I came back from our brand launch late last night, a little the worse for wear, with a big smile on my face. I was, and remain, extremely proud of a first rate group of colleagues who have worked tirelessly for the past two months to stage a major event for two audiences of 700 key stakeholders and members of the world’s media that went off without a hitch, to release a brand that wasn’t leaked despite intense media interest and to deliver a huge amount of physical and digital material to stakeholders, staff, the media, and partners faultlessly. The spirit here is fantastic.

What we hope people will appreciate in time is that we have embarked on one of the biggest branding projects in this decade. We have built a brand identity which has over 40,000 elements, which will evolve over the coming months and years in many smart ways. A brand that unites the Olympic and Paralympic Games and which can work with partners, stakeholders, and for the first time ever, non-commercial stakeholders too. A brand which is flexible enough to render in multiple different formats on multiple platforms.

It’s not about the shape. It’s not about the colours. It’s about what we can do with it - there is a lot more to see, and you’ll see it soon. More…

Our fellow Host City, Vancouver, has released its sustainability report.

It is the first of five annual reports they will be preparing between now and 2010.

Interested? Read more on Vancouver 2010’s website.

This morning London 2012 launched its new brand at a special event in North London. See the emblem, read about how the brand has been developed, and watch our exclusive brand videos.

Want another preview of the new London 2012 brand? Go to www.london2012.com. You might just get inspired…

The new London 2012 brand is coming. Soon.

Want to be one of the first to see it? Go to http://www.london2012.com/ …

Follow the clues and you can also get a sneaky peek of what it’s all about.

I have just spent two days in beautiful Riga, on the west coast of Latvia. I was attending and presenting at the European National Olympic Committees (NOC) Seminar for Secretary Generals and ‘Chef de Missions’ (essentially the Team leaders). It’s always a good meeting for me, with many familiar faces and old friends from past Olympic and Olympic Winter Games. Everyone accepts much of the best work is done in the bar and increasingly the ‘jeans’ outnumber the ‘suits’ – my kind of meeting!

This forum is key for all OCOGs (Organising Committees) to communicate and disseminate key logistical and operational info to the team leaders of all the European Olympic teams. BOCOG – the Beijing 2008 organisers - came with a delegation of six, VANOC (Vancouver) – two and London – just me!!

Colleagues from BOCOG gave detailed information on the key dates and information required from NOCs over the next and final 12 months in the run up to Beijing. VANOC were pleased to be able to update on the progress being made with their venues and I talked the NOCs through our objectives and milestones for the next year, emphasizing our focus on meeting the needs of the athletes.

Understandably the focus was on Beijing and I sat there realising the huge job ahead of us all, and in particular in NOC Relations…I look forward to rising to the challenge.

Unseasonally rainy weather couldn’t dampen spirits yesterday in Trafalgar Square as Londoners and tourists together celebrated Africa Day.

Food stands selling a range of African cuisines and market stalls with a range of commemorative and traditional goods complemented the entertainment on stage, with music and dance acts from around the continent and the wider diaspora.

The London 2012 information stand was out again, helping visitors to the event to understand the benefits of the 2012 Games for all Londoners. On this occasion we were able to bring with us a model of the Olympic Park after the Games, helping visitors (including Olaseni, with me in the photo below) to understand also what comes after the Games and how important the planning for the post-Games future is to us all. More…

I was lucky enough on Friday to attend a Boccia tournament involving 70 primary school children from Hackney.

The tournament organisers – East End SportsAbility with the help of Hackney Council’s Sports Services - worked with the schools to coach the youngsters in the art of Boccia, a Paralympic sport that is similar to the French game of boules or petanque.

The day-long tournament was held at the excellent Space sports centre at Hackney Community College and was as a chance for the youngsters to put their new skills to the test.

London 2012 organised for Zoe Edge, a Boccia silver medallist for Team GB at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games to be there to meet the kids, umpire some games, give some words of encouragement and hand out the awards. More…

About one and half months ago, I was sent an e-mail by the athletic club captain at Oxford Uni, asking whether or not I’d be interested in running a mile race at the Iffley Road track when Roger Bannister and Seb Coe re-opened it. Unsurprisingly, as a distance runner, I responded very quickly that I would!

In the build-up to the race, I didn’t really have time to get nervous – spent time working and just treated it as an ordinary race approaching. It did really strike me what an unique experience this was going to be on the morning of the race. I wasn’t sure whether to feel nervous or excited about the race, and switched quite a lot between those emotions at times, but was fairly calm by the time I’d walked down to the track, and headed off for my warm-up jog.

I started doing my warm-up drills and strides as the speeches started, and while I didn’t manage to catch all of the speeches, it was somewhat nerve wracking to hear the University Vice-Chancellor list all the achievements of Seb Coe and Roger Bannister, but as the speeches ended and we prepared for the race to start, I calmed and focused on the race. More…

This week saw unprecedented media coverage of a woman who has come to symbolise how far Paralympic sport has progressed in the last twenty years. You could hardly pick up a paper or magazine and not see the smiling ‘demur’ face of the girl of Korea 1988 who had become such a famous woman, Tanni Grey-Thompson.

What is unknown is that from those early days it could have gone so terribly wrong.

Her first Paralympic Games, Korea ’88 were my third as Chef de Mission and I looked on concerned as I saw her fall-in with the roughs of the team, the field-eventers. I think they felt they were being paternal but in those days their principle performance enhancers were booze and fags. Not a good example for an impressionable young girl….or was it? More…