London Ambassadors Module 1

I've mentioned before that I'm going to be a London Ambassador during the Olympic Games in the summer. The job is to hang out in tourist hotspots and help them enjoy London and the Games, so there will be groups of Ambassadors at places like airports and rail stations, around Olympic venues, Trafalgar Square and around the river. My patch is the Southbank, around the London Eye, the Royal Festival Hall and National Theatre, an area that is packed with tourists all year round.

On Friday I met up with around 40 other Ambassadors for our first training session. This session focused on information about the role, what's expected of us, what we should and shouldn't do and a few group exercises on how to deal with a wide range of questions from visitors to London from around the UK and around the globe. The second training session will be in a month or so and will be about customer care. The final session will be on-site to get familiar with our patch, local security arrangements and what the facilities are. We also had sight of the uniform...

The first thing we were asked was not to take any photos of the uniform - there've been no leaks so far and I'm not going to be the one to leak it. I was expecting the worst but it's really not too bad and will certainly make us visible. I actually quite liked it. I'll need to buy some black shoes or trainers (I don't do black footwear) but that's no hardship.

I've known I'll be an Ambassador for months now but the session on Friday somehow makes it seem more real - the Olympics are only six months away now. There are 8,000 Ambassadors and we've all been allocated a time and location to do our bit over the period of the Olympics and Para-Olympics. The thing I was pleased about was the enthusiasm in the room from people from all sorts of backgrounds who just want to get involved in this once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of the greatest show on Earth. And it's all happening in London.