London 2012 Creative Showcase

If you're passing by 44 Belgrave Square, London SW1 on your way to Hyde Park or Horse Guards Parade, you could do worse than drop in to see IPA/UKTI's showcase of brand campaigns from official sponsors of the Games.

I'm lovin' it!

Can't get enough of the Olympic coverage!

Just two more days to my Super Saturday in the Park!

12 minutes past 8

Even Woodborough, Wiltshire is ringing its bell to celebrate the opening of the Games today!

Let the Games begin!

Just back from Coca-Cola Olympic Torch relay event in Hyde Park!

Exhilarating.

Check out The Odyssey

Asif Kapadia's latest documentary for LOCOG sets the social context for the 2012 Games in London.

C4, BBC 2 and in selected cinemas.

What a view!

...From the balcony at the top of London Mayor, Boris's, building, renamed London House, for the 2012 Games. The IPA hosted a reception there yesterday evening, in anticipation of the Games, and for an early sighting of the new Olympic rings which now adorn Tower Bridge.

 Less than a month to go!

What a Pringle!

No, not Hamish Pringle, former DG at the IPA, but the Velodrome in the Olympic Park, aptly nicknamed because of its shape, and the building which most wowed the 30 IPA member agency reps we took on a tour last Friday.

Here are another 20 small and large facts and figures picked up from our tour guide:

1. There were 220 buildings on the original site. Only 1 remains. It will become a visitor centre about energy after the Games.

2. 150,000 people are working on the site.

3. The accident rate has been only one third of the average for UK construction sites.

4. Project management in the construction of The Park has been so good that there is NO OVERTIME.

5. The energy centre has a twin in Westfields, in case anything happens.

6. The flowerbeds near the River Lea are planted with bright gold flowers to come out in time for the Games.

7. The hockey will be played on a blue and pink pitch with a yellow ball.

8. The largest McDonald in the world will be housed in the Park.

9. There are 700 rooms below the Main Stadium for the athletes to prepare in.

10. The lights in The Stadium are so powerful that they will obliterate shadow in HD.

11. 2,800 homes will become available after The Games: 50% affordable; 50% for the private sector.

12. The Orbit, designed by Anish Kapoor, is Britain's tallest sculpture; at 114 metres high, it has 455 steps and is inspired by the 5 Olympic rings.

13. The Olympic Park spans 4 London boroughs; Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest. Each will take on responsibilities for Legacy buildings in their borough.

14. Stratford Walk will be the main front door to the Olympic Park. It will pass through Stratford Westfields.

15. Stratford Westfields will house one of the UK's first SuperCasinos.

16. 4 billion people worldwide will watch the opening ceremony.

17. 205 countries are taking part.

18. You are never 50 metres from a park bench in The Park.

19. One original lock bridge has been retained.

20. There will be 20,000 accredited journalists in media village.

200 days to the Olympics

And 10 days to the 20th January when we take our IPA London 2012 Ambassadors on a bus tour of the Olympic Park.

Hello 2012

Olympic year, and a tour of the Olympic park to look forward to on the 20th.

Tickets to diving on the 11th August. Hopefully going for gold!

Introducing Neville Gabie

I hadn't really thought about what an artist in residence did, but I found out when I went to meet Neville Gabie at the View Tube last Sunday, during the Open Weekend at the Olympic Park.

Neville is the official Artist in Residence at the Olympic Park, and employed for 15 months to record and comment on developments; he finishes in December this year; so it's less about the games than about the people who are building the park and what it takes to build it. He's also trying to make sense of the experience.

Among the projects he's creating are:

- making sense of the Olympic stadium by sitting on every one of the 80,000 seats! And providing the visual evidence.
- making sense of the volume of the main swimming pool, by drinking the equivalent number of litres of water: all 4.3 million of them!

Then there's a video montage of the characters on site, the work they do, their hopes and dreams.

He's also creating an exhibition of work and memories from the 500 artists who inhabited the Carpenters Road studios, left when the Yardleys Perfume Factory closed down. Their rubble is now providing some of the Olympic site foundations.

Previous to this position, Neville was artist in residence in Antarctica; and at Cabot Circle in Bristol.

An interesting take on career!

One year to go

Just one year to go until the 2012 Olympic Games!

Attended a Central Taskforce Briefing for the 2012 Games a couple of weeks ago. An alphabet soup of speakers from LOCOG, the Met, the ODA, the GLA.
It was brilliant. So inspiring.

We're a year away and the Park is finished, trials are underway. The attention to detail is as it should be.

Five years' work behind the scenes. Proud to be British!