The Big Show has finished “tailgating” for another season. For nine weeks, every day after the show, we visited another business in the city that invited us. We had many more invitations than there were days, so it’s gratifying and mostly fun! But it’s also been a huge learning experience.
This city is home to some amazing companies and people. Whenever an NFL ref turns on his mic to make a ruling, or a Rockette in NYC taps out a routine, or Big Brother contestants bitch about each other, they’re using London-invented technology. Q5X invited us in but wouldn’t let us take photos of their high-tech, top-secret inventions. This is spy-versus-spy stuff and their proprietary gizmos are being used all over the world. In a downstairs workshop, they had rows of beautiful, shiny, womens’ Mary Jane shoes. Before Q5X solved the problem, New York’s famous Rockettes had microphone packs on their waistbands that would heat up and short out. Q5X invented a teeny, tiny mic pack that they attach to the bottom of the ladies’ tap shoes. No more shorting out. No more uncomfortable battery packs. And that’s a fraction of what they do.
We met people at Royal Containers who make those cardboard display stands you see in virtually ever store you enter and, just for fun, they made a cardboard Eiffel tower!
We met auto parts makers, insurance agents, not-for-profit workers at several agencies, funeral home directors, printing experts and many more. We got to tour factories and back rooms where fascinating stuff is made and dreamed up.
The owner of Q5X told us something illuminating, too. He said he never set out to be a world leader in a type of technology. He said that during meetings with potential clients they would ask if he could do something and he always said yes, and then high-tailed it back to the shop to figure out how to do it! He was always filling a need and he never said anything was impossible. Take that, goal-setters!! There’s more than one way to be successful.