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Walk and Talk (June 2008)
By Pat Walker, President Pat Walker Productions
When we last left off, the readers had a homework assignment to brainstorm names for this new feature on Gameops.com. From that, the column name would be crafted and an identity born. The reader response was great with over a hundred submittals from a wide range of folks in the game operations industry…basketball to football to baseball to soccer…big leagues to minor leagues to colleges…New York to Austin to Los Angeles to Australia.
And the winner is (drum roll, please)…“Walk & Talk”.
(Thanks Bryant P.)
Before I launch into why this name is a good fit, I would first like to take a moment to thank the readers for all of the great, unique, creative, innovative and off-the-wall ideas that led to a successful brainstorming session.
Ultimately, I decided on “Walk & Talk” because I felt it represented me as a person as well as the intent of this column…and I felt it was something that many of us in the world of game operations could relate to.
The name as a phrase was something that I’ve said and heard many times in the back hallways of KeyArena and other event venues. If you see me on gameday, you’ll notice that I typically move from place to place at a brisk pace…not in an effort to be unapproachable (because I try and say hi to every recognizable face as I pass), but because in the event industry, there’s no time to put the world on hold and dilly dally along. And since last minute items surface all the time, staff members would commonly track me down with questions, suggestions and strategic ideas.
Because that countdown clock is constantly ticking, I’d often say to them “Let’s walk and talk”…and let me tell you, some of the best ideas that I ever saw come to fruition took place in a 45 second conversation from backstage to the scorer’s table.
The original suggestion that I morphed into the final name was “Walk the Talk”, submitted by a representative at Major League Soccer’s league office. It immediately caught my attention, and upon switching “the” to “&”, the brainstorm had produced a strong fit for a name that describes the goals of this column.
I felt it was important that every part of the name be representative of my identity, and the first part is quite obvious…“Walk” being a play off of my last name. It is also something I enjoy doing on a routine basis with my dog, especially when it’s sunny here in Seattle. (note: The sun does actually shine in Seattle and contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t rain 365 days a year…but the locals support the rumor so everyone doesn’t move here.)
The latter part of the name, “Talk”, also represents me well…it’s a key part of the job, whether that’s brainstorming, directing a game on headset or teaching game ops concepts to a new client. Many of my grade school teachers will tell you that I developed the skill of vocal communication at a very young age…which was always reflected on my report cards with a “Needs Improvement” in the social behavior category, typically followed by comments about too much chatter and being the class clown. I guess the entertainment industry was a natural fit.
And finally, the part of the name that may often be overlooked, but I feel is most representative…the “&” or ampersand. As a left-hander, this was the most challenging element of learning to write. The ampersand flows beautifully for a righty, but as a southpaw, it was my arch nemesis. I could have gone with “Walk and Talk”, but to me, using the ampersand represents taking the challenge head on, something that is key in game ops. If we went the simple route each time, we would be doing a disservice to both our team’s fan base and ourselves.
(For more fun facts, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand.)
So now that you know how the name came about, the next step is to build the brand. The lore of a name grows over time and is shaped by the way you market, promote and define what the named product will become. There is no “right” way to do this, but rather it should be customized to fit your target audience and represent what your specific team, league, performance group, contest, etc is all about…and it’s up to you to help define that.
To borrow some past notes from a presentation given by Gameops.com editor, Jon Cudo, there are five basic steps to building a brand.
1. Determine what you want to be known as…the naming process that we just completed.
2. Define it…decide what it will represent and what it should accomplish.
3. Focus it…create a well-defined branding plan.
4. Support it…execute the branding plan.
5. Highlight it…follow up and showcase the brand via websites, media, in-arena/in-stadium features, etc.
For “Walk & Talk”, step 1 is complete…thanks in large part to all of you. Now it’s time for me to take on the brainstorming and develop this column for June and beyond.
Pat Walker
Patrick Walker is the President of Pat Walker Productions, a Seattle-based event production group. Pat shares over a decade of expertise in Game Entertainment and Operations in a monthly column called Walk & Talk and blog posts on Gameops.com.
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