2012 Olympic Games provide big opportunities

Held in the UK capital in 2012 say the occasion will confirm and celebrate this status.

The city already welcomes nearly 30 million tourists every year and the Games will provide a boost not only for travel and hospitality providers but for many other industries and sports business related sectors.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog) expects to have about 7,000 direct contracts which, together with its suppliers, will form supply chains of about 75,000 business opportunities.

They range from construction, engineering and manufacturing to clothing, creative, merchandising and retail.

Australia benefited from an extra 1.6 million visitors because of the 2000 Games, with its economy gaining more than 2.5 billion pounds sterling between 1997 and 2001.

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According to the investment agency Think London, the 2012 Games will act as a major catalyst for redevelopment for London and will add around eight billion dollars worth of investment to the London economy up to 2012.

The London area’s overall economy is forecast to grow by 80 billion dollars by 2015.

The Australian Games also showed that visitors spent time travelling outside Sydney, where most of the Olympic events were held.

This boost in tourism for the whole country would be even more pronounced in the UK where other towns and cities are a relatively short distance away.

Delivering the London 2012 Games will be a massive undertaking, requiring the goods and services of large, medium and small-size firms from many business and sports business related sectors.

As well as construction, engineering, manufacturing, tourism, hospitality, clothing, food, retail, merchandising, business services, leisure, media and creative industries, there will be opportunities for sponsorship and to supply sports equipment.

Key categories

Some key categories will include:

People – recruitment of core staff, supported by a very wide range of professional, technical and advisory consultants. Some of these employment contracts will be large framework contracts that will last for many years. Others will be for shorter, task-specific or project-specific activities.

Olympic Park – contracts for the park will be a mixture of site-wide and zone specific. These kinds of contract are land assembly, land modelling and remediation, construction and infrastructure.

Venues – this encompasses work on the permanent venues, including support facilities for all Olympic and Paralympic stadiums. It will also include the entire transport infrastructure and may include other supporting facilities.

Legacy – this will relate to the dismantling of the temporary Games infrastructure, the conversion of Olympic Games infrastructure to long-term use, and the delivery of the long-term legacy development.

Operations – the London 2012 Organising Committee’s needs will focus on the staging of the Games, therefore its procurement requirements are likely to cover goods and services such as sponsorship, sports equipment, venue seating, security, venue IT/core systems, catering, staff/volunteer uniforms and official merchandise.

Rapid progress has already been made to transform the Olympic Park, and east London’s skyline is already changing.

Olympic Delivery Authority chief executive David Higgins said: “The construction site has been a hive of activity over the last year with thousands of workers starting work on the venues and infrastructure needed for the Games and the new communities in legacy.

The Olympic Village will house athletes and officials during the Games. Afterwards it will provide thousands of homes with a mix of affordable housing and homes for sale and rent.

Supply chain opportunities for small and medium-size businesses began in 2007 and will continue as the main construction contracts are let.

In one example, about 2,000 mature and semi-mature trees are being sought to form the “roots” of the 100-hectare Olympic Park.

The park will provide a colourful festival setting for the Games and new park space for local people and wildlife after the Games.

The aim is to plant trees that reflect great British parks, create habitats for wildlife and help to “future proof” the park and surrounding built-up areas against climate change and flooding.

As it heads towards its two billion pounds budget for staging the Games, Locog already has seven domestic partners - adidas (sportswear partner), BP (oil and gas partner), British Airways (airline partner), BT (communications services partner), EDF Energy (energy utilities services partner), Lloyds TSB (banking and insurance partner) and Nortel (network infrastructure partner) and three domestic supporters - Adecco, Cadbury and Deloitte.

Worldwide Olympic Partners signed up for 2012 are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa.

Locog has chosen the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as its exclusive strategic consulting provider. BCG teams will draw on experience of advising some of the world’s largest and most successful companies to help Locog prepare for the 2012 Games and deliver on the promise to leave a lasting legacy for the city and the nation.

BCG has been working with Locog since August 2007, advising on ticketing, merchandising, sponsorship and revenue strategies.

London 2012 CEO Paul Deighton said: “The Boston Consulting Group is already a great friend of 2012 - they share our passion for sport and our vision for the Games and their strategic expertise will help us ensure that the Games in 2012 are a spectacular success.

We have already achieved three quarters of our sponsorship target and we are thrilled to be able to announce this deal.”

Adecco has been appointed as official recruitment services supplier. The Fortune Global 500 company will become responsible for permanent and temporary recruitment over the next three-and-a-half years and will also support Locog’s staff in preparing for the next stage of their careers following the conclusion of the Games.

With preparations moving apace, Locog is set to double in size in 2009 and will have a workforce numbered in the thousands at the time of the Games.

Adecco has a strong track record of recruiting for high-profile events and has been a commercial partner for Sydney 2000, Torino 2006 and the Manchester Commonwealth Games of 2002.

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said: “Adecco is the global leader in human resources [HR] services and will play a vital role in our preparations - put simply, the quality of the people we hire will have a direct impact on the success of the Games, and having a world-class team will help ensure we deliver a memorable Games.