Rulon Gardner and Larry the Cable Guy at the University of Nebraska

Rulon Gardner recently did a speaking event for the students, athletes and staff at the University of Nebraska. While in Lincoln, he attended the football game versus San Jose State, where he ran into Larry the Cable Guy.

Olympic Themed Corporate Events

You’re the meeting planner for your company–or someone who has never planned a meeting before, but suddenly this role was thrust upon you–and you have a corporate event planned…now all you need is a venue, a theme and a motivational speaker. Freaking out?! I can’t help you with the venue part, but I can help you with the theme and the motivational speaker part.

Since 2008 is an Olympic year, how about an Olympic theme? The Beijing Games recently ended and the Olympics are foremost in everyone’s mind–especially since it was some of the first new programming to hit the TV in months due to the writer’s strike. With all the themes of goal-setting and achievement the Olympics embody, this is a great theme for a corporate event. You could bring in an Olympic speaker (like Olympic Gold and Bronze Medalist Rulon Gardner), set up 5 breakout groups to work on specific skill sets (to coincide with the 5 Olympic rings, get it?!), even do a fun team building event (i.e., The Corporate Olympics). We’ve had past customers do team boat races (with one team–who had performed the best in the earlier breakout sessions–winning the right to have the Olympian speaker on their team!) and team bicycle assembly competitions (the bikes were then donated to a local charity). Since the Olympics were in Beijing this past summer, you could have your meeting catered with Chinese food.

Has your company done an Olympic Themed Corporate Event in the past? What did you do? What worked, what didn’t? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.