Cities across America are going to great lengths to court Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo, who is on the hunt for a place to build the company’s second headquarters, The New York Times reports.
Business leaders in Tucson have tried to mail Bezos a 21-foot cactus. The largest conference room in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, mayor’s office has been converted to a war room, with 50 volunteers poring over videos of Bezos. And hundreds of Wharton Business School students in Philadelphia have a new fall semester assignment: Pitch the city to Amazon.
“It’s like ‘The Amazing Race,’” says Jim Watson, the mayor of Ottawa. “You’ve got this cast of characters running toward the holy grail.”
Amazon plans to invest $5 billion and create 50,000 wherever it opts to build its second headquarters, known as HQ2. With a loose set of requirements, the tech giant has launched an largest competition in North America.
“We’re energized by the response,” says Adam Sedo, an Amazon spokesman. “We invited cities to think big, and we are starting to see their creativity.”
