Q & A With Oakley Sunglasses

I had the chance to interview Jason Bielawski an employee of Oakley Sunglasses who spent a week at 2010 Vancouver Games while on assignment for his company. I asked him several questions about his experiences in Vancouver and the type of work he did.

Q: What is your position at Oakley, that gave you the opportunity to travel to the Olympic Games?

Jason: Actually, I work in the finance department and a friend of mine in a management position at the company asked if I'd be interested in going up to Vancouver to represent the company. Normally, I don't do work like this as I'm a finance guy, but given the opportunity I couldn't say no.

Q:What type of work did you do in Vancouver?

Jason: To be honest it felt more like a vacation than work. My typical day was meeting with represenatives from other companies and networking with them in order to promote Oakley's name. I spoke about new products and ideas the company is throwing around and got ideas from other companies and competitiors.

Q:Would you consider it public relations work, considering you were there to speak about and represent your company?

Jason: You could definitley say that. The purpose of my trip was to be a positive representation of the company and speak on behalf of them. I was very concious of what I said and how I presented myself knowing I was representing the company. I had never done public relations work before, but I really enjoyed it and who knows maybe I'll be moving into their department soon.

Q: Did you attend any of the events or ceremonies?

Jason: Unfortunatley, I wasn't able to get a chance to go to the Opening Ceremonies, but I attended alot of the events mostly the snowboarding and skiing events. Oakley does alot of work with snowboarding and has partial representation with some of the athletes. I was most drawn to watching Shaun White's runs just like everyone else there. You don't realize how amazing these athletes are until you see them live.

Q:Do you think companies such as your own can profit off the Olympic Games and how so?

Jason: Definitley, from a marketing standpoint there is a great opportunity to get your name seen and talked about. When the best athletes in the world are wearing your equipment your sales will definitley increase. I don't know the numbers exactly, but I do know the industry has profited as a direct result of the games.