27 Jul 2012
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Firms urged to take advantage of Olympic ‘schmooze-athon'

The next two weeks will offer UK businesses an opportunity to showcase their abilities and “schmooze” overseas investors in the “business Olympics”, politicians have promised.

Opportunities to influence overseas representatives kicked off yesterday at the Global Investment conference at Lancaster House, one of 17 summits to be attended by 4,000 international delegates over the course of the Games.

However, Building Design reports that leading architects are complaining they have missed out on the chance to be part of these Olympic networking events because the programme has been poorly promoted.

UKTI, which is organising the programme, has drawn up a list of 50 major construction projects to target. These include the Rio and Sochi Olympics, the next two World Cups, seven new cities in the Delhi-Mumbai corridor, four cities in Taiwan, a string of hospitals in Kuwait and South Africa and the reconstruction of Libya.

London mayor Boris Johnson said: “In the coming weeks, with major global investors in town for the Games, I am embarking on a gigantic schmooze-athon, to highlight this and the wealth of other amazing investment opportunities that exist.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg called the Games a “once in a lifetime opportunity to boost the UK’s growth potential”, particularly in green technology.

But practices including Make and DSDHA, which designed buildings in the Olympic Park, told Building Design they had heard nothing about the UKTI programme.

RIBA president Angela Brady said she was disappointed that the events, which have now closed for registration, were not better advertised.

Architects speaking at Lancaster House include Richard Rogers and Spencer de Grey from Foster & Partners. But most architects approached by BD knew nothing about the events.

In other Olympic news, Construction News reports that an army of 600 engineers and construction specialists will be on stand-by during the Games to deal with urgent problems. The taskforce is drawn from contractors who helped deliver the venues for the ODA.