You know how it goes? You have an idea and hours before you're due to publish it, on the very same day, the body of people who the proposal is aimed at, release their own new plan which bears a striking resemblance to the one being honed. Friends, they call me 'Lucky'.

However since both parties hold similar views; publish and be damned. The social media elements discussed in the proposal below and the inclusion of 'pop-up curation' of social media channels, could greatly benefit the London Live sites, draw audiences from further affield and manage traffic flows. It would also offer an opportunity for London to display its international mobile credentials. So consider the following to be 'enhancements', or 'extensions' around a theme, rather than a full-blown 'idea' (that train has sailed).

The ever-so-recently launched London Live 2012 site can be found here: http://www.londonlive.uk.com/

(The article is included without amendment and rings faintly hollow in places, now that the screen-sites' presence is assured. No matter.)

Olympics - No Ticket Required

There is a murmur and a rumbling among members of the British public, that the upcoming Olympics is just beyond the reach of 'ordinary people'. That corporations have rolled in, taken the best seats and tossed a pair of weightlifting tickets in the direction of middle-England (no disrespect to weightlifting). Not a general consensus, more an aroma that lingers around social networks and often fails to seep through to those pulling the levers. However, the British public's cynicism is always over-estimated, especially where sporting events and 'putting on a show' are concerned. Everyone in London and the UK knows there'll be no empty venues at London 2012 and that a late surge of participation will undoubtedly manifest itself. This shouldn't surprise authorities, in the same way that types of snow or falling leaves manage to.

Everyone who follows football in the UK is a form amateur strategist, or couch-football-manager, and as such could run the Olympics more fairly than the experts selected; but that's not the purpose of this article. The purpose is to highlight one issue which commonly occurs at global sporting events, and to offer a solution. Recent reports suggest London 'emptying out' for the games and that hotels and B&Bs will suffer drastically lower yields, as regular tourists stay away. Furthermore, workforce absenteeism will thump the economy with a lower blow than the Royal Wedding. It's shaping up to be a disaster, wrapped within a catastrophe, served up with a side-order of... I couldn't agree less.

Residents of this country are infamous for seeking out and soaking up atmosphere. England's unusually strong progress in the 1990 World Cup (tragic we have to wind the clock back that far) led to Italian flights, airports and city-centres being over-run by travelling ticket-free fans in the latter stages of the tournament. The recent performance of Wales in the Rugby World Cup, saw ticketless supporters jetting to New Zealand, just to be 'in touch' with their team. The Olympics is being staged here, in the world's most popular tourist city and reporting that it may be partially full? Well, that's the kind of hubris which courts last-minute disaster.