| Date: | August 2, 2004 / year-entry #295 |
| Tags: | non-computer |
| Orig Link: | https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040802-00/?p=38273 |
| Comments: | 11 |
| Summary: | Robert Scoble blogs from the Microsoft company picnic. Although he writes, "Microsoft holds a picnic for its employees every year," this suggests that the picnic is organized by Microsoft. It isn't. The company picnic is run by a professional company picnic company. They also do the Alaska Airlines company picnic, and probably those of many... |
Robert Scoble blogs from the Microsoft company picnic. Although he writes, "Microsoft holds a picnic for its employees every year," this suggests that the picnic is organized by Microsoft. It isn't. The company picnic is run by a professional company picnic company. They also do the Alaska Airlines company picnic, and probably those of many other organizations who don't put their picnic information on the public Internet. Wander down to Mountain Meadows Farm any weekend during the summer and you're likely to see a picnic or other group event under way. |
Comments (11)
Comments are closed. |
Perhaps Microsoft should get into the corporate hospitality business. I don’t know what the margins are (probably not as good as you would think due to the requirement to pay top $$$ for surly staff to run them (the only thing you can’t outsource to India is staffing of this kind)), but when I have had occasion to book this kind of thing in the staff they tend to provide cheap food (chicken, low-quality burgers), at two or three times what you would pay at a sit-down restaurant.
Well, there you go. Before today, I never knew there was such a thing as a professional picnic company.
I have a close friend who works at Honeywell and discovered last night that they have the same picnic as Microsoft. Same events, same food, wouldn’t be surprised if they were the same boyscouts. I think the only difference was the gift shop tent.
I’ve known for the last few years that both picnics are held at the same grounds, with Honeywell’s picnic being one or two weekends before Microsoft’s…I just didn’t realize they were the exact same picnic.
Heh, bury the unused food and hope it keeps for two weeks? :)
You must be picnicking rather than blogging today, wednesday (tuesday your time).
MS provides good food. I was a network admin for one of their caterers (though not mass events). The Win 2000 launch was very american with lots of mustard (which Australians use on different foods to the yanks). Though the Sun people pigged in.
T-Mobile http://www.tmobile.com had their picnic there as well the weekend before. Same layout etc. It was 95°F, which was record setting for Seattle. Unfortunately, Catherine Zeta-Jones http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001876/ was a no show. :-)
In my almost 9 years as a Microsoft employee, I’ve never been to one company picnic. I’m at the point now where *not* going is a tradition for me, so I doubt I’ll ever see what this is like. (I heard its screaming kids running around everywhere.)
I’ve also wondered how much money could be saved if Microsoft stopped having the yearly picnic… not to say we should not have it, but I’d be curious where this stacks up in the budget compared to infamous "towel-service" that was recently cut. :-)
Hey, over here in VA, that’s just normal, along with the daily downpour.
And, if you leave near the picnic grounds, you get complimentary admission to make us for having hordes of people travel through your neighborhood every weekend during the summer.
From talking with the picnic staff and neighbors, the Microsoft picnic has a better alcohol and food selection than nearly all the other ones, but the events are all pretty much the same.
Okay, the real adventure was just getting there.
Okay, the real adventure was just getting there.