17,000, 12,000, 2,100, 430, 380, 175, 86, 40, 27, 18 …

What at first sight looks like a confusing lottery of numbers are in fact numbers taken from one of the most important internal events within our company: the adidas global brand conference (gbc). Want to know what they represent and what the gbc is all about? Then read on.

I am Juliane and I work within the Brand Design and Events Department. What I have learned since starting my job in this team last November is that there are very different opinions on what event managers do (see the image below).

Many people, many opinions – this is an image someone send to me via email and it describes the various public perceptions of event managers (click to enlarge)

So let’s find out what the adidas Global Events team and I actually did during the last months…

For the adidas global brand conference, more than 2,100 employees came from around the world to the adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach to get briefed on the new products, concepts and marketing initiatives for the first half of 2013. The gbc is the markets’ official kick-off for this period, called Spring/Summer 2013. It is an inspiring and highly motivating event and contributes very effectively to create global alignment.

In order to make this happen we had to organise registration, travel, video production, visual language development, accommodation, catering, security, presentations, sample orders, decoration… I could fill the whole page.

But let’s start by investigating further into the Sunday night: the gbc opening with adidas

An overview of the gbc opening event.

CEOThe Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company is the highest-ranking corporate officer and in charge of total management of an organisation. Herbert Hainer which included a dinner for 2,100 attendees. For our guests it was the opening, for us it was almost the finishing line after months of intense preparations for the gbc week. The set-up started four days before and it was like seeing a child grow up. I had the project lead for this event and seeing the event come to life put a constant smile on my face. More than 40 cooks worked backstage on the dinner. 175 waiters and waitresses were on the floor to give guests the perfect service. 17,000 pieces of porcelain were used, 50 kilometres of cable laid out and 82 loudspeakers set up.

The dinner was followed by the spectacular brand presentation and fashion show on Monday morning, hosted by Hermann Deininger, CMOThe Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is an executive responsible for various marketing activities in an organisation. Most often, the position reports to the Chief Executive OfficerThe Chief Executive Officer (CEOThe Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company is the highest-ranking corporate officer and in charge of total management of an organisation.) of a company is the highest-ranking corporate officer and in charge of total management of an organisation.. Brand adidas, and his direct reports. It would have taken one person 450 days to build the set for this great show: 80 kilometres of cable, 350 lights and 80 loudspeakers were used to bring to life the massive seating stand and stage with a size of 350m2. 27 people alone worked in the stage direction team to guarantee that the show ran perfectly. For the integrated fashion show Lawrence Midwood, adidas Design Director Sport Styleadidas Sport Style is defined as the “Future of Sportswear” and includes the labels Y-3, Porsche Design Sport, adidas SLVR and adidas NEO. adidas Sport Style’s positioning statement is “Style your Life”., and Tobias Frericks, GQ Fashion Director, created 380 looks out of 12,000 samples for 86 models and artists who were styled by 18 hair and make-up artists. They got great support from Stelli – a famous stylist, also from the GQ magazine. It was my first time witnessing the gbc from behind the scenes and the whole experience, from preparation through to the actual show, was really amazing.

Fashion Show hosted by CMO Brand adidas, Hermann Deininger

After those two days of opening events, all guests started their category-specific work sessions, to get detailed information on concepts. More than 430 sessions were organised for the different business units to present their highlight products and key stories to the different markets. To see all these innovative products and creative concepts was very inspiring. And to witness the passion everybody from around the world is putting into this brand is the reason why I love being a part of the adidas family.

I am all in for the global events team. Play to win, live your style and celebrate originality!