Tuesday 24 August 2010

On Thursday all the Relays staff are going to London to visit LOCOG in their offices at Canary Wharf. They will be speaking to us about volunteering and the Inspire programme.

Then on Friday we are taking the tour of the Olympic Park. Having watched some of the tv coverage in July and seen the photos on the London 2012 website I am really looking forward to seeing it for myself. Judging by the reactions from family and friends everyone is very jealous of me getting this opportunity to see the site.

So me, my passport and tube maps are off on a big adventure.

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Pounds of sport

The value of sport to the UK economy in 2008 had grown to £17.38 billion with 441,000 jobs. The figures for the south west region are £1,606 million and 44,000 jobs, so roughly 10% of the total.

These financial exercises don't claim to be exact, but they do show trends and these figures demonstrate an increase in the spend and in the numbers of people employed.

A lot of the money is in the things surrounding sport, the clothes, equipment or going to events. The breakdown for the total expenditure showed that 22% was spent on subs and fees and 19% for clothing and footwear while 15% was for gambling and 10% for TV.

So at least 25% of the total is for watching sport, probably while wearing sports gear.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Legacy-How social media can help

I heard about the ping pong tables set up around London and I thought how great that sounded. I played lots of table tennis when I was young on wet holidays in Wales and I am still pretty good.

Today I read an article saying that social media could be used to encourage informal sport like table tennis or jogging. Fewer people are joining sports clubs, but they will try an activity on holiday or informally with friends, especially one that is fun.

Legacy isn't just new buildings or elite athletes. It is also about using the excitement and inspiration of 2012 to get more of us active. Informal groups encouraging us to try something new and then perhaps our thinking This Is Fun has to be part of this.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Delivering Winners

On July 10th I was part of the team of people supporting the Devon Games to Inspire in Tavistock. More than 1500 people aged 8-16 took part in sports events, dancing, singing, and other activities.

The local team from West Devon were the overall winners when the sports points were totalled up. Exeter got the prize for best sportsmanship. Lots of people won medals. The event was described as "the day the Olympics came to Tavistock."

Today I was sent some photos, including those of our Games celebrity local Olympian Heather Fell. She is dwarfed by a huge lorry. A transport company is supporting the pentathletes and Heather's photo in her fencing suit adorns one of their lorries.

The photo is huge and on both sides of the truck. She hadn't seen it before and nor had her parents. They were stunned, but pleased, when I chatted to them.

The strap line on the lorry is Delivering Winners. I hope more companies follow their example.