Tuck Annual Trip to Silicon Valley

March 14-17, 2005

• Announcements
• Overview
• Organizers
• Schedule
• Logistics

Announcements

There will be a brown bag lunch on Tuesday, March 8, 2005, to go over last minute details and to answer any questions folks might still have. The lunch will also allow you to meet up and make logistical arrangements among yourselves. The details are:

Topic: Silicon Valley Technology Trip Brown Bag Lunch
Date: Tuesday, March 8th
Time: 12:00 PM
Room: Lubrano

Sign-up here.


A few quick updates:

1. We will be collecting $20 from all attending the Monday EA Games Night to pay for event food and beverages.
2. Apple is now starting at 9:30am, not 9:00am on Tuesday.
3. Google won’t be feeding us on Wednesday so instead we will probably be heading to a restaurant in Mountain View.
4. We will visit Cakebread winery at 10:00am on Thursday (3/17) before grabbing lunch and heading to V. Sattui.
5. Tuck Overseer, Andy Beckstoffer, will be hosting us for a chat on Napa's grape and wine industry on Thu, 2-3pm (http://www.beckstoffervineyards.com).
6. We are joining the St. Patrick’s Day celebration in San Francisco on Thursday evening.
7. We are still looking for some Company Envoy’s to keep the energy levels high at each company.


-The Organizers

Overview

Entirely student organized, Tuck's annual trip to Silicon Valley, named TecKnowledge, is one of the major activities the club is responsible for. Building on the success from 2003, the 2004 trip had 30 members and visited 7 companies over Tuck's Spring Break: Electronic Arts, eBay, e*Trade Financial, Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, HP, and Yahoo! Among the many highlights were meetings with executives in Apple's Executive Briefing Center and at eBay, where the club had the opportunity to meet and interact with Meg Whitman, the company's CEO.

Organizers

Martin Chai T'06, Co-chair	E-mail
Song Yin T'06, Co-chair	E-mail
Ted Hartnel TP, Co-chair	E-mail

Schedule

The club's 2005 trip has added Google to the roster, as well as a wine-tasting trip to Napa Valley, and is scheduled for March 14-17. Please see below for the schedule details. For more information, please contact the trip’s co-chairs.

Monday (3/14)

9:00am - 12:30pm

2:00 - 7:00pm

Tuesday (3/15)

9:30am - 12:30pm

10:00am - 12:00pm

1:00-1:30pm

1:30 - 3:00pm

4:00 - 5:30pm

6:30pm

Wednesday (3/16)

10:00am - 12:00pm

11:30am - 12:30pm

2:00 - 4:30pm

6:30pm

Thursday (3/17)

8:00am

10:00am

12:00-1:30pm

2:00-3:00pm

4:30pm

Logistics

• Attendance
• Agenda
• Company Envoys - Volunteers Needed
• Hotel
• Flights
• Meals
• Schedule and Transportation
• Dress Code
• Stanford Business School Career Center
• Other Things To Do
• Cost Estimates
• Q&A Brown Bag Lunch

Attendance

First things first - items you need to take action on right away:

• Sign up on the spreadsheet in O:\Technology Club\Silicon Valley Trip 2005 folder.
• Drop your resume into O:\Technology Club\Silicon Valley Trip 2005\Resume Drop\All Resumes.
• Please let us know ASAP if your plans have changed. If you’re undecided, please let us know right away.

The deadline for confirming attendance and completing the spreadsheet is Feb-28.

Remember to close the O: drive spreadsheet when you’re done editing it!

Agenda

Check all the companies you plan to visit on the O: drive spreadsheet – this list will be used for generating security clearance at each company. Note that there are two company trips organized for Tuesday morning in parallel, so everybody needs to let us know whether they wish to go to:

1. Apple (25 people maximum - and they are looking to take more people)
2. Silicon Valley Bank (15 people maximum)

Please refer to the attached agenda when making your attendance decisions (the agenda is still subject to some last-minute changes). If you signed up to attend by February 28 then PLEASE show up, otherwise unclaimed name badges and gifts can embarrass the host and Tuck – a nuisance we promised to save our hosts from this year.

Company Envoy – Volunteers Needed

We have created the role of “Company Envoy” for each of the companies we are visiting, and we are asking for volunteers to fill these roles. These are not organizational roles, but roles to ensure a high energy level from Tuckies for each visit. The role entails the following:

1. Read closely the speaker-bios that we will be receiving
2. Gather some additional fun facts about the company and the primary speakers in the room
3. Evangelize the speaker and company to the other students
4. Greet the primary speaker and answer any of their questions concerning student interests and expectations
5. Be prepared to ask at least one question after the presentation
6. Prepare another person to ask at least one additional question
7. Present the provided gifts to the company representatives

If you are interested in working for one of the companies we visit then you should volunteer as Company Envoy – the role and the title will help you stand out when you approach the company for an interview. Email us if you wish to sign up.

Hotel

Silicon Valley:

Martin Chai has done a fantastic job hunting down hotels, and we have arranged to stay at the Wild Palms Hotel in Sunnyvale for the first four nights from (March-13 to March-17). Wild Palms is a fun, bungalow-style hotel from a respectable boutique hotel chain, and 15 deluxe rooms have been secured with double beds, continental breakfast, and Internet access for $75 a night. It is your responsibility to book the room at the hotel, but please indicate on the Excel spreadsheet that you’re staying and who you will be rooming with so we know if more rooms are required. Martin has secured these rooms on his credit card, so please put yours down when you make your reservation by phone and upon arrival.

For the value, $75 is hard to beat – Martin has checked! Plus it’s more fun to have all of us shacking together!! To make a reservation, please call: 408-738-0500

Wild Palms Hotel
910 E. Fremont Avenue
Sunnyvale , CA 94087
Phone: 408-738-0500
Phone: 800-538-1600
Fax: 408-245-4167
Web: http://www.jdvhospitality.com/hotels/guestrooms/20

San Francisco:

Martin is still working on group rates under $100 at hotels in downtown Union Square – we probably need at least 10 rooms to start. Please let Martin know your interest and how many nights you’d like to stay ASAP. Parking will be an issue in San Francisco, so be prepared to pay $20 - $30 for parking a day. If you would like more luxurious accommodations in San Francisco or Napa then Martin will be happy to recommend other options.

Flights

Please arrive in the San Francisco, Oakland or San Jose airport by Sunday March-13. You can purchase your tickets through major airlines, Southwest, Jetblue, as well as websites such as Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity.

Meals

• Breakfast: Wild Palms Hotel offers a free continental breakfast
• Lunch:

• Cisco will be providing lunch on Monday
• Apple and Veritas will be providing lunch on Tuesday

• Pre-Dinner: Drinks and snacks are planned for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings

• Note that $20 will be collected from everybody to cover the drinks and snacks at the EA Games Night

• Dinner: Dinner has not been formally organized, but as a group we may plan to have dinner and/or go out in the evenings

Schedule and Transportation

Please rent your own car or coordinate with other students for rides. The Excel spreadsheet in the O: drive has a section for drivers offering rides and for people needing rides. Orbitz and other national car rental companies such as Enterprise.com have great weekly rates. You can usually make a reservation without a deposit.

We have a tight schedule to follow, so please try to arrive at each company 30 minutes prior to clear security etc. Maps and Directions can be found in the O: drive alongside the sign-up spreadsheet.

Dress Code

The dress code for all company visits is business casual.

Stanford Business School Career Center

Tuck enjoys reciprocal rights to visit Stanford Business School’s Career Center and you may wish to take advantage of this when you’re in Silicon Valley – a good time to do this may be Wednesday morning instead of visiting Yahoo!. One useful thing that we found when we visited was Stanford’s large collection of contact information for Bay Area companies – this may be helpful to you if you are trying to job-hunt proactively. If you are interested in visiting Stanford then remember that you will need a letter of introduction from the CDO printed in advance. Contact Nanette Thelemaque for this letter.

Other Things To Do

After the trip you should consider visiting one of the many attractions easily accessible from the Bay Area, including Monterey/Carmel, Yosemite, Mono lake, L.A., San Diego, the Grand Canyon and even Hawaii, or Mexico (Cabo or Puerto Vallarta) for the remainder of the spring break, where Southwest and other airlines offers plenty of deals.

Cost Estimates

Here are some rough cost estimates for the trip based upon a one week stay:

Q&A Brown Bag Lunch

There will be a brown bag lunch on Tuesday, March 8, 2005, to go over last minute details and to answer any questions folks might still have. The lunch will also allow you to meet up and make logistical arrangements among yourselves. The details are:

Topic: Silicon Valley Technology Trip Brown Bag Lunch
Date: Tuesday, March 8th
Time: 12:00 PM
Room: Lubrano

Sign-up here.