Calendar: What's Happening October 2008

By: Fast Company StaffWed Sep 17, 2008 at 1:31 AM

illustration by Julie Teninbaum

What's happening in October, from National Boss Day to trick-or-treating.

photograph courtesy Ferrari

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Week 2

mon, october 06
Break
GlassBuild America 2008
Las Vegas

When the 9,000 vitreophiles (noun, from "vitrum," Latin for "glass," and "philos," Greek for "lover") descend on Vegas, plenty of them will flock to the forums on glazing and the state of the window-and-door industry. We reckon the excitement will be at the American Master Installer Auto Glass Championship, where 10 expert windshield repairers will face off for a chance to represent the red, white, and blue at the International Master Fitter Competition later this month in Germany. Smashing! -- Clayton Neuman

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mon, october 06
Applaud
2008 Nobel Prize Announcements
Stockholm and Oslo

For two weeks, Scandinavians will honor a few really important people whom we've probably never heard of but whose work is changing our lives. That got us thinking about how, even in death, Alfred Nobel is cutting edge. The Swedish chemist, inven-tor of dynamite, and eventual pacifist wrote the textbook on how to buy a posthumous legacy, bequeathing 31 million Swedish kronor (or $121.6 billion U.S. today) to establish the Nobel prizes. Forever linked to quantum optics, embryonic stem cells, DNA decoding, and intergovernmental climate change? Not bad for a dude who died in 1896. -- KR

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Week 3

mon, october 13
Solar Power Conference & Expo
San Diego

In energy, the solar lifestyle is (bad pun alert) the hottest thing going. With its power-generating panels and earth-friendly water heaters, the solar biz is growing 40% annually, in part because consumers think that buying new gewgaws to help them be greener is more exciting than just turning off the lights. Attendees can see such technology at the expo, as well as in tours of solar-powered homes, offered as part of San Diego's Solar Energy Week. After the sun goes down, at a block party in the aptly named Gaslamp Quarter, industry insiders can plan old-school power's obsolescence as they marvel at how people used to live. -- J.L. August

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fri, october 17
Watch
Flash of Genius
Starring Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, and Alan Alda

True Hollywood story: In the 1960s, Robert Kearns invented intermittent windshield wipers, which for the first time gave drivers the ability to adjust their speeds. (Cf. GlassBuild 2008 on the 6th: Should this be National Windshield Month?) He tried to sell his device to automakers. They didn't buy. But within a few years, Detroit was churning out cars with the equipment. Kearns sued Ford, Chrysler, and 24 other firms, winning more than $30 million after years of court battles. The New Yorker did a story on him, and now actor Greg Kinnear is playing him on the big screen. Kearns won't be at the premiere; he died in 1995. At the time, said The Washington Post, he had two cars, neither equipped with intermittent wipers. -- JC

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sun, october 19
Play House
Mortgage Banking Association Annual Convention
San Francisco

Industrywide layoffs, record home foreclosures, the wrath of millions upon millions of Americans -- this gathering of 4,000 mortgage executives could be the biggest downer of the year. Expect the session "Coping, Controlling, Capitalizing" -- which promises to tell attendees how to survive and thrive in what organizers have chosen to call a "constantly changing environment" -- to fill up early. And on the final night of the convention, attendees can dance their misery away to a Beatles tribute band. Repeated requests for "Help!" guaranteed. -- TB

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