London Media Center Showcases Best of Britain

(ATR) The Associate Director 2012 at London & Partners tells Around the Rings that the newly opened London Media Centre is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to promote U.K. business during the Games.

Mark Howell was speaking to ATR inside the venue at One Great George Street in the city that will host more than 6,000 journalists from around the world during the Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

The LMC and its associated activities form part of a program of events organized by Mayor Boris Johnson to capitalize on the economic opportunities for London coming from the Games.

In describing the purpose of the venue, Howell was enthusiastic about the scope of what London had to offer the global media.

"This is important for us as part of what the Games is about," he said. "You have the sport, but for us as a city and a country it’s a great opportunity to promote our business, a great opportunity to promote our art, our culture, all those things that are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to up-weight the marketing and PR of London and the UK."

"The media center is funded out of the central budget and becomes our marketing tool for the period of 2012 and will take us until after 2012 as well. So when we look at the media center and the content, what it does is the program of activity will highlight business. We’ve got events that are business-oriented for foreign investment.

"It gives us a chance to promote those to the key media outlets. We’ve got a huge diversity of media who have registered to be here, nearly 6,900 from more than 66 countries."

One example of the kind of promotion on offer is the Chinese evening that will be hosted there for the 160 or so Chinese media agencies that are registered at the LMC – the largest foreign media delegation.

Howell also maintained that an important aspect of the venue was its sustainability, which is why you will very rarely see a piece of paper in the building with digital always the preference for any content.

"One of the things we talked about is we wanted to be an agency to create and distribute content so rather than just people coming here, it was a case of us being proactive about this," he added.

"We’ve been making films over the past year that have covered fashion, business, sport, communities; all those things that encompass what London and the UK is about."

"We’ll create more content on a daily basis; we’ll put some of it on FTP sites so it’s available for broadcast and print to get from those sites. We also feed out through the Eurovision feeds, which means that our distribution content is huge."

The appetite for such content is already quite keen with around 8,000 stories, images and video clips having already been downloaded from the site by reporters in 73 countries.

The LMC also offers an element of grandeur that may not have been seen at many Games before for the media. Situated in the Institute of Civil Engineers, the building dates back to the early 1900s and features fine chandeliers and oak paneling in the press workrooms - not to mention the marble staircase that greets visitors in the main hall.

Howell said that the "traditional" setting was just one of the factors in choosing the venue that started out on a shortlist of more than 80.

"We realize that people are going to spend a lot of time working here so for me the best thing about it was the traditional beautiful architecture," he said.

"We looked at previous centers in Vancouver and Beijing and we didn’t want it to be a place that people got sick of after a while with the same low ceilings and bland wallpapers. Most of the people who I’ve given tours to have gone into the workroom and said ‘wow!’"

He also added that the location in the city and its transport links were ideal for Olympic journalists. "The Jubilee line takes you straight to Stratford. Also we are right next door to Horse Guards Parade for the beach volleyball and Hyde Park for the triathlon and road race cycling."

"Then in terms of the major parts of London, Trafalgar Square is just down the road; so too is Covent Garden. We picked it because it was such a great location for everything. The view you get, I mean you just look out the window and there is Big Ben!"

The LMC is open for all Olympic accredited media and also non-accredited media who have to register separately for the building. During the Games the venue offers 24-hour access as well as thousands of cups of tea and coffee.

Reported by Christian Radnedge

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