First Day in Lausanne

Our first full day in Lausanne was the reason for this trip throughout Europe.  We went to the IOC headquarters to talk with Timo Lumme, the Managing Director of IOC Television and Marketing Services (TMS).  However, Mr. Lumme was in a philatelic and numismatic Olympic meeting.  This meeting based around Olympic coins and stamps will lead to the IOC generating millions of dollars of revenue.  

Although our meeting with Mr. Lumme was unsuccessful, we did meet with three TMS employees, who worked in sales and marketing.  They gave us an hour long presentation, which was then opened up to some Q & A.  Sitting inside the "London 2012" room, they told us about their TOP Sponsors, the "Clean" ideal of Olympic venues (No advertising inside venues), and how to control ambush marketing.  It was extremely interesting learning from some of the best sports marketing minds in the industry.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Olympic Museum, which Matt described below.  Besides seeing amazing artifacts like Hitler's Berlon Olympics Signed letter in 1936 and the Olympic torches, I also found the Olympic medals to be beautiful.  Interestingly, the medals were all made with 0.6 grams of gold, besides the Barcelona medals.  Those were made with 0.9 grams, because the IOC president at the time of the games was from Spain.  Other interesting facts from the museum are that they have documents in their archives that stretch over a kilometer long, and that they are closing for 2 years at the end of this year to remodel and expand their building.

As the day winded down, and the Alps faded into the dark, we decided to end the night kicking around a soccer ball and swimming in Geneva Lake.  Although the kids who swam enjoyed their night, my replica soccer ball of the UEFA championship finals that I bought in London ended up being punted into a tree, where it still remains about 30 feet high.  Hopefully, we can get it down by the time we leave Lausanne.  

More to come from me tomorrow.

Chad Spodek