Bob Lane's Bow Tie

I have been at the intern conference these past two days in Moline, IL. Almost all of the 292 Deere interns gather upon the Quad Cities- stay in a creepy hotel (literally looks and feels like the tower of terror)- sit through presentations and learn more about the company. Just a few random notes of this week....

The theme is "Growing Green" and had a huge focus on renewable energies. We learned about what a simple manual pump called the "Money Maker" is doing for poor African farmers and how John Deere is helping this great program/ product. We were updated on the key role that John Deere plays with the ever growing new power source, if you're thinking ethanol- think again, wind! Did you know that some of those wind turbins have a diameter larger than a football field!?!?!?!?!
Then our keynote speaker was a college dropout who founded the Living Land and Waters organization because he wanted to clean up the river. This had been a passion for him since he was 17 and it has now grown into a multi-million dollar operation! Incredible! We got to trade our 'buisness casual attire' for jeans and t-shirts, grabbed some shovels and had the opportunity to help his organization plant trees in the same town where Harvester works is at (where those big green combines are made.) That was a lot of fun- hotter than all get out and my hair did not like the trip back into the midwestern humidity- that's for sure!

Just a few more random notes of interest from the conference:
- I made a great friend, my roomie, a master's student from Texas A & M!
- Ran into Bob Lane (current, almost former CEO of John Deere) in a stairwell. He had a bright red bowtie on and a navy suit- thought that was pretty funny!
- The soon to be new CEO, Sam Allen, is a PURDUE GRAD!!!! Boiler Up!

I fly back to Reno in about 7 hours, so I really should get some sleep! Excited to see my roommate Sarah and we're going to the opening night of the RENO RODEO tomorrow night! Which is exactly what we're doing on Friday to celebrate my 22nd birthday! :) And I think my hair will appreciate the lack of humidity again ;)