London work Wednesday-Friday

Back in London on Wednesday ready for the appointments I have made for the rest of this week. I spent lunchtime on Thursday catching up with Janet - it was lovely to see her. She is doing well- very into her dru yoga. We haven't managed to catchup at home at all - so lunch in London was a memorable time with her.

Later on Thursday I met with Elina Michopoulou from the University of Surrey. Elina spent time working on the OSSATE project and has strong knowledge in e-tourism and the requirements in developing information systems such as we want to do. This meeting was really worthwhile and I value Elina's comments and time. I look forward to further communication with Elina as we progress our project at home.

Preparations for the Olympics to be held in London in 2012 is providing opportunities for improvements to accessibility of the host city and London is obviously realising this. The opportunity to increase the knowledge and availability of accessible tourism product information is evident and I will watch with interest the outcome. There are a number of key players in the UK providing information on accessible tourism with a number of different approaches. My aim is to meet with as many as I can on this trip and I am well on my way.

My next meeting was with Jenny Littman the CEO for Tourism for all. A UK Based organisation progressing the call for inclusive and accessible tourism. Another very engaging conversation with lots of information and knowledge gained about the UK system.

On Friday I arranged another couple of meetings. I met with Dan Biddle from Direct Enquiries. Dan showed me the database that Direct Enquiries work with and how their commercial model works. This was really interesting to see an online directory of accessible tourism product that appears to be based on a commercial model. More food for thought.....

My last meeting on Friday was with a representative from the UK Government's Office of Disability Issues which sits (this week) within the Department of Work and pensions. This was another fruitful conversation where I heard and learnt about the disability information housed on the DirectGov website - what drives this website and how the content is managed. Another contact for down the track.