The World Comes to Orlando

For the 13th consecutive year, my third week of November included a trek to IAAPA Attractions Expo, our client IAAPA's global gathering of more than 25,000 professionals in the world of theme parks, water parks, zoos, aquariums, family entertainment centers, museums and other attractions.

This week our team worked with reporters from the Associated Press, Central Florida News 13, Fox 35 Orlando, USA Today, the Orlando Sentinel and MSNBC (among others) to report from this big business event.

A couple of years back an Olympian was on the tradeshow floor, and though no Olympic competitors are here in 2011, we did find a nice Olympic surprise in a recent book by Ripley Publishing -- "Strikingly True" -- in which the colorful text features Ripley's - Believe It Or Not! factoids about several Olympic competitors as well as other five-ringed trivia. It is worth a look-see on your next trek to the bookstore, Nook or Kindle.

Infographic via IAAPA.org

London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay

The Associated Press gave a little love to the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay with an international wire story updating readers on plans for next year's run.

The Olympic flame will trek about 8,000 miles but almost entirely on British soil during 70 days next summer, according to the article.

Additional details are available at the official site for the Olympic Torch Relay. Of course, part of the Torch tradition will also take place in Olympia, Greece.

The destination list for the flame looks good to me. It would really be something to see the flame at Stonehenge, for instance.

I did not yet look closely at the route yet, but in case they did not think of it already, consider this my Olympic blogger suggestion that the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay Team at LOCOG, as well as Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung, recreate the "Chariots of Fire" opening sequence by carrying the Olympic torch down the beach made famous by the film's director, Hugh Hudson, and Vangelis (in case you missed it, Hudson answered questions about that famous scene during a film festival in Atlanta, and his comments are available via this post).

Photo via LOCOG

Happy New Year & Happy New Rio 2016 Logo

Excitement is building for the blowout traditional New Year's Eve festivities in Rio de Janiero, with the *BONUS* excitement tomorrow as the new logo for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be unveiled at Copacabana Beach.

Today's Associated Press report shares more detail. Any predictions for the new logo?

I am guessing that green and yellow will remain prominent features. Something off the wall and new for the future (as was the London 2012 logo when unveiled) is also likely as Brazil may wish to push the envelope.

Looking forward to 2011 and the big unveil on the news, which I expect will appear on CNN shortly before midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Happy New Year from OlympicRingsAndOtherThings.blogspot.com!

Image via The Inspiration Room.

Rio vs. Robin Williams

The most ridiculous "news" item today -- other than CNN airing their own admission that they shamelessly just played (for the umpteenth time) the unverified-by-CNN Tiger Woods voicemails -- came in the form of an Associated Press brief stating that the Rio 2016 Olympic organizers are looking for legal options given Robin Williams' Olympic bid-related comments on "The Late Show with David Letterman" recently (see the full episode with Williams):

"Some citizens and officials in the Brazilian city are upset with comments the comedian made on a recent appearance on ... Letterman, saying Rio received the 2016 Olympics because it sent '50 strippers and a pound of blow' to compete with Chicago’s entourage that included Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey ... Rio’s Olympic Committee said its lawyers will analyze whether legal action against Williams is possible."

I hope the lawyers in Rio aren't seriously wasting time on this "issue" as there are certainly more important items to tend to in the 2016 Olympic city preparations.

C'mon, everyone knows by now it was more than 100 strippers ... and a kilo of blow, and Pelé was place-kicking ludes into the mouths of IOC members! (Just kidding, IOC, Pelé and Rio 2016 -- I look forward to again visiting Brazil many times now to 2016).

It was good to see Robin Williams in the news, though -- glad he is healthy again. Just thinking of him crying over this Olympic legal issue brings back thoughts on the disturbing scene in "One Hour Photo" when Williams' character had a nightmare (yikes!).

As my septuagenarian middle school algebra teacher used to exclaim, "Oh, for crying out tears in the sink!" (I think she would say the same of Rio "legal issue" for Williams, no algebra required.)

Photo of Robin Williams via this site; Rio 2016 logo via this site.

UPS Delivers For London 2012

On the heels of the McDonald's Olympic sponsorship news (see previous post), today also marked the delivery of news that Atlanta-based UPS is the latest London 2012 Olympic sponsor.

(disclosure: UPS/UPS International is a client of Edelman, the P.R. firm where I work.)

More specifically, UPS is now London 2012's "5th Tier Two Supporter and 22nd domestic commercial sponsor overall."

A sampling of headlines from both sides of The Pond include the hometown Atlanta Journal-Constitution as well as Reuters London and Associated Press reports.

The UPS U.K. site also provides a bit of detail. Jolly good show!

Logo via UPS United Kingdom

Pele Power

Just read a Jan M. Olsen report for the Associated Press regarding the Olympic feats, and 2016 Olympic bid contributions, of Pele. Interesting read.

Contemplating some of the Rio bid's tactics, as reported in the news today, I keep coming back to a few quotes from Olympic bid-related conversations in Beijing.

During the Around The Rings breakfast event in Beijing, at which all four 2016 Olympic bid city CEOs were quizzed, Patrick Ryan, leader of Chicago 2016, made a remark that stuck with me.

He said (paraphrasing here) that one of the biggest lessons they took from previous Olympic bids was the notion that remaining humble [in the eyes of the IOC] is a key factor for the potential success of the bid by any candidate city.

Some of the Rio 2016 comments today -- at least as they were portrayed by media -- started to smack of "sans humble." When people ask me "why do you think Chicago may win?" this is now part of the response: Chicago remains humble in the process.

No matter the 2016 city chosen on Friday, the Games of the XXXIst Olympiad will be spectacular. Let the Olympic nail biting continue!

Photo via Yahoo! News and Associated Press/AP Photo/POLFOTO, Tariq Mikkel Khan

IOC: I Want A New Drug (Tested)

Ripped from the lyrics by Huey Lewis and the News, today the International Olympic Committee announced (reported by the Associated Press and other outlets) they will review up to 5,000 Beijing drug tests for a new pharma item recently detected at other world sports events. Apparently this is to make good on the IOC's strengthening stance about doping -- I concur. It's simple -- athletes need to Just Say No (to polluting their bodies, or the Games, or the sporting world) and lay off the doping. Fight the Madness, IOC!