Several people have asked me what I used to do while I was living and working in Bologna…. so I’ll share a little bit about my adventures. In 1999 (seems like ages ago!) I was recruited by an old friend and x-boss of mine to move to Bologna and manage a few accounts for their marketing agency (Nike Running, Yoga fruit juice and eventually Coca-Cola.) It was an exciting prospect and opportunity… who wouldn’t want to manage projects for an all-star client list like that! I do remember that at the time, my cons list included the new furniture I had just purchased for my apartment in Boston and another opportunity I was considering with a company from Long Island. New furniture? Long Island? Looking back….. it’s crystal clear.

So my time “working” in Italy was spent (among other things) attending every major marathon and other running events throughout Italy for Nike, attending snowboard competitions at Italy’s major ski resorts for Yoga and eventually creating a Coca-Cola project on the Italian beaches that included several hundred lidos on beaches in every region…… did I mention, they also paid me? It was also a lot of hard work but an incredible adventure.

That’s me showing the staff how it’s done… I sold 24 cokes out of that backpack/cooler in 30 minutes!

When I returned to the States in 2002, I started my own agency Criterium Event Marketing with a few of my Italian colleagues and in 2005 we were asked by another agency to help manage the 2006 Olympic Torch Relay for Coca-Cola. We met at CC offices in Milano and at the end of the day I declined because of other obligations with clients here in the US (I can feel you kicking me in the butt) but my colleagues and very close friends took the challenge of mapping out the route, managing the torch bearers, hiring the staff and so on. So as the Olympic Torch makes its way through Europe this weekend, (St. Petersburg April 5, London April 6 and Paris April 7) in route to the Beijing Olympics – you may recall it’s path through Italy in 2006 and if you had the opportunity to see the torch run by and the procession of cars, trucks and people it was partially thanks to my very good friends Nicola, Davide and Cristiana.

Cristiana & Nicola during the Torch Relay

Robert Frost was a wise man…. it really has made all the difference.