Around the Sun campus in Mountain View it's simply known as "the Bash".
Every Friday afternoon around 5:00 the offices of SunLabs Building 29 empty out and researchers head out to a patio that overlooks a small pond. Somewhere between 40 and 60 people typically attend the Bash. Those people include Sun executives who happen to be in town that day, SunLabs alumni who are now working in other parts of the company, Sun employees who are curious about what's happening in the lab and anyone who happens to be visiting SunLabs that day.
The staples are French bread, cheese, cold cuts, wine, beer, juices and bottled water. On any given week there could also be sushi, salsa and chips, fresh fruit or veggies.
The Bash is more than just a social event; it's actually an integral part of the technology transfer process at Sun. Busy people who were unable to get their schedules to match during the week can hook up for a couple of hours at the Bash to conduct business. There is a lot of talk about the projects SunLabs researchers are working on and plenty of brainstorming about technology.
However, the Bash is by no means a "deadly serious" technology seminar. In fact, at one Bash the SunLabs researchers came up with the idea to challenge Building 9, which sits across the pond, to a water fight.
Engineers from SunLabs and their counterparts across the pond at SunSoft spent weeks building catapults on the roof and filling thousands of balloons with water. On the day of the event CEO Scott McNealy sat in a boat in the middle of the pond and acted as the referee.
There's a dispute to this day over who won SoakFest '92, which was actually covered by the San Jose Mercury News. There is, however, no question the Bash has developed into an important way for SunLabs researchers to communicate with the rest of the company - and with each other.
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