’re doing here – if we just look at the fact that, as London, we’re the first integrated organising committee for Olympic Games and Paralympic Games – that of itself has the potential, I believe, to ripple out through our stakeholders and across the country, to send that message that, integration is the way forward where appropriate. So, there are areas which go beyond the scope of us as an organising committee, if we talk about integrated education or if we look at the employment statistics for disabled people – you know, 66% of visually impaired people of working age not being in work. These are incredibly important areas, but they are obviously and often beyond the scope of our direct influence as the organising committee for putting on the Paralympic Games. But, through what we’re doing here, through making such a positive statement on integration, on having a diverse team organising and running these Games, those messages should have the power to ripple out and for other organisations who maybe, are involved in employment, to take up that similar approach and really start to address the sort of, systemic, structural issues in their area. So I think, just from one tiny, small but incredibly fundamental fact that has the potential to really make a change for us as an organising committee, for future organising committees but across the country in which the games happen as well. It’s incredibly important. It would be extraordinary if, as an organising committee, putting on an Olympic and the Paralympic Games for the country – for the world – it would be extraordinary if we did not represent that country and that world, and the city of London that we’re putting the Games on in. it would be extraordinary if we weren’t representing that. And the power we get from that is absolutely immense. It just enables you to move the thing on. We have so much we have to do as an organising committee. There is so much which we want the games to achieve which goes beyond our remit. Ultimately, we can only do this if we work in partnership with our stakeholders, with government, with our marketing partners… but I think if we get everybody on the same page, we will be able to deliver on that promise that this is everyone’s Paralympics.

 Have you been surprised at all with the way that your ideas have been received around LOCOG and whichever the teams that you’re working with? The things that you really came into achieve, people have picked them up and gone “Yes, this is exactly what it is”, or even might have been ahead of what you would think we were when you came in.

What’s impressive about the organising committee I think. Is everybody’s ability to take up ideas that they may never have worked with before, to gain new experience which they won’t have had before, and to really engage across the piece. It think, that ability, that enthusiasm, that openness was incredible when I first came in here. What’s awesome is how people are truly engaging with the Paralympic piece across the whole of the business. Because, be in no doubt, by having a fully integrated approach to Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, that makes it far more complex on one level in terms of planning and delivery. Because you’re asking people to have an approach where, every time they touch anything – even if it seems like it’s 100% Olympic in nature, you’re asking people – I’m asking people to consider “Is there a Paralympic dimension? Is there some way that that action then impacts in the Paralympic arena?”. That’s quite challenging and complex at this stage. But, by having that engendered into the business, it truly will give us better results both for the Olympic Games and for the Paralympic Games. Better Games - better legacy for future organising committees to see that this is the right approach. It does make sense to have a fully integrated approach. It’s the way to plan Games going forward. We had a budget meeting with IPC last week and through that, we’re in a position now where we’re probably looking to have the greatest level of transparency on a Paralympic budget which any Games has achieved. And to hand that on – the sense of developing all of this intellectual legacy, all this knowledge legacy really for the Paralympic movement… tremendous that everyone around the business is tied into creating that.

In the past, the traditional model for an organising committee would be to have a completely separate and distinct organising committee for the Olympic Games and a completely separate and distinct organising committee for the Paralympic Games. Even if that then moved forward and you had one organising committee but with a Paralympic division within that organising committee, that’s essentially model one. Just under the same roof. Now, you can see historically why that was the case, and in some ways you can see that that would make things more straight forward because people would just focus on the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games but, because the Games are so interwoven – so interlinked – it makes complete sense to have a fully integrated approach. So, essentially, we don’t have a separate Paralympic organising committee. We don’t have a separate Paralympic division. We have functional areas across the business, as everyone knows, for transport, technology, venues and infrastructure etc, all of whom have been charged with planning for and delivering the Paralympic Games with the same zeal as they deliver the Olympic Games. It is the first time that has been attempted. And for me, coming in… in August last year, it’s tremendous to see how that has excited and caught people’s imagination around the business. People want to do great work for the Paralympic Games and for the Olympic Games and see no distinction in the quality of work that they want to do for each of those editions. It’s fantastic to have that and if we get it right – which I believe we will do – that of itself is a tremendous legacy to hand over to future organising committees. So, never again will you have a situation where it’s separate and you get some of the problems that we had in Atlanta. No athlete should have to go through the experience which they had to in Atlanta again. And if we get this right in London, that should go some way to ensuring that is the way forward for future organising committees following on from us.

So what kind of things are you going to be concentrating on? Let’s just look forward about six months. What kind of things are you looking at specifically?

I think, again, splitting it into the two sections, if we look at Games operations, there’s a huge amount of work obviously going on with venue operating planning. Going around all of the competition and then non-competition venues, ensuring that they will work as effectively, as efficiently for Paralympic Games as they do for the Olympic Games… it’s a huge amount of work when you consider how many venues are involved. People may think about the obvious sporting locations such as the Velodrome for example, but you’ve got a whole series of non-competition venues for training – all that kind of stuff. Everything has to be just right. And, ensuring that when Paralympians come to London, all they have to worry about is doing the very best performance they can because we’ve taken care of everything else. So huge amount of work on that side. On the communications side – really doing a lot of work with Channel Four, really building that relationship and looking to do stuff, as I say, sooner rather than later. They’re keen to really move forward and start to put stuff together. So a lot of work with them. And again, really seeking to drive public consciousness really of the Paralympic Games. We’re undertaking some really important research in this area, just to understand where people currently are with their understanding of and attitudes towards the Paralympics. That will really assist us as we move forward on our journey to make those changes – to engage with people. Also, introduce a series of Paralympic visits around the nations and regions over the next year again, just to give that Paralympic focus across the country. Again, to deliver on the sense that this is everybody’s Paralympics. Making those connections between local athletes – local Paralympians – who could win gold in London. Suddenly, it becomes very easy for people to go “I didn’t know there was a potential Paralympic gold medallist training in the same swimming pool as me”. There’s the connection, suddenly they’re on the first run of the ladder of getting into the Paralympics – understanding it, wanting to get a ticket, wanting to come, wanting to watch it on television. So it’s going to be a massive six months. I think 2010 is an incredibly important year. There’s so much we have to do now. It’s a really important year for getting stuff done which will enable 2012 to be a lot smoother year as we go through. So it’s incredibly important, in terms of tying things down I think, and doing stuff which will put those extra blocks in place to enable us to blast of in 2011 and 2012.