2007 Microsoft Company Picnic
written by John Chow
The yearly Microsoft company picnic is the biggest picnic I have ever attended. It is so big that it’s held over three days. Microsoft employs over 30,000 people in the Seattle area and while Mountain Meadows Farm can accommodate that many, the employees are allowed to bring their children and a guest. So, instead of a picnic for 30,000, it’s a picnic for over 100,000. Employees are asked to pick one of the three days in which to attend. Today is the first day. The picnic will continue tomorrow and the last one will be held next Saturday.
While the event is call the Microsoft Company Picnic, Microsoft actually doesn’t organize it. Instead, they sub out the job to a professional picnic company (yes, there is such a thing). Setting up a picnic on a scale this big is well beyond the abilities of the typical party planner. If Trump ever wanted to give the ultimate final assignment for the Apprentice, having them organize the Microsoft Company Picnic would really put them to the test. Not only must you order a ton of food and stage a fun family event, but you need to coordinate with the local Sheriff department and government because of the sheer number of people attending.
Heading To The Farm
Getting to the Mountain Meadows Farm is no problem because 10 miles before you even hit the farm, there are signs and police to direct you to the picnic. For employees who don’t wish to drive, the picnic company hired a fleet of buses to drive people from the various MS buildings to the picnic grounds.
A section of the farm was turned into a giant parking lot. it’s big enough to park over 10,000 cars. The lot is so big there are trolley cars going around picking people from their cars and driving them to the picnic entrance. There is also a never ending flow of buses dropping employees off.
In Case You Get Lost
The event map is a good way to get to know the grounds. This farm is HUGE! I don’t think they actually grow anything. I suspect they make their money by renting their farm to Microsoft.
The International Food Village
Microsoft employs people from all over the world so the picnic needs to accommodate everyone’s taste. The food village is just that. You’ll find food that you would expect to find in a picnic, like hamburgers and BBQ. However, there’s also India food, Chinese food, Greek food, etc. I think nearly all countries of the world is represented here!
When you’re feeding this many people, you can forget about moving stuff by hand. It’s time to bring in the 18 wheelers and pallet movers!
Need a pop? Just grab as many as you want. Once it’s all gone, they just hook up a tractor and take it away. Another tractor will haul in a fresh shipment. The melting ice makes the ground all wet - that’s the reason for the planks.
Some of The Food We Ate
No Double Fisting Allowed
There was a beer garden but you’re only allowed to have one drink at a time. No double fisting allowed. I know someone who would be very upset with that.
If some bum were to take all the bottles and cans from the MS picnic and return them for the deposit, I would say that bum would no longer be a bum.
Look for more coverage of the Microsoft company picnic tomorrow.
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(8 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Once again, John Chow manages to find good food. It is obvious that he is good at finding food and making money. Do not look at his site if you are on a diet!
Then again, he could use the whole thing to his advantage by selling diet pills….
diet pills?
I think calling that a picnic is quite an understatement…it is an extravaganza!
The only missing is someone walking around in a paperclip outfit who interrupts your conversations whenever you are trying to talk to someone.
But perhaps they don’t want anyone to walk away from the picnic with an assault charge on their record!
Ya if you selling diet pills you should advertise a text link in Johnchow.com
wow, that looks real nice
Hi John, good times, right?, how do you manage to get to Microsoft’s picnic ?, do Bill Gates sell he’s soul to you . . . if that the case, payback time !!
Being as evil as I am, I would love to say I crashed it, but I was invited.
well, you can always crash the second or third day. its not like they can actually keep track.
Some serious good eating going on there John. .
So you were getting your beer buzz on there too? What were the choices to pick from?
Way to go on the picnic outing!
All the beer were local brew. It was actually quite good! You need to show ID to enter the beer garden, even if you were 80 years old. Once that’s done, they put a wrist band on you and you can drink till the cows come home. One beer at a time of course.
Mooooore Beer Please!
John Chow show id. Do they not recognize the Moooooooogul?
LOL
That’s great, taking care of the people that make it all happen..
It looks more like a carnival or funfair than a picnic to me. But it sure is a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon with loved ones
Looks like a great event to be a part of, I’ve been to company events before but this is like the Woodstock for Nerds.
No doubles? That’s disgraceful. It doesn’t look like nice beer, least you don’t look like you’re enjoying it!
It was not a picnic ! It was a Microsoft World Camp.
And you didn’t get lost? Come on, I want a honest answer…
It’s hard to get lost in an open farm field. However, trying to find your car after is another story.
John you Lost to find your car?
nice food there
haha no double fisting allowed
Thanks, that was a very interesting tour of a nice party. To think we don’t even have a Christmas party at Oracle…
Awesome event, thanks for the pics!
i wonder if there’s filipino food available onthat picnic
Great Picnic People might have really enjoyed a lot.
Ohh what nice box of drinks!!!
That was a nice, behind the scenes peek
Thanks for sharing the pics! 
Why did you have to put pictures of food on the site? I still haven’t eaten luch… Looks like you are having fun.
Damn that’s a pretty big event. Food looks pretty good too.
Wow, seems like it was so much fun! What kind of activities did you do there, besides eat?
were you an employee or a guest
Guest.
Good times John. Maybe next year you can try and crash the company’s worldwide annual general meeting called MGX in Orlando. Now that’s the BIG employee party
Dev from http://www.dailymoolah.com
In terms of people attending, I don’t see how it can bigger than the picnic. More than half of MS’s 70,000 world wide employees works in the Seattle area.
Branded comments
It seems like everything we do these days has to be done strategically. Take commenting, for example.
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[...] du vil se billeder og læse lidt mere om skovturen, kan du gøre det hos John Chow her: http://www.johnchow.com/2007-microsoft-company-picnic/ og [...]
Awesome insight into an event most of us will never see. My boyfriend took offense to you using the word “pop,” however, and now he and I are having the pop-soda debate all over again.
How evil of you!
Wear a Johnchow.com T-Shirt John..
Even better if you wear
“Google Ditched Me….
Do you have anything special for me? ”
- Johnchow.com
Wear that… Ms would be more than happy to pay you more than Google adsense does..
[...] Michael, Greg and Wolf to maintain tradition. Looks like he’s having a good time at the Microsoft company picnic, though. I think he’s trying to pitch his Microsoft Panda Punching Simulator idea to [...]
[...] instant I saw the Water Wars Battle Zone at the Microsoft Company Picnic, I knew I had to get in on it. It reminded me so much of the infamous rock fight I started in [...]
Glad to see you calling pop by its proper name, John.
Lots of interesting pictures
If I lived on the west coast I”d be there in a flash. All that free food looked delicious not to mention a beer tent. The Cheeseburger got my attention the most.
Oh yes! A lot of free foods and drinks
That’s so sad they only allowed one beer at a time.
WOW does that food look good. Hunger usually sets in this time of the day, but after looking at these pics, I gotta go eat right now!
that food looked sooooo nice, do you have high quality of that, fruit photo it would make a lovely background!
man it is huge…..things are supersized
I had to look at the food.. again…
One drink at a time? I am sure you found a way around this rule, right??
That is way to much soda for my mind to even comprehend