within the game zone,” Rees said, “but we were allowed [to keep] it outside on the overall site.”
James Rees
FRINGE BENEFITS While it may be difficult to quantify brand awareness, the improvements that the London Organising Committee made to ExCeL are easy to measure, and they add up. An area of approxi- mately 12,000 square feet that had formerly served as storage space became a volunteer training center, where every Olympic volunteer came for assessments, interviews, and induction. The orga- nizing committee installed restrooms and HVAC in that space, so now it can be used by groups and may serve as a training center going forward — a winning strategy for both ExCeL and the Olym- pics. “Rather than having to either build a new or temporary structure in the Olympic Park, the organizers simply fit out an area of ExCeL,” which represented a cost saving for them, Rees said, and in the process created an area of the facility “that we can use beyond the Games.” In addition, infrastructure installed in other
pockets of the building will lead — with minor investments by ExCeL — to the creation of several other meeting rooms, ready for use by January 2013, as well as additional space for catering oper- ations. And at least one sustainability initiative will become a legacy: the installation of 18 charg- ing points for electric cars in the parking space underneath ExCeL. Other infrastructure upgrades — a huge overlay of cabling and other IT network- ing — will give ExCeL connectivity “guarantees that other facilities can’t,” Rees said. One lasting major connectivity improvement
isn’t virtual: the Emirates Air Line cable car, which was built over the River Thames for the Olympics to connect ExCeL with the O2 — and which saw 320,000 journeys during the 14 days of the Sum- mer Games. Rees said: “It’s a vital connection between us and the O2 — London’s main conven- tion center and its main entertainment center — [enabling] delegates to literally in a matter of minutes be across the river, either checking out a show or hitting bars and restaurants to have a great night out.”