Can you feel it?

We all know about it.  We can watch it on television. It’s waged half way around the world and costs billions of dollars. It’s a drain on the economy. We’re defending our country and those who are representing us are who we care about. It’s not the war in Afghanistan. It’s the Olympic Games.

 Can you feel it? Olympic Fever. We’re coming down with it. 

Every two years now, our country faces the competition.  The rest of the world wants to beat us and we want to rack up as many medals as we can. London will be my 10^th Olympiad with some involvement. I’m not counting some minor efforts in three other editions. Over the years,  I’ve worked for sponsors, for athletes, for non-profits, for venues and for organizing committees. Each competition has been in a different locale but the similarities in the activities around the events are pretty amazing.

One thing I’ve learned for certain is that no matter how much advance planning there is, when the opening ceremonies arrive, the operations become free form.  Most of the spectators come from driving distance. Sponsors never use all their benefits and, except for some of the giant multinationals, they are never entirely satisfied.  Locals ALWAYS grumble about the disruption and, during the competition itself, there are always tickets available, usually at a reduced price.  In Beijing, they were giving away thousands of tickets a day just to fill the stands.  The opening ceremonies have the best attendance. Track & Field is always the hot ticket. And the winter games are a crapshoot every time because of the weather and access to the competition, though ice skating draws great crowds, as does hockey…for sure, if you’re in Canada, eh.

For me, it began with 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York…the year of the “Miracle on Ice” for the US Hockey Team.  I was working with K2 Skis and helped put together their successful bid to be the “Official Ski”.  The original K2 Skis were red, white and blue for a reason.  They were made for the USA Women’s Ski Team.

Customer entertainment is a major factor in any sponsorship and it certainly was in Lake Placid, Calgary and Sarajevo, especially with the Mahre twins, Phil and Steve becoming my clients and winning medals like they were going out of style.  In Atlanta, I worked for Coca-Cola and Helly Hansen (sailing in Savannah). My connections with Coke’s agency McCann Ericson tied me in with them.  The bombing unfortunately put a damper on the enthusiasm at that entire event.  The crisis communications work does trickle down to all the sponsors but especially if you’re in the world headquarters of a company like Coke.

We had just completed organizing and promoting one of our around the world sailing races with a stop in Sydney, when the Olympics showed up there.  Our local corporate contacts, as well as some of the sports organizers there, brought me into the fold to help with international communications and crisis work. Australians certainly have their own way of doing things.  They don’t take advice particularly well but somehow things seem to work out for the best.

Lillehammer and Salt Lake were mostly about long-time client Helly Hansen.  Lillehammer is a cool little  village of about 25,000 people and they did an amazing job of entertaining the world.  Helly is a very Norwegian company with a well-manufactured product. They took great pride in playing a major role in hosting the Olympics.  The organizing committee there was completely engaged and took their job very seriously.  That focus really paid off for them.  In Salt Lake, we also worked with Snowbird Resort, an established client that was one of the host venues.  Friend and owner Dick Bass would not let the Olympics come to town without making a major commitment.  And I did see Mitt Romney, but, no, I didn’t work with him.

The small group of Olympic specialists who travel the world from one Games to next that I have gotten to know over the years, brought me into the Beijing Games.  That event will be very hard to match…ever.  The entire country was behind the effort (or had to be) and no holds were barred.  The commitment was clear and it was a spectacular production. It was a truly enlightening experience to see how the organizers handled it all.

Vancouver was a great host. I saw them through several difficult situations that they managed very carefully and, for the most part, effectively.  The death of a luge competitor in practice before the opening ceremonies and the overzealous celebration after the Canadian win on the ice were both handled with care and compassion.  I was impressed.  And I even got my own cameo on NBC during the Today Show while talking to Jane, who was in Florida visiting her sister and saw me there live on the telly.  Pretty cool.

So now , it’s on to London.  I love the city.  We’ve been travelling there for decades.  It is full of history and the Royals.  We have close friends there and I buy my socks at  Marks & Spencer…wouldn’t feel right without them.  The organizers have the right idea.  They are not trying to compete with previous Games, especially Beijing.  They are going to do things their way, within their budget during these hard times.  It is bound to be fun and exciting on the field.  I mostly want it to be safe.  Jane and I will be there and I’ll let you know how it’s going and what it’s like.  You’ll see the competition on television.  I hope to tell you what’s going on in the concourse, on the river, in the tube and in the neighborhood pub. Cheers for now.

Gone Native...

You’re a native of the place where you were born. Being a local means you’ve lived there for a very long time.  The distinction may be subtle but, to many, it’s important.

The 50^th Anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair has brought the Seattle natives out in full force.  Everywhere I go it seems someone is talking about their early years either right before or right after the Fair. There are natives everywhere but Seattle’s distinct personality makes being born here something a little more special. Yakima, Spokane, Wenatchee, Tacoma, even Bellevue don't count. I'm talking Seattle city limits. Knowing your parents best friends and growing up with their children are badges of honor. Learning to ski in the passes as a child and hiking at Mt. Rainier on the weekends made for the best kind of childhood.  Being a babe in arms when the World’s Fair came along or having your mother carry you to the first round of King Tut in the 70’s or seeing the last movie at the 5^th Avenue Theatre are privileged experiences …and being a Patches Pal, well, what more can you say than that.

It was the 50^th Anniversary of the groundbreaking for the Space Needle that got me started thinking about Seattle natives.  I was asked to find as many of the folks involved in envisioning, building and opening the Needle as I could.  It was quite an interesting task and the group of people assembled said a lot about  Seattle and its natives.  The most common denominators are a pioneering spirit and an entrepreneurial bent. Seattle’s settlers were lumberjacks, fishermen, forest rangers and businessmen…and women. And their children and their children’s children inherited that drive.

When we had three generations of Seattle Natives painting the roof of the Space Needle back to its original color of galaxy gold, my friend C. David Hughbanks was flooded with memories of working at the World’s Fair. It made him giddy. And local writer extraordinaire, Knute “Skip” Berger, who pens regularly under the name “Mossback” (he looks like one too) relishes every minute of growing up here. Right down to seeing the Space Needle under construction from the Smith Tower as an 8-year-old Cub Scout.

Though in many ways I now wish I was, I am not a native.  Seattle has become my life.  I got in just under the wire before former daily columnist Emmett Watson formed the KBO, “Keep the Bastards Out”.  I was here to see Bill Kirschner build his first pair of red, white and blue K2 Skis on Vashon Island. And I was here to watch Jan sewing up bags that would go on the new framepacks named after her “JanSport”.  I knew Gordon Bowker before he went to Italy and came back with an affinity for coffee that he named Starbucks. The only Bill Gates we first heard about was Senior, who was our corporate lawyer. I could go on but still, I’m not a native.

I actually envy people who have lived in one place all their lives…even those who went away and then came back. Until I came to Seattle, I was a military transient.  My father was overseas when I was born and didn’t see me until I was almost 2 years old…had to be shocking, I’m sure. Mom and I lived with the grandparents on their farm until dad got home. Then I have vague recollections of a couple different houses and communities where we lived but, by the time I started school, we were on a non-stop one-year-turn-around… 13 schools (all public) in 12 years (two 5^th grades). Although college and grad school found me in one place for most of five years, my parents moved three times while I was getting my degrees before settling in the “Other” Washington.

 My “lifetime” friends are all from college and beyond.  Recollections of my public school days are frankly pretty dim.  I barely had time to get to know my classmates before moving on. The first 20 years of my life were mostly about the experiences, not the people…although Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay did bring their daughter Mariska to our house for dinner one time…but that’s another story.

First generation Seattlites are a breed among themselves. Some speak Norwegian or Swedish.  Others, Chinese or Canadian or Yiddish. I have to say that some of my best friends are natives.  The stories they tell about parents and grandparents growing this city fascinate me to no end. Building skyscrapers like the Smith Tower. Digging the ship canal. Putting in Highway 99, the only freeway we had for years. And, perhaps the ultimate, being involved in building the Space Needle. That is an unparalleled benchmark in this town.

When someone tells me that they know so-and-so because they went to BF Day Elementary or Franklin High School with them or that their best friends were Beavers too (Ballard, that is), I know I’m in the presence of a true homey.  In deference to my Cougar friends, UW is virtually a pre-requisite higher-ed experience for the natives. As is being an original member of the Brothers Four folk group. And if you worked at the World’s Fair, driving a pedi-cab, working at an international pavilion or selling balloons, you hold a treasured place in many hearts.

Seattle natives are a discerning group.  Some have even left the city because “it’s not really Seattle anymore”.  It’s even changed pretty dramatically since I’ve been here.  The percentage of out-of-towners to natives is much larger now. Sometime I’ll tell you the story of the president of a major local bank (no longer in existence) saying that he and his senior management group agreed that the presentation by my new company was by far the best they’d heard but they just couldn’t do business with someone who wasn’t originally from Seattle.

In spite of all the rambling I did in my younger years, I’ve spent most of my adult life in Seattle. I’m often asked if all the moving around I did was hard on a kid.  My answer is that some take to it and others don’t.  Either way, it does often make you a different kind of person.  You’re not easily rattled. You’re very independent. And you’re more tolerant of others, less religious and much more liberal in your thinking than your parents. All qualities that seem to mesh pretty well with Seattle natives.

Being a Seattle native is a position of note. It’s seldom flaunted. After four decades or so here, I am still not a native. However, I do know where a lot of the bodies are buried and I can go cross-town from east to west pretty quickly by totally using residential streets. Finally, after all this time, some of my native friends are willing to grant me special dispensation as a Semi-Local. Suffice it to say, I've gone native in Seattle and I love it.