City companies can ‘go for Olympic gold’ at business briefing

Date added: 25/10/2011

Birmingham businesses can join the race for the next wave of valuable London 2012 contracts at finditinbirmingham’s next breakfast meeting.

The ‘Olympics 2012 Special’ will feature valuable one-to-one slots for local companies to meet Olympic & Paralympic Games procurement expert Jim Johnston.

It will take place at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Thursday 3 November at 7am, with registration from 6.45am. Premium Members of finditinbirmingham can book a free place, while basic members or non-members can request one of any remaining places for £10 +VAT.

Attendees will find out how to apply for lucrative contracts to convert the Olympic & Paralympic Games sites, as well as supplying goods and services to companies adapting the facilities for future use.

Dozens of London 2012 contracts have been advertised on the www.finditinbirmingham.com website so far. Three hundred companies in the West Midlands have won contracts totalling approximately £500m in value, including 15 finditinbirmingham members. Fifty-seven of the West Midlands’ 59 Parliamentary constituencies contain companies that have won contracts to supply London 2012 or associated projects.

The organisers say the event will give local companies an advantage over the competition and a head-start towards winning more work. It also offers open networking opportunities with many of the city’s key business people and exhibitors.

Stuart Horton, Project Manager of finditinbirmingham, said: "There are plenty of London 2012 contracts still available for companies to bid for. The adaptation of the Olympic & Paralympic Games’ facilities is big business. This breakfast and networking meeting is likely to be extremely popular so I encourage members to book their place as early as possible.”

The ‘Olympics 2012 Special’ event follows the success of October’s finditinbirmingham breakfast meeting ‘Constructing West Midlands framework update’, which was a sell-out with approximately 250 eager business people attending.

More than 11,000 members are registered with the finditinbirmingham business portal and networking programme, with contracts worth £3.6 billion having been posted on the site.

Birmingham businesses can upgrade to Premium or Corporate Membership today.