[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdhU2_fwdQ&hl=en&fs=1&]
I knew there was something going on at work this morning when I saw the “event parking” sign was out by the entrance to Phase II. A further sign that this wasn’t a normal was when I saw a black Lincoln Town Car pull out of the driveway. That’s usually a sign that talent is on-campus. There was also about a billion press people milling about where I usually go buy a morning doughnut.
I would later find out that Venus Williams of women’s tennis fame, Dwight Howard of the Orland Magic, Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins, and Sacha Kljestan of the MLS were all out at EA Canada to promote their respective sports for EA Grand Slam Tennis, NBA Live!, NHL, and FIFA.
Around noon everyone including the press headed out to the soccer pitch area. Each athlete was running a training session with the gathered gamer press. Howard was teaching the press the various ways of taking the rock to the rim. Venus was teaching the dudes how to serve. I have to say, even though I was watching her from nearly 100 feet away, you can tell she’s a very fit woman. Lucic was telling people how to fight on the ice. Kljestan, whom I was closest to, was taking penalties and sending crosses over to the journalists to head.
The interview of Venus above happened today in the Think Tank lounge just three floors below where I was working. If you want the Vancouver Sun’s take on the festivities, click here. They include a somewhat humourous video.