Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, speaking at a special UK-wide business conference to promote London 2012’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, announced a series of measures to give businesses in Britain an opportunity to take advantage of the London 2012 Games.
Among the measures mentioned is an Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) Procurement Policy – a detailed document that lays out how the ODA procures and manages the delivery of goods and services to deliver new venues and infrastructure in a sustainable way for the Games and the legacy, on time and on budget.
The Tourism Consultation for the 2012 Games is a way to get the views of everyone from small bed and breakfast owners and local authority support staff, to large hotel chains and public sector organizations at the national and regional levels.
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Sustainability Policy will outline how the Games can be delivered in a sustainable way. It identifies climate change, waste, biodiversity, inclusion and diversity and healthy living as the five key areas in which the Games can make the biggest impact.
Paul Deighton, CEO of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) said at the conference, “my one major message right now for all UK businesses is that you have not missed the boat. Putting on an Olympic Games is a marathon, not a sprint, and opportunities for businesses to get involved will develop over the next six years”.
Deighton said the 2012 Games will overshadow any other sports event. He believes the global reach of the Olympics is greater even than the football World Cup and expects that the English edition of the Games to be the biggest yet.
“This will be the world’s biggest peace-time project. By way of contrast, the recent World Cup football finals – a huge event watched by capacity crowds in the stadiums and billions of people on TV across the planet – are dwarfed by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“Instead of the 32 countries taking part in the World Cup finals, its over 200 in the Olympic Games, more in fact than are members of the United Nations.
“We won’t have 736 footballers playing at 12 grounds but over 10,000 athletes competing at 31 venues across the UK in 26 different sports at the Olympic Games. There’s something like nine million tickets to be sold.
“This is the most positive thing to happen in this country in our lifetimes and we have to make the most of it”.
