2010 Olympics ceremonies . 3 lessons learned

Along with an estimated 3 billion other people, I watched the 2010 Vancouver Olympics’ Opening Ceremonies. And, sadly, last night I watched the games come to an official end. But my viewership was not without some great learnings from this epic event that proudly took place in my home country.

It’s OK to make mistakes, especially if you can laugh at them

We all watched the opening ceremonies #fail when the fourth pillar of the cauldron would not raise. With one eye I was watching the live footage of the event and with the other monitoring the #olympics #van2010 Twitter feed. Event planners from around the world were tweeting their dismay and sympathy…because we’ve all been there. Days, weeks or months of planning come down to a live event. And if something can go wrong, it usually will. Well, it did. And, on a massive scale. But rather than bury his head in the sand, the event producer embraced the mistake and with typical Canadian humor poked fun at it (and in a way, himself). It was quite refreshing to laugh it off. And it sent a wonderful message to our global friends that we got it, we own up to it, we laughed and we moved on.

It’s critical to own a hashtag

Why, oh why did VANOC not embrace an official hashtag? I tried, with all my might, to stay on top of the Twitter conversations surrounding the games. They brought a whole new dimension to my television experience. I heard from spectators on the ground, critics, proud Canadians as well as people from all over the globe. Problem? There were many viewer generated hashtags: #olympics, #van2010, #vancouver, etc – and although Vancouver 2010 did have their own Twitter account, there wasn’t a clear hashtag to use for the games.

Have a clear event essence

As a brand strategist and a Canadian, I have often been asked what is Canada’s identity. Canada is young, just 143 years old. Outside of the people who populated our country well before the first ‘explorer’ landed, many of us are 1st and 2nd generation immigrants. Canada is expansive, at 9,093,507 square Kilometers we’re the 2nd largest country in the world. Yet, Canada has a small population, with approximately 34M people we have less people than the state of California. We’ve always been seen as the US’ (very) little brother. All of these factors have led to a country that doesn’t take itself too seriously, is open minded, friendly and, as Sherri Shepherd of The View says, “knows how to throw a good party” (after all, what else are you going to do when it’s -30 outside). I was delighted to see that the essence of our country was beautifully captured in both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. I do believe that, even if you didn’t get our Canadian humor, not one person could walk away not knowing who were are.

So what did you think? Did you enjoy the ceremonies? What were some lessons you took away?