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Yesterday, the Glen Gould Theater was the sight of the 7th annual Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada conference and 6th annual Sponsorship Marketing Awards.

The day featured a series of dynamic speakers. But like most conferences, some of the best knowledge was gathered form the networking and hallway conversations that always occur.

Here are some things I “learned” yesterday. From both the on and off-stage presenters!

• Major sponsors indicated in the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Survey that properties are NOT doing a very good job providing service and reporting.

• Human resources… having people to implement… is a major issue for sponsors, properties and agencies alike. So get hiring!

• Small properties should look for small sponsors. They have money and business needs just like the major marketers.

• Four companies in Canada have over 1,000 sponsorships!

• Sponsorships that have a causal tie continue to stand head and shoulders above others, in my opinion.

• Every presenter who talks about social media keeps babbling about clichés and one-off stories… It’s time for the experts to provide specific insights!

• Kraft Hockeyville is an unstoppable machine. Deservedly it again won Best in Show at the Sponsorship Marketing Awards.

• Branded entertainment has advanced so far into the core of media sales that product placement firms are no longer “welcome” by the major broadcasters.

• Sometimes three years deals are better for the sponsors… one of my contacts is losing a coveted sponsorship because an underling took one-year sponsors.

• Multi-year deals are good not just for the property but also the sponsor. One notable sponsor is losing a feature property because a junior person insisted on a one-year deal. It worked so well their competitor has not approached the property and outbid the incumbent for this year’s event!

• Everybody who tells me they are coming to next year’s Canadian Sponsorship Forum… also told me that last year!

My final learning. Not a learning but a remembrance. That everyone in this industry should remember the pioneering work of Marilyn Michener.

I had the opportunity to hear the new Chief Executive Officer of the 2015 PAN/PARPAN American Games, Ian Troop, speak last week in Niagara Falls. The occasion was a private reception held in his honour by Parks & Rec Ontario, at their annual PRO Forum.

Just a few weeks into the job, Troop is marshalling his past experiences from an international business career, to tackle the next major multinational sports event to come to Canada. Troop’s career has taken him from Canada to the United States, Poland, and Mexico, while climbing to the rank of President of a billion dollar food company.

Clearly Troop’s international experiences have provided him with a perfect background for the Pan Am opportunity. These games will be a multicultural cornucopia with 42 countries represented, including twelve from South America and twenty from the Caribbean. Troop has quickly identified that as an exciting opportunity for the Pan Ams. Given the cultural diversity of the Golden Horseshoe population, it is clear that the Toronto 2015 will be able to provide a unique experience for these visiting athletes. In fact, for many countries, the support of their countrymen that live in southern Ontario will create an almost home field advantage for them.

Troop highlighted the fact both Toronto and Hamilton will feature cultural festivals during the Games, and painted a picture of major streets filled with cultural events, entertainment, and attractions. He spoke of working with existing major events to parallel schedule their dates, to create blockbuster attractions. He also talked about his desire to ensure that all people living in the region can participate in the event, regardless of whether they posses a sporting event ticket.

When you consider the opportunities of having an event like Caribana be held during 2015, the uniqueness of the opportunity becomes even more compelling.

Troop also spoke quite proudly of the seventeen communities that are serving as hosts for the Pan Am Games. These hosts, in stretching around Lake Ontario will form three “Games Zones,” each boasting attractive competitions and events. While some critics have challenged the expanse of the event footprint, it should be an exciting opportunity for a great many communities to benefit from the experience and energy that the Games will bring.

For now Troop is employee # 1. The job market has been abuzz of late who will soon be employees 2 to 6-7-8, as the recruitment of the senior management team is in full swing. Troop mentioned some talent coming in from VANOC, which makes sense. But I suspect he will also want to tap into talent from local communities, both culturally and geographically, that will be serving him so well going forward.

My Olympic experience officially ended at 5:43 AM this morning (March 25th) when I put my Team Canada jersey on the “shelf.”

We all have a shelf like this one. Up high or down low, in some far reaches of your closet or your basement. It stores items you love but are only to be worn in the right setting. Or in some cases you are storing them for some future use.

For your personal Hall of Fame. For your grandchildren. For your casket. For the “next time.”

My shelf holds a Minnesota Gophers sweatshirt. A Leafs jersey from a long ago playoff clash with Carolina. An Emery Collegiate coaching shirt from 1996. A USC football T-shirt. A Boca Grande shirt from some vacation or other.

And now my Team Canada hockey jersey. I have to admit mine wasn’t an official 2010 Olympic jersey. No mine was a 2008 World Hockey Championship variety. But it did the job.

The job was to tell everyone else in Canada that I was on their team. Team Canada.

This was a “team” that overcame poor public support for the Games less than a month before they started.

This was a team that staged the longest torch relay in Olympic history.

This was a team that overcame the tragic death of a visiting young athlete, and later, the death of the mother of one our star athletes.

This was a team that overcame critics and Americans mocking our Own the Podium program.

This was a team that helped Alex Bilodeau and Brian McKeever become the first Canadians to respectively win Olympic and Paralympic gold on home soil.

This was a team that danced in the streets, partied ‘til dawn, sat glued to the TV and Internet.

Yes, I was a part of Team Canada.

Team Canada was put together by many special people. Thousands of volunteers, sponsors, workers, government officials, coaches, trainers, athletes, sports organizations and parents.

Oh amazing it must be to the parent of an Olympian.

All of us were led by an almost mythical father. John Furlong.

After the job he did I’m ready to anoint him the Father of a New Confederation. Team Canada.

Our heroic Father Furlong dropped by the Canadian Sponsorship Forum last weekend. He spoke for 18 minutes. I cried for 17.

He spoke of his organizing team bonding together after the tragedy on opening day. He spoke of a nation rallying behind our men’s hockey team and how Canada rightfully deserved that victory for all of its hard work. He spoke of how a volunteer from Moncton approached him to tell him she was dying of cancer. Her family didn’t want her to be away for the length of the Olympics. But she was so glad she did. Because for the first time in her ‘average existence’ (her words), she felt her life had meaning.

It’s too much to ask one man to keep Team Canada going. But I really don’t want to put away my jersey.

Can you give me a reason to bring it back out?

Can you organize an event that celebrates our country? Can you sponsor one? Can you participate in one?

I beg you to try. I need that feeling back. I need the passion I felt in Vancouver during the Olympics.

I need that emotion I felt in Whistler during the Paralympics. I want to keep wearing my jersey.

I exited the medals plaza in Whistler in Sunday following the closing ceremonies, I realized it was over. The lump in my throat was there.

This morning when I put my jersey away, that lump got even larger.

Truly I’m sad. So sad. I can only imagine the people who had a bigger hand in these events. I was just one little person. One tiny member of Team Canada.

But thank-you to those who made it happened. What a glorious month its been.

I am Canadian.

It’s exciting to see that the Federal Government caught Olympic fever and committed $31 million to sport and physical activity in last week’s budget.

As reported by Sport Matters, the government is providing money to fund the renewal of athlete development programs, provide training for high performance athletes, and funding for new initiatives from ParticipACTION and the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

Now its time for the rest of us to do our part, Sponsors, properties, agencies, NGO’s, PSO’s, NSO’s, CSO’s, professional leagues, you name it. We need to jump in… all the way in.

There has been a fair bit of speculation that post-2010, several corporate partners would withdraw their support for the sport sector. Of course with any domestic Games that is anticipated. But naturally the hundreds of millions of dollars that was splashed on VANOC will be hard to keep. Yet this blog is a plea to those decision makers, to keep as much of it as they can in the system.

This blog is a plea to all stakeholders in the industry to do the same. This blog is a plea to all entities seeking sponsorship to push even harder to ensure it doesn’t happen.

Why? I think Own the Podium proved unequivocally that investment could equal results. Great results.

I think the Games proved that investment can equal results. They united a country.

I think we may not get another shot if we don’t get this one right. This is the time for Canada to keep its momentum going forward on the world stage and on the local playground.

Because we aren’t out of the woods yet. Our kids are getting fatter. Our communities are getting more sedentary. Our belts are getting tighter… and that’s not an economic factor!

On the sport side we have leagues of work to do to become internationally competitive in soccer, basketball, and volleyball to name a few. (Here comes the hate e-mail!) Plus when was the last time we had any presence in the glory events like the 100 meters?

Yes Canada has a ways to go. We need to partner to get there. We need the sport community to understand they need to offer true value and results to corporate Canada. VANOC did it.

We need the corporate community to understand that their leadership and marketing acumen is absolutely necessary to assist those who don’t have the same experiences. Simultaneously we need corporate Canada to understand that building your brand will build your bottom line, so listen to the subject matter experts from the sport community.

Let’s become friends. Let’s become lovers. Let’s get married. Let’s create partnerships. Relevant partnerships. Responsible partnerships. Effective partnerships.

They can carry the day!

I witnessed a lot of interesting marketing at the Olympics during my visit, and one that jumped out at me was VISA.

Their “Go World” campaign is a powerful example of a truly integrated campaign. But it stands out because it was built on a beautiful piece of creative.

When I first saw the “Go World” headline, I almost felt it was too simple. Too obvious. But as I watched the campaign unfold I realized its beauty resided in its simplicity. But don’t mistake simplicity with lack of impact. This is a campaign with impact.

The grey blue imagery is beautiful and consistent from TV to retail bags to Point of Sale to even the support trucks roaming Vancouver. VISA did a beautiful job of creating POS merchandising that delivered a warming message every time you purchase a souvenir.

What do I mean by warming? Inspiration.

I think that’s the power in this campaign. It’s inspiring. Whether it be the ads that celebrate the Jamaican Bobsled Team history, or celebrating Canadian athletes from coast to coast, or the congratulatory ad celebrating Canada’s first gold on home soil.

When it comes to executional brilliance, that ad was on the air a mere eight minutes after Bilodeau won gold. Unbelievable.

Speaking of execution, I find Morgan Freeman to be the perfect voice for the campaign. Almost as if he was born to read these scripts.

Around Vancouver you can’t miss the millions of Hbc garments. Their clothing is awesome. What a recovery from Beijing!

The Coke house looked amazing. After I spent a grand total of 4.8 hours waiting to get in, I never saw inside but one of my team who went loved it. Personally I just loved the shape of it! It was a Coke can lying on its side.

Samsung had an awesome sponsor pavilion with technology to knock your undies off.

I didn’t get into the Bell Ice Cube either, I hate lines, but the exterior of it and a/v was unreal.

So many events. So many sponsors. So much fun. Kudos to all.

Being a rookie Olympic visitor I am somewhat concerned that there isn’t much I can put into this blog you haven’t read twenty times over. But in the midst of an 11-day visit to the Games, I will do my best to describe my introduction to the Olympic spirit.

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.

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.

I didn’t pretend to know who Brian McKeever is, until recently.

In fact, my exposure to Paralympians really only began a few years ago when we started planning to have the 2010 Canadian Sponsorship Forum in Whistler, during the Games.

But over the past few months I have been gradually becoming more immersed in the incredible story of Brian McKeever. Even more so recently when I opened my Globe & Mail to see the full-page Vitamin Water ad triumphing his accomplishments. Only then I realized Brian McKeever would be one of the biggest stories of the year.

What he has accomplished is unbelievable.

A former junior national cross-country ski team star, McKeever was diagnosed at 19 with Stargardt’s disease. In just two years he became legally blind.

When I first read this I thought about all the things I experienced as a 19 year old. As a 20 year. As a 21 year old. To think that McKeever went from star athlete to blind during that period, really hit home.

But obviously it did not slow him down. He began training first for Paralympic events and then able-bodied events. In no time he reached the pinnacle of the Paralympic podium, winning gold four times between the 2002 and 2006 Games.

He didn’t stop there. He not only became the first Canadian athlete with a disability to compete in able-bodied race, he finished 24th in the World Championships!!!

I couldn’t imagine being the 24th best at anything in the world. Let alone to be doing it with such a disadvantage.

Now he has gone on to an even higher accomplishment, becoming the first winter athlete ever to qualify for both the Olympics and Paralympics. In my mind that alone should make him the top story in Canadian athletics for the year.

The Olympics gets a ton of exposure, at times dwarfing the Paralympics. The accomplishments of this Canmore Alberta native will be an unbelievable boost to the Paralympic movement.

My friend Henry at the Canadian Paralympic Committee told me that Paralympians eat INSURMOUNTABLE for breakfast. From what I have learned of Brian McKeever, he may eat INSURMOUNATBLE for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

It was my birthday the other day.

Thanks to the seventy-eight people who wrote on my Facebook wall with greetings. Unfortunately I only know seven of them. Guess in this social media crazed world I am not supposed to admit I have Facebook friends I don’t know, but do the math…

One person who I do know, and actually is a friend, asked me if I was going to have a midlife crisis now that I was turning the age of forty-five. I think his real reason for asking was so he could join in when I hit the bars for a shooter tour to wash away my potential issues.

I’m pleased to announce no impending crisis here. But his question did make me think? Am I really at midlife? Does this mean I will live to ninety? I mean that would be nice to live that long. And I wouldn’t argue about living a little longer. My Dad has an aunt who is 106; give me some of what she’s drinking…

Let me ask you a question. Do you feel your age? Do you look in the mirror and say… wow I’m old. The end is coming. Do you feel like the ticking of the clock is getting faster and faster?

Why do we make such a big deal out of the milestone birthdays? I can’t tell if its celebration or is desperation. People dread turning 30. They bemoan turning 40. The jokes get lamer when they hit 50. What’s the worry?

The irony is we make a big deal over these milestones, yet I find most people see themselves as being younger than they are. The other day I was telling a story about some older guys at the squash club. Old like in their fifties old. Then I remembered, that will be me in five years.

Imagine how I looked to the 24 year old I trounced (had to throw that in) in my Monday Night League match last week? He must have thought I was 80.

Perhaps working in an office, where only a few of us are past, shapes my lens. Being surrounded daily by twenty-somethings in their first job or their first internship doesn’t necessarily make me feel young. It just makes me realize that when I was their age, I thought I had to achieve everything in the next five minutes or I would be a failure.

Today I look at them with envy of having twenty years on me, and all that time to accomplish so many things. Perhaps that it was why we fear getting older. If forty isn’t the dying part. Is it a bit of subconscious uncertainty settling in, that perhaps we will never accomplish all that we set out to do? I can’t imagine anything more tragic.

Steven Covey likens your personal mission statement to your eulogy or obituary. Imagine tomorrow was your funeral, and specially what would the attendees have to say about your accomplishments. Candidly, I am addicted to the obituaries. Every day I read the Greater Toronto section of the Star, Business in the Globe, Sports in USA Today & Globe & Star, Marketplace from the Wall Street Journal, the Marketing section of the National Post when they have it, and the obituaries.

I hunt through all my papers for two types of obituaries. First I look for men who are around my age. Don’t know why but I like to scare myself. Then I look for people whose life was a story. Those fascinate me.

My favourite section of Maclean’s magazine is the last page. It is entitled “The End” and is the story of an ordinary Canadian who lived an extraordinary life. It’s always well written. It’s always spellbinding. It’s always amazing. These people jump out of the grave and off the page into my heart and soul. I often get emotional reading it. Not only because they have passed. But selfishly because I never had a chance to meet them.

The End. That may not be the correct title for this feature. Because more often than not these people have passed all too prematurely.

The End. How many people will write on their Facebook walls when they died?

The End. Did they rejoice or remorse on their last birthday?

The End. I only saw the Beginning on my birthday. The Beginning of my 46th year. The Beginning of another year with my awesome kids. The Beginning of another miraculous year with my wife who puts up with way too much. The Beginning of another year being so blessed to have my own business and great clients & staff. The Beginning of another year for me to make new resolutions, since less than a month into 2010 I have already broken some of my New Year’s pledges. The Beginning of another year of promising to get under 200 pounds before I begin coaching high school football again.

The End. The end of my mid-life crisis that lasted only the few minutes it took for me to share this story with you.

Turns out I was wrong. I gave everybody a rousing speech about having an amazing decade, and it’s not even the start of the new decade. Seems the decade starts with “1”. Like “2011”. Hmmm… that’s pretty embarrassing.

The only good news is I wasn’t alone. Many pundits, bloggers, journalists, commentators and writers were heralding the start of a new decade. Perhaps its because too many surveys are written so you pick your decade from 0 to 9. As in… were you born in the 70s… which is 1970-79. (I wasn’t). Isn’t that a decade? Isn’t 2010 the start of 2010-2019? I think so.

Wasn’t 1999 the last year of the 20th Century? Okay, now we have another time measurement issue. Perhaps I should say the last year of the 1900s. That seems more logical.

Then again I do get the point. 2010 is “10.” And 10 is the end of a ten-year span. But I’m sticking to my guns. Time is different. The third digit in our yearly designation rolled over from 0 to 1, like the odometer on my car. We are in a new era.

To prove it I sent out a survey to a few acquaintances and some other folks to find out if they agreed. More importantly, if they were aligned, I asked them to tell me something they personally would do differently in the next decade.

Every one of them answered it’s the start of a new decade. More importantly, they also shared with me their resolutions to cover up for their multitude of sins.

Look at all the great things we have to look forward to!!!!

Unnamed golfing icon with animalistic name and habits: Resolves to change his name to Cheetah, to get a sponsorship deal from Frank D’Angelo and employ Ben Johnson as his stunt double!

Unnamed assistant coach for a green CFL team: resolves to learn to count to twelve.

Unnamed former head coach for a blue CFL team: resolves to learn to count to twelve.

Unnamed soon to be former mayor of Toronto: resolves in his next job that when he allows his employees to strike to once again ensure they recoup all their lost wages the first weekend back on the job.

Unnamed city in Manitoba that is selling sponsorship to their manhole covers: resolves to raise enough money to pay severance in order fire the person who came up with this zany idea.

Unnamed media industry: resolves not to irresponsibly spread word of pending economic doom in our country, the one with the stable financial sector, just because the crooks to our south messed up bad.

Unnamed media industry: resolves to not cause panic among parents across the country by telling us all our children are about to die if we don’t get them vaccinated by Christmas.

Unnamed coach of Toronto hockey team: resolves to coach the American team in similar way to Toronto team, thereby guaranteeing Trinidad & Tobago their first ever Winter Olympic ice hockey win.

Unnamed hockey sponsor who tried to impose a new hockey cheer on Canadian fans: resolves not to use of the word “eh” in its next 55 TV ads.

Unnamed female American political candidate cum author: Resolves to return as Governor of Alaska, force the state to secede and become the 14th territory of Canada, and then resign to run for Vice-Prime Minister.

Unnamed trio of car companies from Detroit: resolves to quit trying to fool Canadians that they are “domestic” companies and therefore their employees deserve handouts over employees of foreign companies employed in towns such as Alliston and Cambridge do not!

Unnamed hockey team wearing maple leaf on their chest that has to win gold medal in very big upcoming international tournament or an entire country will sulk for two years at which point we can wash away our misery with the 30th anniversary of a certain hockey event played against a certain evil hockey empire who don’t call themselves the Red Army team anymore, but should, especially when they win this big hockey tournament that is coming up: resolves to win it all in convincing style and shut up a certain bald, beige, big belly blogger once and for all.