after an epic tour of chicago and Goose Island Beer Company, marketing sent us to to san fransisco, california. into the heart of silicon valley amongst the budding new technologies and hub of start ups. it was a geek’s paradise.
our first stop landed us in palo alto, ca. it is the home of our so called “beer garage”. i still do not quite grasp the implications of that name, but it is essentially our touch point for connecting with new technology and start up firms for business solutions in our beer company. i know. i know. it has nothing to do with a garage. it baffles me too.
it rained every day. except the day we left.
on a rainy morning with a runny nose and a box of cold medicine, i meandered my way to the trendy, downtown creative haven where start up companies attempt to make their wildest dreams come true by landing the behemoth beer company as their clients. complete with swanky floor pillows, red statement couch, and a fully stocked beer fridge. but what AB building doesn’t have a fully stocked beer fridge? at the brewery, we call it the warehouse. it’s much more impressive.
from there, they sent us to singularity university. don’t know what that is? i didn’t at first either. it is associated with nasa research park. that’s right. i said nasa. and its goal is to educate leaders to implement exponential technologies to solve humanity’s grand challenges. don’t know what that means? i didn’t at first either. they work with technologies that are forward thinking and developing very quickly and how they can fix our world’s problems. it is pretty dang cool. if you want to learn more about it, go here.
want to ride a roller coaster? without leaving your chair? and even experience that same i’m-going-to-upchuck-all-over-the-person-in-front-of-me? try these babies out.
and then we went to google. yep google. with the red, green, yellow, and blue bicycles. with food shops on every floor of every building. with sand volleyball courts and swim current pools. with bright-eyed eager nerds developing exciting new technologies. with the stairs that scroll the top topics being googled at any given time. did you know those stairs were put in specifically for the movie the internship? because i learned that. and the sign on the building. that wasn’t there before the movie either. nothing like a little cinema magic to spruce up the place.
is your inner nerd silently freaking out?
well it gets better.
the next day we went to twitter.
i am not much of a tweeter. but it was cool to see. i liked the vine wall with the wooden bird hidden in it. and the hat. even though i look like a dork in it.
twitter makes you want to swing.
and we ate delicious brazillian barbecue that evening. some in the group even ate the chicken hearts that were offered. i was not among that group.
adults entertaining themselves maturely at dinner.
and the next day? well we went to facebook. facebook has a lot of food too.
in games of thrones, when they talk about the eating hall at the wall where jon snow is stationed, i always think of the facebook mess hall. i know. i know. there are diverse and delicious options in the facebook mess hall other than salted beef and fish and stale bread. and there are modernistic new chairs. and a dessert bar. and a coffee bar. and free monster energy drinks in coolers. i know they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. but there are long rows of tables and it is dimly lit. so i can’t help it. my imagination is a hard thing to control.
oh, and there is also a barber shop, urgent care, pizza joint, bowling alley, barbecue grill, walking tracks, mexican restaurant, and strange connecting walkways between buildings. it is like their own little village. that was intentionally designed to mismatch. but it is still pretty cool.
oh. and there are free umbrellas everywhere.
and conor’s was broken.
and then? we went to instagram. which is technically still at facebook. because facebook owns it. but the picture i took makes it look like the place is abandoned. because i thought it was funny. of all the places we went, this was probably the one social application that i use the most. too bad it has little to do with our current digital marketing strategy.
to conclude our trip, our group ventured into downtown san francisco for a memorable night. or unmemorable for many in the group. but i don’t think that one is fit to print… so ask me about it if you are in need of a good story.
the main things that i learned from our trip?
1. it takes a lot of people to run the social applications we use every day.
2. those people need to be fed a lot of food. for free.
3. san francisco is rainy. very rainy. at least in december.
4. standford has a pretty campus. that i got lost running around. in the middle of a rain storm. through the mud.
oh. and here is the bridge.