I had an exciting meeting yesterday with Seb Coe and Paul Deighton, the LOCOG Chief Executive discussing the impact of the Olympics on UK business.

LOCOG are on time and on budget to deliver the Olympics, which is great, and with the announcement on the torch route earlier on this week, the temperature is beginning to rise.

There are still lots of opportunities for businesses to get involved in the Olympics and I know many of our members and businesses are engaged. For those who are not already engaged with the Olympics there are still many opportunities for SMEs to find out more they have a website where you are able to pitch for contracts related to the games.

It is also vital that all London businesses begin, at some stage, to prepare how they are going to handle the inevitable transportation disruption that will occur during the games. People are going to have to make special plans for the period of the games as it will undoubtedly effect suppliers, staff and customers. It is SMEs that are going to feel the hit of the transportation issues the most and I have stressed to the Olympic organisers that they need to give businesses as much information as possible.

I do however think that one of the key objectives is to make sure that it is not just a great London event but something that the whole of the country is involved in, so let me know any thoughts on how we can help with that.

Did you know that the IoD’s 116 Pall Mall building will be close to many of the Olympic events including the Marathon, Beach Volleyball and Triathlon.