While watching the 'Munich loves you' Winter Olympics promotion video, I was once again struck with how slick, impressive and inspiring bid presentations can be.
The team bidding to bring the 2018 Winter Olympics to Munich, whose hugely impressive Lord Coe-equivalent Bernhard Schwank I spoke alongside recently in my capacity as Director for Trade & Investment, UKTI Germany, are going through everything the London bid went through six years ago.
While (at the time of writing/blogging) the London 2012 Olympic countdown clock shows 423 days, the countdown for decision day for Munich is on just 36 days.
Their moment of truth comes on July 5 when Herr Schwank and his team fly to Durban to discover whether they will be partying like London 2012 or despairing like England 2018.
Here at UKTI Germany, our fingers are very much crossed (or our thumbs pressed, as the Germany idiom goes) for the Munich team.***
So why am I writing this, and why indeed was I speaking alongside Herr Schwank?
Well the answer is simple and clear, the London 2012 Olympics will be the Greatest Show on Earth, the Greatest Networking Opportunity on Earth, the Greatest Trade and Investment Opportunity on Earth plus many more Greatest Something on Earth events - insert cultural event, ticket rush, sustainable/green event as appropriate.
And the Munich branch of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany hosted an event whereby this very point could be made to the people of the city - before they potentially get the opportunity to host their own Games.
My message to those assembled was relatively simple:
- London 2012 is the equivalent of staging world championships in 26 Olympic and 20 Paralympic disciplines all at the same time
- There will be nearly 15,000 participants, 120 Heads of State and 22,000 journalists
- An estimated 320,000 extra foreign visitors will come to the UK; and
- The potential TV audience will be 4 billion people
The Olympic city and host country are on display. People will be watching the events, live or on television, and they will be making judgements, or changing their views, about the host city and host country.
We will be working hard to ensure that companies worldwide unlock the immense commercial potential offered by the world's greatest sporting event and provide a springboard for UK companies to compete in global markets and attract high level investment into the economy.
The Olympics will provide an economic impetus for the whole UK - not just London. Forecasts show that the 2012 Games will generate an estimated £21 billion for the UK economy.
Sectors benefitting from the Games include, well, most of the sectors of our economy: from construction, engineering, architecture, advertising, environmental technologies and hospitality, through to security, logistics, IT, sports technology and the creative industries.
The Olympics also provide unsurpassed global exposure for UK companies which win Games contracts, acting as a catalyst for companies to grow, diversify and compete internationally.
So that was the rather clear and simple message from us, and that is what the people of Munich can potentially look forward to.
And if things go well for Herr Schwank and the Munich 2018 team, many British firms can look forward to an even closer economic relationship with Germany, already their second largest export market.
And we can look forward to welcoming Amy Williams out here in the beautiful city of Munich to defend her Skeleton gold medal.
PS: Taking the spirit of Olympics to heart, a team from UKTI Germany entered the recent Dusseldorf Marathon. The Olympics were promoted along the route and by the team themselves (pics here), and the band of four made it round the course in a little over four hours while raising money for the ParalympicsGB team.
*** To be clear, and for impartiality, the UKTI teams in France and South Korea, the other bidding nations, will similarly have their fingers crossed/thumbs pressed (or whatever the idiomatic equivalent is in those languages).