James Tibbetts, Executive Director of Operations and Delivery Advisory at Trivandi - Leaders in the design, delivery and operation of major events, projects and venues.
Ten years ago today was Day 1 of the 2014 Yorkshire Grand Depart of Le Tour de France - the first live race day of the biggest project of my professional career.
Yorkshire 2014 was one of the most incredible events I have ever had the privilege of leading the Operational Delivery team on, with an amazing team of event professionals, local authority organisers, national stakeholders and some of the best emergency services leaders that I have ever had the pleasure of working alongside. It was a true, national team effort to deliver and amazing to be a part of.
Over the three days, we welcomed over 4.8m spectators lining the routes - from the Opening Ceremony and start line in Leeds, through to the Royals of William, Kate and Harry starting the race at Harewood House, over Buttertubs Pass (something Trivandi worked on at the time with Spectator Planning) to the finish in Harrogate (including Mark Cavendish’s crash!). Day two saw the race roll out from York down to Sheffield and then Day three from Cambridge through Essex down to finish on the Mall in London on the Monday afternoon - something that has never been done in the UK capital before, nor has it since!
The whole event was controlled from a Multi Agency MOC at in West Yorkshire Police's Wakefield HQ and TFL's Palestra in London, with over 3.5bn people watching live on TV as the race crossed the UK - and we, working in partnership with ASO, put on a fantastic show for the world. The full impact report can be found here.
TdFHUB2014 was created 10 months prior, to manage the event in partnership and with the coordination of UK Sport, A.S.O. - Amaury Sport Organisation, Welcome to Yorkshire, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 14 Local Authorities across stages 1&2, the Greater London Authority, numerous London Boroughs, Transport for London and others coordinated by Tim Owen LVO FRSA RIBA FIEM and LOSPG (I still have my thank-you badge!), over 8 Police Forces, 5 NHS Ambulance regions, 7 Fire & Rescue Authorities, the MOD, COBR, the CAA, various TOC’s, Transport Authorities, the Highways Agency, Royal Parks and so on and so on… the scale of the stakeholder participation from over 100 organisations was vast, and incredible to see in action.
My Creds from the Grand Depart in 2014
In delivering the event, we collectively deployed (and cleared up) over 30,000 traffic cones, 100km of crowd control barriers over 300 miles of road closures - manned by over 7,000 stewards and 8,000 volunteer ‘Tour Makers’ that we recruited, vetted, trained and deployed over the three days. Yorkshire created enough bunting to cross the channel six times (and pulled over lamp-posts with its weight when we put it up and it then rained!), we closed airspace, moved millions of spectators in crowd management plans, and reduced the impact on the NHS Emergency Services across Yorkshire by over 21% with our medical plan. We built 20 Spectator Live sites, with the capacity of over four times the size of Glastonbury Festival.
We assured the government, security services, and worked in partnership across both UK and global agencies to deliver something spectacular. The amount of kit, equipment and manpower needed was incredible, and the coordination effort was huge by both the team and our supply chain.
We worked together, and we made it happen.
Crowds await the arrival of the race in Harrogate
The three things that I took away most from this experience were the following:
Firstly,the power of the team is everything, and that includes not just the people in your core team, but every stakeholder and supplier you impact and engage in delivery that has a role to play.If you can build those relationships, plans and contingencies together with all of these people, you can achieve a lot and be there for each other when not everything succeeds. Whilst many, many things were huge successes, the team delivered the perfect Event Swan - delivering seamlessly to the public whilst we dealt with challenges and issues behind the scenes (or under the water line!) to make things happen, all as a team in pursuit of the same goal.
A much younger me as part of a readiness event in Harrogate.
Secondly -there is never enough time, but it’s how you make the most of what you have that counts.From the first site visits and route drives that we carried out with Jean-Louis Pagès and Peter Dodd, through to the day of the event, it was a race against time. We needed all of the country’s event kit, quickly, and needed to deploy and manage it. Plan early, procure early, manage it well, and have contingencies in place for when things don’t go as you planned.
The legend that is Jean-Louis Pages deciding the finish line of Stage 2 in Sheffield on the first site visit.
Finally, The pressure cooker of major event delivery gives you some of thestrongest relationships and friends for lifein this crazy world many of us now call our industry. I made some incredible life-long friends and connections both through the team we built at TdFHUB but also through the incredible partnerships we cultivated and enjoyed. It has been amazing over the last ten years to see the careers of many of the team that delivered the Grand Depart flourish and thrive inwhat I believe is the best industry on the planet to work in.
Many of us still work together today, and still use the lessons we learned through delivering 2014 in everything we do (or don’t do!) moving forward in our daily lives. Some went back to day jobs in Local Authorities, some have retired, and very sadly some have passed on, but everyone should be incredibly proud of what they contributed, and the role they played in such a landmark event for the UK.
Dan and I on the Mall in London on Stage 3
It was an incredible event to have been involved with, and is testament to the determination of everyone involved to put on such an unparalleled event that the UK is, and remains incredibly proud of. It is still one of the largest free-to-attend sporting events that the UK has ever hosted, and something that I will cherish and remember for the rest of my career.
To everyone that worked on Yorkshire 2014 and those three days that the Tour came to the UK, thank you for some incredible memories, learnings and fun times a decade ago. I hope you’re all well and thriving, and hope our paths cross again in the future!