ON THE WEB To get a sense of the crowd flow at ExCeL during the Olympics, watch this time-lapse YouTube video: convn.org/ ExCeL-crowd.
What were not left behind at the center — or
destined for landfills — were the temporary struc- tures provided by contractors, “using a kind of kit that is used regularly in exhibitions and other events on a temporary basis,” Rees said. “They used the type of partitions that are going in and out of exhibition centers all the time, rather than building fancy [single-use, throwaway] items out of wood or whatever.”
WITH FRESH EYES Rees was thrilled to become a guest of the facility he works for during the Games, going to one of the weightlifting finals and one of boxing’s final evenings. Did his experience as a spectator give him a fresh perspective on ExCeL? “That’s a dif- ficult one,” Rees said in a follow-up interview after the Olympics, “because we’ve had so many amaz- ing events already where people have done some pretty crazy things, and also events like the G20 [Summit] where we had the world’s eyes upon the world’s leaders, back in April 2009.” But the Olympic experience gives Rees greater
confidence that the venue can accommodate dif- ferent groups simultaneously without a conflict. “I think one of the things was the fact that there were so many different things happening in the venue,”
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he said. “I don’t think we quite realized the ability for the venue to easily be able to cope with that. There were so many people attending five differ- ent arenas at any one time.” Something else about seeing the building
through the eyes of Olympic fans from around the world struck Rees: the level of interest in the history of the Docklands, the previously decrepit industrial area where ExCeL is located. “I think one thing we will do [going forward],” he said, “is to harness some of the modern imagery with the historic imagery” in ExCeL’s public space. “So many people — bear in mind that we
had virtually a million people through on that Olympic fortnight [14 days] — had never been to ExCeL before, and you could see people were lov- ing being there,” Rees said. “They were delighted and proud to be at the Olympics, [and also to be at] these amazing venues in an area that was formerly rundown after the failure of the docking industry — and it’s all come good. And now you’ve got these spectacular venues hosting the greatest show on Earth.”
. Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene. PCMA.ORG
‘I think one thing we will do is to harness some of the modern imagery with the historic imagery.’