A year after it was announced that London would be hosting the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, London 2012 is going on the road to take its message to every corner of the UK.
The 2012 Roadshow bus will leave from Trafalgar Square and travel almost 3,000 miles criss-crossing the country starting July 6 to July 27, exactly six years before the London 2012 Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.
The bus will carry top names like London 2010 chairman Sebastian Coe, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, and London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone, as well as past and present Olympians.
Tessa Jowell said, “our Roadshow is a vital step in making sure that people across the country know what is happening and understanding how they can get involved in so many different ways, whether as businesses bidding for contracts, or as spectators, volunteers or even athletes competing in the world’s greatest sporting event”.
The Roadshow will remind business about economic opportunities that are presented by the Games; send out a strong message about sport and the huge inspiration the Games will be to people, young and old, to take part and get active; reinforce the fact that the UK will be hosting to events in 2012 – the Paralympic and Olympic Games; tell them about the opportunities to get involved at the Games; and provide more details about the cultural Olympiad and the opportunities it brings to showcase creativity and talent to a worldwide audience.
Meanwhile Paul Deighton, chief executive of London 2012, has already been on the road to Manchester to see how a major sporting event can regenerate a deprived area. Manchester hosted a successful Commonwealth Games in 2002.
Deighton toured east Manchester with Tom Russell, chief executive of the development company New East Manchester, and was given an insight into the long-term benefits that hosting a large-scale event can bring to an area.
Deighton said, “we can learn a lot from Manchester. Had Manchester not put on such a spectacularly successfully Commonwealth Games in 2002, the UK would not have got itself back on the map to win the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in 2012”.
