Hermann Scheer, member of the German Bundestag, President of EUROSOLAR, General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy, and winner of the World Solar Prize and the Alternative Nobel Prize, was coming to town.
One of the most distinguished renewable energy policy makers in the world, and mastermind behind the model German feed-in-tariff law, spoke to a eager crowd of industry fans in a packed room at Google, Inc. --
inside of The Google? Not to be missed!
Cheerful staff wearing bright blue polo shirts wisely approach with, "do you know where you're going?" and point you the right way. Building 40 looks just like 41, which looks just like 43 -- glass cubes full of important stuff and diligent employees tapping away, on floors two and three, and on the ground floors surrounding a courtyard are steady streams of bicycles and skateboards and pedestrians with backpacks and sweatshirts, filing in and out and around Cafe No Name, a room full of laundry machines, and lounges with leather recliner chairs.
Above the check-in desk is a floating flat screen scrolling informative text, and a friendly table where attendees receive a name-tag hanging from a Gooooogle strap, and where another cheerful blue-shirted person directs you to the stairs.
There is a room painted yellow, seeming even brighter with hanging theater-style lights and blinky logo pins exclaiming Google on corners of the food and beverage tables.
The audience chairs are plastic yellow, red or blue, and greet the sitter with the gift of a Google pen, your very own blinky-pin, and a notepad with stamped with an image of Google Earth, made in that retro-graded-transition-material where the image changes as you move.
And upon exit, don't forget a cold drink or snacky food from the free convinence store by the door.
Google-glee!