Whilst spectators and armchair pundits sit back for the sporting spectacle about to unfold in Beijing, the team delivering the London 2012 Games are on a more serious mission. The coming weeks offer the 2012 team their one and only opportunity to experience for real the challenges of hosting 25-plus world championships in a fortnight. And as the Olympic Flag in Beijing is lowered, the eyes of the world will turn to London’s preparations as the next host city for the Games.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) will be alert to observe and learn from the 2008 Games. The competing needs of many different audiences and clients - from the athletes and coaches, the international Olympic family, the sponsors, the all-important broadcasters - and the thousands and thousands of people employed and volunteering to deliver the Games create huge pressures on logistics, transport, security, accommodation and so on. And that’s without the spectators and the wider city population wanting their share of the Games experience. That richness of Games-time experience is vital to inject into the planning for London 2012.