Free Bagels

I have had to suffer through enough orientations and training sessions to realize the power of free food. I am fully convinced you could hold a Hitler Youth rally if you told people there would be pizza. It is really amazing how people, myself included, will line up for a painfully awkward gathering of fellow faceless white collar slaves to say his/her name, what group they are in and one interesting fact about themselves for the bagels promised at the end. I always feel bad for the rookie H.R. person who gives out the food first. You have just lost your entire audience. What's that? Now, you are going to go into to your presentation on Daily Methodologies for Fund Class Calculations. Sorry, checked out. I remember going to the banquet at the end of Biddy Basketball one year and it was a buffet of fast food (McDonald's, Taco Bell, KFC). Heaven. There is no greater bait for the homo sapien than free food, even if it is crap. So, next time you need people to show up for something, just promise food, but if it's free Grand Slams at Denny's it might not be the cross-section of people you were hoping for.

-K