The head of logistics for London's hugely successful 2012 Olympics has revealed how his next mammoth project has brought him to the UAE.
Alan Williams, UPS vice president for Expo 2020 Dubai, said the world famous international event presented a massive challenge for organisers.
Expo Dubai starts in October 2020 and runs through to April 2021. The show travels around the world to a different city every four years to showcase the latest in human ingenuity.
Speaking exclusively to The National, Mr Williams said his team was already hard at work planning for the mega event.
He said part of his role was to plan for the unexpected; which in Dubai’s case meant the potential for sandstorms.
“This is the first time an expo is being held in the UAE and the first time an expo of this scale has ever taken place,” he said.
“The biggest challenge is the unknowns because within the Olympics there is pretty much a set formula on how to do certain things.
“You know what sports will take place and you know who is coming. The challenge with the expo is there are a lot of unknowns.”
About 180 countries will participate in the first world fair in the Middle East and North Africa region, and an estimated 70 per cent visitors are expected from overseas, the biggest numbers in expo history.
Logistically, the challenge is immense. The current UPS team of 12 will grow to nearly 1,000. A dedicated warehouse is being planned on the expo site to be ready by the end of next year to store supplies that will then be distributed across the 4.38 sq km grounds.
At present, material from air conditioner bolts to building supplies for the expo takes up 1,000 sq mts of the company’s Jebel Ali warehouse.
“The best way to explain event logistics is that if you have a venue and you turn the site upside down, everything that falls out of that site apart from the people is probably put there by logistics,” said Mr Williams.
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“Items on the inventory can cover all sorts of sizes from site maintenance equipment to air conditioning. It could be a piece of construction 20m long or it could be a small courier package. Part of what we are doing is finding out what is being produced in a particular country, determining the mode of transport and making it available at the time when it needs to be on site,” he said.
The expo has already begun affecting the way goods are transported to the emirate.
The UPS network previously shipped items from the UAE to Dubai through Europe but in February the company’s new 747-8F freighter, the largest plane in its network, began daily non-stop flights from the US to Dubai slashing transit time by a day.
The logistics team are already preparing for various contingencies so there are few surprises when the doors open.
They learnt from watching thousands of flights cancelled across Europe and the UK when drifting ash from an Icelandic volcano closed European air space in 2010. Despite the eruption happening two years before the London Olympics, Mr Williams said it was an important lesson for planners to prepare for the unexpected anywhere in the world.
“It’s the unknown unknowns that you have to try to indent. We had a good lesson in 2010. We started thinking ‘What if that happened during the Olympics? What would be the impact on logistics?’ We developed a volcano contingency plan that luckily we didn’t have to use,” he said.
The company is also testing technology including robotics, drones, electric cars and smart systems in its European laboratory that it may introduce them to the expo site.
“One of the purposes of the expo is to give the world a glimpse of what tomorrow is going to look like so our opportunity is to show the world what logistics of the future will look like. Whether it is drones, 3D or blockchain, we are looking to figure out how we can apply it to the expo,” Mr Williams said.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills