Businesses and other organizations can capitalize on the interest and excitement the 2004 summer Olympic Games will create when they’re held in Athens, Greece, August 13-29.

Channel this heightened enthusiasm into the achievement of your organization’s goals – whether sales, marketing, customer service, etc. Use it, too, to stimulate a greater sense of patriotism and pride in being an American.

Busche offers these suggestions:

Make your day-to-day office activities and meetings more effective by tying them in with special events, occasions, holidays or seasons. Keep your eye on the calendar and the news media to see what’s coming up. The uniqueness and popularity of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games should spark ideas to take advantage of opportunities which already generate interest, excitement and publicity. Use your imagination and incorporate your own good ideas and activities, too — as well as those of your people.

In planning your overall Olympic Games campaign, give a lot of thought to developing meaningful activities which you can incorporate these characteristics into – traits which serve you well in both the office and the sports environment. For example:

• Knowledge, desire, training
  

• Speed, agility
  

• Desire, mental attitude, focus
  

Come up with a catchy theme or two that’s customized to your company, its products/services, corporate culture, mission and goals — and use them on banners, posters, T-shirts, etc. Some ideas:

• Catch The Olympic Spirit!
  

• [Product Name] Sales Olympics!
  

• Olympic Sales Blitz!
  

Relate your activities to sporting events. Hold Olympic-style competition among your team members, tying in your products/services to events such as:

• Track and field (jumping, throwing, sprinting, relays, marathon, etc.) - "We Raise The Bar on Quality!" or "Dash to Excellence!"
  

• Aquatic (swimming, diving, water polo, rowing) — "Make a Big Splash."
  

• Team sports (basketball, soccer, softball) — "There’s no 'I' in 'Team'"
  

• Boxing – "K.O. The Competition!"
  

• Archery — "Focus hits the target every
  
  
  time."
  

Decorate your office with red, white and blue Americana images. Decorate your work area with Olympic icons such as Olympic torch, Olympic rings, posters of athletes, balloons, streamers, etc. Create your own, using poster board, Kraft paper and large-tip markers.

Raise the Flag. Hoist the American flag every time someone in your group records a special sale or does something noteworthy. If appropriate, ring a bell or signify achievement through some other means.

Keep Score. Put on your thinking cap and come up with ways to use Olympic events as a way to “keep score” as you head toward your goals. For example, create a Marathon map on a poster board indicating each of 26 miles (the marathon race is actually 26 miles 385 yards). Every time someone sells X-product or does X-activity, mark it in color on the map, etc.

Let’s Eat Greek! If appropriate, treat your people to a dinner at a local Greek restaurant.

Food, Drink and Munchies Ideas:

• Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions
  

• Power bars
  

• Bottled water
  

• Gatorade and other sports drinks
  

For more ideas on staging a fun, exciting and effective Olympic Games campaign, visit www.bizmotivation.com where there is an Olympic Games Party and Idea Kit available, plus information and links to motivation articles, themes, decorations and award merchandise.

Jerry Busche is the creator of BizMotivation.com, a division of Jerry Busche and Associates, an award-winning marketing, advertising and public relations agency that specializes in sales and motivational programs and services as well as website design and search engine positioning. Busche Associates was founded in 1978 and has offices in Jacksonville, FL, and Ft. Worth, TX. The agency has served a variety of clients from Fortune 500 firms to startups, including:

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield

• BellSouth

• Southern Bell

• Dannon Yogurt

• Johnson and Johnson

• Vistakon

info@bizmotivation.com