MH3 Olympics, Opinion, Sports

Black September

The masked man on the balcony still haunts me to this day.

I don’t know whether these are real memories, real time wounds, slashed in my then seven-year-old brain. Or are they a cumulation of painful reminders echoed through news clips, books, and digital articles I have been subjected to for years.

When I press my eyelids closed to forget, they are met with the stinging of my salted tears. The memory of being so frightened that somehow that masked man on the TV set was going to come hunting for this scared seven-year-old boy, thousands of miles away. The memory of asking my parents if this marked the return of a Holocaust-like situation.

Continue reading “Black September” →

MH3 Business Lessons, Events, Marketing, Olympics, Sports, Travel

Olympic Gold: Lessons from the 2012 London Olympic Games

I didn’t plan to blog three times about my London experience. Sorry if you have heard enough! Hopefully, third time is the charm?

But the more times I have recounted my holiday to people the more I realize what a wonderful professional experience the Games were. I cannot exaggerate what a magnificent demonstration of event management they were to behold. In fact, event management is not a lofty enough title. This was brand management. This was client fulfillment. This was satisfying your customer. This was delivering on your value proposition. This was brand experience personified.

Continue reading “Olympic Gold: Lessons from the 2012 London Olympic Games” →

MH3 Events, Living Life, Olympics, Sports, Travel, vacation

Games and Frontiers: European Vacation Stirs a Range of Feelings

My blog needs a vacation. It’s feeling slighted.

It knows I’m on vacation. Last week the Olympics, this week Normandy.

Don’t side with my blog by calling me spoiled. It can see my entire family is on vacation. It doesn’t need new allies.

My blog is feeling treated like a dog. It should feel worse, because my dog is also away, at a friend’s cottage. How does that work?!

By coincidence, my sister is on vacay right now as well. On the West Coast, California style. Her husband used to play football with my buddy Rico. He’s chilling on the East Coast, Hampton Beach style. There is no deep connection here. I’m just trying to make sure my blog feels as crummy as possible. Even if I have to resort to entirely random connections.

Continue reading “Games and Frontiers: European Vacation Stirs a Range of Feelings” →

MH3 Events, Living Life, Olympics, Sports, Travel, vacation

Cheer to the End

Words escape me.

With powerful memories of the Vancouver Olympics and Whistler Paralympics still fresh in my mind, l booked a trek to the London Games. Yes, I’m incredibly spoiled.

I write to you from Olympic Stadium at this very moment.
The appropriate words to describe how I feel are far beyond my writing skills or even my fictional powers. In part because I was worried that after spending all the time and money to get here that it wouldn’t be as amazing as the 2010 Games.

Silly me. It is unreal here.

Continue reading “Cheer to the End” →

MH3 Olympics, Sponsorship, Sports

Entitled: Levelling the Playing Field for Canada’s Female Athletes

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX.

I highly doubt when the United States Congress brought the act into legislation in 1972 that it expected to be responsible for helping build the female sport system in Canada. But it has.

The original premise of Title IX was to ensure that women had the same access to competitive sports as men in terms of access to leagues, coaches, facilities, instruction, etc. That would be my technical interpretation of the bill. But the emotional interpretation would be to allow girls to play sports, just like boys.

Continue reading “Entitled: Levelling the Playing Field for Canada’s Female Athletes” →

MH3 Opinion, Sports

Playing To Win

I have made this speech before.

Not on a single stage. Not all in one place. Not completely in one writing. But I have given it a go in various blogs. I have hinted at it in conference presentations. But being at SportAccord in Québec City this week has allowed my thoughts to ferment even further, and now I am going to liberally pour them out to you today.

The speech itself is quite short. It is only three words. But its impact reaches across economics, health care, marketing, tourism, business, international development and politics. “Play to Win.”


Play to Win is a mantra we should all adopt. Continue reading “Playing To Win” →

MH3 Events, Sports, TrojanOne

She’s Grand

Babies.
Kids.
Pets.
We all have our cute names for the projects or initiatives we love. When we create something from scratch, conjured by the heights of our imagination, and fermented by the hard work of many hands; there is no greater feeling.

This past weekend was one of those moments for me. The inaugural Nike High School Grand Prix, held at Varsity Stadium at the University of Toronto, featured over 250 athletes from all over Canada. Built with our partners at School Sport Canada, and obviously entitled by Nike Canada, the Grand Prix was designed to be a celebration of high school track and field. Boy was it ever.

But to get you to read further, I am not going to painstakingly take you through the schedule, the special events or the exhaustive media coverage. No, I want to tell you a story. Continue reading “She’s Grand” →

MH3 Marketing, Olympics, Sports

Give Your Everything

On Monday I was privileged to play a very small part in the Toronto launch of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s new brand campaign.

Sown from the creative blood, sweat and tears of the COC’s Derek Kent, Rob Pashko and their AOR Proximity, the new campaign delivers on its promise to be athlete-centric and genuine to the movement. Many an Olympic campaign holds out the same promise – to be athlete-centric – but all too often drop the relay baton between idea and execution.

But aided by the creative brilliance of director Henry Lu (of Nike “Just Do It” fame), this is not your “father’s Canadian Olympic campaign” to bastardize another old, actually ancient, advertising tagline. The campaign is not only about the athletes, but it’s also about their intensity, passion and relentlessness to represent their country. Continue reading “Give Your Everything” →

MH3 Events, Living Life, Sports

Perfect Lie

I hate golf.

I hate playing it. Hate watching it on TV. Hate how long it takes. Hate how bad I am at it. Hate how much it costs. Hate that everyone in my industry is better at it than me.

Candidly, if you ever played with me you may come to believe that golf hates me even more. I swing like I am trying to kill a bee. My feet fly out of my spikes like a parachuter. My body swings into a corkscrew of tangled parts. I putt with my legs split at the precise angle to take a #2 on the green without getting any on my shoes. My tee shots are so erratic that I thought that “Dick Out” was slang for mulligan.

Speaking of terminology, allow me to qualify my use of the term “hate.” I don’t actually hate the game. It’s probably more accurate that I’m a hater. But I don’t think I am alone. Most people are haters of things they suck at.
But if I am a hater, then surely I must now be rightfully considered a liar. Because dial me back to late Sunday afternoon, and there I was glued to my 55” Panasonic. Continue reading “Perfect Lie” →

MH3 Football, Living Life, Sports, TrojanOne

Bracket Busters

I finished second in our company NCAA pool this week. Thought I had it all locked up…until Ohio State blew it!

How did you do at yours?

What was your secret method?

I think we had 31 folks battle it out for company bragging rights and I am pretty sure I am the only one spoiled enough to attend two Final Fours. But it was so long ago that it was actually the last time Kentucky won the entire shebang.

Nevertheless, I had to go with the flow and pick Kentucky to win it all. But the rest of my picks were more or less random. So I thought I would ask some of my team how they went at it. Needless to say, the approaches were both random and humourous. Continue reading “Bracket Busters” →