She Shoots, She Scores

Do you believe in miracles? Well, I do. And it's all thanks to 1980 Olympic hockey great Mike Eruzione.

For the 2009 VoiceCon expo in Orlando, FL, my company, Pico Exhibits, created an exhibit for our client, cell-phone provider Nortel Networks Inc. The goal was to leverage Nortel's sponsorship of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC, Canada, by using an Olympic-hockey theme in Nortel's booth. We also planned to bring in a star hockey player as a traffic builder to make visitors not only aware of Nortel's sponsorship program but also to give attendees an exciting reason to visit the booth.

With the show only a few weeks away, I thought I deserved a gold medal for booking hockey legend Bobby Hull to appear in the exhibit. Plus, Hull lived in Orlando, so we eliminated almost all travel costs for his appearance.

Hull agreed to host an autograph session, and we planned to distribute giveaways for him to sign such as Nortel-branded hockey pucks and autograph cards featuring his photo and space for a signature. The exhibit included graphics announcing his appearance plus photos of him in action. We'd even set up a VIP meet-and-greet for special clients at an after-show-hours event in the booth.

So with our hockey legend booked and all thematic elements produced, I confidently arrived in Orlando for setup a couple of days before the show's opening, set for Monday afternoon. By Sunday, everything was almost completed when my phone rang at 1 p.m. The sports-management agency called to tell me that my in-booth star had suddenly taken ill. So with just 26 hours until the show floor opened, I'd somehow gone from scoring a hat trick to facing time in the penalty box.

After taking a minute to catch my breath - I felt like I'd just been body checked into the boards - I quickly took stock of where I sat. I had a client wanting an Olympic tie-in, and a booth that revolved around a hockey legend who was benched.

The obvious answer was to find another big-name athlete and build my booth around him or her. Simple enough, except sports stars don't grow on trees, even in sunny Florida.

I was still on the phone to the agent, so I asked whom else I could get this late in the game. While the agent agreed to try and find a replacement, his immediate answer was "I don't know who, yet." Before I let him go, I made a simple request: If at all possible, could he please make sure our new sports star was a hockey player? After all, I didn't want a figure skater or bobsledder signing our branded hockey pucks.

While the sports agent looked for another athlete, I made some preliminary phone calls back to our offices in Atlanta to let my co-workers know we'd be needing some late graphics work once we found our new sports star.

Then, I waited anxiously until 7 p.m., when the sports agent called with some news. The agency found another hockey player: Mike Eruzione, the captain of the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. men's hockey team. Having long ago hung up his skates, "Rizzo" became a successful businessman and motivational speaker. While I immediately began to wonder just what this sports star turned motivational speaker would cost, the agent quickly informed me that we'd get this Olympic hero for the same price we'd agreed to pay Hull. Score! Now I needed to get Eruzione on a plane and into our booth in less than 24 hours. Oh, and somehow I needed to find him a room in the sold-out hotel.

While the agent and my team worked on the travel logistics, I realized I had just 20 hours to solve my other problems. First, I called our graphics folks back in Atlanta. I needed new booth graphics plus the autograph cards with the name of Mike Eruzione, not Bobby Hull, and I had to have the changed files e-mailed to me quickly so I could get the hotel's business office to print off my new items first thing in the morning.

Next, with his flight already secured by our team, I needed to find a room in the hotel for our hockey star. Since Orlando-based Hull didn't require a room, I didn't have an extra to spare. But after some begging and pleading at the front desk - and wondering if I'd need to give him my room and sleep in the booth - the hotel finally located a vacant room.

After a quick call from our office, I then discovered that the Eruzione photos our graphics department planned to use were owned by USA Hockey, the governing body of Olympic hockey in the United States. So I called the sports agent again to ask if he could help me get the rights to use the photos. As it turned out, Eruzione actually made a call to USA Hockey on my behalf and quickly secured permission to use the photos.

With our graphics getting re-done and e-mailed to me, I turned in early. The next morning, I downloaded the e-mailed files and rushed to the hotel's business center at 8 a.m., ordering my new graphics and autograph cards. While the office worked on my order, I checked out the booth.

All mention of Hull was gone, and it was ready for the replacement graphics announcing our new star. Plus, some Nortel folks had found footage of that 1980 Olympic hockey game against the Soviet Union, and arranged to have highlights of the game run on the booth's plasma screens.

With a couple of hours until the show opened, I grabbed my new graphics and autograph cards from the business center, and rushed them back to the booth where we made the final graphics changes. But as attendees began flooding the exhibit hall at 3 p.m., I still didn't have a hockey player, though my booth now proudly proclaimed he'd be there signing autographs at 4 p.m.

So I left the show floor to go look for him in the hotel lobby. Word was that my Olympic champion was en route, but with the clock ticking, I needed to rush him to the booth as soon as possible. Fortunately, I didn't have long to wait. Eruzione walked into the hotel lobby with a good chunk of that hour to spare. I helped him check in, rushed him up to change his shirt in his room, and then escorted him to the exhibit just in time for autographs to begin.

In the end, attendees connected with our Olympic hero better than I think they would have with our NHL Hall of Famer. Grown men were practically crying when they met the gold medalist who had played in one of the most iconic games in the history of sports. Best of all, our client loved how we overcame hurdles to deliver a miracle win. It was a power play even Eruzione would appreciate.

- Patti Wilder, senior account director, Pico Exhibits, Atlanta