The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

I’m out of Las Vegas and winging my way back to Atlanta.  Fortunately I got upgraded to first class which is a good thing because the airplane is crowded and I need to be fed so I can feel better.  Again, I’d like to make sure everyone remembers that I didn’t wake up to a tiger or an unidentified baby in my room.

Normally my policy on airplanes is not to talk to anyone around me, but I made an exception this time.  My next-door neighbor is Daniel a professional hockey player from Canada and I couldn’t resist asking him about his perspective on Canada’s big win in the Olympics.  Hockey is not my thing and I think if you’re from the South, you’re more focused on sports like SEC football, which is like a religion in the state of Georgia.

I asked Daniel to describe for me what he thinks we should know about Canada’s win at the games and about hockey in general.  Here’s what he told me.

1. The best players in the world come from Canada – look at Sidney Crosby as the example.  Personally, I think the reason this might be true is that a large part of the country is like the frozen tundra a lot of the year so that’s all these guys have to do for fun.
2. The USA needs to get over its obsession about winning the most medals.  Canada won the most gold.  Daniel says we should focus on quality not quantity.  If you look statistically at Canada with its much smaller population, then per capita they took it to us in the medal count.
3. We should get over the women’s team’s celebration.  They worked themselves to death for 4 years, are true amateurs and deserve to celebrate just like the men did without criticism.  (I wholeheartedly agree)

For all of you who think hockey is a violent sport, Daniel would agree with you.  To him, it’s all about intimidation.  If you’re intimidated, you may be likely to flinch.  If you flinch, then you may be likely to hesitate.  If you hesitate, the other guy can go around you and score.  That totally makes sense.  Despite his admitted aggressive play, Daniel still has all of his teeth, so I’m not sure what message that sends about his fighting ability.

Now, here’s where Daniel and I might just part ways.  He believes that any hockey player can do any football player’s job.  Daniel’s exact quote is, “Can you see a 325 pound football player put a pair of skates on.  We do everything that football players do, but at 35 miles an hour.”  Maybe we should test that theory.  Take the best hockey players and put them against the NFL all stars.  I know who my money would be on.

I learned a lot at the Channel Partners Show and one of my lessons is to be more interested in the guy next to me on the airplane.  People are way interesting.  Also, I plan to sell Daniel’s company some conference calling.  His company is my ideal customer profile.  They have 29 locations, lots of sales guys on the road and use conferencing to conduct sales calls, have remote meetings, show their graphic designs and get business done.  Love those Canadians, eh!

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a leading provider or audio and web conferencing and wrap-around services to enhance customer experience. To learn more about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com.