Swinging for the fences: The custom of holding business pitch contests, where entrepreneurs with ideas vie for prizes before audiences and panels of judges, seems to have reached mania levels in New Orleans, The Times-Picayune reports. The contests serve high-profile promotional and networking roles, observers say. At the same time, they shouldn’t be mistaken for long-term strategies to grow businesses or guide investments. Read the full story here.
New-age offices: Apple’s ring-shaped, gleaming “Spaceship Headquarters” will include a world-class auditorium and an orchard for engineers to wander. Google’s new Bay View campus will feature walkways angled to force accidental encounters. Facebook, while putting the final touches on a Disney-inspired campus including a Main Street with a B-B-Q shack, sushi house and bike shop, is already planning an even larger, more exciting new campus. More than ever before, Silicon Valley firms want their workers at work. The Associated Press has the full story here.
Fueling speculation: Japan, the biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, plans to list the world’s first futures contract for the super-cooled fuel on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange within two years, Bloomberg reports. The futures will be for cash settlement in dollars and based on an index price for spot LNG cargoes delivered to Japan. The full story can be found here.
Today’s poll question: Do you think city-parish employees should be restricted from taking public vehicles home if they live outside East Baton Rouge parish, as the Metro Council is considering?
