By Cybele Negris

During the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, I was invited to attended an Olympic related event at PricewaterhouseCoopers. I was impressed by the level of planning and execution of the event held in the PwC Olympic Lounge where attendees were invited to network, watch the women’s hockey game (Canada vs Switzerland) and to take part in a wine tasting. 

After the event, I was curious as to what holding an event like this meant for a company like PwC. I took the opportunity to find out more about what PwC was doing to leverage off the Olympics and determine whether hosting these types of events gives such companies a return on their investment. I was also interested in whether there were motivations beyond business for PwC to support the Olympics.

It seems support for the Winter Olympics and Canada’s athletes has long been a part of PwC’s culture. They were one of the official supporters of Canada’s bid for the 2010 Winter Games during 2002-2003. PwC is also the exclusive auditor, tax and business advisor to Alpine Canada Alpin (the governing body for alpine ski racing in Canada) and they provide financial and in-kind support to the ACA Podium Club. They sponsored individual skiers Jean-Philippe Roy and Geneviève Simard who unfortunately both had to pull out of this year’s Olympic Games due to prior injury.

Interestingly, they also have a number of Olympians at PwC and some retired staff who have competed in the past. To name a few, John Larsen, a retired partner, competed in the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games in the Rowing competition. Nic Youngblud, an associate in the Calgary office, achieved a personal goal by being part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as a member of the Canadian National Men’s Water Polo Team. So for PwC, support of the Olympics certainly goes beyond purely for business reasons.

For the 2010 Winter Games, they started planning operations and their involvement about 18 months ago. They had 3 main priorities during the Olympics—staff engagement in the Games, maintaining a high level of client service, and reducing vehicle trips into downtown Vancouver. They hosted events for staff and partners “to celebrate this once in a lifetime sporting and cultural event.” Big screen TVs were also installed in their lunch room for staff to drop by and watch events and they also had staff draws for tickets and prizes. "The Winter Olympic Games offer a unique opportunity to host key clients and get to know strategic targets. We converted part of one of our floors into a client hosting lounge area for meetings with clients and business networking receptions.”

Since the PwC building downtown is located near the Convention Centre where the International Broadcast Centre and Main Media Centre for the Olympics were located, the Olympics road closures impacted PwC. Let’s not forget the timing of the Olympics overlaps with the busiest 2 to 3 weeks of the year for more than half of PwC’s staff who provide audit services, tax support and regulatory filings for corporate clients.

However, they decided to "embrace this once in a lifetime opportunity." They maintained a high level of client service during the Olympics by using some creative methods. For uninterrupted client service plus reduction of trips downtown, they leased temporary office space in south Richmond and encouraged staff that live south of Vancouver to use this facility instead of the downtown office. This office was accessible by the Canada Line. Some of the staff even worked at their client’s sites if they were outside of the downtown core. Staff were encouraged to work from home where possible, or leave their cars at home and take transit, walk or bike to work. Their goal was to reduce vehicle trips into downtown Vancouver by more than 50%. “We recently implemented a number of technology solutions that enable our people to work uninterrupted from home, our Richmond site or at a client’s office.” 

As to whether PwC has been able to leverage off the Olympics successfully to drive more business, well, it is too early too tell. Their main reason to set up their hosting lounge and organize various business development and networking events onsite was to get together with clients, Alumni and other contacts and celebrate Canada’s achievements in the Olympic Games. “Professional services are a relationship-oriented business and it is important to create some very valuable face-time with clients and local business and community leaders.”

Having said that, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Private Company Services group created quite a buzz during the Games with their "in the red campaign”. They put large sign outside the Vancouver office (Granville Square) situated in the heart of the Olympic action and asked people to share their photos. Thousands stopped to take pictures in their Canadian colours with the PwC sign and some of the best shots are being posted on a photo album on the PwC website.

PwC's in the red campaign - "Just this once, we're happy to see everyone in the red. Go Canada"

More information

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (www.pwc.com) provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services. In Canada, PwC (www.pwc.com/ca) and its related entities have more than 5,300 partners and staff in offices across the country.

Related Posts:

Vancouver Small Business & the Olympics- Part I of Series – Eclipse Awards by Cybele Negris

Vancouver Small Business & the Olympics – Part II of Series – Forum for Women Entrepreneurs by Cybele Negris

Vancouver Small Business & the Olympics – Part III of Series – Residential Construction Industry by Cybele Negris

Vancouver Small Business & the Olympics – Part IV of Series – Interview with George Hunter, CEO of Small Business BC by Cybele Negris

Business & the Olympics – Part V of Series -Interview with Pascal Spothelfer, President, BCTIA by Cybele Negris

Cybele Negris is Co-Founder of Webnames.ca, Canada’s Original Domain Registrar. She is on the Boards of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, Small Business BC, Government of BC Small Business Roundtable and the Vancouver Economic Development Commission. More information is available at cybele.tel or webnames.tel. Follow on Twitter @cybelenegris and @webnames

By Marc Smith

Taking a walk with a friend enjoying the beautiful Vancouver sunshine we stopped at the local UPS Store on Nelson & Cambie to mail off a package. We walked in to a sea of video cameras from two local TV stations and a large group of regular folk with cameras. What did we walk into? A scandal maybe at the UPS Store?

Even better, we walked into what turned out to be an impromptu media scrum for star Indian Olympic Athlete Shiva Keshavan. Upon asking and following up with further research when I got home it turns out that  Mr. Keshavan was the worlds youngest Luge entrant ever to participate in a Winter Olympics (Nagano 1998).

The Manager of the UPS Store # 209 Mr. Paramjit Teja, who is known to the Keshavan family as “Uncle”, was instrumental in arranging all the hospitality needs for the friends and family that travelled with India’s Winter Olympic Star. Part of the entourage was 6 “super fans” from Italy that have followed and supported Shiva in his Olympic Dream since his performance in Torino’s Games in 2006. the energy in the store was quite a buzz.

I was lucky enough to capture almost 6.5 minutes of the interview between Shiva and the reporter from Shaw TV. I apologize for the sound quality but this was too good an opportunity to pass up. So please watch and enjoy. I was 5 feet away from an Olympic athlete days after his competition. What a great experience!

After the interview Shiva was asked what his plans for the rest of his stay in Vancouver consisted of. He said " I have two other colleagues/friends from India that are here to compete and I will be at their side and in the stands cheering for them and giving them all the support and wisdom I can share from my 4 Olympic experiences". An answer was truly worthy of an Olympian.

Marc Smith is Vancouver based event planner and will be reporting daily on various events happening around Vancouver. http://twitter.com/amuseconsulting

By Marc Smith

Yesterday, Feb 11th, saw yet another first in Olympic history occur in Vancouver. The first ever Pride House was opened in the heart of Downtown Vancouver at Qmunity, BC's Queer Resource Centre. While to those of you who are not a member of the LGBT community this may seem small and insignificant it is in fact a major accomplishment and milestone. One I felt proud to be apart of and thrilled to be able to show the world that Canada is truly a country where diversity is celebrated.

Professional and Olympic caliber sports are one of the last remaining hold outs where people in the LGBT community feel they need to hide their authentic selves for fear of rejection from their peers and of course the almighty $$$ support from business and associations.

Politics aside Pride House Vancouver means that LGBT friends and family in Vancouver + all those visitors from around the world have a safe space to come hang out and celebrate the Olympic Spirit with others from their community.

I attended the official opening ceremonies and here is a video of the brief opening remarks from Qmunity Executive Director Jennifer Breakspear.

Right after the official ceremonies were over I was lucky enough to get an on camera chat with inspirational Marian Lay a 2 time Olympian (1964 & 1968), bronze medalist in 1968 and an openly gay woman. Hear what she had to say about Pride House and what it means to her.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about Pride House Vancouver. Please feel free to comment here, or send me a tweet.

Marc Smith is Vancouver based event planner and will be reporting daily on various events happening around Vancouver. http://twitter.com/amuseconsulting