What a celebration!
As most of you know I work at Qualcomm here in San Diego. I've been here 16 years now (that's amazing to me!) ... which now is considered a long-timer as Qualcomm only began 25 years ago. It's been an incredible company to work for, it's the "local" homegrown company that went big time..... the 9 original co-founder never imagined it ever growing into this capacity.. we now have something like 16,000 employees worldwide.... my employee number is 1813 pretty cool hun?
So Thursday night they threw a GIANT party to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Qualcomm. It was held right on our campus in Sorrento Valley (MIra Mesa). We occupy something like 36 buildings in the immediate area... you can't drive around I-5 and I-805 without seeing several of them.... or just drive west on Mira Mesa Blvd towards Sorrento Valley and you'll get a good glimpse of most. So we just purchased another building on Morehouse, the old 7-UP facility and that is where the party took place (opposite Chili's restaurant on Lusk)... They blocked off Morehouse Blvd for the event.. had shuttle buses bringing in guests from various parking lots in the area as there was no where near enough room for everyone to park. It took them a week to build the stages and towers that were used.It was incredible... we had employees fly in from all over the world... plus many "retired" VIPs showed up as well... it was impressive.
The best part however is that they've been working on opening a Qualcomm Museum in our headquarters building which now houses abundant displays of "old" technology and shows the evolution and our involvement in it... kinda neat if you're a Qualcommer! The festivites began with ribbon cutting ceremony of the Museum.
I really enjoyed the evening.. as weird as this sounds it was like a bonding time for all us worker bees... it really made me feel needed and wanted and appreciated and important.... just walking around all evening and running into so many coworkers I hardly ever get to see... both old and new faces... it was so much better than a holiday party or picnic.
Of course they had food everywhere you turned around... as well as sodas and waters. If you wanted you could purchase wine or beer. The event started at 5:30pm and the best part was all I had to do was go from my office down to the front lawn and start the party!
The main program started about 8pm. Dr. Irwin Jacobs began with a great opening of gratitude to everyone... his son Paul who is now the current CEO spoke for quite some time, showing some cool videos of our history... where we've been and where we're going... along with some funny clips like "A Day in the Life of a Qualcommer"... very funny... Then he ended his portion of the program with a surprising and incredible display of fireworks!
Throughout the evening they had 5-6 different bands playing on separate stages throughout the area... No one was suppose to know who the secret special entertainment was.... but by the time the event occured I think it was pretty well known... rumors had gone from U2, to Lady GaGa to Black Eyed Peas... but ultimately it was the Dave Matthews Band
Here's someone's U-Tube shot of them....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAxa1nIES90&feature=related
Here's some of the Fireworks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8seZQXXjDUs&feature=related
As much as I always talk about wanting to retire some day.. and I will... I must admit that I truly love my job and am proud to be, in a sense, a part of San Diego history.
Happy Anniversary Qualcomm!
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