Industrial Roundtable

The Industrial Roundtable today was kind of frustrating mostly because it was rainy and wet outside and completely humid and burning hot inside the Armory. Companies came out to show off their wares and storehouses of free pens. Rolls-Royce easily had the longest line all day, and even though I didn't talk to them, I took one of their business cards because they were the coolest-looking ones (shiny lettering!). A few such as Wal-Mart and Tate & Lyle seemed a bit lonely in comparison to their neighbors. Target, Frito Lay, P&G, Clorox, and Lockheed-Martin were some of the more popular ones as well with lines of 3-4 people most of the time.

Pretty much everybody sweated half their body weight in sweat while trying to look sleek and professional in their business attire. I saw a few girls commit fashion faux paus; flip flops with dress pants (unmatching, even!) and untucked button-up shirts were the most common. I gave them the benefit of the doubt; maybe they came from really far away and forgot their dress shoes. Some guys did not wear ties, but I'm not sure how serious that offense is seeing as how I'm not a guy. At any given time, about 10% of the people in the Armory were casual students who wandered in wanting free stuff and/or a visual experience.



Towards the end of the fair, I saw Halliburton and internally snickered. I was going to ninja a hat just for kicks, but then I figured they would start talking to me and that would have been awkward seeing as how all I wanted was a free hat. You know. Just to own a part of things they financed with their dirty money.

Your last opportunity to visit the Industrial Roundtable is tomorrow at the Armory from 9:30 am - 4 pm. The SMEF company presentations are 10:30 am - 5:30 pm and the actual fair is Thursday from 9 am - 4 pm.