It was a fantastic occasion involving local performers, school children and athletes, along with representatives from across the Games partnership. The clock is in Birmingham’s recently-redeveloped Centenary Square. It’s great that we now have a focal point for the Games in the heart of the city centre, providing a visual reminder that the city is hosting one of the biggest sport and cultural events in the world, when all eyes will be on Birmingham and the West Midlands region.

The clock is sponsored by Longines and on Monday it was announced that the Swiss watchmaker has now joined Birmingham 2022 as official partner and timekeeper for the Games. In fact, they’ve taken their commitment to Commonwealth sport to an unprecedented level by signing up to sponsor the next three editions of the Games.

The Birmingham 2022 sponsor family is growing fast, with Longines the third sponsor to come on board for Birmingham 2022, with Gowling WLG announced as official legal advisers last year and just last month we announced our partnership with Gi Group, our official recruiter for the Games.

It’s been a busy but exciting start to the year for the Birmingham 2022 team and just a few days before the countdown clock reveal, we launched our new community programme - United by Birmingham 2022 - with the help of England netballer and Gold Coast gold medallist, Ama Agbeze, our official ambassador for the programme.

United by Birmingham 2022 is a unique opportunity for us to team up with not-for-profit organisations that are doing amazing things in their communities, through projects that are aligned to our vision and mission for the Games. 

It is a chance for us to shine a light on grassroots organisations that are having a positive impact on the communities they serve across a diverse range of projects and they’ll be able to use our new community programme logo in their communications and at events, to help amplify their activity.

The Games is so much more than 11 days of sport and the community programme is just one way that we are working with local organisations, to ensure that as many local people as possible benefit from Birmingham’s hosting of the Games.

The start of 2020 has also seen some major steps forward for some of our key venues for the Games. In January, planning approval was granted for the redevelopment of the Alexander Stadium and last month major construction work began at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.

I was delighted to join Sandwell Council, which is overseeing the construction of the aquatics centre, in welcoming the new Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, and the new Minister for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, Nigel Huddleston, to the construction site. Their enthusiasm for this project and for the Games was obvious to everyone in attendance.

Because the West Midlands region is already blessed with a huge number of excellent sports facilities, the aquatics centre is the only brand-new venue being built for the Games. It’s going to be the perfect venue for our swimming and diving competitions, with the state-of-the-art facility set to include a 50-metre Olympic-sized swimming pool, as well as a 25m diving pool and a community swimming pool and it was clear from our visit in February that lots of progress has already been made.

The redevelopment of the Alexander Stadium, which is being overseen by Birmingham City Council, is at the heart of its wider effort to regenerate Perry Barr and following planning approval work is set to start very soon. We’ll be able to accommodate more than 30,000 people at Games-time, but the permanent seating capacity will also grow from 12,700 to 18,000 and post-Games it will be an important venue for sporting, leisure, community and cultural events for years to come.

The third major construction project for the Games is of course the Village, which is also located in Perry Barr. The subject of much discussion recently and Birmingham City Council’s cabinet will be considering a revised full business case for this project next week.

Any project of this scale does of course bring with it challenges, especially when you consider the tight timescale and the huge number of other construction projects taking place in the region at the moment but if you visited the site , as I have done, you would see that a significant amount of progress has already been made.

That’s just a few of the highlights from the year so far and the rest of 2020 is set to be extremely busy too.

Our recruitment drive is really picking up pace, thanks to the support from Gi Group, and we now employ more than 70 people. We’ve got a great mix of team members with huge amounts of experience of working on major multi-sport events, working with people from the West Midlands who wanted to be part of the biggest events that this region has ever staged and who are passionate about seizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase their region to the world.

There is also a great deal of work being done by our creative team, who are playing a crucial part in ensuring that this is the Games for everyone. From our Opening and Closing Ceremonies, to our world-class cultural programme, our live sites and the Queen’s Baton Relay, Birmingham 2022 will be a region-wide celebration that will bring people together.

This part of the Games is also another chance to involve local people and groups in our planning and delivery and we recently gathered together around 400 representatives from the regional cultural community to update them on our plans and explain how they can get involved.

We also used this event to announce an exciting partnership with the Spirit of 2012, to create a new £600,000 ($736,000/€663,000) West Midlands Challenge Fund. The fund will award three to four grants, ranging from £150,000 ($184,000/€166,000) to £200,000 ($245,000/€221,000) to local organisations that create projects that bring disabled and non-disabled people together to participate in arts and cultural activities as equals.

Our legacy planning continues at pace, especially as we’ve recently added five community experts to this team, all of who will be helping to ensure that the city, the region and the country is maximising the benefits of us hosting the biggest sporting event that Britain has staged since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A new Director of Legacy will be joining soon and leading the day-to-day work on behalf of Games Partners and a legacy plan will be unveiled later in the year.

Our procurement programme is also continuing at speed with the team regularly engaging with a huge number of local and regional businesses via events, presentations and exhibitions, ensuring that as many as possible know about the tender opportunities that are coming and providing advice on how they can get ready for the procurement process.

Now that the countdown clock is ticking, we are even more conscious of exactly how long we have to deliver the Games but with great progress being made and strong partnership in place, we are very confident that Birmingham 2022 will be an amazing edition of the Commonwealth Games, bringing pride and joy to the people of Birmingham, the region and beyond.