London - Day 13, 14, & 15

Apologies for the lack of updates the last few days.  Again, was a busy few days here in London.  Let's get right to it shall we?

Olympic Torch

Thursday - Day 13

Today, we had a little role reversal with our lectures and visit.  We went on our visit first, then had our lecture.  This was all due to our host visit, The British Olympic Association (BOA), being extremely busy getting ready for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

We had to be at the BOA for a 9am meeting and they are located across the city.  So we had to allow about 2 hrs for travel,which made for a early rise to get going.  Once we got there, we walked in and saw a interesting slide show and videos of the promotions they'll be doing once the games get closer.  One of the cooler things they had were torches from previous games on display.  I tried to take as many as I could, but there were so many, I couldn't get them all in the amount of time we were waiting around.  I kept looking for the Atlanta one, but couldn't find it.

After the visit, we headed back for a long, 3 hour lecture from one of the professors.  I really enjoyed the lecture, but got very irritated because we did not get any sort of break and I'm of the mindset that after an hour, one needs some kind of break to give your mind a rest for a few minutes.

View of Craven Cottage

After the lecture, I went back to the room to get cleaned up and try to catch Mrs. McGoo online.  No such luck as she was away from the desk, thus went another day were I wasn't able to chat with her.  (side note, it has been very difficult to catch each other online while I've been here - so there have been multiple days where we weren't able to talk)

The night was the best part as we were able to watch a Europa Qualifying match with Fulham vs the Crusaders (small Northern Island team) at Craven Cottage.  What is really interesting about London is the amount of Premier League teams they have.  Just in London alone there are Fulham, Chelsea, Arsenal, & Tottenham (not accounting for West Ham who have been in the Premier League for years but saw them relegated last season).  Also there are a bevy of other clubs in London such as Millwall and other lower division teams.  To put it like this, imagine New York City having four or five teams in the NFL.  You would think that those teams would have a hard time generating revenue and fans.

One thing about London is that it is very tribal with fans of their teams.  The fans are generally surrounding the areas where the stadium is located.  So I wouldn't dare walk around Tottenham with an Arsenal jersey on and vice versa.  So I looked up some of the colours of the Crusaders to make sure no one from our trip wore them to the game.  Red is their dominate colour and Fulham are White and Navy/Black.  Check.  Don't wear Red.  I told everyone, so everyone went with neutral and I went with good old fashion blue U of M soccer gear.  When we get there, the Crusaders are wearing blue kits.  Ugh.  I immediately start getting looks as I am sitting in a Fulham supporters area.  I don't generally like zipping my jackets up all the way but in this instance, I took my zipper on my black jacket as far up as it went.

Great match, great time.

Friday - Day 14

After finishing up all of our visits, today was the last day for our program.  We had been told earlier in the week that we had a presentation we were in charge to deliver to the class about our organization our groups were in charge of hosting (Mine was Tottenham).  Here was what we were given.

"Identify the key strategic issue that your organization currently faces. You are required to identify some recommendations to the CEO of the organization, including specific steps that will be needed to achieve the ultimate goal (e.g., a marketing plan, television strategy, change in brand identity….)
You will need to identify the key contextual issues that effect (and are effected by) the organization. Think about the global-local/something-nothing dimensions discussed by Dr. Andrews, and the various political, economic, technological and cultural inter-connectivities that have been discussed throughout the program that should be subsumed within such informed decision-making."

We were told we had 7 mins to present and would have 3 mins of questions from the audience.  We were given this slide at the beginning of our program, but told it would be emailed out to us - so naturally, I didn't copy it down.  We got it on Tuesday and haven't had a day to work on it.  The one day we had was Thursday after our lecture, but it ran long, so we didn't have much time at all - and I was brain dead from the 3 hour lecture.  We woke up and met at 8am to work on this presentation to be delivered by 10am (talk about last minute).

I unfortunately had two people that know nothing about Tottenham and what they are trying to do, so I devised a marketing strategy to build a stadium and all that goes with it - naming rights, luxury suits, community center and shopping areas where the old stadium would be.  Tottenham has just signed a multi-year deal with Under Armour, who are looking to globalize their brand and I took the approach that both Tottenham and UA both have the same agenda - they currently want to be the best and have a dominant company(s) in front of them (Nike, adidas, Manchester United, Arsenal).  

We devised a 5 year plan for building the arena and developing the local area, which is currently pretty run down around the current stadium.  We would partner with Under Armour and called the promotion "Protect this House."  (Not bad if I do say so myself).  So we presented this and faced off with some heavy questions, which I handled and fended off easily - I'm good at debating, just as Mrs. McGoo.

Once all the presentations were finished, we were asked to vote on the top four groups and were not allowed to vote for ourselves.  The top four moved on to a second round and were given a question and had 10 mins to go outside and develop the strategy to address the issue/question.  You were given 3 mins to present your idea and then faced 2 mins of questioning.  

At Fulham

We made it to the top four and thus devised our plan.  The question was basically saying it was 2050 and the government had taken over all sporting events and programs.  They were forcing your organization to come up with programs that were to ENHANCE, EDUCATE, and ENTERTAIN the local community.  I came back and delivered this speech.

"Because we built a community center 35 years ago, we are going to put in a vocational program for adults that could use specific skills to better the surrounding areas and their families. We also will have a satellite campus for universities where adults and youth and go to for day or night classes.  We will offer youth academy's for kids to develop their sporting skills and child care for those adults who wish to utilize the vocational program and/or college courses."

Our questions were targeted at facilities being old and funding - to which my reply was since this was something the government was requiring, so we'd get money from them for the necessary upgrades and funding.  "Anything further?"

After everyone went, they told us that the first round winner was a landslide winner and everyone else from 2nd -8th were close.  They announced our group as winners of both the first and second round.  My reward?  A size medium adidas shirt with the London Olympics logo on it.  Who says I don't come back with gifts for my wife?!?!

Five Living Legends

I then headed to my happy place - Emirates Stadium - Home of The Arsenal Gunners.  It was a thing of beauty.  

We then headed out for a dinner celebration put on by the professors where they rented out an upstairs room at a restaurant and we enjoyed a good night of laughs.

Saturday - Day 15

Not much to say for this day other than most everyone was leaving and I slept in.  Went and grabbed a bite to eat with by buddies Tony and Keith, who were staying an extra day.  We went to Piccadilly Circus to exchange a few things and then headed back to pack up.  

They came with me to my cousin's house and we went out to see a movie, grab a bite to eat, and show them a great view of the city from an "underground" rooftop party.  

My New Buddy Bob - GREAT Guy

Old Torch

U of M Colours for the bad guys

My Happy Place

Emirates Stadium

The upstairs room they rented out

Arsenal's Newest Signing

 All in all a great time.  Only four more days until I see my beautiful bride aka my Furbaby-Mamma.