Tonight, a special dinner and round table was held at the New York Athletic Club. This dinner was organized by Mario Mercado, Wrestler, WSFO Production Executive, Director of Media Distribution, and Dr. Hamid Kermanshah, wrestler, coach and entrepreneur.
Fereshteh Forough, Film Annex's Liaison to Central and South Asia, Thomas Courtney, Wrestler and President of Models WebTV, and I, attended the dinner. The goal was to define a strategy on how to Save Olympic Wrestling #SOW.
Here is the list of the guests:
Don Sperling, EVP, NY Giants @giants
Cary Glotzer, CEO, Tupelo-Honey
Peter Murray, former CMO, NFL
Ken Aagaard, EVP, CBS Sports @cbssportsnet
Scott Woodward, former CMO, Movado
Michael Wiesman, former President, NBC Sports @nbcsports
Brendan Monaghan, Assoc Publisher, GQ magazine
Jake Herbert, member of the US Olympic wrestling team @jakeherbert84
Dan Gable @dannygable
General Secretaries of National Federations of Russia, Iran
Rich Bender, Director, USA Wrestling
FILA Bureau members: Jim Scherr, Stan Dzezich @Fila_official
Mario Mercado @mariojrmercado
Dr. Hamid Kermansh
Jon Tush, President, NYAC wrestling club
Dave Foxen, Chairman, NYAC wrestling committee
Thomas Courtney @ModelsWebtv
Social media and target thinking can be a great contribution to the conversation and tool to broaden the Olympic wrestling fans and supporters base outside of the circle of those who practice the sport. I also see that FILA's Twitter account has only 2,252 followers and 283 tweets, and a very limited amount of images. This is a clear message of the lack of presence on digital media.
Wrestling is an essential part of education and millions of people world wide practiced or knew someone who practiced wrestling. Its roots are deep in the history of the Olympics and it is one of the best points of contact between three areas of the world: North America, the Middle East and Asia, with leading countries like the USA, Iran and Russia.
I expressed my thoughts of the role of Wrestling in my message to Jacque Rogge on February 13th.
from the meeting a few things arise:
- Its important to tell the story of each Coach and Athlete, though blogs, articles, videos and other forms of Social Media; Film Annex has 40,000 registered filmmakers and can help on this.
- Its important to get in touch with local, national and international Journalists and educate them to the values of wrestling, even beyond the results, its sense of discipline, sacrifice and diversity acceptance; with 177 countries practicing the sport; Film Annex has 4,000 registered writers and can help on this.
- Its important to apply the basics of Target Thinking to establish local leadership, and apply the rule of a "Big Fish in a Small Pond" where the ponds are the local communities and the big fishes are the coaches and athletes making a difference and becoming role models to the entire community. Target Thinking is one of Film Annex Capital Partners initiatives and services and can help on this strategy.
Tonight we had an important opportunity to make a difference. Lets broaden the spectrum and bring wrestling back into the Olympics.
