Working for the Olympics

Working for the Olympics makes for some special memories. I have spent much of my career working for large scale, public extravaganzas…The Indianapolis 500, the Winter Olympics, the America’s Cup, the Summer Olympics, the World Cup of Soccer (Football), to name a few. I’m doing now what I do for most of my clients and that is using my experience and expertise to help make decisions that will improve, enhance or revitalize the tenor of the event.

Today, this kind of work is done in many ways.  It’s meetings.  It’s emails.  It’s social media.  It’s keeping your finger on the pulse.  It’s talking to people who are part of the experience and some who aren’t or don’t want to be. Being a trusted advisor and strategist is mostly paying attention and making decisions and judgments as quickly as possible.

I say all this because working for the Olympics is not the same as “going to the Olympics”.  It’s not as much as about what’s happening on the field, as it is about what’s going on in the locker room before the match or what happened the night before in town.  I’ll get to see some competition (the live stream is always there now). As usual, we’ll show up at NBC’s Today Show set, unfortunately without my friend Ann Curry. But mostly I’ll be talking with various groups about what’s going on and why certain things are happening or not and what can we do to make the experience a better one.

Before the Games are over in London, I’ll give you my take on what London really thinks of hosting this monumental sports competition.  I’ll also share my feelings about the athletes from around the world who have devoted their lives to getting here.  The difficulties in putting on an event of this size are worthy of comment, as well.  And, finally, what is the global impact of the Olympics in today’s over-communicated society? It will only be my opinion, but that’s all I have.

Jane and I are going to get to see some close friends who live there and, who knows, there may be a Guinness or two in my future.  For sure, it’s an experience to be relished and remembered…after all, the Queen has already jumped out of a helicopter, whatever will be next?

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.

It's been a year...

We had been exploring in York, England, for a few days and stopped in Cambridge on the way back to London. After our obligatory afternoon tea on the River Cam, we headed back to our friends’ home on the bank of the Thames. We’d been there a week and, although the jet-lag was over for us, the car ride made everyone ready for a nap, except me. The radio is always on in their home and I had to listen twice when I heard “Michael Jackson has died.” His much anticipated comeback tour was to begin in London on July 8 so his name was all over the news from the time we arrived.

Michael Jackson’s death was to this generation as Elvis Presley’s was to a generation earlier. Whether you liked his music (and I did) or not, he was an icon of the times. His persona was bigger than life. He had come from being a child star with his brothers to the ultimate pop star in front of our eyes over two decades. Even when things got very weird for him in the latter years, he stayed close to his fans and became quite a philanthropist.

One of Michael’s lasting tributes is the viral effects of the dance from his Thriller video that have permeated our society. Not since John Travolta’s famous disco moves in Saturday Night Fever has choreography moved the public the way Thriller did. It’s one of the all-time You Tube successes from subways and train stations to schools and living rooms. It is the number one music video of all time, according to MTV. I love the version that comes out of nowhere in the Jennifer Garner movie “13 Going On 30”. The movie is pretty sappy otherwise but that scene is a scream!

Michael’s music was all over BBC radio and television that night and we listened and reminisced to it right through my favorite dinner of Julia’s famous cottage pie, which just writing it makes my mouth water. His music is happy. It makes you feel good. It makes you want to dance…and we did, regardless of what the sight of me dancing does for you.

The next morning, we took a nice walk with our friends to the Two Rivers Mall near their home. I stopped in at the Boots Pharmacy and picked up all the London papers to add to my ever-growing souvenir collection. There was even a special section on “How to do the moonwalk.” People were trying it in all the open spaces at the Mall. It reminded me that Michael Jackson was an amazing entertainer. He made us smile. He made us move. He did what entertainers are supposed to do. He moved his audiences.

Throughout the period after his death and then the memorial service and burial, what struck me most was that the weirdness associated with him in recent years was not the topic. It was Michael Jackson’s talent and music and influence and philanthropy that took the front seat. That’s pretty special for an entertainer. It’s pretty special for any public figure.

I can’t do a playlist on my iPod without one Michael Jackson number just to get my feet moving and to put a smile on my face. Even one year later, Michael Jackson lives!