With the summer of sport set to begin in London, Birmingham based PR and Marketing agency, S&X, is in the capital to work on projects for its clients within the sports industry.

In the first of an exclusive series of Birmingham Post blogs, S&X Managing Director, Paul Phedon, describes the scene as London prepares.

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The sun is in the sky, anticipation is in the air, and S&X is on the ground as excitement builds ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony.

With weather often the favoured topic of discussion throughout Britain, it's only fitting that an upturn in conditions coincided with the spectacular arrival of the Olympic flame at the Tower of London last Friday.

The torch is now wending its way across the capital just as it has throughout the British Isles over the preceding couple of months, and with the final leg of its journey comes a distinct buzz in this bustling metropolis as the greatest show on earth prepares for its spectacular curtain raiser.

The area surrounding the Olympic Park is already alive, with the vast Stratford shopping centre full to capacity, and I've already been kept awake at night by the dulcet tones of a certain world famous singer as rehearsals continue late into the night for Friday's highly anticipated opening ceremony!

After a long seven year wait since the Games were awarded to London, there's now a genuine sense of excitement and a feeling that Britain is prepared to take the stage.

It's great to be here sampling the atmosphere of a home Games, and we're settling into our temporary base, a mere stone's throw from the centre of all the action close to the River Lea.

As a business, we're no strangers to London having recently opened the doors to our new office in Shoreditch, as reported in The Post. While our familiarity with the city is certainly beneficial to us as we settle in to life on the ground, the so-called 'Olympic bubble' remains an extraordinary environment to work around.

The Olympics is always a huge undertaking for us as an agency, and with several of our clients operating within the world of sport, it produces a wide number of opportunities - not to mention a host of challenges. An estimated 50,000 journalists from all corners of the globe have converged on the capital, and as we walk around East London we see interviews taking place on virtually every street with the vicinity of the Olympic Park. There's a genuine hunger for compelling content, and it's our job to provide just that on behalf of our clients.

For me personally, this will be my fourth taste of the Olympic Games, having worked at each one since Sydney in 2000. S&X Associate Director, Jo Green, is working at the Games for a second time, while other members of the team are getting their first taste of this unique and wonderful event. No matter how many times you've been part of it before, the anticipation is always the same, just as the experience is always vastly different.

An enthralling few weeks lies before us. Let's just hope the sun keeps shining...

Until next time,

Paul and the S&X team in London

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Stay up to date with S&X throughout the Games on Twitter:

@SXMedia
@PaulPhedon
@JoGreen