Olympic park project management presentation and dinner

The Aberdeen Chapter hosted an Olympics themed dinner on 27th February, to hear from Martyn Lass who was recently awarded an MBE for services to construction and particularly for his role as enabling works project manager at the London Olympic Park at Stratford.

Over great food and wine Martyn told the story of the games construction, bringing real life accounts from real projects, describing the role his team played in the Olympic delivery and the challenges and the leadership required to achieve the goal. 

Martyn talked about the strategy used to influence and align parties towards a common purpose and touched on the leadership style required for to achieve this. Some of the more interesting points were the archaeological finds that were uncovered in the project, and some of the more staggering facts included the amount of earth moved to complete the job. Perhaps the most important achievement that Martyn recounted, was that this is the first modern Olympic games where the construction has been completed without a single fatality.

As everyone now knows, the London Olympics were a runaway success, and we were privileged to hear from a team that helped to make it so.

Chris Pinnell, Olympic Torch Bearer, and also an Atkins employee, brought along his Olympic torch to show the audience which added an extra sparkle to the night.

The audience appreciated the talk, and this was indicated by the many questions that were asked.

Atkins was the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.