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Olympics| Exhibition World Fun and Games? L arge- scale events such as a World Expo or the Olympics bring the host city into the international spotlight. With the creation of venues capable of supporting vast numbers who flood these cities for the short time the games run, there are major opportunities for exhibition companies once the Olympic crowd departs. When the Games end and the visitors head home, what becomes of these massive venues constructed to accommodate the sporting events and throngs of people? With Vancouver now in the aftermath of a successful yet hugely expensive Winter Olympics, London exhibition professionals are all thinking about how they will cut themselves a slice of the 2012 pie. What can London's post- games development team learn from cities like Vancouver, Beijing and Sydney in time to capitalise on the legacy of the 2012 Games? Venue Branding Vice- president of sales for the Vancouver Convention Centre, Claire Smith, says the venue was a little slow on the uptake when it came to branding opportunities. " The biggest lesson we learned was that there was a huge branding opportunity for our building and we didn't really think through how the convention centre was going to be an iconic heart of the event," she says. " It really almost became a religious symbol for the Games. We had people coming by the thousands to see it. I don't know that we really thoroughly understood the power of this symbol, and it took us a while to realise what an important part of the games this was." Other than missed branding opportunities, one of Smith's chief concerns for London is for the challenge of having proper infrastructure in place to accommodate and transport the throngs of visitors. " This is bigger than what we imagined and it was about more than a sporting event," she says. " The whole city infrastructure was completely overwhelmed. The Winter Olympics are obviously a much smaller scene than the summer Games, so the congestion in London is going to be profound. It's a bigger city but venues are spread out further. Logistically, it's going to be a challenge for moving people around." According to former Olympian and gold- medalist Jill Savery, now 2012 project manager for BioRegional Development Group in London, an aspect mostly overlooked in Vancouver was the targeting of specific Mike Trudeaulooks at the challenges of preparing for, hosting, and maintaining the legacy of the Olympics Model of the completed Olympic Stadium The London Olympic Stadium in progress photo courtesy of ODA