London 2012 Olympic Games

[jerseyboi]

Closing Ceremony Day & hand over to Rio 2016 (9pm GMT )

[skymantle]

I have family and friends who both live and work in London and they say London and Britan have done a superb job at these games, ran very well, friendly people, everything has been great, even if there were some hickups in the beginning, which you'd expect anywhere. Some of them have been to other games since Sydney and they also lay the grand claim that these games are the best ever, even if that may be a senseless thing to say really.

I can only see it from TV and news reports, and looks great from what I've seen and read so far, so I don't doubt my friends' exuberance, and unlike other cities (Athens comes to mind) I imagine that the Brits will make the most from the legacy these games provide and build on their success for future generations, instead of dropping the ball.

I'm an Australian of Greek background and am not too proud to give credit where credit is due, so should others in Australia and elsewhere, because I've noticed some unashamed and misplaced criticism of London by some forummers. I also thought the opening ceremony was great, very whimsical and 'real', not national aggrandisement like other previous ceremonies. Another forumer in another thread put it perfectly; 'It was nice to see some humour rather than the usual pomposity and 'look how serious and important a country we are' type opening ceremonies. So congratulations London and Britain, you've done a smashing job. Really wish I was there!!

[crawf]

I agree, London has done a great job.

[Signalman 60]

Well it's not shaping up well so far... Neither Bowie nor Kate Bush could be arsed to turn up - I guess Lennon has an excuse, though...

[Adam from Oz]

Does this thread end after the Closing Ceremony? PLEASE! Or do we just expect the page upon page of posts announcing how glorious it was?

Then are we to endure page upon page of how well the legacy is working and celebrations of the first week's, first month's, first year's anniversary?

Who knows?

Congrats to London for hosting an extremely smooth running games. Hope the hangover isn't too bad!

[jerseyboi]

London transforms

Queen Elizabeth Olympic park

[jerseyboi]

British fashion featured in the London 2012 closing ceremony.

[mrfusion]

Originally Posted by Adam from Oz

Does this thread end after the Closing Ceremony? PLEASE! Or do we just expect the page upon page of posts announcing how glorious it was?

The thread will probably be alive to certain degree at least till the Paralympic games is over.

[Ducko]

Originally Posted by jerseyboi

British fashion featured in the London 2012 closing ceremony.

It's lucky that they stop drug testing before the closing ceremony takes place.

[jerseyboi]

[jerseyboi]

'Well done you magnificent Pommy bastards'

Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/news-...811-2418t.html

[jerseyboi]

[jerseyboi]

British take gold as best Olympics Games hosts
But now the Games are over, it is just as clear they have knocked Sydney off its pedestal as the best host of a modern Olympic Games.

As awful as it is to admit, London 2012 was bigger, slicker, almost as friendly and more thoughtfully planned than Sydney in terms of the legacy it will leave the host city.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1226448817536

[Melb_aviator]

If a city/country does not exceed a games held over a decade ago, learning from the mistakes and utilising new technology and mindsets available since then it would be a big failure.

IMHO, the Sydney and London games were about the same level. Both had their strengths and weaknesses, pulling off an impressive result in the end though.

Now the headache of paying for them really comes along. It's all fun and games until reality sets in

[jerseyboi]

Originally Posted by Melb_aviator

If a city/country does not exceed a games held over a decade ago, learning from the mistakes and utilising new technology and mindsets available since then it would be a big failure.

IMHO, the Sydney and London games were about the same level. Both had their strengths and weaknesses, pulling off an impressive result in the end though.

Now the headache of paying for them really comes along. It's all fun and games until reality sets in

The reality of London 2012 and its success is due to high involvement
of Australians even the stadium was designed by an Australian.

London has a huge Australian population and London employed people
from Sydney 2000 from the beginning.

With help of Australians and British eccentric or creative ideas it all came together. Thank you

[Danubis]

Australia : 1, Jersey : potato.


Business gets the gold
by: Tim Harcourt From: The Australian August 16, 2012 12:00AM Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Print Email Share Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Facebook Add to Kwoff Add to Myspace Add to Newsvine What are these? Tweet thisTHERE has been a lot of hand-wringing about how few medals Australia won at the London Olympics but the "quiet achievers" were Australian businesses. A South Australian company, FCT Flames, created the amazing cauldron and 204 small flames that made up the spectacular Olympic flame, highlighted at the opening and closing ceremonies.

The creative capabilities of Australian architects such as PTW (headed by John Bilmon of Beijing Water Cube fame) and Populous, which built and designed many of the key facilities, were on display.

The polymer pitches for the hockey ("Smurf Turf") were produced by Advanced Polymer Technology Australasia, a Melbourne-based manufacturer, the equestrian starting gates were manufactured by Adelaide Hills exporter Steriline Racing, the rowing oars by Taree company, Croker Oars, the stadiums and venues were cleaned up by Spotless (Cleanaway) and Australian business Intelligent Risks played a key role in keeping the Games safe.

And, of course, the Olympic village was built by Lend Lease while the Olympic precinct is dominated by Stratford Westfield. Frank Lowy's new town centre and shopping complex have lifted a depressed part of east London.

Many of these companies are veterans of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, where many small and medium-sized enterprises got their start, and of Beijing in 2008. No doubt they will play an important role in Rio de Janiero in four years. In fact, of the 56 companies that worked on the Sydney Olympics in 2000, 43 have been at London and a further 17 have already started work on Rio. And then there are the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Pan American Games to contribute to as well.

The organisers of Rio 2016 have been looking at Sydney in particular. After all, Brazil and Australia are vast southern lands with strong resource links to China. But both are far away from the world stage and need the Olympics to promote their "country brand". Brazil and Australia don't have an empire like Britain or the economic dominance of the US. Sydney in 2000 helped show the world - despite the "tyranny of distance" - what a sophisticated economy and society we are. Brazil gets its chance to do the same in 2016. Brazil also holds the mantle as the first country in South America to host an Olympic Games. From Peru to Patagonia, people will be hoping that Brazil can pull it off as the representative of the "new" South America - stable and prosperous but with the same Latin flair.

By chance, Kym Fullgrabe, Australia's senior trade commissioner in London, is about to take up his new position in Sao Paulo so Australian exporters who want to go to Rio can take the London bridge. So bring on Brazil with Rio 2016 (and the FIFA World Cup in 2014 in a unique "Samba double header") and let's see Australian business continue to bring home the gold.

Tim Harcourt is the author of The Airport Economist. www.theairporteconomist.com

[eatthis9999]

Originally Posted by jerseyboi

Although the pixel tablet is part of Tait’s rental inventory, the set-up at the Olympic Stadium, for the eight-week duration of the Olympics and Paralympics, was treated as a permanent installation. Some 370km of cabling were installed by a local ten-person crew over five weeks. In all, the system installation took ten weeks with five technicians and six local crew members.

mostly right it took a team of 5, 37 days to install all 73,000 of them with the 197 miles of associated cable, and they where a special commission with tait which isn't in their rental stock, the people I work with have been thinking of buying some to use as a stage effect as they wont be used again :/

we used about 1500 intelligent moving fixtures (moving heads) in the piece using 6 lighting desks routed together to operate them so we had enough universes to operate the amount of them :p

[BrizzyChris]

The most impressive stuff for me was actually all the surrounding plazas, creeks and walkways around the stadium and the precinct....very well integrated.

[jerseyboi]

[jerseyboi]

5 days to go to Paralympic Games
Paralympic Games returns home...