Fast Company Recommended Events: December-January 2008

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photograph by Joan Marcus/DreamWorks Theatricals

photograph by Steve Pyke

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fri, december 05
Drink Up
75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition

Only one constitutional amendment has ever been ratified to get rid of another: the 21st, which in 1933 repealed the 18th and ended America's 14-year dry spell. We all learned in civics class that two-thirds of the states must ratify an amendment into law of the land. The state to which we owe a round for giving us the magic number: Utah. (Who knew?) Cheers! -- jeff chu

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tue, december 09
Say No
International Anti-Corruption Day

Bribing foreign officials wasn't illegal under U.S. law until the late 1970s, and it took another 26 years before the UN Convention Against Corruption was formed to fight graft, embezzlement, and the like. We're not sure about the UN's cheesy ad campaign -- "Corruption: Your 'No' Counts" -- but some action is clearly needed. According to the World Bank, "bribery has become a $1 trillion industry." And Transparency International says that corruption is worsening in Britain, France, and Russia, due to misbehavior in both the public and private sectors. -- ACL

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sun, december 14
Go Green
Shrek: The Musical
New York

Envious of Disney's stage successes with The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid -- we dare you to find a fanny-packed tourist who didn't heart that roller-skating mermaid -- DreamWorks greenlighted Shrek: The Musical. Having already milked William Steig's children's classic about a green ogre for three films and $2.2 billion at the box office, it decided that this derivative would be a fine investment. Oh, and there will be more: Marvel brings Spider-Man to the Great White Way in 2009, with music by Bono and the Edge. -- Kate Rockwood

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sun, december 14
Innovate
ISPIM Innovation Symposium
Singapore

The International Society for Professional Innovation Management's first-ever symposium will focus on how to stoke more innovation. Singapore is an intriguing choice for host. For the past three years, the World Bank has rated it the world's easiest place to do business. But it's also seen as the world's premier nanny state, which does things like order people to innovate. "Our economy ... has to be driven by creativity, innovation, and enterprise," declared minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew a few years back. And lo, it has been done. -- Sean Ludwig

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tue, december 16
Spell
scrabble's 60th birthday

Alfred Butts, an unemployed architect, invented Scrabble, tinkering with early versions Criss-Cross Words and Lexico for more than a decade. But it took entrepreneur James Brunot to rebrand the game and find a distributor. More than 100 million households worldwide now own a Scrabble board. But its owners, Hasbro (in North America) and Mattel (everywhere else), could use fresh marketing ideas after they alienated millions of Facebook users by ending Scrabulous. So what's on the board for the game's big six-oh spell-a-bration? Special box labels and folding deluxe game boards. Talk about a disappointing P-A-R-T-Y (10 points). -- KR

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thu, january 01
Elevate
Ellen Kullman becomes CEO of DuPont
Wilmington, Delaware

Cue the pyrotechnics. DuPont (originally an explosives manufacturer!) is getting the first female CEO of its 206-year history. Ellen Kullman, a 20-year company vet and Wilmington native (pictured right), takes the helm of the $29.4 billion chemical giant. Under her leadership, DuPont's safety-and-protection division posted record revenue gains of 64% over four years. But she's not claiming sole credit for her success as an executive. In the 2005 book Mother Leads Best, Kullman, 52, attributes the development of her team-building skills to her kids. -- SDA