CleanEvent Services secured a 3-week contract to deliver event cleaning services to the highly successful IAAF World Championships London 2017 and the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships.
To fulfill the needs of the Championships, we drew on the great experience gained from our work with the London 2012 Olympics. This extensive expertise made us a perfect fit to deal with the range of complexities associated with mobilising and operating cleaning services for an event of this scale.
Challenges
Our responsibilities involved pre-, during, and post-cleaning for all events at London Stadium, in concert with the stadium operator, Vinci Facilities. Besides our event cleaning services, we also continuously provided for the athletes’ apartment cleaning needs.
With 245 events and 3,300 athletes from around the globe attending, this was the first time that both the IAAF World Championships and the World Para Athletics Championships would take place in the same city.
The 750,000 attendees of the IAAF World Championships witnessed athletic events which are cited as being the most competitive and compelling of all time.
During the games, we also identified that a number of athletes had become infected with Norovirus at an off-site accommodation, further complicating matters and demanding a rapid response to the outbreak.
What we delivered
Norovirus Outbreak
As soon as the outbreak was identified, CleanEvent Services sprung into action and instigated a detailed hygiene programme for London Stadium.
Drawing on experiences from an outbreak at Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games, the team were quickly able to start a professional and discreet cleaning programme and provide bespoke event cleaning services. Using the bleach-based chemical needed to kill the virus, the rapid and effective action taken by the CleanEvent team stopped the outbreak from spreading, and the championships were able to proceed without a significant disruption.
Set up and Breakdown
Our ongoing contract at the London Stadium sees us work closely with the stadium operator through three complex mobilisations during the Summer. The transition from an EFL Football venue to a concert venue, international Athletics venue and the back again to a football configuration requires high levels of flexibility and competency in our operating teams. The varied programme of events keeps our planning and delivery teams busy throughout the year.
We were able to use this intimate knowledge of the venue to continuously provide high-quality event cleaning services to the Championships, ensuring a truly hygienic and comfortable experience for athletes and spectators alike.
Our Results
Over the course of the two events:
- We ran a 24 hour cleaning operation continuously for 60 days
- Over 30,000 cleaning hours were deployed
- We ran 10 turnover sessions with an average time of 105 minutes to clean the stadium from top to bottom in preparations for an evening session
- Our cleaning supervisors represented 7 different countries, ranging from Europe to the Far East
- A total of 19,458 toilet rolls were used
We also received recognition from the stadium operator and the Championships organizers for our event cleaning services.
“I want to thank CleanEvent Services for all the commitment and hard work that you gave to these events and their successful delivery. It should not be underestimated the magnitude of what was achieved.”
-David Hewins, Senior Project Manager at Vinci Facilities.
Having worked on the project for 6 months, the Saturday stadium bowl turnaround was highlighted as a risk. It was therefore fantastic to watch it unfold without any fuss or stress…The stadium cleanliness and service was outstanding, especially during overnights and turnarounds.”
-Henry Kilbee, Head of Catering, Cleaning and Waste at London 2017 commented “