Olympics 2012 - Ideas for the Mayor
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.
Most people won't have tickets, but not having a ticket won't stop millions of Brits from experiencing a once in a lifetime event like the Olympics - it's these supporters that should be catered for. The 20 million who live within two hours of London.
Immerse yourself in the mind of a person who arrives in London during Olympic fortnight, without a ticket. The National Audit Office suggested there would be 250,000 people without tickets, who wanted them. This figure was quickly revised upwards to over a million, after first round applications broke the Internet; hinting at a suspect estimations. This doesn't however, represent the number of people who want to experience the flavour of the games. Not to 'spend money on food and drink on the periphery of the Olympic Site', but those who venture to London, show their support and want to take some memory of the games away with them.
The Idea: Pop-up Olympic Sites.
In the spirit of 'pop-ups', ushered by global austerity and the local 'High Street in retreat' phenomenon; London could create pop-up Olympic sites in the city centre. Corporate sponsor them with a logo-emblazoned screen, a smattering of quality food and drink vendors, Borough Market and Maltby Street would be worthy starting points. They have the licences and the skill. Dismantling the WW2-derived myth that food in London is below par, would be a long overdue opportunity worth taking. Develop an app showing where the 'pop-up Olympic sites' are located, and enticing visitors along. A YouTube channel showing which events will be where (the Trafalgar Square screen may be showing athletics and beach volleyball) and summarising the best of 
what happened on the day every evening. Encourage the public to curate and manage the social media channels. Make the pop-up Olympic sites competitive and have them reflect facets of London with user created content: musical London, literary London, historical London, artistic London, London theatre and similar themes. Each site vying for domestic and international visitors and adding their own creative content in the lulls between events. Perhaps galleries and museums local to each site can lend a hand. Allow international TV networks to syndicate user-sourced content in exchange for prizes and credit. People crave an honest experience - they want to know what the Olympics are really like - slick, promotional presentations and earnest VTs, don't stir the public. Social networks have the reputation to deliver on the honesty remit. Link the pop-up sites to Olympic ticket holders, via Twitter, and let everyone experience the latest developments from inside the stadium. Pop-up sites provide somewhere to visit for the millions working in the city and keep them in touch with the latest developments.
All the athletes desire, is to perform to their best ability, in front of the largest possible crowd. What the public want, is to be part of that largest possible crowd and experience a piece of history. Obviously, in the stadium with track-side seats if possible, but most accept that's unlikely. What London can do with the technology that's available (smartphones, tablets, laptops and free WiFi), is include everyone who currently doesn't feel a part of the experience, to contribute and become a creative element behind the 2012 games. London is among the most innovative and technically advanced cities in the world. It's been on the cutting-edge since computing and software took their first steps. Babbage was a Londoner, Turing was born in Maida Vale, Tommy Flowers was from Poplar and loved a pie and a pint [probably]. London pioneered development right through the first Internet boom and is now in the vanguard of tech companies from the smart phone era. Perhaps London might not match the firework display of Beijing (though if you saw the New Year's Day 2009 pre-austerity shindig - it might), but innovation and delivering the unexpected are second nature to the city. Make the London 2012 games profitable and successful through corporate funding, agreed, but London is in a position to make it inclusive and innovative. To demonstrate to the world that it's a personal touch and unique thinking that represent this country, not cold efficiency. Social networks can do this, and London does them especially well.
What's the political mileage in it? You give a low-cost initiative to the majority, tax-paying, voting public and help the athletes by galvanising widespread support. There will be security issues, but security has been accounted for, and better that the public congregate 
in managed concentrations, than wander the streets. Longer-term and strategically, you demonstrate the practical credentials of London's 'Tech City', not as a concept, but as an engine producing substantial deliverables. The Olympic 'pixie dust' can scatter and settle further than the main East London site. As screen-writers often opine: don't 'tell' the world about London's merits, show them.
It's enlightening that current interrogation of Google, concerning what to do in London with no 2012 tickets, returns dozens of stories explaining 'how to buy Olympic tickets' - or - the popular press highlighting public dissatisfaction with 'ticket lotteries'. Of little practical use in either case. Understanding and exploiting traffic behaviour on Google, to some extent, involves analysing future search trends based on fixed and known events. The recent 'Google Fresh' update has increased the relevance of up-to-the-minute content, and demoted the value of stale content. Social networks steering the ship again. London 2012 is the first games to have the enabling tools, local support, innovation on tap - and, crucially - the political will-power to deliver a modern and social-media-driven Olympics.
Risk-taking has not been abandoned in favour of decision avoidance in London. No sir, not here.
Video from the 2012 YouTube channel showing the Olympic torch route.
