A golden chance to tap into Games legacy

With the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games just over 60 days away, I 've been thinking a lot about legacy, writes Henrietta Brealey.

In not far off 1,500 hours, the city-region will host one of the first major international multi-sport events in the world since the start of the Covid pandemic. That 's pretty exciting stuff.

So, it 's no surprise that, at the Chamber of Commerce, we 're looking to make sure local businesses benefit as much as possible. Way back in June, 2020, we launched our Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Business Legacy Manifesto, setting out both a clear vision for how the Games could benefit local businesses and a commitment to be a proactive partner ourselves.

There are many partners involved in delivering the Games and a lot of information is communicated in different places. While the Chamber are not an official partner, we are in a privileged position of having a lot of regular conversations with the people that are.

And, with quite a few things on businesses ' minds right now (a growing cost of doing business crisis, supply chain disruption and competition for talent to name just a couple), I 'm on a mission to make it as easy as possible for businesses to tap into Games opportunities.

The GBCC have already held nine events this year featuring Games speakers for local businesses on everything from supply chain opportunities to transport planning and have plenty more to come. We 've also kept a close eye on businesses ' views.

According to our third annual Games Business Barometer - 94 per cent of local businesses believe that the Games will have a short-term positive impact on the city-region. And their top areas of interest? Understanding expected disruption to travel, learning about arts and community festivals, opportunities to boost employee engagement and buying tickets for staff and customers.

So in the interests of making it easy, here are my top tips:

Travel: Transport for West Midlands are the go-to guys for this. As it happens, we 've just done a “Get Set for the Games ” webinar with them that sets out need-to-know info on travel impacts of the Games - check out the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce YouTube channel.

Arts & Community Festivals: Birmingham 2022 Festival, a £12 million, six-month celebration of creativity, is the one for you. From some rather wonderful pop-up exhibits at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to art on the canals with the Canal and River Trust and family fun in public parks across the city - there 's something for just about everyone. It started with Wonderous Stories (the open air, aerial acrobatic extravaganza that took over Centenary Square in March) and will run until the end of September.

Outside of this, there will be plenty of folks across the city putting on activities in their local areas too. As just one example, Calthorpe Estates will be holding a special three-day Edgbaston Village Artisan Market between 29 and 30, July.

Employee Engagement: A great opportunity to get creative. One way of engaging your teams could be through volunteering. The main programme of Commonwealth Games volunteers (the so-called Commonwealth Collective that will be out and about in uniform greeting visitors across the region - shout out to Chamber member InCoporate Wear official workforce uniform provider for the Games) - but there 's lots of other opportunities to help make a difference through the United by 2022 Legacy Charity. There 's also the social side. As well as tickets and festival activity, there will be Festival Sites where you can watch the Games on a big screen and enjoy some food and festival atmosphere. A great opportunity for a staff social. For those in the hospitality industry you may also be interested in Getting Games Ready - free training for your staff on local tourism knowledge and customer service.

Tickets for Customers and Staff: The remaining Commonwealth Games tickets are on sale now. The Club 22 hospitality packages are also live and squarely aimed at corporate entertaining. At the Chamber, we purchased a batch of event tickets last year and have just opened an internal ballot of our own, inviting colleagues to apply to join us as our guest. As well as connecting our members to opportunities and events, we want to ensure that every member of Team Chamber has the opportunity to attend this once-in-a-generation event happening right on our doorstep too.

All in all, there 's a lot going on and many opportunities to think outside the box. At the Chamber we love local - but we also go global. In edition to working to ensure that businesses benefit locally, we 've set up a Greater Birmingham Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce to help businesses take games legacy global by building their international network.

From a new partnership with Queensland Trade & Investment to a meet-up with the Canadian High Commission and a forthcoming visit from a business delegation from Ghana, we 're keeping busy creating opportunities for our members globally too.

There 's much more besides this of course - but that will have to be another column for another day (I already know I 'm going to get told off for this column being too long!). So over to you - how do you want to get set for the Games?

Henrietta Brealey is chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of commerce.

This column first appeared in yesterday 's Birmingham Post.