As people are probably well aware, there has been a big publicity push in the media as tickets went on sale for all the Olympics yesterday. But as the final stages of the Olympics build to a crescendo, businesses still have an opportunity to take advantage of the five coloured ring gold rush. Last week, NXT attended a Surrey County Council funded Business Information event. The event was billed as “Making the most of the 2012 Games” but more specifically focused for Surrey businesses.
The event was opened by Dominic Raab, MP for Esher and Walton who emphasised the importance of the legacy to the area. The event then opened into discussing the potential for the Olympics in Surrey by Surriya Subramaniam of Surrey 2012, from Surrey County Council. The speeches focused on preparing businesses for the two events Surrey are hosting (Road Cycling/Time Trial) and the potential to host foreign delegations/tourists within Surrey due to its close proximity to London and various attractions. One point raised in these presentations was there is a lot of potential for marketing products and services to these new visitors.
We feel visitors will soon start to prepare and research their visits and our advice is to start your business preparations early. Think about your marketing proposition and how you can better promote your business to these new visitors. A question went out to the audience to see if any enquiries had been received, only Holiday Inn (surprisingly official accommodation Olympic Partners) had! NXT is a digital partner to a number businesses in Surrey supporting their website design and development needs, we are ready to help new customers in get the most from this opportunity.
The only problem with this event was that there was a big emphasis on businesses preparing but no mention of Surrey businesses interacting together to support one another to ensure businesses are connected and doing business together - locally. The good news is that NXT has raised this issue with Surrey County Council team and the Surrey Chamber of Commerce (of which we are proud to be new members) and they are both looking at ways this can be addressed. We have suggested focussed networking meetings for those businesses that may need advice or support.
If you need help promoting your business online and feel there could be potential for new business linked to the Olympics, give us a shout and we would be happy to throw some ideas around with you.