The Natural Stoneshow 2011 / 15th - 17th March 2011

London's selection as the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games has stimulated one of the biggest construction and regeneration initiatives in Europe with the ensuing building investment set to top £6.09 billion.

Located at ExCeL, the Natural Stone Show is situated just 1.5 miles from the 500 acre Olympic Park that lies at the heart of London's plans for the 2012 Games. This provides a golden opportunity for exhibitors to pitch for new projects in March 2011.

Approximately £1.4 billion has been budgeted for the 'Big 5' venues within the Olympic Park which encompass the 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium; the Aquatics Centre; the Velopark; the Athletes' Village; and a state of the art Broadcast and Press Centre. A further £800 million will be spent redeveloping the Lower Lea Valley.

ExCeL itself will host seven Olympic sports and five Paralympic events providing four arenas with between 6,000 and 10,000 seats for boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.

The Olympic Village will offer guaranteed accommodation for every athlete and team official, with more than 17,000 beds in total. And after the Games, the Olympic Village will lie at the heart of one of Europe's largest urban regeneration projects. The converted village alone will provide 3,600 homes and in total 9,000 new homes will be created in the Olympic Park area.

The ripple affect of the Olympics throughout East London will also boost retail, office and hotel developments in the area with an additional 15,000 hotel rooms available by 2012 within 50km of the Olympic Park.

Around £7 billion worth of transport infrastructure spend was planned before the award of the Games and this has now been stepped up to be ready for 2012. Projects include the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and extensions to the Docklands Light Railway and East London Line. Also planned is the refurbishment and modernisation of all London Underground stations together with a £225 million upgrade of Stratford rail station.

It is against this dynamic construction background that the 2011 Natural Stone Show is confident of providing exciting opportunities for its exhibitors.

See www.construct2012.co.uk and www.london2012.com for more information about the Olympic developments.