Examination of Witnesses (Questions 160 - 167)
WEDNESDAY 8 JULY 1998
MR ROBERT AYLINGand MS JENNIE PAGE.
160. Have you got an opening night production company or producer?
Have you got a group looking at this?
(Ms Page) We have certainly got a group looking
at what is going to happen inside the Dome. It is our intention
to develop a specific event for that night which is not going
to be, as it were, the opening night of the central show which
is available during the Millennium Experience but which will quite
clearly draw on some of the facilities provided for that central
show and discussions about that are already under way.
161. You have appointed a director for the show?
(Ms Page) We are planning to use Mark Fisher who is also
working on the central show because of the sense of using some
of the facilities for the central show. Clearly a lot of other
people will also be involved.
162. Let me just change tack. In the carfree environment
what happens if physically there are queues going through the
Blackwall Tunnel forever in the first two weeks given it is also
holiday time? How are you going to stop cars?
(Ms Page) Every ticket is likely contain the equivalent
of a Please Leave your Car At Home message on it. We are going
to make it absolutely clear in all our marketing material and
in all the access to tickets that you cannot park on the site
or in the vicinity of the site. As far as the operation of the
Blackwall Tunnel is concerned that of course is a matter for the
transport authorities but we are determined working with them
to ensure that there is sufficient dispersion of information on
the normal media which convey traffic information, the local radio
stations and so on, to make sure people know if they are going
about their normal business if there is trouble in the vicinity
of the Greenwich peninsula.
163. Given the concerns of everyone that there could be some
trouble which is what we do not want, in your marketing do you
intend to take advertising on ITV and Channel Four and other commercial
stations in the six months before that do say that in black and
white? Have you got a marketing plan we can see that looks at
this area?
(Ms Page) We have a marketing strategy which is
being worked up in detail over the coming months and which it
would be commercially sensitive to reveal at this stage. We quite
clearly intend to provide in our marketing budget for the possibility
of television advertising. Given that the carfree nature
of the experience is an essential characteristic of it we quite
clearly will be making sure that that message gets across as part
of our marketing.
164. Finally, there is a wish certainly from the Department of
Culture, Media and Sport that we bid for the Olympics in 2012
as there is a feeling we would not get it in 2008 because of the
hemisphere changes, north and south or east and west. What conversations
and meetings are you having with the British Olympic Committee
to look to see whether this is an appropriate site?
(Mr Ayling) Mr Chairman, I am as interested as
anyone in ensuring that an Olympic Games comes to this country
but I think it is a bit beyond the responsibilities of our company
which I hope will end successfully on 31 December of the year
2000. We believe that we should have some interest in the legacy,
that is to say what it can be used for afterwards and obviously
we want to make sure that the structures are capable of being
used in the future, but beyond that it is a matter for the Government
and the British Olympic Association and not for us.
Mr Fearn
165. I was interested when you said that there are small slices
and corners which are not yet filled. From that point of view,
six weeks ago an ordinary person came into my surgery and brought
in a Millennium clock which he had made and invented, not that
he wants to commercialise it or anything, he just likes to do
this sort of thing. Is there anywhere in the Dome where an ordinary
person can exhibit something of which he is very proud? I sent
photographs to yourself. You probably will not have seen them
because you have minions below you. I would have thought I would
have had an answer or acknowledgement before now - this is six
weeks ago - but that is beside the point. Are there small little
parts of the big Dome where perhaps ordinary people who are into
the enthusiasm of the Millennium Experience can do something like
that? His was one and I never thought of it until he brought the
clock in. I have sent you photographs of it. Is there anywhere
in that Dome where ordinary people can join in that experience
apart from coming and paying 20 quid to get in?
(Ms Page) First of all, I am very sorry if you
have not had a letter. I do not recollect receiving it and while
you may think there are minions I have to tell you that there
are not a lot of minions and I do in actual fact try and look
at most of the correspondence that comes through. We do of course
have thousands of suggestions from ordinary people who have ideas
about what should be in the Dome and we attempt to handle those
speedily and courteously. I personally would like to find somewhere
in the Dome where we can not exactly put it up to first come first
served but find somebody who is prepared to look at the vast range
of ideas that have been put in and, as it were, tell a story about
the way in which the Millennium has inspired people to think differently
be it to develop a clock or be it to think about ways in which
life might be lived in the future. In particular I would like
to see some of the work which children send in exhibited there.
We already have a lot of school parties going through the Historic
Visitor Centre in Greenwich and we always have a selection of
their work exhibited there. Some of the work that has been sent
to the company and has been sent to Peter Mandelson is first class
and really fascinating and a wonderful record in its own right
of the way that people are starting to think what the event means
and what the future might be like.
166. I hope you find a small space for things like that, that
would be good.
(Ms Page) We are certainly going to look at it
to see if we can.
Chairman
167. Thank you very much indeed. Mr Ayling?
(Mr Ayling) Mr Chairman, if I could just finish.
Mr Fearn's point reminded me that it was a English clockmaker
who caused us to be here at all. If Harrison had not invented
a clock that allowed us to measure longitude we would not have
had the Greenwich Meridian and would not have had the event. I
wanted, if I may Chairman, to record my personal gratitude for
all of the work that has been done by so many people so far including
Jenny Page and all of her colleagues and also the people who have
been responsible for the construction of the project, the design
of the project, the planning of the content who have brought us
as far as we are got. We have a long way to go but a lot of people
have worked well beyond the ordinary call of duty and I think
it would be appropriate to thank them.
Chairman: We have it on the record, Mr Ayling. Thank you
very much indeed. We look forward to seeing you later on in the
year.
| 
