the word in the building is...

[susandennis]

Microsoft has been holding their company meetings in my neighborhood for years. When I worked there, they held them in the Kingdome. Since they blew it up, MS has moved on to Qwest Field, down the street. A hobby here in the 'hood, is to check after the meeting to see what the annual gift is.

Every year MS endows attendees with some kind of swag.

The year of the fleece blankets is legendary. Most of the attendees came out of the meeting with superman capes.

This year the gift is so far invisible. My neighbor, Ann, just came in to report 'they musta got nothin' this year'.

I can see them walking by on the Front Door TV Network but mostly I can only see from shoulders/waist down and they sure aren't carrying anything. Big signs at the Stadium gates said 'NO VIDEO, NO CAMERAS, NO LAPTOPS'. So they are truly a drift now acapella as it were.

Guess whatever they got fits into their pockets.

I do love this neighborhood.

Comments

[howeird]

The two years I went to those in the Kingdome, we got nothing which could be seen from 10 feet away. There were pens and mini flashlights and small swag, but nothing big. Big stuff came from our division events, and showed up on my chair before I arrived that morning. I have a couple of pull-overs, a polo shirt, a sports bag, coffee mugs and a couple of very pretty tall commuter cups.

[cinenaut.livejournal.com]

I saw one attendee yesterday when I was coming back from a late lunch. He was carrying a small box (think: size of box for MS Office) that was yellow with red stripes. I couldn't read any of the lettering, though.

I thought whatever was in the box was the swag gift this year. I can't imagine MS giving everyone software (though they did hand out Windows 95 or 98 to employees one year -- I can't remember which it was, or if it was during their annual employee meeting).

[susandennis]

You are right! It was windows 95! Wow, that's a blast from the past.

Turns out yesterday's swag was scarves. yawn.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

I remember two of mine. One was a decent pair of Bushnell 7×35 binoculars. The other was a wrist watch with a theme related to the company's 15th year.