2 minute read
Editor’s View
CHAMBER
Editor’s View
By John Lamb
Excitement across city as countdown begins
Only a year to go – and yet it seems like yesterday that we were announcing Birmingham was to stage the Commonwealth Games.
There have been many ups and downs and disappointments imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic but chief executive Ian Reid and his Games team have stuck with it, aiming to ensure the event in July next year will be a global spectacular.
We devote a large amount of space in this issue of Chamberlink to the Games and one of the outstanding features to emerge is what a warm welcome visitors to our city can expect.
The Commonwealth has always prided itself on staging ‘the friendly Games’ and competitors, their families, supporters and friends can look forward to fulfilling that experience in Birmingham.
You only have to listen to Elaine Limond, from University College Birmingham (see page 7). The university will be hosting Team Scotland and their deputy dean at the School of Sport and Food speaks of the pride for all that the university has achieved in attracting Team Scotland to their home in central Birmingham.
And she wants the experience to be remembered as one of their proudest achievements, adding: “We have a lot of plans around logistics, staffing, and making a drive for volunteers from our student body.
“Our preparations are in a whole host of areas. It’s definitely not limited to sport at all. There’s scope for hospitality, hair and make-up with the cultural events going on and opportunities for our business, media and marketing students around promoting the Games.”
We reported when the Games were awarded to Birmingham that they would mark a sea-change in the city’s history. And that golden opportunity to showcase ourselves to a global audience on behalf of the city and the region will not be lost. Sporting endeavours will be paramount but all of the city region – its hotels, restaurants, bars, its attractions and its businesses of all shapes and sizes - can play their part.
And no doubt that will be reflected in the important opening and closing ceremonies. They are being masterminded by chief creative officer Martin Green and the skills he applies will set the tone and lasting impressions for the whole Games.
Martin is the man who went to Buckingham Palace on a mission to persuade the Queen to ‘leap’ out of a helicopter on film for the 2012 London Olympics. He has now turned his attention to Birmingham (see the Griffin Report, pages 20 and 21). He will not, of course, reveal what he has got in mind for Birmingham but we can expect something spectacular after his experience of working with artistic director Danny Boyle, who directed ‘Trainspotting’, on the London Olympics opening ceremony.
Numerous private and public bodies are playing their parts and credit goes to them all as we create a splendid new Alexander Stadium in Birmingham and a magnificent aquatic arena in Sandwell.
With that sort of attitude applied to all visitors in July next year we can ensure that they will leave a city that has demonstrated its pride in hosting the Games and one that has shown true Brummie hospitality.
