Olympic travel plans

As the email reminded me today, tomorrow is the closing date for all organisations and venues across the 33 London boroughs to lodge details, no matter how provisional, of any event planned for next year on to the Mayor's 2012 Culture Diary. This will ensure that ultimately, all events will be shared with any cross-cultural planning group or operational planning team and that they are included in some way in the year-long promotions to celebrate London, the Olympic city. It also will help individual venues spot clashes or opportunities to co-operate as the magic Olympic season draws closer. Having seen the massive rings high above at Paddington Station the other day, it's all starting to feel very real. And a 2012 Business Briefing meeting yesterday suddenly brought home to me the reality of the operational implications of what for me so far, has been a cultural opportunity. The stark warning given by the chap from the Olympic Delivery Authority (yes, note 'Authority') was that unless businesses across the capital start to work closely with the Authority and essentially, help them out a bit, getting anywhere around London on public transport at peak Games time is going to be a nightmare. Businesses need to either get staff to work nights, work at home or even better, take annual leave, or you could be waiting an hour in central London for a jolly old Jubilee Line train. Lord knows what will happen if there is a fault on the line. Late arrivals could become the normality across theatres, restaurants, recitals and receptions all over London next summer. We need to think about our own plans as well as preparing those for our clients, visitors, customers and colleagues.