What’s it like working at the Olympics?


Chris Hoy,Event Review,Gandhi,Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall,Jessica Ennis,Lee Valley White Water Centre,London 2012,My WEXO Experience,STEP,UPS,Usain Bolt — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 11:06 am on June 27, 2012  

30 days until the Olympics. Whilst the rest of London is busy organising the chaos that will encroach upon our daily lives we ask 2 of our WEXO recruits a few questions on working at the biggest sporting event in the world:

The best thing about working at the Olympic Games:
Being able to say: “I worked at the London 2012 Olympics”.

The athlete you’d most like to meet…
Jessica Ennis (I love her!)

What you would change about the Olympics?
I would bring back Rugby Union and Baseball to the Olympics, two huge world sports I feel should be a part of the event.

Stephen – Deputy Venue Logistics Manager, Lee Valley White Water Centre, Herts


The best thing about working at the Olympic Games:
I think the London Olympics will carry a lot of historic value and I am honoured to be a part of the biggest sporting event on the planet.

The athlete you’d most like to meet…
I would love to meet Usain Bolt because he’s the fastest man in the world and Chris Hoy since he walked away with 3 Gold medals at the last Olympics – a model of a great sportsman.

What you would change about the Olympics?
The Olympic viewing tower. I think it looks like a 6 year old has got hold of some meccano and tried to make a rollercoaster. Oh and the weather, let’s hope it holds out!

Henry – DVLM, Olympic Hotel Centre, Stratford



Some home truths about the Olympics:

* Gandhi once covered the Olympics as a newspaper reporter. The 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. We have no idea why – since it was right in the middle of his campaign for world peace – but he did.

* In 1900, in France, winners got paintings instead of gold medals. Gold, silver and bronze medals weren’t given out until the third modern Olympics, in 1904. The French gave the winners paintings because they believed they were more valuable.

* The first Olympic drug suspension wasn’t until 1968. At the 1968 Mexico City games, Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish pentathlete, was suspended because he tested positive for a banned substance. That substance: Alcohol. He drank several beers before the pentathlon… which was against the rules… so he was suspended.

Facts courtesy of: 11points.com

WEXO and STEP have organised paid internships and training programmes with UPS at the London 2012 Olympics for over 60 graduates.

WEXO: New year, new gear…


10 Downing Street,BIMM,Dominique Edmonds,General,Jeremy Clarkson,Mano de Dios,Politics,Robin Kennedy,Sportsvision,STEP,Student Film Festival London,UPS,WEXO — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 10:40 pm on January 4, 2012  

Happy New Year, One and All. 2012 might well be the Chinese Zodiac Year of The Dragon but (despite protests about a new stamp in China) I am told that the dragon is best known for its abilities to “exorcise evil spirits and offer blessings”. So perhaps we will see the back of Jeremy Clarkson (opinion is divided here as to his appeal) and a host of new employment options?

I wanted to take this opportunity to update you all on a few new things that are going on at WEXO Towers and seek your thoughts on some others. I’ll start by saying that at the end of last year, we welcomed Dominique Edmonds to the team. Dominique was brought up in Surrey before attending the Bristol Institute of Modern Music and will be working as my assistant both on WEXO and the other major project I am involved in – the management of Mano de Dios who release their debut album on 23rd January. Previously, Dom worked as an Events Coordinator at Sportsvision and in true WEXO tradition has also held down a number of other roles ranging from working as a snowboard guide to pulling pints! She will be a valuable member of a team which is set to grow in the next few months. We are hoping to announce the appointment of a Recruitment Director and Business Development Director in the coming weeks and we will likely be taking on a few paid interns once these shoes are comfortably filled…

With that in mind, perhaps the most exciting development last year (as well as hosting Marco Pierre White at one of our WEXO events, visiting No.10 and being asked to work with the Student Film Festival London) was being selected to front the graduate recruitment for Deputy Venue Logistics Managers with UPS at the London 2012 Olympics. Working with STEP, we have helped place 60 candidates but still have another 20-30 positions to fill so do please apply and we can all do our little bit to make 2012 a phenomenal success. There are plenty of other roles on the site which we are continuing to develop as larger opportunities in the recruitment world present themselves. In the meantime, we are helping prepare a paper on the issues surrounding work experience, internships and apprenticeships (together with NDotM / The Creative Society) and would value your feedback. All responses will be considered for a draw for 2 tickets to watch one of the Olympic events.

1. What do you consider to be the key distinctions between internships and apprenticeships?

2. Is it unfair that students are not allowed to collect Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) if doing work experience or unpaid internships?

3. Should the government be doing more to educate the nation about the distinctions between work experience internships and apprenticeships and to encourage or incentivise companies to offer more paid employment for young people?

We look forward to helping make a year of achievement for us all. More importantly though, here’s to a happy and healthy one.

Robin Kennedy, Co-founder and Managing Director