Before you go into a meeting check the results and key moments & players from the previous day’s big sporting events!
This week’s big sporting events are likely to get a mention during the first 30 mins of a meeting if any of the nationalities represented in the meeting room were also involved in the sporting event.
Sometimes events are well-publicised and last for several days or weeks – like the Olympic games or the football World Cup. Some might seem obscure but be very relevant for certain participants.
A meeting in Europe during the early stages of the 2026 football World Cup might start with a participant congratulating Austria and England. Or commiserating with Croatia. And/or alluding to Croatia’s victory over England back in the World Cup semi-final 2018.
Someone might wish good luck to Scotland, who play a couple of days later.
Or there might be a remark about Italy’s surprising absence from the World Cup altogether.
At a meeting with African participants DRC’s incredible result against Portugal might get a mention. Or Cap Verde’s remarkable draw with Spain. As might Nigeria’s failure to qualify at all.
These things are tangential to the actual topic of the day which you will also have prepared, but – regardless of whether you actually like the sport(s) in question or not – knowing them will stop you from being thrown by some seemingly cryptic remarks early in the meeting.
Indeed, comments like this very often come as the first thing any participant says after “Hello” the first time they take the floor!