Scott Givens
Scott Givens is a producer of stadium spectacles, broadcasts and other live events.
Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games
Scott served as managing director of the creative group for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. He was responsible for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Olympic Medals Plaza and everything from the color palette and branding to the production of the Olympic Torch Relay’s key moments and design of the Olympic Cauldron. Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney writes about Scott's creativity in his book Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games(ISBN 0895260840):
For all things relating to the creative functions, I turned to Scott Givens. We needed him to bring heart and meaning to the Games, achieve the scope and sweep of Sydney, but with less than a tenth of the bankroll. We needed big ideas—big enough to fill the city with the magic of an Olympic celebration. We could not afford to fund a battery of infrastructure improvements, let alone a banner for every streetlamp, so the projects we chose to fund needed to be high impact. We needed more from less. We needed water from stones. Scott went to work thinking big, bold, audacious thoughts
For their work on the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics, both Mitt and Scott were awarded the Olympic Order by President Jacques Rogge of the International Olympic Committee.
Disneyland 50th Anniversary
Following the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Scott worked as Vice President of Entertainment for Disneyland Resort, overseeing Disneyland's 50th Anniversary Celebration dubbed the Happiest Homecoming on Earth.
San Francisco 2016 Bid
Scott also served as managing director of the failed San Francisco 2016 Olympic Bid. According to [MSNBC] and other networks, the bid failed because "plans for a new bayfront stadium collapsed when the city’s NFL team said it intended to move to Silicon Valley."
XV Pan American Games
As president of his own production company, FiveCurrents, Scott Givens is as Executive Producer of ceremonies for the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. The July 13, 2007 Opening Ceremony was praised by Brazilian and International media as "spectacular." The Los Angeles Times reported:
Brazil's largest city still must overcome doubts about crime and traffic, among other things, if it hopes to make good on its Quixotic bid to play host to the 2016 Olympic Games. But Rio sure has the opening ceremony down pat... On Friday the city inaugurated the 15th Pan American Games with a lavish and creative 3 1/2 -hour show that featured a symphony orchestra, three 100-foot-long coral snakes, Miss Brazil, an alligator the size of a 747, fireworks, a 1,500-piece percussion band and thousands of dancers dressed as everything from ocean waves to water lilies. There's little doubt it was most spectacular.
Purdue
Scott began his career producing card stunts while a student at Purdue. His first stunt was a Block P in the football stands at Purdue. While still a student, he was hired by the NBA to create a card stunt at the All-Star Game. He worked on other card stunts at the 1987 Pan American Games, Super Bowl, AFL Grand Final and Opening Ceremony of the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics.