Morning:
9°c
No10 hosts summit of 2012's sponsors
Matthew Beard02.12.08
Sponsors of the London Olympics today attended a Downing Street summit to discuss concerns that their interests had been overlooked during the Beijing Games.
The summit hosted by the Prime Minister comes after complaints from blue-chip firms that their hospitality areas during the summer Games were virtual ghost towns.
There were also concerns that commercial backers of the London Games - paying up to £100million - had been largely ignored by 2012's organising committee, Locog, during their VIP visits to the Beijing Olympics.
Today's summit, the first of what is expected to become an annual event, has been organised by accountancy firm Deloitte and is billed as the "Chairman's Club" of business leaders - heads of companies which employ more than two million people with a combined turnover of £588billion.
Companies due to attend include global Olympic sponsors such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Samsung, and domestic partners such as Lloyds TSB, BT and BA.
Also attending will be London Mayor Boris Johnson, Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and Sebastian Coe, Locog chairman.
Locog has so far raised £430million of its £650million target for domestic partners. It is also expected to ask these companies for more "in kind" support for its education and cultural programmes.
The committee said it had a "strong relationship" with its commercial partners and there was a mutual desire to "maximise the value of these partnerships".
Olympics chiefs said their strategy to sign up sponsors early had paid dividends as they secured lucrative deals before the recession.
Commercial negotiators for Locog are prepared for a moratorium on signing more cash deals until the economy improves. Locog has probably signed the last "tier one" deal.
