The story of Sebastian Coe

At the end of last month, I attended the launch of a story telling service, which has been brought over from the US and is aimed at conference planners looking for inspirational keynotes. 

The master storyteller for the UK division of Mark of a Leader is Tom Griffin, a former director of events agency Sledge. 

The evening consisted of a few sample stories, including how Roger Bannister achieved his 4-minute mile and how the same 12 notes of music have been used to inspire some of the greatest musicians throughout history. 

But this is an Olympic year for London so I thought I'd re-tell Tom's tale of a fearless leader who also just happens to be Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and a former gold medalist himself.

He was the reason for my interest in the Olympics and his great rivalry with Steve Ovett will forever be associated with 800-metre and 1500-metre running. He is, of course, Sebastian Coe.

Seb Coe was born in London but grew up in Sheffield, where his father worked in the steel industry and his mother was an actress.

Although he had always been an active child, it was at a school assembly at the age of 12 that Sebastian first became inspired about the Olympics.

On the screen he and his schoolmates saw grainy pictures of two athletes from their home town who were competing in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He was gripped by the drama of the competition, and the possibilities it represented. By the time he got back to his classroom, Coe says, he knew what he wanted to do - and what he wanted to be.

With his father Peter acting as his dedicated trainer, over the next decade he steadily advanced into the upper echelon of the world’s runners. The intense competition for records between Coe and his greatest rival, runner Steve Ovett, gripped the British imagination… and kept the fans watching.

In 1979, in the space of only 41 days Coe set three world records (800m, mile, and 1500m) – the first person to hold all three records at the same time.

At the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, he took home the gold medals in two events (800 and 1500m).

Four years later in Los Angeles, he won silver in the 800m, and a second gold in the 1500m… making him the first athlete to win gold medals for the same event in two successive Olympics.

My father, who was perhaps the most inspiring figure in my life, gave all of his children (and all four of us have done very well) the best advice at every stage of our lives and our development that any parent can give.

Basically, his message was this: “… You don’t really have to do it any way other than the way you want to do it; but just do it — and do it with passion.” - Sebastian Coe

But despite his many successes, during his athletic career Coe had been plagued by a number of health issues, such as back problems and toxoplasmosis – a chest infection he had picked up during training in Italy. On a number of occasions he was unable to compete; his health almost prevented him from going to the 1984 Olympics, and was a factor in his not being chosen for the British team at the 1988 games in South Korea.

By the late 1980’s, Coe knew that his days as a competitive athlete were behind him. His innate clarity of vision meant that he had done a lot of planning over the years, and he had no shortage of other skills to offer.

In 1992 he won election with the Conservative Party as a Member of Parliament…a post he held until the 1997 General Election. In 2000 his previous achievements and potential for future great achievements was recognised when he was invited to become a member of the House of Lords. Over the same period, he leveraged his public image to generate business success, opening a chain of health clubs, which now has 20,000 members.

By 2003 his tirelessness and tenacious ambition was preparing him for what is generally considered to be one of the most complex and demanding feats of leadership and organisation in the modern age. A challenge that has to combine the sometimes conflicting needs of the worlds greatest athletes, the worlds most successful brands, geo-political imperatives and effectively taking control of the infrastructure of one of the worlds greatest cities. With billions of viewers right across the globe it was also a challenge that, if won, would go on to be delivered in the glare of the most intense media spotlight.

At that time in 2003 the City of London was midway through the complex and expensive process of bidding to be the host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. From the beginning, Seb Coe was an immediate, familiar and enthusiastic ambassador for the plan.

Then in May 2004, the person who had put together the original concept and the bid team suddenly resigned. Coe accepted the role of chairman.

Five cities had been selected as finalists by the IOC at that point. Paris was considered to be the strongest. London’s plan had been criticised in two major areas: there were too many events taking place outside Greater London, and the city’s aging, overcrowded transportation system had to be addressed.

Over the next year, the bid team worked tirelessly to find solutions to every issue. Coe himself worked in close partnership with Ken Livingstone, the then Mayor of London, despite the fact that they were from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Venues were changed, event schedules rewritten, bylaws revised, alliances forged, and budgets approved. 

With Lord Coe on board, quite literally nothing was allowed to deflect the focus, no obstacle was considered too big and no challenge too complex.

Within a year, the bid had evolved to include a high-speed shuttle service to the Olympic park, as well as substantial upgrades to London’s existing transportation systems such as the Tube.

It was also driven by a new sense of purpose that was to prove to be a pivitol point for the ambitions of the bid; using the Olympics and Paralympics to build a legacy for the future. 

This legacy focussed on the youth and included new sports facilities throughout the city… as well the Olympic Medical Institute, a sports rehabilitation centre, and the largest urban park developed in Europe for more than 150 years. 

It also reached out beyond sport in to society as whole with what has become dubbed the ‘Cultural Olympiad’ and since which has already involved over 16 million participants since it began in 2008.

“I believed that we had to answer the question: Why are we doing this? And it wasn’t until we started to articulate, internally as an organisation, that it was about using the Games to inspire young people to participate in sports that we each understood what we had to do.” - Sebastian Coe

But even with these improvements, a win was far from certain as the IOC met for the final judging on July 5, 2005, in Singapore.

What turned the tide, according to most observers, was the stirring final presentation by Sebastian Coe. 

According to a BBC correspondent: "His final speech was fantastic. It was statesmanlike. It was just a stunning performance."

He focused his remarks around youth and his own commitment to the Olympic ideal. He spoke of attending that school assembly when he was 12, and how much it had inspired him in choosing his path through life.

And his words hit home with the IOC judges. When they announced their decision later that evening, the winning city was London.

As with the greatest of achievements, winning the opportunity is just the beginning, the hardest part is turning the vision into a reality and it requires a whole new set of leadership skills.

In the seven years since then, as Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), Coe has been instrumental in turning London’s dream into a reality.

New venues and infrastructure have been built…a legacy for the future. The transportation system has been upgraded. Tickets have been sold around the world, and the Olympic torch has begun to wend its way around the country, heading for the opening ceremonies at the end of July.

The race is on. Through it all, Sebastian Coe continues to be what he has always been: a man in motion. And clearly, a leader of great purpose, tenacity and vision.

London Pleasure Gardens transforms docklands wasteland into arts and culture oasis

An ambitious project to convert a 20-acre stretch of east London wasteland into a 35,000 capacity arts and culture destination will be completed on 30 June.

The London Pleasure Gardens, located at Pontoon Dock, will feature a 27,000 capacity open-air space for live concerts, a 2,800 capacity sound proofed indoor space with late license, a floating cocktail lounge with a 24-hour licence, large-scale sculpture gardens and a dome building with an events capacity for 1,000.

Events already confirmed for the site include, UK electronic music festival Bloc, featuring Snoop Dogg and Orbital on 6 and 7 July, plus the Africa stage for BT’s River of Music, taking place over the weekend before the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

Part of the London 2012 Festival, the BT River of Music will feature performances by musicians representing all the Olympic and Paralympic nations.

Musicians from the world’s major continents will be represented across six stages: Battersea Park (Asia stage); Trafalgar Square (Europe stage); Somerset House (Europe stage); Tower of London (Americas stage); Greenwich Old Royal Naval College (Oceania stage) and London Pleasure Gardens (Africa stage).

During the Olympic Games, the London Pleasure Gardens will provide a waterfront location for live art, film screenings, promenade performances and community projects.

On 30 July, a pyrotechnic show will animate the concrete architecture that surrounds the site.

The show will be inspired by a traumatic event that happened on the site in 1917, when a TNT factory exploded, tragically killing 73 people and filling the sky with burning grain. The performance will fuse music, pyrotechnics, projection and theatre.

Between the 17th and 19th Centuries in Britain, Pleasure Gardens were communal spaces where people from all walks of life, converged to listen to music, admire paintings, stroll, drink and immerse themselves in the culture that made their city great.

The most famous Pleasure Gardens were in Vauxhall. Mozart played there aged nine and Charles Dickens wrote about them. Between 1851 and 1884, the Royal Docks had its very own Pleasure Gardens, named The Royal Victoria Gardens.

The modern day scheme is supported by Newham Council, the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency to kick-start regeneration initiatives planned for the Royal Docks in the London borough of Newham.

As winners of a Mayoral competition to find ‘Meanwhile’ uses for prominent brownfield sites in the Olympic borough, the team behind the Pleasure Gardens will stage events, concerts and cultural collaborations on the site until 2014.

The London Pleasure Gardens team includes Debs Armstrong, who is the Creative Director and Co-producer of the Shangri-La area at Glastonbury Festival, and was also the co-Founder and Producer of The Lost Vagueness area which preceded it, as well as the designer of bespoke events and live music tours by bands such as Groove Armada, and Ed Harcourt.

Also involved are Robin Collings who organised Stoke Newington Festival and Bassline Circus at Glastonbury, and Garfield Hackett who produced Mutate Britain, and Cordy House.

London announces plans for 2013 cycling festival

This week saw the announcement of the first mass participation event, to be held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after it reopens to the public following the London 2012 Games.
The two-day cycling festival is an ambitious undertaking to kick-start an events legacy for the park and encourage more cycling in London.

On a Saturday in August 2013, a family-fun-free-ride will take around 70,000 participants passed many of the UK capital's famous landmarks.

The following day, an elite race and amateur cycle challenge will comprise a 100-mile route, which is intended to start in the Olympic Park and finish in central London. Some 35,000 riders are expected to take part.

The Olympic Park Legacy Company will also organise a full weekend of wheel-based activities on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to support the festival of cycling. They will aim to bring local communities together through events, competitions, workshops, music, food and film.

Below is a short video of the press conference to announce this Olympic legacy initiative and to call for an events delivery partner to come forward. If you can't see the video, please click here to access it on YouTube.

London wins bid to host 2017 Athletics World Championships

London has been chosen as the host city for the 2017 World Athletics Championships.

The International Association of Athletics Federations selected London ahead of Doha at a bid presentation in Monaco by 16 votes to 10, earlier today (Friday 11 November).

It will be the first time that the World Athletics Championships are to be held in the UK and marks the first major tournament confirmed for the Olympic Stadium post London 2012.

Speaking from Monaco, The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "Despite an excellent challenge from Doha, the London team put together a cracking bid which has paid off. With the 2017 championships now in the diary, next summer’s London Games is just the start of a long and active life for our magnificent stadium."

Over the last decade, London has transformed itself to become recognised globally as a leading city for major sporting events. Other successful bids for major sporting events post 2012 include the 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, the 2013 ITU World Championship Series Triathlon Grand Final and the 2015 Canoe Slalom World Championships.

Based on the success of London 2012’s International Inspiration Project, London 2017 has revealed the international legacy programme that will now be launched following the city's successful bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships. 

LEAP 2017 has been designed to engage two million children in athletics across 17 developing countries over four years.

A huge congratulations to everyone involved with the successful London 2017 bid.

London's sporting legacy is put to the vote this week in Monaco

In Monaco, on 11 November, the 27-strong IAAF voting panel will decide between London and Doha as the host city for the 2017 athletics World Championships.

In October, my bosses at London & Partners hosted the evaluation committee of the world governing body for track and field, on a two-day visit to the UK capital to assess our bid to stage this prestigious event.

Whilst in town, IAAF Senior Vice-President, Bob Hersh heaped praise on London's ‘world-class’ stadium. Importantly, he also lauded the city's passion and commitment for hosting a successful World Championships.

Recognising our passion and commitment for staging major sporting events is important for London. The city takes sport seriously. It has been working hard to build a sporting legacy that goes beyond next summer’s Olympic Games and includes a £30million Sporting Legacy Fund to attract grass-roots participation into every bid secured.

London's success stories to date include securing the 2013 Triathlon World Championship Grand Final in Hyde Park and the 2015 Canoe Slalom World Championships, which was the first major event to be confirmed for an Olympic venue after the Games.

Other bids currently on the table and awaiting outcomes include a Track Cycling World Cup in 2014/15, the 2015 Hockey European Championships, the 2016 Swimming European Championships and the Table Tennis World Championships in 2017.

This year, London has hosted the Yonex BWF World Badminton Championships at Wembley Arena and one of the seven-legs of the Triathlon World Championship Series.

Individually, these two events showcased London to a far reaching global fan-base. Combined, they generated more than £5million of economic impact.

London also staged the UEFA Champions League final at Wembley Stadium in May this year. A crowd of 87,695 well behaved football fans from Spain and Manchester created a carnival atmosphere that was supplemented by a week-long Champions Festival in Hyde Park.

According to a report backed by MasterCard, the football match itself was worth around £326million, which included an economic windfall for London of €52million generated through spending in restaurants, bars and at the stadium.

London’s reward for the spectacular success of the Champions League final is to host the event again in 2013. It will be a record seventh time the match has been staged in one venue.

London will also stage the 2013 UEFA Women’s Champions League final and the XXXVII Ordinary UEFA Congress in the days leading up to the final.

The UK capital appeals to the American version of football as well. On Sunday, 23 October, at Wembley Stadium, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took on the Chicago Bears in the last of a three-season NFL International Series game agreement.

The popularity of American Football in the UK and Europe has rocketed ever since the Giants played the Dolphins in 2007. Over half a million people applied for tickets for each of the subsequent three seasons.

London sees no reason why its association with the NFL should end here and even harbours aspirations to stage a Super Bowl final one day.

Right now though, everyone is focused on this Friday's announcement where, once-again, a committee has to decide upon a host city for a major sporting event.

According to a ‘Global Major Events - 2012 & Beyond’ survey, revealed at SportAccord back in April, a World Athletics Championships was voted the second most popular sporting event to attract consumers into London. The Greatest Show on Earth was, of course, voted top.

Let’s hope, come Friday, there’s two upcoming reasons a new generation of UK athletes can become inspired.

London's events legacy revealed at Beyond 2012

London’s events industry gathered at the BFI IMAX on 19 September to hear an update on legacy plans following the 2012 Olympic Games.

Three speakers representing the Mayor’s office, London & Partners and the Olympic Park Legacy Company briefed 500 delegates about the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s event spaces and the continued efforts to pitch for major sporting events beyond 2012, including the World Athletics Championships in 2017.

Clive Little, Director of Events and Programming at the Olympic Park Legacy Company said: “By 2016, we’re aiming to see more than 2,000 events held each year in the Park. The south end will have a real focus on sport and entertainment and include areas such as a 2,000sqm event lawn and possible temporary venue for exhibitions and conferences. In total, there’s potential for spaces of up to 60,000 capacity across the Park.”

Little added that the 3,500-seat Aquatic Centre could be transformed into a dry venue courtesty of rising floors which reduce the depth of water in the pool, and that the Orbit sculpture next to the Stadium could host events for up to 300 people on its viewing platforms. 

“In October, we’ll consult with the events sector and ask what they might want to do at the park so people are engaged in the plans,” Little continued. “While we’re still in the strategic planning phase, we can adapt our offer to suit the response.”

The Beyond 2012 event was hosted by Unique Venues of London, London & Partners and the International Special Events Society. 

Iain Edmondson, Head of the Major Events Team at London & Partners discussed the capital’s plans to pitch for future sporting events and congresses. Then, Dan Ritterband, Mayor Boris Johnson’s Director of Marketing confirmed that the Mayor’s Office wholeheartedly supports the work being done to bring mayor events into the capial and is working on a funding model to ensure London remains competitive with other nations. 

To hear a snippet of Dan Ritterband’s address to delegates at Beyond 2012, click here

Limited edition London: What to expect in 2012

I was asked recently to write an advertorial for a Spanish consumer travel title on what to expect in the UK capital during 2012.

Seeing as the piece is being translated into Spanish, I thought I'd reproduce it for you here in its original written language form....



It’s a magical time to be in London. As the UK capital prepares to welcome the Greatest Show on Earth in the summer of 2012, the Olympic spirit can already be felt on every corner of every street.

An electric atmosphere of celebration and togetherness is building and London invites you to come and experience the city as you've never seen it before.

Attractions, hotels, bars and restaurants are rolling out the red carpet and visitors are about to discover a host of unique experiences that will only be available in the run up to the London 2012 Games.

From September through to June, London will be awash with festivals, exhibitions and major events that will bring colour, culture and creativity to these famous streets.

Before the world’s elite sportsmen and sportswomen go for gold in the Olympic Stadium, London will first celebrate The Queen’s Jubilee. After the spectacular wedding of her grandson earlier this year, it will be the turn of Her Majesty the Queen to take centre stage as the whole country celebrates 60 years of her reign across a four-day weekend at the beginning of June.

One event that is sure to form a key highlight of the Jubilee celebrations will see The Queen lead a flotilla of 1,000 boats along the River Thames. Fireworks and music from the past six decades will accompany the procession and more than a million people will line the banks of the Thames in celebration as the flotilla sails past.

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee festivities will continue throughout the year as well, marked by a series of exhibitions and events.

The National Portrait Gallery will stage The Queen: Art and Image from 17 May to 21 October whilst photographs taken by former royal photographer Cecil Beaton will be on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Visitors planning to come to London during January, April or May are also invited to book guided tours of the beautiful and opulent State Rooms at Buckingham Palace whilst The Queen takes her residency at Sandringham and Windsor.

Meanwhile, Shakespeare’s birthday, which falls on 23 April, will be celebrated by a kaleidoscope of 38 international theatre companies staging each one of William Shakespeare’s 38 plays in a different language at the world renowned Globe Theatre.

This series of plays will be the most ambitious multilingual Shakespearean project ever attempted and presents a fantastic opportunity to view Shakespeare in Spanish, at The Globe - an authentic restored theatre from the time of the Bard.

Visitors can embrace the multiculturalism that makes London one of the most diverse and fascinating cities on earth by planning a trip that includes the Chinese New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square on 29 January. Or why not plan your visit around World Pride 2012, promoting gay and lesbian issues with two weeks of festivities and cultural activities during June and July.

London’s museums and galleries (many of which are free to enter) will also be putting on a show throughout the year.

Not-to-be missed highlights will include Damien Hirst at Tate Modern from April until September, Pablo Picasso’s lifelong connection with Britain explored at Tate Britain from February to 15 July and Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, which runs at the National Gallery until 5 February 2012.

There is no doubt that 2012 will be an Olympic year for London but it also promises to serve up a host of limited edition, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that visitors won’t find anywhere else. The entirity of 2012 in London is sure to be more magical than ever before. So don’t miss out. For more information and to plan a trip, visit www.visitlondon.com

The Giants of Badminton

Two chalk giants had a game of badminton on Primrose Hill on 13 July. Their giant shuttlecock then set off around London to promote the YONEX BWF World Badminton Championships, taking place at Wembley Arena from 8-14 August.

The 50 foot badminton players were created by specialist environmental agency Curb, using natural chalk. Drawing began at 6am and took four hours to complete.

After leaving Primrose Hill, I followed the giant shuttlecock, manoeuvred by humans, weighing over 30kgs and measuring almost 10 feet tall, over to Regent Street in London's West End.

As it travelled from Oxford Circus tube station down towards Piccadilly Circus, I took up a position on the roof of the office block opposite the Omega store to shoot video footage and capture some great shots of one of London's most iconic streets.

This vantage point is sure to feature as a prime broadcast location during London 2012.

The YONEX BWF World Badminton Championships, hosted in Wembley Arena from the 8-14th August, provides an opportunity to see the world’s top Badminton players in the same venue as the 2012 Games a year early.

All my video footage and images from the day can be seen on my dedicated Facebook group for the World Championships. The two viral videos are also embedded below.

London 2012: A V&E How-to guide on Hospitality at the Games

In the Summer issue of Square Meal Venues & Events I've written an in-depth piece on everything you need to know in order to plan hospitality around the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Below are some key questions answered and a section on five things buyers need to know.

For the full six-page article, jump to page 179 in the digi-mag.

Key London 2012 Hospitality Questions Answered…

What can we expect from the catering at official Prestige hospitality?
We’re told that the food served to corporates and their guests will be high-quality British produce, with an emphasis on provenance and sourcing food from multi-generational providers. Expect this ‘Great British Experience’ to be a big part of the sell – the country will be basking in patriotism after the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Prestige is currently in the process of appointing catering companies for each location, and promises there won’t be a celebrity chef in sight.

Why is there no hospitality being offered at venues such as Lord’s (archery)?
Any venue with poor sight lines to the action or deemed to have limited group appeal has been withdrawn from offering official hospitality packages.

What about all the fighting and table tennis action happening at ExCeL?
The likelihood is that Prestige Ticketing will come up with packages for the Olympic action at ExCeL as the venue has been told it can’t produce its own. No package details were available at time of press.

Will corporates be able to access the Olympic Park for picnic entertaining during the Games?
It is anticipated that there will be restrictions put in place to prevent access to the Park without an event ticket, but this may simply involve buying day passes. Agencies are also advising clients that restrictions on taking alcohol and food into the Park may also be imposed to protect sponsorship rights holders. That said, Square Meal V&E understands that LOCOG is looking into granting permission to provide non-sponsor-branded food within the Park after complaints in Beijing that the only snack available was McDonald’s.

Which brands are likely to feature heavily on the hospitality circuit?
The Worldwide Olympic Partners signed up for London 2012 are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, Dow Chemical Company, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa. LOCOG then has seven domestic Tier One Partners - Adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. And seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. With a further 24 domestic Tier Three suppliers and providers and Sainsbury's signed up as the one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games Partner, there is sure to be a host of activity from everyone involved.

Will Olympics hospitality cause a decline in the sale of packages at other sporting events such as Wimbledon?
Ted Walker of hospitality agency Keith Prowse is confident that there will be no impact on hospitality at annual blue riband sporting events. ‘The fact is that we are blessed with a decade of iconic sporting events for which the demand for hospitality will be high. It started with the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and will include the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and the Rugby League World Cup in 2013. Clients are allocating their budget to buy into not just London 2012 but the whole decade of sporting excellence in the UK.’

Should companies be worried about how the Bribery Act will impact on their 2012 hospitality plans?
No. Section Nine of the Act makes it clear that corporate hospitality, which seeks to improve the image of a commercial organisation better to present products and services, or establish cordial relations, is an established and important part of doing business. It is not the intention of the Act to criminalise such behaviour.

Things buyers need to know…
1. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) cracked down on black market ticketing at Beijing, with many companies left stunned when they discovered they’d purchased unofficial packages. London 2012 will impose even tighter controls.

2. Prestige Ticketing is using three authorised sales agents in the UK. They are Sportsworld (Tel: 01235 555 844), Keith Prowse (Tel: 020 3137 7420) and IMG (Tel: 020 8233 5854).

3. Re-selling Olympic tickets is illegal and applicants who receive balloted tickets will not be allowed to re-sell them on eBay or as part of unofficial hospitality offerings. Anyone caught illegally trading could be hit with a fine of up to £20,000.

4. When buying packages for team sports such as football, hockey, volleyball and handball, be aware that there is no way of knowing at this stage when your country of choice will compete.

5. A levy placed on Prestige Ticketing hospitality will pay for a Ticketshare scheme, enabling 125,000 school children to experience the Games. A further 50,000 tickets will also be distributed to schools across the UK under the same guidelines and 25,000 tickets will be allocated to other goodwill causes such as Tickets for Troops.

See sold out Olympic sport one year early...

London will be warming up for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in August by staging the BWF World Badminton Championships and ITU World Championship Series Triathlon.

Both Championship events will form part of an exciting week of international sport, with spectators having the chance to see the Triathlon for free and Badminton for as little as £10.

The BWF World Badminton Championships will take place at Wembley Arena from 8-14 August and the ITU World Championship Series Triathlon will be in Hyde Park on 6 and 7 August.

More than 1.8 million people applied for tickets in the first-round of the 2012 Olympic ticket phase and both Badminton and the Triathlon sold out. Next month however, Londoners and visitors to the UK capital will have the opportunity to see the top athletes from each sport in action, with less than one year to go before they battle it out during London 2012.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “For these two great international events to be sold out already is glorious testimony to the huge sporting enthusiasm that exists in the capital and throughout the UK.  We couldn’t send out a better message to the world's sporting federations that if you want to fill seats, hold your event in London. And I am particularly excited that our world famous Wembley arena is hosting its first ever World Badminton Championship, a perfect dry run for the 2012 Olympic Badminton events."

Held at Wembley Arena (the venue for Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics at the London 2012 Games), this will be the third time England has hosted the World Badminton Championships, but only the first time they have been staged in London.

The London leg of the ITU World Championship Series Triathlon will be held for the third time in Hyde Park and feature the world number 1 triathlete, GB’s Alistair Brownlee.
Access for the event, also supported by the Mayor of London and part of UK Sport’s National Lottery funded World Class Events Programme, is free to spectators throughout the weekend.

Iain Edmondson, Head of Major Events at London & Partners added: “The Badminton and the Triathlon world championship events signify key milestones for London as an ever growing sports events destination. Both events feature globally recognised and highly popular sports which have chosen London as host for their world championships. These events not only give us the invaluable opportunity to learn how we can host other major events after 2012 but also give young people in London more chances to be inspired by top class sport.”

For more information on The Yonex BWF World Badminton Championships at Wembley Arena, join my Facebook fan site or visit the official website.

Nice day for a Royal Wedding...

Speaking as someone who once strained filter coffee through a pair of stockings belonging to a friend’s wedding outfit, (it seemed a good idea in the absence of a coffee percolator), I wasn’t that concerned with the finer details of Kate Middleton’s dress on her big day.

My take on the Royal Wedding was how London, as a city, would perform, hosting the first major event in a series which, over the next 18 months, will include the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games.

With an estimated two billion worldwide television viewers and one million spectators on the streets of the UK capital, the day went off seamlessly well.

Even the sun shone, despite every weather report predicting rain.

And if that minor miracle wasn’t enough, there was also a ‘Good Service’ reported throughout the day on every London Underground line. I know!

As the world witnessed the wedding guests arriving at Westminster Abbey, I was mingling with the crowds in St James’s Park, taking photos which I hope capture the colour and character of the day.

My base was the London Media Centre at St Ermin’s Hotel.

The four-star hotel next to St James’s Park has just re-opened following a £30m refurbishment and it’s looking really smart…. not as smart as David Beckham in his wedding clobber mind, but well worth checking out nonetheless...

London's warm-up weekend of sport allows two Olympic venues to shine

A school basketball court is the scene of my most embarrassing moment. I had just scored after coming on as a sub following a time-out and was standing under the basket, my 16-year-old arms aloft, wondering why no-one was celebrating my amazing dribble and dunk from the re-start. The reason no-one was sharing my elation was because the time-out had, in fact been half-time and the teams had swapped ends. I’d been sent into the game unaware and had promptly scored in the wrong basket.

No surprise, that was the end of, not only my basketball career but also any future interest I may have developed in the game. I should add that I went on to achieve at every other school sport but I never returned to a basketball court, until last week.

Game On at the O2 was a four-nation tournament that began on Friday 14 August. It kick-started a Warm-up Weekend of sport that would be the UK capital’s first real test for two 2012 Olympic venues.

Whilst Turkey got the tournament underway with a comfortable 85-69 win over Israel, my Melbourne accomplice was still crying with laughter as we'd swapped the opening game for happy hour on the O2’s entertainment avenue and I’d told her of my embarrassing school tale.

I tried to distract her from recalling my teenage sporting failure by asking how she thought London would measure up as an Olympic host city in 1076 days time.

I was heartened to hear that, compared with her own 2006 Commonwealth Games host city, she believes London already has a much cleaner and more reliable transport infrastructure. I elected not to tell her that the Jubilee Line would be closed from Green Park to Stratford the next day for engineering work, thus significantly reducing the chances of a high-turn out for the tournament’s final day.

The game we’d come to see was Team GB versus Poland. So too, it seemed, had most of London’s youth Polish community and the sounds of ‘Polska Polska’ reverberated around the arena.

We took our seats in amongst a band of passionate Polish supporters who, throughout the game, depending on which team had the ball, kept up their cries of ‘Defense!’ or ‘Polska!’.

When taking free throw penalties, both sets of supporters tried feverishly to put the opposing team off by booing. It proves, in my view, that ‘extra man spectator tactics’ is simply a part and parcel of sports banter worldwide and it only added to, rather than detracted from the overall atmosphere.

It didn’t help the Team GB cause however as their line-up, apparently depleted through injury and unavailability, could only match the Poles until half-time.

A 17-0 run, wrapped around the half-time break, set Poland up for a 70-56 victory. If only my school had put on a half-time show, half as good as the dancers and slam-dunking trampolinist that entertained the crowds at the O2, maybe I’d have paid more attention to what stage of the game we were in all those years ago.

Unsurprisingly, with its wealth of experience for hosting major events, the O2 (or the North Greenwich Arena as it will be referred to during the Olympics) sailed through its 2012 test. It’s already a world-class venue and will prove a fitting arena for 16,500 artistic gymnastic fans and 20,000 basketball supporters in three years time.

The next day it was the turn of Hyde Park to test its Olympic credentials.

One of the Royal Parks of London, Hyde Park is more famous for its Speakers’ Corner than it is for holding large capacity sporting events. In 2012 however, it will stage both the Olympic Triathlon and the 10km Open Water Swim and have grandstand seating for 3,000 spectators.

On Saturday, 15 August 2009, it staged the London leg of the ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon. Participants swam the Serpentine before cycling 40km and running 10km in laps around a park that was created to satisfy Henry VIII’s passion for hunting.

Britain’s 21-year-old Alistair Brownlee was the sporting hero of the day as he stormed to victory, underlining his status as an early gold medal favourite for London 2012. Earlier, in the women’s race, Britain’s Helen Jenkins was edged out into bronze medal place after a dramatic sprint finish.

For me though, one of the most inspiring aspects of the day, on a par with the British triathlon performances, was the aerial broadcast footage, beamed onto big screens and aired by global television networks as it followed the athletes as they made their way around the course.

Hyde Park is a lush green space surrounded by famous London landmarks. On a sunny day, and filmed from either the air or ground, it makes for an amazing setting. When you consider Hyde Park alongside other Olympic backdrops including Horse Guards Parade for the Beach Volleyball and Greenwich Park for Equestrian and Modern Pentathlon, the picture of just how stunning the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will look on a global television stage begins to really take shape.

London invests in the arts. But is it the quantity or the quality that's important?

Taking advantage of the Nordic Bar's any bottle of wine for £10 on a Monday night offer, the talk turned to the merits of the 2012 Olympic Games. A friend of mine expressed his concern that the capital's arts provision would suffer at the hands of sport. I took delight in reporting the next day that Ken Livingstone had announced a £1.4 million fund for organisations to develop new cultural projects across the capital.

The fund has been established by the London Development Agency and will be delivered by the Arts Council England. According to the publicity boys at City Hall, this is just the beginning. More funding will be made available to support cultural projects in the run up to 2012. By blogging this, lets see if that promise is fulfilled over the coming years.

The fund was announced at the same time as a cultural audit that compares London's cultural environment with four other major world cities. Amongst the findings, the audit states that London has 184 museums compared with 157 in Paris or 91 in New York. And 55 major theatres compared with 39 in New York and 19 in Shanghai. New York has more major concert halls than London (12 and 9 respectively), but London stages more music performances each year than New York (32,292 against 22,204). London stages 200 festivals each year and has 400 venues offering music.

The audit has been rubbished by one of Ken Livingstone's most outspoken opponents, journalist Andrew Gilligan in today's Evening Standard. In amongst the rhetoric and accusations of suspect number crunching, Gilligan makes a valid point. It should be the quality of London's attractions and not the quantity that makes this city a world beater. For a copy of the audit, download it here and make your own mind up.

Centre Point: The next chapter

Sources at citizen journalism start-up Newspepper.com tell me a new chapter in the beleaguered history of Centre Point tower on New Oxford Street is about to unfold. Up on the 31st, 32nd and 33rd floors, a private members' club called Paramount has been four years in the planning and is close to completion.
Centre Point has long been embroiled in controversy. It was completed in 1964, offering 180,000 sqft of office space at a construction cost of £5.5 million. For years,property tycoon Harry Hyams kept it intentionally unoccupied as values soared against its potential rent yield. The building's estimated market value in 1973 was £20 million. Moreover, by keeping it empty it was not liable for rates.

According to records, Hyams' tactics resulted in Centre Point becoming the single most profitable landmark ever constructed in the UK - an act which so outraged students from the Architectural Association that at one point they planned to storm the building and hold the security guards hostage to publicise his actions.

Pierre Condou (the man responsible for the Century club) is behind the Paramount development and now plans to throw open its doors to event planners and the Soho media fraternity.

It'll take 28 seconds for guests to reach the 31st floor greeting area by lift. Here, visitors will find a members' bar with dedicated events space and dance floor. To ascend to the 32nd floor, visitors will climb an internal staircase with views out over the British Museum, stretching all the way towards Canary Wharf. The East Side restaurant occupies this floor and will offer European cuisine with an emphasis on provenance. The Western Bar on the same floor boasts an eclectic wine list but it won't be the bouquet of the vino that'll be stimulating the senses. Just one floor further up, a 360 degree, floor to ceiling glazed walkway will allow visitors to circumnavigate the Paramount Cocktail and Champagne Bar whilst marveling at the breath-taking views as they change from day to night.

Centre Point has withstood years of criticism and disuse to earn the accolade of a Grade Two listing. The Royal Fine Art Commission once praised the building as having an 'elegance worthy of a Wren steeple'. Now, finally it appears a new occupier will realise its elegance whilst providing guests with a new perspective on London.
Click here for Centre Point conspiracy theories

Will cabbies make good brand advocates?

As brands look to events and word of mouth to create advocates out of media savvy and often cynical consumers, the idea of sending cabbies off on holiday, courtesy of tourist offices made me chuckle. London's Hackney Cab drivers are being offered free trips to places like Bangkok and the Caribbean in the hope that they'll wax lyrical to unsuspecting passengers about their amazing experience, sending them packing their bags and booking flights.

One Evening Standard columnist responded today by saying that if there was a chance she'd be stuck in the same resort as a London cabbie for two weeks, she would rather spend her hols in Bognor. Anyone that's spent a 15-minute cab ride rolling their eyes at right wing views or being forced to endure what's wrong with bendy buses will no doubt empathize.

The problem is, that for advocates to cast their spell we need to believe in them and hang off their every word, not fake a phone call. That's why, when a friend tells you how they received priority booking and VIP treatment before a gig at the O2, we seriously consider changing mobile networks. And it's why advertisers are queuing up to reach Facebookers, safe in the knowledge that word of mouth between friends is a powerful marketing tool and the more friends you have, the greater the prize.

The hotel concierge is a trusted advocate. The cabbie, you trust to deliver front door keys to a flat-mate sat on the doorstep or navigate you around the gridlock. As soon you step out of the taxi and bid your farewell, the likelihood is that you've already forgotten whatever it was he was banging on about.

The last time i got into an discussion of note with a Black Cab driver, i'd innocently suggested that London needed to follow the example of New York and get more licensed taxis out on the street. I'd just walked for 20 minutes through Soho, down to Trafalgar Square and out towards Embankment on a rainy Wednesday night looking for a cab with its light on. I thought i'd have the support of my driver, after-all there's no shortage of demand, or so i thought. Judging by his response, i'd inadvertently threatened his livelihood. Apparently, according to him, taxis can drive around London all day without so much of a sniff of a fare and pushing more people through the Knowledge will result in New York's situation of having only a minority of English speaking drivers.

A Mori survey published this week states that the daytime wait in Inner London for a taxi is 24 seconds and 22 seconds in central London. Piccadilly Circus is apparently the best place to find a cab, with the average wait being just 10 seconds. So, there is no shortage of Black Taxis, London doesn't need more qualified, licensed and regulated drivers and I'm just about to book a holiday that was recommended to me by Ron from Chingford who's just dropped me off.

Look back at 2007Le Tour de France comes to London

When people question London’s ability to stage a successful Olympics in 2012, one date will now form the case for the defence and send the doubters on their bikes. On 7 July 2007, two years to the day since the terrorist atrocities on the capital’s transport system, around three million people from all over the world swarmed into the city for a weekend of events that included the Live Earth concert, the Wimbledon tennis finals and the Tower of London Music Festival. At its epicentre was the world’s biggest annual sporting event and without a doubt the biggest sporting test for the capital in advance of 2012.

Staging the Tour de France’s Grand Départ cost in the region of £6.8m, with the Mayor predicting a return on that investment of around £115m in additional tourism. It comprised a 7.9km prologue time trial that took place around Westminster, Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace on the Saturday and determined the first wearer of the race leader’s yellow jersey. The following day, the 189 cyclists departed for the first stage proper – a 126-mile route through Greenwich and into Kent.

Opening ceremony
Before each stage the tour ‘caravan’ (200 sponsors’ vehicles dispensing free gifts) drove the length of each route. Hyde Park was transformed into a ‘people’s village’ – a free event with interactive cycling displays – and every day a bicycle ballet took place outside the National Theatre. At Excel London in docklands, around 2,500 press and media registered at a hi-tech 8,000sqm media centre and in Trafalgar Square, an opening ceremony kicked off the extravaganza on 6 July.
Transport for London (TfL), the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency had been planning this weekend for four years. In August 2006, following a tender involving around 100 companies, TfL engaged agency Innovision to help turn its plans into reality. The team was lead by managing director Will Glendinning, who helped to plan the event meticulously with TfL, ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation, the Tour’s owners), the Metropolitan Police, Westminster Council, the Royal Parks, the Greater London Authority, Kent County Council, Canterbury City Council and more than 250 other stakeholders for more than a year.
Glendinning says: “From the outset, I was confident we had the talent and experience in our team to deliver a truly memorable event. However, I really wanted the event to recapture the public’s excitement and imagination of what a unique location London is and the potential available in the city. To stage an event of this scale, all our contractors needed to realise how much discussion and paperwork would be involved and logistically we pulled off one of the biggest road closure schemes London has seen for a long while.”
Substantial road closures and diversions to bus routes enabled 6,000 staff, crew and personnel to build the route infrastructure, which included 19 big screen viewing areas. At Excel London the world’s media were gathering and the cycling teams were milling around the surrounding hotels.
Excel’s services director Steve Melrose helped to oversee a five-day build of the media centre that comprised around 500 work stations, 100 analogue phone lines, two 8Mb broadband connections, 20 ISDN lines and three press conference rooms that around 500 media people a day passed through during the weekend. He says: “As a venue we’re used to dealing with international show requirements so it wasn’t a problem. At first, however, we were dealing with BT as our telecommunication provider, but very late in the day it changed and we had to deal direct with France Telecom. That was really the only slight issue we had to react to and quickly.”

Security plan
TfL had even bigger concerns. As a key player in bringing the Tour to the capital, it had cancelled engineering work on the Tube in central London and provided an extra 11,000 parking spaces for bikes. But it was the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks on London and a week earlier a car bombing had been foiled near Piccadilly Circus. On the Central Line, a derailed underground train sat blocking Mile End’s westbound platform.
According to TfL’s head of special projects, Mick Hickford, the infrastructure was ready to cope with anything. “Regarding the Central Line derailment, we laid on additional bus services but in fact the line was reopened by Saturday morning,” he says. “An additional security plan for London’s transport was put in place but the area that held the prologue is the most secure in the country anyhow as the cyclists were passing the House of Commons, Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street. London’s public transport moves on average more than one million people a day so we were confident it would withstand all the activity in London, but it was extremely good practice for 2012 and we have learnt a huge amount.”

Well-wishers
Throughout the planning of the Grand Départ, Innovision was contracted by TfL to coordinate and deliver the creative and technical aspects of the event while TfL oversaw the planning, marketing and PR aspects. Hickford admits that part of the marketing campaign was an attempt to prolong European visits while also promoting the benefits of cycling. “I think two million people in central London over the weekend, plus huge public interest, has shown there is a great audience for cycling in London,” he says. “And I’m sure that such a great weekend for both sport and music ensured that visitors either stayed longer or left with a fantastic impression of London’s ability to host major events.”
On Sunday 8 July, 21 teams of nine riders left the Mall at 10.25am, crossed bridges and paraded past the London Eye and St Paul’s Cathedral before heading for Greenwich via Tower Bridge. The race officially started opposite the Maritime Museum at 11am as the cyclists set off for Canterbury. From there, well-wishers and doping scandals followed them through Belgium and Spain.
After 21 stages and 2,206 miles, the world’s most gruelling sporting challenge reached its climax in Paris on 29 July – but whatever impressions it left overall, there’s no doubt that London’s handling of the opening days was a triumph that will stay in people’s memories for at least the next five years.