Mike Gibbons is Head of Live Sites and UK Coordination for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
During the next four years, subject to London 2012 sponsor funding, and in partnership with the BBC and the relevant city, Mike and his team have to install large LED screens in urban centres across the United Kingdom as part of the programme to bring the Olympic Games in 2012 to as many people as possible. These screens will then be a legacy of the 2012 Games.
Prior to joining LOCOG, Mike worked for the BBC for over thirty years, as well as running arts and education projects in media and music. He was previously Project Director, BBC Live Events where he set up a pilot project to establish what is now a network of nine Big Screens in the Public Space Broadcasting Project. This led to being part of the first Urban Screens Conference in Amsterdam 2005 and being Chair of Manchester Urban Screens Conference 2007.
Other BBC work included staging major broadcast festivals and concerts, working on major projects such as The Queen's Golden Jubilee, Live 8 and Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002. Before that, Mike ran radio stations and was a TV & Radio Producer. He's still a working musician if he can ever find the time!
Day 2: Saturday 4th October,Session 2: Public screens and public space broadcasting: a new public sphere?
'Live Sites UK'
Live Sites are a legacy outcome of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Based on the Big Screen experiment over the past five years by the BBC with towns & cities across the UK, Live Sites aims to set up a network of screen partnerships based, for the first time, on a true content and technial network.
The exploration of the Live Sites theory and review of the first three months of practice will take us through the ever-present mix of interests from the cultural and commercial sectors involving artists, public broadcasters, non-commercial funders, community partners, sporting and artistic activities both on-screen and in person. The evaluation of access, participation, engagement and interactivity will be key to the extension of the Live Sites project from its first phase into a mature network and the subject of the USM08 session.
