Tomorrow sees the start of the acclaimed Social Media Week here in London and I’m delighted to have been asked to chair a ‘fireside chat’ with Alex Balfour.  Alex has been at the forefront of bringing to the world the most social Olympics there has ever been and no doubt encountered many challenges, as well as successes, along the way.

Opening this Social Media Week you will hear about the trials, tribulations and successes behind the digital success of the games.  For 6 years he has devoted his life to making sure everything has been prefect and overseen the development of the London 2012 website, mobile apps and social media presence.

Get the inside story on delivering the digital experience for the world’s best games.  The numbers are staggering: At LOCOG, Alex’s six years of work culminated in the delivery of 77 digital channels including london2012.com, volunteering, education, online shop, mobile apps and social media presences. During the 16 days of the Olympic Games London 2012 channels recorded 431m visits, 109m unique users, 15m app downloads, 4.73bn page views and 4.7m social followers.

Prior to his work on the London Olympics, he co-founded CricInfo.com from a raw start up into a profitable business with 20 million customers and 140 staff in eight countries. He raised £25 million in four funding rounds and generated £2m of profitable turnover making CricInfo the only independent sports dotcom to survive the boom and bust of the late 90s. CricInfo was sold to ESPN in the summer of 2007.