TIME - The Olympics: What London Can Learn from Vancouver

The construction site just off east London's Pudding Mill Lane is a hive of activity. To a sound track of saws, whirring engines and vehicle horns, workers are shifting earth, laying roads and scaling a cavernous steel-framed structure. On a viewing platform overlooking the site, a steady stream of people gather to watch the development take shape. Many linger: a dedicated coffee shop at one end of the platform offers hot drinks amid the crisp, wintry weather.

London's construction workers had better get used to the scrutiny. With the Vancouver Winter Games now concluded, attention will switch to the British capital — which was awarded the 2012 Summer Games five years ago — as it races to get ready. Learning from the last host city will be vital. While the sports on show in London will be different from those in Vancouver, the Canadian city's experience "gives us real food for thought," Sebastian Coe, chairman of London's organizing committee, told reporters ahead of the closing ceremony on Feb. 28. London, he said, would "use this information to ensure we stage a Games for everyone." (See the top 10 memorable moments of the Winter Olympics.)

Coe, part of a 50-strong London delegation that studied the Winter Games firsthand, divides the lessons he and his colleagues learned into "four Ss" — sport, service, stadiums and sites. The team is set for a full debrief in the next few weeks. Ahead of that, here's a quick TIME guide for London:

Get the atmosphere right, and you're golden. Canadians bought into the Vancouver Games in a big way, and that played a key part in their success. London's organizers applauded Vancouver's party atmosphere, while International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge reckoned that locals had "embraced the Olympic Games like no other city in the world before." (See pictures of the opening ceremony in Vancouver.)

Building such an atmosphere in London will be crucial. Plans are in place to put up dozens of big screens throughout the U.K. by 2012, mimicking the sites in and around Vancouver that offered people without tickets the chance to feel part of the action. (Comment on this story.)

Locating about a quarter of the 2012 venues outside of London should also help stoke Britons' interest. Within the sprawling, densely populated capital, though, organizers "need to carefully plan how they're going to control, handle and manage the crowds to make sure everyone's safe and not gridlocked," says Ed Hula, editor of Around the Rings, a publication on the Olympics. (See 10 things to do in London.)

Give locals something to cheer about — but don't overdo it. Sports fans will doff their cap to a great performance by any competitor. In Vancouver, it was hard to see past American skier Lindsey Vonn or South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na. But the sporting success of the home nation helps set the tone for an Olympics. Just ask Canada's rabid ice hockey fans. Canada topped the gold-medal count this winter, and the U.K. will be under pressure to deliver in 2012. Recent history is encouraging: Britain finished fourth in the medals table in Beijing and landed its biggest gold-medal haul in a century.

But the other lesson from Canada is that you can go too far. The country's "Own the Podium" initiative — a $110 million program designed to put Canada on top of the medals table — generated almost as much criticism as podium finishes. The plan limited rivals' access to facilities like the sliding and speedskating tracks, prompting protests from foreign competitors. Some even suggested that it contributed to the tragic death of Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili. Others claimed that it heaped too much pressure on the home nation's athletes. London chair Coe has defended the initiative in recent days; a two-time Olympic track champion, he knows all about high expectations. But managing expectations, and limiting the grumbles of others, will surely be in London's interest.

When you invite the world to a party, there are going to be glitches. Transport snarls, a lack of early snow and a mechanical snafu during the opening ceremony prompted one British newspaper to label Vancouver a contender for "worst Games ever." But minor hitches are inevitable. So too is a little criticism. What matters is how you react. "Success is measured in part or determined by how well you respond or how you cure inefficiencies early on," says Hula. And in that sense, "[Vancouver] did very well." (See pictures of Olympic highs and lows.)

For London, as with any host, it underlines the need for "testing, testing, testing," as Rogge urged for the Vancouver Games. The message seems to have got through. "We have an entire year built in to make sure we test, test, test," says Joanna Manning-Cooper, spokeswoman for the London organizing committee. In 2011, organizers will try out all 26 of the Games' venues, mounting everything from "mass participation jamborees" to full-blown international meets in order to test catering, toilets, turnstiles and transport.

Selling more obscure sports cleverly can work. Demand for many of the 9 million tickets that London organizers plan to sell will be fierce. For some events, though — think handball — organizers know they may have to coax fans along. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. Few Britons had ever heard of ski cross before the Vancouver Games, but the event, which pits four skiers simultaneously against one another over an undulating course, drew millions of television viewers. London organizers have been busy drawing up marketing plans to help push the lower-profile events. Vancouver may have given them some ideas. (See pictures of weird sports.)

Merchandising matters. O.K., so we've known that for a while. But ever since the over-commercialized Atlanta Games in 1996, host cities have made a big deal of being all about the sports while treating merchandising like a necessary evil. Vancouver proved it doesn't have to be that way. The enormous success of the red mittens — sales of the $10 gloves generated more than $12 million for Canadian sports — "helped us clarify our thinking around what could become the iconic collector's item of the Games," says Manning-Cooper. 2012 umbrella, anyone?

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