Project Octopus - Mob gone viral

During our National Sales Meeting this year we wanted to do something fun and unique to get the audience pumped up and excited. So to kick off our meeting we partnered with Gary Musick Productions located here in Nashville to help us coordinate a flash mob. Yes, I said FLASH MOB!! I have always wanted to be in one since they've become so popular these past few years and now was my chance.  Our theme was Waves of Change so we wanted the music to incorporate that message too.  Gary Musick came up with our music mix and the choreographed dance. We have over 300 attendees and needed enough participants to make an impact so this is how we made it happen.

1. Stress that this had to kept a secret.
2. Come up with a code name - our was Operation Octopus!
3. Determine some of our favorite people with just the right personality that would be willing to dance in front of their peers and our executives.  We have several business units so it was important to get at least one person from each unit.
4. We have sales people all over the US so we had to video our dance instructor as she taught the moves. My cheerleading 8 counts from high school really came in handy.
5. Blind copy EVERYONE on the emails so they didn't know who was in on the secret.  We didn't want them talking amongst themselves.
6. Create a seating chart for all dancers, strategically placing them for all the ripples within the dance.
7. Determine someone to kick this mob off and to get the right music cue.
8. The majority of our dancers were local so we held 3 rehearsals. While we were counting on our remote staff to be practicing at home.
9. We held one final on-site rehearsal the day of the event. We practiced for about an hour and a half, this was the only time our entire group was together to practice.
10. And then it was SHOWTIME!

Enjoy the show!

To view the Flash Mob click here. 
*There is a lot of pre-event footage so if you want to skip through that go to 3:00 and the mob will begin around there.

This was a huge success! People are still talking about it and our video has gone viral. Thank you everyone for all your hard work.