As I write this I am sitting in Glasgow eating my last Devil Dog. My body clock says it is next Saturday……

The last week in NYC definitely proved to be the most frantic of all as I juggled the completion of the global marketing plan with saying goodbye to friends and coworkers, last minute (and last dollar) shopping and some world class tennis at Flushing Meadow for the US Open. 

And that’s where I’ll start:

I’ve previously alluded to my love of professional wrestling whilst glossing over some of my other interests. I’m also a lifelong tennis fan and player so rest assured going to the US Open was another fantastic experience for me. 

The US Tennis centre at Flushing Meadow is unlike any other tennis arena I have visited, successfully blending the “Anyone for Pimms at the country club” traditional side of the game with the “HOT DOGS, GET YA HOT DOGS” camp goodtimes feel of a large US sporting event. 

The whole circus surrounding the place was good fun, with pundits sitting in an open air studio in the grounds filming a broadcast about the day’s play and the large ‘Smash Zone’ which included one of the service speedometers for people to compete for fastest serve of the day. I couldn’t resist…

Unfortunately after my ¾ pace warm up serve (clocked at 89 mph) the machine decided to stop working and none of my other efforts were recorded. I reckon I could’ve troubled the day’s leading serve which had been recorded a few hours previously at 119mph. 

So onto the main event. Our men’s singles 1^st round match on the very impressive Arthur Ashe court was world no.1 and top seed Rafael Nadal vs world no. 18,372 and complete jobber Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia (don’t worry I didn’t know who he was either). 

I fully expected Nadal to crush this guy in about 45 minutes but the Russian came to play and ended up losing 3 tightly contested sets in a match lasting over 3 hours. This was a bonus as it’s rare to see the top players forced to produce their best at such an early stage. 

Have a photo of a packed Arthur Ashe court with Nadal on the left of the court:

In work my time was taken up by preparing the presentation of the global marketing plan which was scheduled for Friday afternoon. Ross is a big advocate of the preachings of Edward Tufte when it comes to visualising information and offered some good advice on how to make the slides look as professional as possible. Another piece of advice offered (and accepted) was that I actually read Tufte’s book. That’ll be one of the 1^st things I put on my new Amazon Kindle (all the rage in NYC). 

As well as actually finishing the marketing plan it was time to arrange and prepare all of the collateral which we created with it so it could be used in the future. Mixed emotions here as there’s no better way to drive home the fact that you’re leaving than creating folders with names like FINAL DRAFT but it was also immensely satisfying to know that I had created documents etc which the company would actually be using long after my departure. 

Friday morning was a very strange one indeed as it contained the last ever subway trip to work, last every lunch at work and various other last ever at works. We also got the opportunity to attend another Lab49 Friday seminar with Data Mining techniques the topic this time. Another interesting glimpse into something entirely new to me + free pizza for lunch = success in my eyes anyway. 

The presentation itself went well and, in true Lab49 style, involved the use of an iPad as well as the standard projector. What followed was a lively discussion of the future direction of the company. I’m glad to have been a part of it. 

We finished work at 4.55pm EST on Friday and presented Ross and the office with their gifts, said our goodbyes and it was time to go. There were many handshakes and best wishes and my wallet now resembles a half brick, inflated by all the business cards I collected that day. The Scottish contingent (Ross, Claire and I) headed to a bar for a final drink and talked about what we had gained from the summer (more on that soon), got a quick photo taken (harder than it sounds when the member of the public you ask doesn’t know how to point a camera) and said our farewells. 

And then it was over. 

On our 1^st day in Lab49 Tower, Ross said that he undertook a similar summer placement in New York early in his career and it proved to be the experience of a lifetime. One of his main motivations for having 2 Saltire Foundation interns this year was that he hoped he could succeed in showing them at least half as good a time as he had. I’m sure he won’t have to read this to know he succeeded.

Christopher Jones

Lab49 Strategy Group

Saltire Foundation Scholar 2010

Changed Man