Stop complaining for one day...

All of us Americans grumble a lot. We are frustrated with our government. We don’t like many of our elected officials. Taxes are too high. Schools are not good enough. Our air and water could be cleaner. Even our cable television channels make us mad. But this is it. This is all we have. This is the life we live in a free and open democracy. How did we get to this point in our lives? Most of us were born here. Many of us came here for our own personal reasons and have become full-fledged citizens. Can we change the way things are? Can we make our lives better? We can certainly try and, in this country, no one can stop us from complaining or trying. Guess why?


Today is Veterans Day and, at least for today, we should think about those who have served our country proudly and how they have protected our right to complain…and our right to try to make things better. We only have a draft or conscription during war times…and then with exceptions. Otherwise, our military is volunteer. Many other countries have conscription. China, Russia, Germany, Israel, South Korea, even Switzerland require two years of military service at the age of 18. There are many reasons to serve your country. Personally, I like patriotism. Being a patriot is honorable. It is a distinguishing characteristic. The dictionary says one who loves, supports and defends one’s country. We all may have different reasons but I think, deep down, we love our country.

I am reminded of a line from the powerful movie about military service, “A Few Good Men”. The lawyers who are defending two Marines in a case about their commitment to service are arguing about the motives of these two young men. One lawyer asks, “Why do you like them so much?” The other answers, “Because they stand upon a wall and say ‘Nothing’s going to hurt you tonight, not on my watch.’” That’s patriotism to me.

I come from a military family. My father was a career Army officer. He was drafted in World War II and fought on D-Day and in the Battle of the Bulge. Later in his career, he worked to create Civil Defense, now FEMA, to help our country in emergencies. I still remember seeing him on television standing behind President Carter at Three-Mile-Island when he was Chief of Staff of the Department. He was a patriot to the end of his days and he would have been appalled when “W” uttered that now-infamous statement, “Good job, Brownie.” Brownie would have been my father’s boss and he would have been embarrassed. He was a patriot.

It took me over a week in the 3rd Grade to be able to bounce a quarter off the square-cornered blanket on my bed. When I could pass my Dad’s inspection, I went on to other things. I never considered not serving my country during a very unpopular war. I’m definitely a veteran and I sincerely hope I’m a patriot. I have the greatest respect for those who have served our country. It should be considered an honor. Every veteran deserves our applause and gratitude…at least, on this day dedicated to them. So take a break from your belly-aching long enough to give thanks to those who have helped make this country a place we can all love. Salute the veterans. They deserve it.

A Girl Named Soleil

Even Mad Men slow down a bit on hot summer Friday afternoons. It was just such a lazy Friday a little over 10 years ago when the phone rang and it was the senior vice president of marketing for Cirque du Soleil. He wanted to talk about a project. Did I have time to meet? I’ll make time, I said.

Like Rick said to Louis at the end of the movie Casablanca, that meeting was “the beginning of beautiful friendship”. I remember that afternoon as if it were yesterday. I grabbed the agency’s BIG conference room and recruited a couple of folks who hadn’t already headed for the sun. We quickly pulled ourselves together and got ready for the challenge.

The meeting was very informal. We just talked. It turned out that the Senior VP and I had a lot in common in our business backgrounds. We’d both seen large-scale events from all angles. What he was looking for was help in bringing Cirque’s Saltimbanco travelling show from Singapore through the Pacific Northwest and then on to Tokyo. How did he find us, I asked. The story really started in Singapore where two DDB’ers whom I had met at a New York DDB board meeting gave the Cirque office there my name. Suffice it to say, it felt like a match to me but you never know in these situations. Seldom do you get an instant response. And it didn’t come this time either.

In an unusual turn for Cirque, they were looking for one-stop-shopping. They wanted all our services, advertising, PR, media, promotions, the whole ball of wax. This was an extremely special opportunity with what I consider to be the most creative entertainment organization in the world. I had picked the right people to be in the room with me. They were able answer all the questions and offer up some good ideas. Almost too quickly, we were wrapping things up. I felt like we needed a little extra boost before we let them get away.

Now I’m not really a “Don Draper” (slick closer, ad guy from television’s Mad Men series) kind-of-guy, but this move makes me think of him. When I let the agency know that Cirque would be in the house, one of our folks told me that she and her husband named their daughter, Soleil, because of their infatuation with Cirque. “We are totally committed to our clients,” I told the Senior VP as we walked out. “We look for long term relationships. This woman (and I found her for the introduction) thinks so much of the Cirque du Soleil brand that she named her daughter Soleil. She’ll be on your team and you’ll never have a more committed group working for you.” Really? Really!

Still after over 10 years, my friend, the Senior VP, tells that story and says that my parting comment was a big factor in him calling back later that day and saying they were ready to work with us.

Before we knew it, we were in Singapore immersing ourselves in the magic of Cirque. It’s been a wonderful long term relationship. If it isn’t fun, they won’t do it. And I found out quickly that Cirque is not short on good laughs. We were going to the premiere night of Saltimbanco in Singapore, so I asked if it was black tie. Of course, they told me. This is a very special opening event. Well, when I walked into the tent at the pre-party in my tux outfit I had lugged from Seattle, not only was I the only one in a monkey suit but when I met the President of Singapore in his wild print sport shirt, he said “Why did you get so dressed up?” A good laugh was had by all...at my expense. I have continued to wear a tux on premiere nights just to remind myself not to take anything too seriously.

It’s been a great ride for more than a decade. We’ve worked together in almost every aspect of their business. I’ve watched their performers hang from the halo at the top of the Space Needle waving at the diners in the restaurant like monkeys on a limb. My trips to Montreal still captivate me when I see “behind the curtain” and am amazed at all they do to make the magic look so easy.

I’ve been able to experience a lot backstage, from trying on the make-up to bungee jumping from the top of the Grand Chapiteau. Yes, I was scared to death and had an exhilarated buzz for the rest of the day. When I’ve gotten to know the cast a little, I’ve even had a bit of influence on who they pick to have fun with before the performance begins. College Chancellors and noted mountaineers were not immune.

On the most recent visit to our area, I saw the show a few times as usual and had a great laugh when they pulled an unsuspecting person out of the audience for a hilarious on-stage pick-pocket routine. On our VIP night when I brought a group of clients and friends to the show, I wondered who they would pick. As the performer looked at the guy sitting next to me, I hardly noticed that he had grabbed my arm. He picked me clean in front of the crowd, including taking off my tie. I’m surprised I still had pants on. The College Chancellor told me afterwards that whatever goes around, comes around and he was “happy” for me.

My respect for the Cirque organization is immeasurable. They have created one of the most recognized and revered brands in the world. I have been very fortunate to play a small role in the growth and success of such a fabulous company. Every time we get together my eyes grow wide with envy at what Cirque can do to amaze and entertain so many people. For me, it all started with a girl named Soleil.

For The Record

5000 is the number I have used for quite some time to describe the six floor-to-ceiling bookcases full of phonograph records in my basement. Actually, I stopped counting between 3000 and 4000 and, even now, I don’t know the real number. I just kept buying records. There was a “pusher” at Tower Records on Mercer Street here in Seattle who wouldn’t let me out the door without a handful of new music to sink my ears into.

Music has been a passion of mine as long as I can remember. My mom and dad loved music. It was always around. My first 45 (a small record with a big hole in it) was Elvis’s “Wear your ring around my neck” and my first 33 1/3 LP was the soundtrack from the movie South Pacific, which I had just seen in Todd-AO, the successor to Cinerama. Wow, there ain’t nothing like a dame… that Mitzi Gaynor was something else!

Regardless, you know where most of the money from my paper route was going. Once I was in school, there was always a record store on the way home and they had listening booths where you could sample the music before you bought the album. Those booths were a record store owner’s delight…because I almost always bought the album.



My taste in music is eclectic. There is not much that I don’t like, though acid rock and some grunge get a little hard on the ears after an hour or two. My “collection” grew in every direction imaginable. Jazz, classical, rock, opera, cast recordings, soundtracks and lots of world music when it was called African, French, Reggae, Calypso or Samba. And that doesn’t count my great Klezmer and Zydeco albums and the Maori Chants.

I could go on but I’ve got to get to the point of this story. All those records, along with the books and video tapes, in the basement came from years of cruising shops while travelling. It was a great way to fill empty time in the evenings and the occasional weekend when I was on the road. A few months ago on a complete whim, I decided to get rid of the VHS video tapes. I had over 1500 movies and TV shows on tape but have steadily been building a duplicate DVD collection . I converted some tapes to DVD, gave a few away to friends and then trashed the rest. It was actually pretty easy…and cathartic.

But then I began to stare at the record albums. There is a lot of sentimentality associated with them. Music does that to you. I even backed them up with turntables that haven’t even been out of the packing boxes, just to make sure I could always play them. So, I invested in another turntable that could digitize records and even cassette tapes. I picked almost 1000 that ended up on cd’s or my iPod. Then I started thinking what would I do with the records if we moved again. A client in the air freight business once told me that the heaviest thing to ship per cubic inch is phonograph records. I’ve carted most of these from one end of the country to the other and can vouch for the fact that they are quite a load.

At UW, I have a good friend that has always been ready to talk records and music with me. I decided to ask him what he thought I should do. “It depends on what you’ve got,” he said. So I invited him over to take a look and give me an assessment. He’s very serious about records and music. One thing that I learned in this process is that I am not a “collector”. I’m a “buyer”. I’ve always impulsively bought music that moved me wherever I was…Chinese string music from the streets of Beijing…and that kind of thing. My friend, Dave, is a collector. I have 5000 albums. He has 25,000 and he knows who designed most of the album covers. That’s a collector.

Dave spent a summer evening going through the stacks of records on the garage floor, looking closely at almost every one. He even wears a special stocking cap when he does these searches…for good luck in finding the ultimate album, I guess. “You’ve kept them in pretty good shape,” he said. Except for a few that barely survived the college drinking parties, he was right. “Too bad you wrote your name on them.” Oops, that’s the collector talking. He identified a handful that he thought, with some effort, might really be worth something on eBay. I let him have his pick before Jane cooked us dinner but there were still thousands left.

“Some are worth a few dollars, most are worth 50 cents or a nickel,” he told me. “I can call a couple of guys who have a lot of records and we could have them take a look.” “Fine,” I said. When Dave’s two friends each went through all the albums separately, a small stack appeared in each of their corners. This is where my picture of a “collector” became even clearer. I thought I had some very unique albums that only I liked and that others had probably never seen or heard. But, there was hardly an album that these guys didn’t look at and say “I’ve got two or three copies of this but the back cover was done in Nashville by a famous artist and it’s in better shape than any of mine.” Out of my league!

We made a deal for everything, loaded their van and said goodbye to decades of music enjoyment. I’ve kept the one’s that Dave told me might have some real value. Then I found another stash in the basement that I had missed so I’ve ended up with maybe 100 that take up ¾ of one shelf…and 5 ½ empty bookcases. Oh, there has been some seller’s remorse. I stood in line to buy every Beatles and Stones album the day it came out. I had a couple of folk albums that were new to my friend who is one of the original Brothers Four. There were cast albums from Broadway Shows that closed the first week. Several autographs that I couldn’t part with (I learned that some of the covers are worth more than the records.). My “pusher” at Tower turned me on to Larry Jon Wilson and that small collection even stumped the “collectors”. Memories!

All in all, it was a great experience. I learned a lot more about music and what it means to people. Still, I’ve got 20,000 songs on two iPods and about 1000 cd’s for what they’re worth. My friend Dave and I have lots more music to talk about and I’m very close to selling the cd’s and then starting to sort through the books. Don’t worry, the DVD collection has moved from the floor to the bookcases and continues to grow. I’ve got some great obscure little films that a “collector” will look at one day and say, “Wow! I’ve never seen this before.” Cool! I'll enjoy the moment.

A Major Hurdle

Seattle is full of itself. We’re very independent…very opinionated…and very provincial. Some things we take too seriously and other things not seriously enough. The site of the 1962 World’s Fair has become the city’s gathering place for festivals, celebrations, observations and demonstrations. Earlier this year, a proposal was put forward by two of the city’s icons, the Space Needle and world renowned artist Dale Chihuly. The idea was to create the world's largest exhibition of Dale Chihuly’s glass art on the site of a now defunct amusement park. At no cost to the taxpayers, this creative mecca would be a much-needed revenue-generator for the city, an attraction for hundreds of thousands of visitors and locals, a green playground designed by artists and a haven for arts education. Could you possibly guess that a handful of our citizens who don’t like Dale Chihuly’s art (my oh my, but I’m being much too kind here), a few more who think that we can turn Seattle Center into Central Park and yet others who had absolutely nothing to do with the Master Plan for the Center decided that this idea didn’t fit the mold? What was to be a gift for the good of our city was punched, slapped and battered near submission by this effete minority. It has been a long and winding road but today the sun broke through the clouds. We cleared a major hurdle when the Chihuly Exhibition was selected by the Center’s Review Committee to be the sole recommendation for use of the site. This has been a tough contest but the game is not over. The project has to go to the Mayor and then to the City Council for approval of the lease. Who knew it would be so hard to be nice. Oh well, as I said before, Seattle is full of itself.




Below is our statement on the recommendation and an early article posted on the Seattle Times website. The battle continues… but for today, we smile.



This process has brought renewed excitement and energy to the Seattle Center and we’re happy to be a part of it. Thank you to the Century 21 Committee. We hope that this focused attention on the Seattle Center will benefit the city, the tenants and the public as we begin the next fifty year chapter for the campus . The input received over the last several months from interested citizens, neighborhood groups and public officials has been invaluable in making a great project even better. We are anxious to move forward with the Chihuly exhibition and to play an active role with the Seattle Center, the Mayor and the City Council in bringing a new vitality and openness to the community’s premier gathering place.



As much as we’re thrilled about creating the Chihuly Exhibition, there is still opportunity to find room for one or more of the other proposals on the campus of Seattle Center and we are committed to that end. We want to thank Mayor McGinn and the Seattle City Council for encouraging collaborations. If we work together now, and quickly, there will be a number of wins in this process.



Jeff Wright

Chairman

Space Needle, LLC





http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012925681_chihuly18m.html

The Insurgency in Seattle

For months now, many of us who care deeply about our city ("Civic Seattle") have been trying to put our finger on the pulse of the new administration.  And so far, we can't seem to find a heartbeat.  There may be several reasons for this but local pundit David Brewster (still an east coast transplant after 40 years) recently told that bastion of business and commerce leaders, the Downtown Rotary, what he thinks is happening...and, for the most part, I have to agree.  David and I have worked together for years and he has always tried his best to be the voice of the alternative view. Today, he is using http://www.crosscut.com/ as his mouthpiece and here is an excerpt from his current take on our fair city...alternative or not, there's a lot of truth in it.  Granted, this is local politics but Seattle is on the national scene now and we're not San Francisco 20 years ago. David is making unbiased sense...for once, at least.

"A year ago, probably many (including me) would have felt that Seattle politics was very stable. Mayor Greg Nickels had put together a traditional political coalition of developers, unions, big business interests, municipal employees, and environmentalists, leaving only neighborhood groups and deep-greens on the outs. Then suddenly, voters gave the two-term mayor a pink slip, as he finished third in the primary to two unknowns.

What happened? Nickels was an inside mayor, liked at city hall and good in deal-making but not well connected with the public. Another factor was Obama’s campaign a year before, which drew many young people into politics and trained them in the new, social-media aspects of highly targeted politics. Many flocked to the Mike McGinn campaign, and then on into his administration, which retains the feeling of a youthful crusade, cheerfully defying their unbelieving elders.

“Authenticity” is a key value for these young voters, who are deeply cynical about conventional politics and super-quick at detecting phoniness. Accordingly, Mayor Mike dresses casually, hangs out with young crowds at the Crocodile, and does seemingly outrageous things like dissing Steve Ballmer or ignoring the protocol for state-of-the city addresses. These things send powerful messages of insurgency and genuineness.

McGinn, more than most politicians around here, grasps that Seattle has changed dramatically in the last 10-15 years, becoming a McGinn kind of town. Seattle had been, during the long Cold War boom that greatly favored the region and its economy, a classic "city of the last move." People moved here in mid-career, psychologically considering Seattle a place to settle down, to join civic organizations, to get involved in local schools. They were the ones who took the legendary fork on the Oregon Trail west — the one leading to farmland, not gold fields. And they built, particularly in the 1970s and 80s, an admirably civic-minded culture, what I call Civic Seattle.

Well, Seattle is now a classic "city of the first move." As they do with New York and San Francisco and LA, restless young people move here right out of college. They want to hang out in a cool city with lots of starter jobs and other young people and nightlife. Psychologically, they are not really intending to stay so much as to get launched. Last-move cities build solid middle class neighborhoods, jobs, and institutions. First-move cities draw an irreverent, disruptive, geeky “creative class.” They are the footloose foot soldiers of an innovation economy.

And that’s produced the major fault line in our region and our politics: the tension between an Innovation Economy and a somewhat dispirited Civic Seattle. Bridging this gap is the challenge and opportunity of the day. That’s my theme in this essay.

Thanks largely to Microsoft, this region massively put its eggs in the new economy and the young workforce it requires. The transformation has been especially dramatic and swift in Seattle. Only a generation ago, we were the most middle-class large city in America. Now we are a city with a disproportionately high number of well-educated, young, detached newcomers. We are San Francisco.

Here are a few figures to demonstrate how extreme a case Seattle has become, how far the pendulum has swung.

 Our average household size is now 2.08, well below the national average of 2.61 and lower even than San Francisco’s (2.24).

 The percentage of families with kids is 19 percent, while the national average is 31and San Francisco’s is 18.

 The percentage of non-family or unmarried households is 55 percent, compared to the national average of 33 percent.

 53 percent of Seattle adults have a college degree, highest in the nation and 20 points above the national average of 33 percent.

 Lastly, 31 percent of the Seattle population has lived in the city for five years or less; only Austin, Texas has a higher number, and it’s 32 percent.

Welcome to the Next Seattle. Smart, unmoored, mobile, young, liberal in politics. (Interestingly, the demographic portrait of towns surrounding Seattle is very close to the national norms.) So, Civic Seattle, picture a speeding bicyclist passing you as you sit in your Lexus SUV at a long red light. And maybe giving you the finger.

Such rapid demographic change has finally caught up with our slow-to-change political order. Suddenly coming to power, this new elite finds the fading regime too fond of cars, too slow in addressing climate change, too cozy with established ways of doing things. As one friend in the McGinn shop enjoys telling me, I’m Microsoft. Mayor Mike’s Apple.

In short, Mayor McGinn is no fluke. And his politics,as well as McGinn himself, are likely here to stay. These politics are impatient, oppositional, anti-suburban, deep green. They have only the slightest ties to unions, to big vested interests like the University of Washington or Microsoftor city hall and its rule-bound workers. Just as previous insurgencies used the Pike Place Market and the Commons and the R.H. Thomson Expressway as wedge issues in assuming power and as organizational tools to rally the young troops, so this rising counter-elite uses the deep-bore waterfront tunnel as a big fat symbol of auto-worshipping old-think.

Our version of evolution is more like punctuated equilibrium, where we jump to a new plateau rather suddenly.

A critical question is whether the McGinn insurgency will have staying power, or whether it will provoke a return to the political consensus Seattle has enjoyed since 1970. I’m pretty fond of that old order, having chronicled it and cheered it on for decades. Develop the arts, make a major research university, build a lively downtown, create fine urban neighborhoods to hold the middle class, cherish diversity, rescue old buildings like Town Hall, and keep plugging away at reforming our schools and building transit.

It’s a good record, but viewed by this Next Seattle, it’s not good enough, not contemporary enough. Where’s the extensive rail transit? Where’s the global leadership to a post-carbon economy? Where are the switched-on schools? Where’s the living arts scene, as opposed to a museumized culture? Why, above all, such complacency?

The key issue around which this new politics turns is climate change, and what we can do about it locally and in our daily lives. To its credit, this new political order doesn't want to keep biding its time, accepting tiny gains. Consider, for instance, the longtime goal of Civic Seattle to stop sprawl and build up a high-interaction, culturally rich downtown. The record is not very good. The Downtown Seattle Association recently reported that Seattle has lost 30,000 jobs in the past decade, 21,000 of them from the core city. We are very late in building rail transit, maybe too late. Or look at this measure, the percentage of all jobs in a region more than 10 miles outside of the central business district. Of the 45 largest American cities, Seattle (56 percent outside 10 miles) comes in 10th worst. "

By David Brewster

Trial by fire

Crisis Communications has been part of my professional life for as long as I can remember. On my first corporate job, I walked into a work stoppage (strike to those of us not in a union) that almost crippled an iconic Midwestern manufacturing company. It ended mercifully just before they had to close the doors. NBC’s Jane Pauley was one of the local reporters (before she joined NBC) that I had to speak with every day for months. She was new to the news game and had never covered a strike before. Good thing I knew her from college. For both of us, it was a trial by fire… but that’s the only way to learn this business. It’s strenuous and stressful and even scary sometimes. Like many jobs, you have to have the right temperament to be good at it. Since then, I’ve counseled numerous corporations and their executives, sports stars, politicians, non-profit organizations, two Presidents and the Dalai Lama. I’ve now taught crisis communications at the University of Washington for 20 years. The all-day crisis communication workshop is consistently the highest rated single class session in the year-long curriculum. It’s the day when the students feel the pressure and the stress. They come prepared for anything and, thanks to my role-playing friends, they are never completely ready for the communications challenges they are faced with…because that’s the reality of crisis communications…trial by fire.




I have just finished writing an email to a New York Times reporter named Peter S. Goodman. His article in last Sunday’s Times is better than any textbook I have ever seen on this subject. He’s got great material to work with from BP, Toyota and Goldman Sachs. But he gets under the skin of the public face of those companies. And through the eyes of the internal communications chiefs and several experienced outside professionals, he paints a very vivid picture, good and bad, of the impact of this profession on business today. Much of the interpretation and advice in this article are things I have told clients and even some of you who read these blogs. But it never hits home until it happens to you or until a reporter gets to the heart of it and nails it. Kudos to Peter Goodman for masterfully presenting our business in a way that can be understood by many for what it is…artful communication…and remember there’s good art and there’s bad art. If you have the time, read this and read all of it.  It's what I do.  Enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22crisis.html?scp=1&sq=crisis%20communications&st=Search

Sure, you remember the World Cup...South Africa and those crazy horns

That swarm of bees buzzing on our television in June and July is quiet now. Unless you pull out your own personal “vuvuzela” and give it a toot (I do every once in a while), World Cup Fever is subsiding. South Africa’s big coming-out party was the second event in a year full of world-class extravaganzas for us. It began with the Vancouver Olympics and now we move on to the World Expo in Shanghai, which has already reached a full head of steam.

My good fortune of working on the world stage for many years now has drawn us together with exceptional colleagues and wonderful friends everywhere. And it is those relationships that have guided us into these high profile international happenings. South Africa is perfect case in point.

Twenty years ago, I made my first trip to South Africa. I remember when changing planes in Johannesburg, you had to go through an x-ray machine. Next to the machine, on a steel table, was a grey plastic box like the one’s we’re all used to now for our shoes, laptops, coats and all. The stenciled sign on the box read “Deposit all weapons here”. And the box was perpetually full. Hand guns, knives, machetes, cartridge clips, even steel-tipped darts. Virtually every local that walked through was carrying a weapon of some sort. Unbelievable, I thought at the time! They were handed back to the owner at the other end of the flight…but they were on board with us.

Fortunately, that doesn’t happen anymore. Well past the turn of the century, I made yearly trips to South Africa. I was there just before, during and right after Nelson Mandela was elected president. A few years later, I made the trip to Pretoria. We pulled up, just like Matt Damon in the movie “Invictus” did, to have our audience with the president and his national head of sport at the Capitol. I can still smell the purple-flowered Jacaranda trees in full bloom as we walked in. We were the first international sporting event to be hosted by South Africa after the election. It was an exciting time.

The lasting friendships I’ve made there over the past two decades are very special to me. They have taught me so much about their country and life in a society that we outsiders are still struggling to understand. They’ve exposed me to the beauty of their land, the warm graciousness and hospitality of the people, as well as the sadness, violence and poverty that continue to plague them in many places.

My friends are also very well connected…and so, just as I did in Beijing with the Olympics, when South Africa got the nod, I sent an email telling them that I wanted to share the experience anyway I could. You might guess that they pulled me into all the action from every angle…right down to “tweeting” minute to minute from the stands during several of the matches. As you can see, I’ve even made a personal contribution to their economy by owning every possible piece of World Cup merchandise that was offered at the stadiums.

My insider’s view began with the building of the stadiums, the airports and the transport systems. The locals were skeptical themselves that they could pull it off but the infrastructure came together to make it happen. My good friend in the health care business had three hospitals in her region chosen as FIFA hospitals. During the 18 months prior to the World Cup, disaster plans were developed for all based on the New York City model, post-911. These related directly to the crisis work that we're being asked to do on a regular basis.

I got an intimate look at sponsorships including VISA’s prime involvement. Their link with Castrol put VISA in a position to use ticket promotions at the retail level, which resulted in increases from 40% to 300% in various markets. They were also able to get good outdoor trade exchanges from many shopping centers. However, it was interesting to see that banks, consumer goods and even some other gasoline retailers were able to put ticket promotions together without paying any sponsorship fees by having their customers spend with a VISA credit or debit card. Without the option of offering tickets, MasterCard and American Express were really never able to compete.

From opening day to the final match it was “absolutely electrifying…the people, the flags and the vuvuzelas were just impossible to beat,” according to one of my local compadres, “Such a special time in our lives”. Even the personal tragedy in Nelson Mandela’s family could not diminish the enthusiasm of the natives of his country when the cameras rolled for the month-long event. It was an education for the rest of the world. When I met him last in Seattle a few years ago, President Mandela was receiving an honorary degree. I was representing one of our local community colleges and he said to me, “You know that education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” That statement could not be more true than for the power and influence of South Africa’s World Cup.

The championship drew a global audience 7 times larger than the Super Bowl. Futbol (soccer to us in America)is an amazingly democratic game. It can be played anywhere and the pitch (the field) is always level…literally and figuratively. It is a game that helps raise the standards for education and encourages youth to work together. This World Cup did all that and more. It helped free a country from a false impression.

So much was right about South Africa’s World Cup. The people there worked together to make it a huge success. One of today’s greatest players, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o is quoted as saying “Success is much more than a question of quality…it’s a question of heart.” That’s true of the game and of the South African people.

To Susan, Howard, Ian, Rob, Grant and Margaret, my deepest heartfelt thanks for sharing this World Cup experience with me… for all you’ve taught me over the years…for all you’ve helped me see…for the compassion, friendship and understanding you’ve shown. You have my undying gratitude and love…for you and your magnificent country. YOUR World Cup was a vision of the future for all of us. Ngiyabonga!

Dan Mc

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
Nelson Mandela