Witt is currently heading the Munich 2018 bid team for the Winter Olympics, and was at SportAccord in London, England, this week to conduct a public presentation of their bid, along with key members of her bid team. Munich is up against Annecy (France) and Pyeongchang (Korea). Pyeongchang is bidding for a third time and were defeated by Vancouver for the 2010 games.

The SportAccord International Convention is the most important gathering in the world for sports federations. It’s a grueling six-day affair featuring 104 annual meetings of Olympic and non-Olympic federations, along with the spring Executive Board meetings for the IOC, networking sessions and panel discussions. It’s more geared to the business side of sports events than the marketing side, but where it really shines is the networking.

If you are a community that wishes to host a major sporting event, a firm that wants to help build or manage said event, or a federation looking for more government and hosting support… this is the place to be.

Fortunately for Canadian organizations, the 2012 SportAccord will be hosted in Quebec City. Although I have to tell you, being in London this week was pretty bloody fun.

The buzz in London, as you can imagine, is all about the 2012 Games. The regeneration of the impoverished east side of London through Games infrastructure is a guarantee of lasting legacy.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, welcomed all SportAccord delegates by announcing that because they are almost done all the venues, he feels it is important to call a “snap Olympics.” So guess what? The 2012 games could actually be happening in a few weeks! Of course he was kidding. But given what Harper has done to us… it’s not really that funny.

Mayor Johnson is beyond funny. He suggested that if we couldn’t do a snap Olympics, there should be a politics Olympics. He thought Dick Cheney would be a star in the shooting events and Colonel Gaddafi should try the “high jump.”

The SportAccord Chair, a politician by the name of Lord Digby Jones Kt (yes, we are in England), was no bore himself, recounting the time he gave a political speech to an audience of one. When he asked the chap if he could skip the Q&A and just go home, the fellow begged him not to leave, because he, in fact, was the next speaker up on the dais!

But Lord Jones said something that struck me to the core. He talked about how in his business life and political life, he has been privileged to be in positions to make a difference in people’s lives. But in sport, he felt we had an opportunity to make the difference in people’s lives. He beseeched us all, members of the business, sport and political communities, to do whatever we could to provide that difference to young people. His words were to the effect that it is our duty to give every young athlete the opportunity to try their best, to train their hardest, to lay it all on the line to win. And that, win or lose, victory would be found through that opportunity to compete. Not just participate, but compete with all the resources imaginable.

This message has been incorporated in the theme for this year’s conference, which is Sport Matters.

It is clear to me that this message has not been lost on the Chair of the 2012 Games, Lord Sebastian Coe, holder of two Olympic golds and two Olympic silvers. He emphasized that these London Games would be a failure if they in fact were not England’s Games. That may be familiar messaging to Canadians, but Coe cited that he isn’t just talking about “cheering.” He talked about how the London Games have been striving to create youth sports programs. So school children that have never been in a boat are now competing at the highest levels of rowing. He talked of their “20-12” program that is striving to engage 12 million youth in sports, in 20 impoverished countries around the world by Games time. To date, they have reached 10.6 million, and will easily surpass their goal. This global legacy program is so exciting that the Rio 2016 OCOG have now picked up this program and the IOC is considering embedding it through future Games.

The efforts of these organizations should not be lost upon us as lessons for our projects and marketing programs. Yes, selling cases and generating media are critical. But we cannot forget. Sport Matters. In fact Music Matters, Saving Lives Matters, Volunteering Matters. If we create programs that are all about the marketing and forget what matters, our credibility will be shot.

Embed that expression into your next brief: (Blank) Matters. Engrain it into your next client recommendation. Express it in your next sponsorship pitch. Encourage your stakeholders to discover it.

Sport Matters.

The spirit is everywhere and it is like nothing I have ever felt before. Not during a Final Four or Super Bowl or Wimbledon. While I’m not the most traveled person in the world, I have attended all of those events live. I used to think the Final Four had the most amazing sports atmosphere. It is amazing, but the scale of the Olympics is on another dimension.

[BREAK]I would say that only the Calgary Stampede and Disney rival the Olympic spirit. Why Disney? It’s the volunteers. The volunteers at these Games are like Disney employees… except the Vancouver volunteers smile naturally and not because of a biweekly salary. It’s not just the volunteers who smile spontaneously, it’s ticket tackers, security, cashiers, you name it. Everybody is pretty bloody happy.

No bloody pun intended but we drove right into the protest on Saturday and even then the police and emergency crews who diverted us in our rental car were cheery. Maybe they were excited to get a chance to show off their shiny new helmets. But happy they were.

The spirit is impacting the entire city. Canadian flags hanging from condos and cars, shop windows painted with sports and national imagery, everybody adorning their latest purchase from Hbc. It’s impressive. Vancouver is embracing the Games like Calgary embraces the Stampede.

That’s the answer to the “Why Calgary Stampede” part of my earlier quiz.

Love is in the air in Vancouver. It feels like spring to us cold Torontonians here. Especially when the sun is shining like yesterday. There are thousands and thousands of people everywhere and nothing but smiles, hugs, and foreign accents.

It’s truly remarkable. As we marched with throngs of people to see the cauldron yesterday, the crush of humanity to see burning gas was mind-boggling. Inside Canada Hockey (used to be GM) Place, as we cheered on goal after goal scored by our women’s hokey team vs. Slovakia you would have thought each of them was a Stanley Cup Winner. Not a contributor to an 18-0 rout. As my 9-year-old buried his face in the pillows when the last mogul challenger to Alexandre Bilodeau went down the hill, we could feel all of Canada watching to see if we would finally win gold.

I wish I could bottle the spirit up and take it home.

Somebody must have bottled it and secretly injected it into the dozens of people I’ve been in line with. Yes, the Olympics are about lineups and some of them are brutal, but to my pleasant surprise most are manageable.

A major reason they are manageable is that all people want to do is socialize. Yes, the Olympic lineup is more engaging than an online chat room. It seems every time I’m in line people want to reveal more about themselves than they would ever tell their in-laws.

In the span of a few minutes you will quickly find out that the people in front of you have a son in the competition; the Zambonis that keep breaking down are from California; the ticket brokers who sold snowboard standing room tickets aren’t honoring refunds for the cancelled seats; the food at Canada Hockey Place is horrible; that Peter Coors was at the Molson Hockey House; that you’re in the wrong lineup for Will Call; that if you wait long enough a new security tent will open in five minutes; that the Opening Ceremonies ticket takers missed a few people who snuck right up to the front row; that Heineken House is overpriced; that the buses servicing Cypress Mountain were bought on the cash for clunkers program; and that the Dutch faithful wear orange vs. the red-white-blue of their flag due to the lineage of their beloved King Wilhelm.

When I’m in these lines I’m proud to be a Canadian. I’m often a proud Canadian, but this is probably the first time I felt this way on Canadian soil. It’s overwhelming me. Causing me to spend countless dollars on buying Canadian things for my kids. It’s all consuming. It has me screaming at the top of my lungs for speed skaters and female hockey players I have never met before. It has me jealous that I don’t have a significant role in hosting the world at these games. It has me delighted that I’ve been able to see it with my own eyes, and sad that you may not see it with your own.

Ever wanted to get them to do something about it… but weren’t sure how? Or you failed on your last five attempts!

Well, at the risk of being accused of self-promotion, we have worked on something pretty cool with our clients at ParticipACTION and Coca-Cola that I have to bring to your attention.

It’s called Sogo Active and as the web site says… It’s the Sickest Way to Live Healthy!

Go ahead, log onto www.sogoactive.com, Its not what you would expect. It’s pretty funky and I think a big departure from your classic fitness website.

This initiative is booked for five years and each year will feature a different incentive program for youth. Kids who participate in Sogo Active have an opportunity to be selected as an Olympic torchbearer for the 2010 Games. There are 1,300 spots to reward kids with, so this isn’t some “long odds” competition.

If you want to get involved, but you’re not 13-19, you can become a community host through any affiliations you have with a local sports association, school, fitness club, or whatever!

So get out and pass the word. Let me know if you do and if you have any questions. Sure I want to see the program do well… but the bottom line is, as someone who struggles with their weight, despite daily exercise on my part, I want to see us have a fitter country. And it starts with young people.

Want proof. I have told many of you the story of Simon, the quarterback on my Lawrence Park football team that I coach. Well in 2007, Simon was a 5’8” – 257 lb block of rubber! I made him play center despite his desire to be a QB.  However, I told him… lose 50 pounds and I will give you a shot. Well Simon started working out, skipping the odd snack, and reducing his fast food intake to something reasonable. Next thing you know he showed up fifty pounds lighter in September 2008, and had one of the best seasons at QB I have ever seen.

Just last week Simon told me he went for a 10k jog. This is a 17-year old who once couldn’t run a lap of the field!

Stories like Simon’s are my true motivation. By the way, Simon is signed up for Sogo Active as well.

So? Go!