the perks of being an intern

B won tickets to NextFest at the intern picnic this week. The CEO of the company was not only in attendance, but he did the hula (few people will be able to say that of their internship)! To win these tickets B had to go to the mic and explain why they should give them to him. He said something about living near Navy Pier (where the event was held).

For those unfamiliar, NextFest is being billed as the world's fair of tomorrow. It is sponsored largely by Wired Magazine. Really to me it seemed like an upscale science fair combined with a large county or state fair's technology building. Honestly I was surprised the winners of the GSB's New Venture Challenge weren't there.

My feet still hurt from all the walking we did today. And in this huge arena there really was no space for someone to just sit for a bit or grab a drink of water at least. The space was cooled by large fans, and while cooler than being outside, it was still pretty hot. B joked that in the future there won't be any food or place to sit down. I can't wait.

I have to admit it was a little weird seeing a cloned cat. The donor, cat, Tahini, was about a year older than the cloned cat, Baba Ganoush. For whatever reason Tahini got this very sparkly rhinestone collar while Baba Ganoush didn't -- you would think it would have been the other way around -- shouldn't the clone be the star?

Personally I felt bad for both of these animals. They were displayed in these large clear boxes (probably made of some sort of fancy plastic). They had air holes, but no place for the cats to seek privacy. There was also no litter box or place for them to relieve themselves anyway. They did have food and water, but it would be hard to eat with all the people and noise.

I wanted to take photos but it just seemed cruel. There were many people with cameras that had flashes. Some even had video cameras. It was a zoo! I just hope it make people think about cloning and what it means.

I think the coolest thing I saw was these pillows that were sold in pairs. You keep one and then the other goes to a significant other who isn't in the area. Whenever either of you hugs your pillow, the other lights up. I am sure they would be a hit with all the partners who stayed behind in Chicago while their students went off to their internships.They didn't have any brochures, so I have no idea of cost. Reportedly though they won't be available until Christmas. I think this is one of those inventions where people will see an improvement in the quality of their life. We all like to know that people are thinking about us.

It actually was interesting to see who decided to show only current products, and who decided to show only new products (or a combination of old vs new). The folks over at Roomba didn't have the new Scooba (the one that uses water to clean the floor) on display, but they did have one new Roomba Scheduler which will allow you to schedule when the floors are vacuumed, which won't be available until late summer. Scooba isn't due out until Christmas. {pouts at the thought of having to scrub that darn kitchen floor until then}

In other news I need to get out of our Sprint contract. I want a cool new phone (maybe a RAZR). Plus it seems that all my voice message from the past week (including two from my boss) were all delivered at noon Saturday. This is not a good thing.

Oh, and it seems B was not the only intern who got to attend. We bumped into G, who is interning for a company in Ohio this summer, while at the Motorola booth.