BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND REGENERATION
REGISTER NOW FOR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AROUND THE LONDON
2012 OLYMPIC GAMES AND PARALYMPIC GAMES
OPPORTUNITIES FOR KENT BUSINESSES
This item is a summary of presentations recently made to West Kent and to East Kent small and medium sized businesses. If your business group would like to receive a tailored presentation, please telephone 01622 605 052.
THE SIZE AND SHAPE OF THE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
The Games provide a sizeable, but not unmanageable, opportunity, for a range of businesses across Kent to access a range of different sized contracts
New South Wales (the state surrounding Sydney, which hosted the 2000 Games) SMEs won £400m worth of contracts, with Queensland SMEs picking up contracts worth £150m.
55, 000 Australians received employment related training
Barcelona (host of the 1992 Games) leapt from 16th most popular city break to 3rd
Two much smaller domestic events, the World Athletics Indoor World Championships held in Birmingham in 2003, and the World Badminton Championships also held in Birmingham in 2003, generated business worth £3.5m and £2.5m respectively for local SMEs.
Figures from the London “bid book” (which come with a caveat that all prices are at 2004 levels and NOT 2012 levels) reveal that spending on information systems is anticipated to be in excess of £172.5m, telecommunications (£52.7m), cultural programmes (£15.8m), advertising and promotion (£48.5m) and so on. These figures provide simply a context in which Kent businesses can work.
Some of the key opportunities will lie in the following list, but it is by no means exhaustive!
Construction and engineering
Equip and fit out
Manufacturing
Olympic merchandise
Tourism/Hospitality
IT
Supply sponsors/media
Catering/food
Transport
Creative/cultural
Interpreting/translation
Media
Security
logistics
GETTING INVOLVED
BID FOR CONTRACTS
Many of the contracts will be pretty sizeable, but there will be Supply Chains and opportunities to form consortia.
Even if you’re not planning or not interested in tendering for the main contracts, experience from previous Games demonstrates these will be split up into smaller elements and THAT is where we think Kent SMEs can particularly get in on the act. (Read on for how we plan to support you) BUT you do need to keep an eye on who IS winning the big contracts to know where to seek the sub contracts (again read on)
Think creatively and:
Identify and fill niches
Supply other major events
An Olympic and Paralympic Games is not necessarily an event to cut your teeth on. If you haven’t previous experience of supplying events seek opportunities as soon as possible, e.g. Tour de France 2007, Dover’s Archery Grand Prix 2007, World Swimming Championships Manchester 2008. Demonstrate to others as well as to yourself that you have the understanding and the experience to successfully supply an event with the complexity, multiple partners, and non moveable timescales that they entail.
DEMONSTRATE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
This is something the International Olympic Committee, London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, and the Olympic Delivery Authority are all very keen on, looking for commitment from the senior management of any business through to frontline staff. This could mean that you engage and support your local community, that you consider SUSTAINABILITY in everything (a real Olympic emphasis for London), or that health & safety and training considerations for staff are embedded from the CE/MD down
THINK BIG
One Australian company had 1FTE and 2PTE – and won the contract to provide the solar powered lighting to the two major sports arenas for the 2004 Athens Games.
Or another small company, this time Canadian, who makes woollen clothing, got the contract to provide some of the clothing to the Goodwill Games (held during the Cold War), and from there were spotted by NBC and chosen to provide all their journalists with their clothing for the 2002 Salt Lake Games (including those in front of the camera). Going from strength to strength, they kitted out the Canadian athletes at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino AND have marketed their “Team Canada” goods in retail stores across the provinces.
NATIONAL BUSINESS CONTEXT
Just to provide a little background to some of the above, it is probably useful here to pause and clarify a little about the central, London bodies and set ups you will undoubtedly come across.
LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games)
This body is responsible for staging the Games, or “putting on the show.” The vast majority of this body’s contracts will not EMERGE UNTIL mid 2008. Its responsibilities include Olympic family accommodation, logistics and medical services; in-venue security and technology; Olympic Village operations; ticket sales, sponsorship and marketing; Games time operational planning; sport venue overlays/venue seating; sports equipment; and media operations/official merchandise.
So contracts that don’t relate to the physical creating of the Games infrastructure will be from LOCOG. The exception is the overlay to existing venues such as Wimbledon, and the football stadia that will be used around the country.
ODA (Olympic Delivery Authority)
Conversely, responsible for building the stage upon which the Games will be staged, is the ODA. The “stage” will include an aquatics centre, hockey centre, purpose built gymnastic and badminton arena, four further multi sport arenas, and an 80 000 seater Olympic stadium.
The ODA will be responsible for all Olympic Park infrastructure and site preparation; delivery of permanent competition venues; building the Olympic Village, International Broadcast Centre and main press centre; Olympic transport projects; permanent works to existing sports venues; and Olympic Park venue legacy conversion (including the Olympic Stadium into a 25, 000 seater athletics stadium (with or without a football team!).
Kent SMEs might also be interested to know that relocatable arenas are planned – three swimming pools plus a similar number of sport arenas and e.g. gymnastics equipment.
DELIVERY PARTNER CLM (CONSORTIUM OF CH2M HILL, LAING O’ROURKE, AND MACE)
The Delivery Partner will be involved in nearly every aspect of the ODA's work - not just delivering Olympic venues and infrastructure, but also, post-Games, the conversion of permanent venues and facilities to legacy use, and removing temporary venues. The Delivery Partner will lead the design, construction, commissioning, procurement, scheduling and cost management functions for the ODA and the subsequent modifications to convert the venues after the Games
PROCUREMENT PRINCIPLES, CONSTRUCTION COMMITMENTS
For any Kent SME, it is well worth getting an understanding of the detail of what these are, and bench marking your own firm against these NOW, if you are interested in exploring tendering for a 2012 contract.
TIMESCALES
Mid 2007 - village, venues, major infrastructure begin to be built
2008 – Pre Games Volunteering Programme rolled out
Autumn 2008 – LOCOG start to place major contracts
2009/10 – Peak construction works (12 000 workers on site)
2010 – Electricians, maintenance operatives, painters and decorators…
2011 – 8m tickets become available
2011 – Test events, overlay and commissioning events
2012 – The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
Mid 2012 – 2012 - Deconstruction
There is some anxiety nationally that if you haven’t already got an Olympic contract then it is too late. These timescales demonstrate this simply isn’t the case BUT also, it is something not to be tardy about. There will be a lot of competition and the earlier you begin to prepare e.g. familiarising yourself with the procurement principles that you will be expected to demonstrate, then so grow your opportunities.
HOW WILL CONTRACTS BE PROCURED?
In one of three ways:
Specialist panels – tenders will be sought and then considered by expert panels. A number of these panels already exist for public sector contracts, and the London Olympics and Paralympics will very much look to follow this model
Tender for contracts – the large contracts will be tendered and advertised through OJEU –(official journal of the EU), as would be expected. There has been media speculation around any ring fencing of contracts for very local firms (whether that means Stratford, E London, SE England) but the ODA has made it very clear that EU legislation applies to London Olympic and Paralympic activities as much as any other organisation. Contracts, ALL contracts, will be advertised through London 2012’s own website, and details of that are below.
Ad hoc contracts –a number of contracts will be small enough to fall below the OJEU limit. These will therefore be advertised on the 2012 website but LOCOG and ODA are encouraging firms that are genuinely interested to REGISTER your details, and a match making service around these type of contracts is being explored nationally. Certainly, a London 2012 “business opportunities network” portal will focus on businesses registered on their website, so we would strongly encourage you to do so.
NEXT STEPS?
This website www.kentsport.org/london2012 provides updates on what Kent’s partnership around the 2012 opportunities is up to, including support for businesses, and updates on national developments around business opportunities. provides updates on what Kent’s partnership around the 2012 opportunities is up to, including support for businesses, and updates on national developments around business opportunities.
Business Link Kent – www.businesslinkkent.com and follow “benefit from 2012” link. Business Link Kent have a great section on their website with lots of practical detail of things to know and to do to win contracts, filling out much more detail against this short article.
www.london2012.com/en/gettinginvolved/Business – This is the official London 2012 website and is where contracts will be advertised, and again, a great site for updates on developments, national conferences etc.
www.2010commercecentre.com and search for “2010 Business Guide”. This one is a great guide that eventually we expect will be produced in a similar style for London, but this one is actually for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. Lots of practical advice for businesses of all sizes on engaging with a Games, and really provides some flavour of what the experience might be like for an SME.
FINALLY
A national Business Opportunities Network IS being developed - providing networking , training around electronic procurement, submitting tenders, seminars for identified sectors… and we are exploring locally and/or regionally how we might supplement this. These efforts are based on the successful Sydney model of SME support.
Warning! Olympics branding is heavily protected. An Act of Parliament went through earlier this year, and it is very firm (with reason) – ensure you are aware of its detail before you do ANY marketing around Olympics and Paralympics, Visit the above London 2012 link for further guidance.
Follow this link for details on the South East Business Support Coordinator for the 2012 Games post