RaceSco MBAlog

Last week's 20th anniversary event was absolutely amazing. Jay Walker, founder of Priceline, talked about how his new company, Walker Digital, thinks about creating products and services for consumers in the new Internet world. (Hint: It doesn't seem too different from the pre-Internet world, except you have cooler tools available.)

Abby Joseph Cohen from Goldman Sachs (and CNBC talking head) talked about the economy and how things are looking up. (Unemployment is actually very low, she says, and outsourcing and the Asian trade deficit aren't as bad as they seem. Trade with Western Europe should concern us more.)

The President's national economic advisor, Steve Friedman, talked about a variety of topics and impressed me much more than his predecessor, Larry Lindsey, who I saw speak at the Northern Virginia Tech Council in 2001. I had lunch with Friedman and about 25 other classmates. He spoke off the record, and was quite open about the pros and cons of certain policies. Not 100% open -- for example, he refused to comment on a few topics -- but quite refreshing for a senior Bush administration official.

GE's Jeff Immelt talked about innovation. More interesting was chatting with him at the reception afterwards. Immelt was approached by a group of three first-years, and their class year was clearly indicated on their name tags.

"So, you're all first years?" Immelt asked. The group nodded their heads affirmatively. "You're all working hard?" he asked. They all grimmaced and said that they were working very hard.

"Good," said Immelt. "'Cause in your second year, you don't do shit."

Laughter ensued.

Now, that's not an exact quote, but it's 95% there, including the more colorful language.

Frank Rhodes, a former president of Cornell University, introduced Immelt. Rhodes was absolutely amazing. His introduction was so well-written and delivered superbly. He is a charming older man with a British accent, and he just seems like a real, genuine, sweet man. A friend and I spoke with him briefly afterwards, and he expressed concern about the job market. Not really something that he needed to be concerned about, considering how far he is removed from university life. Very nice.

The audience for the speeches was quite impressive, too. I was able to match up many attendees' name tags with the buildings on campus with their names on them.

So, I'm a bit star struck from hanging around with all these high-profile (and rich) people. I can't wait to see what they come up with for the 25th anniversary.

P.S. I did skip the Sandy Weill lecture to attend Data-Driven Marketing.