Ten things worth knowing about London 2012

I still remember the comedian Armando Iannucci dismissing “London’s bid for the 2012 Paris Olympics” and how gobsmacked we were to trump our gallic cousins.

Could London really host a modern Olympic Games? Well, look at us now - less than a year from the first starting gun.

A good time, then, for BIFM's London Region to put on their 'Keep London Moving' event at KPMG's Canary Wharf offices. It's the morning after the event, so this is just an initial digest of some of the facts, figures and suggestions the panellists want you to consider. London FMs should find this worthwhile reading.
1) Consider planning around the wider theme of 'Summer 2012', not 'London 2012'. After all, it's not just the Olympics - there's the highly unusual four day holiday for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June, as well as a huge number of Olympic-related events before the Games on top of the regular summer staples such as Wimbledon and the Notting Hill Carnival; it really is going to be an extraordinary three months in the capital.
2) The Olympic torch relay will be travelling through every London borough. Might that affect you more than you think?
3) You're being asked to consider bringing forward any planned preventative maintenance activity and pre-order regular consumables to cut down on deliveries. Can you reallocate space as temporary stock rooms for next summer?
4) 'National houses' could be as disruptive as the Olympic venues themselves. Individual nations will be celebrating their participation in the games at venues all over London. The Netherlands, for example, have party plans for Alexandra Palace and the Russians will be based in Marble Arch. It's worth acquainting yourselves with which country is based in which location to see if your own facilities will be affected.
5) Consider, also, the "Live sites" - places including Hyde Park, Potters Field, Victoria Park, Trafalgar Square - all likely to see thousands of people congregating to watch the games on big screens (Hyde Park is likely to attract 80,000 visitors at peak times).
6) Sydney managed to reduce traffic volumes by 25% for the duration of their games - something I had cause to reflect on as my nose was forced into the armpit of AN Other Tourist on the Jubilee Line. The notion of a similar cut in London journeys next summer was only credible because my fellow passenger's armpit odour has sent me into a fantastical stupour. A 25% cut? That, surely, is the best of very best BEST case scenarios. Plan for nothing of the sort. For example, one company has already planned to relocate 92% of its London staff to its Basingstoke office for the duration of the Games.
7) Day 7 will be the busiest day of the Games (or will it be Day 9? A slightly alarming disagreement on the panel about which it would be...). Assuming it is Day 7, that's 800,000 spectators and 55,000 members of the 'Olympic Family' creating an additional 3.5 million journeys. On that day alone.
8) Consider obliging staff to get their personal deliveries sent to their homes, not your offices; the number of deliveries from Amazon etc. represents a huge percentage of all office deliveries these days.
9) Point of interest: 6% of the Beijing Olympics was broadcast in high definition; 100% of the London games will be in HD, and some also broadcast in whatever "super HD" is.
10) Some useful additional reading:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/orn
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/developers
www.fm-world.co.uk