Happy Memories...
?? David (Kav) Kavanagh L.ISP
Helping company founders, leaders and franchise owners increase sales and profits | Training Sales Teams | Law of Reciprocity Advocate | Pilot | Drummer | Helping people and their businesses thrive is my 'WHY'
It's that time of year when two big events combine; one's sport-related, the other's all to do with work and together they remind me of some very happy times.
I'm talking about the Super Bowl and sales kick-off events. I'd never been a huge fan of American Football, largely due to my legendary short attention span and the associated complexities of offence and defence etc. but that all changed when I joined BMC Software in January 2003. OK, I was in Houston for new hire training but it set the scene for an enduring fascination with this behemoth sporting event and what happened coincidentally on the work front.
One of my new hire colleagues that year was Jim Markey who became a close friend and later on, my boss. Jim was horrified to hear that I hadn't made any plans to watch the Super Bowl and insisted I accompany him and some others to a local sports bar to witness this (inter)national spectacle. It was during the next 5 hours that I began to understand not only the game itself, but the theatre and cabaret that go along with it. For example, I learnt that companies pay eye-watering amounts of money to advertise their wares on TV during the game - $5.6M for a 30 second slot during the last one. In 2003, the mid-game set list comprised Shania Twain, No Doubt and Sting (I had to Google that) and the afternoon and early evening shot by courtesy of multiple pitchers of beer, Buffalo wings by the pallet load, nachos, great company and a brilliant atmosphere.
That theme continued assuming I was working for any US-based software company that held its SKO on home territory and the last time that happened was in 2018, my last year of 5 happy years at MarkLogic.
That year, Justin Timberlake provided the entertainment and because the Super Bowl was held in Minneapolis, it was fitting that he paid a fantastic tribute to the city's most famous son, Prince. I can't remember exactly who I enjoyed the match with that day but David Northmore, Keith 'Archie' Andrews and Don Butler (aka 'no 'F' in Butler') were undoubtedly in the cohort.
Not sure when the SKO & Super Bowl planets will align once again but here's hoping. Happy days...