Boston Bound: “Walk Down Route 128”
Shail Pandya`02
Issue date: 4/27/01 Section: Features
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Navigating through the streets of Boston during the Big Dig construction is always eventful. Going through South Boston in the middle of a St. Patrick’s Day parade is worse. Despite these obstacles, the van carrying the JGSM students on the 2001 “Walk Down Route 128” trip successfully arrived at Quincy Market on a sunny Sunday afternoon for the Walk’s kick-off event. We were fortunate to have JGSM alums including Sarah Brubacher ’99 of Accenture organize an informal happy hour at the “Bell in Hand” to kick things off. A couple of beers into the event the scene could have easily been mistaken for a bar in Collegetown, and showed all of us that after graduation, JGSM ties remain very strong.
Monday began with an inside look into the uncertain dot-com world. Retailexchange.com, an e-marketplace for surplus goods, was surviving on seed money and a strong relationship with liquidator Gordon Brothers. Following this visit, the “128” van traveled west on the Mass Pike to Bedford for a presentation at Aware, Inc. We arrived early enough to take in some sun at the Burlington Mall – a must-see for all visiting the Route 128 area. JGSM alum Dave Benini and the Aware president and CEO spent the afternoon talking to us about the Intellectual Property Model.
After getting lost with the help of long-time Boston resident Pat Milligan, we arrived back at our hotel and decided a celebratory drink was in order. “Dick’s Last Resort” on Huntington Avenue was the venue of choice. It took about two hours for the group of first-year Johnson students to make their presence felt at Dick’s. A bachelorette party made the mistake of including some of us in their mischief. While all of the participants will remain anonymous, the culprits were eventually escorted away from the scene.
So far, we had experienced two fabulous days of sunshine and fun in Boston. Tuesday didn’t disappoint. The entire group was up early that morning excited about the day ahead. Well, almost everyone. The previous night’s activities had obviously taken their toll, with the usually chatty and affable Will Hargett among the victims. Despite our suffering, we began the day with a visit to Speechworks, a voice-recognition software company. At Speechworks, JGSM alum Mike Thompson arranged for presentations by the company’s CEO and CFO. This exceptional visit was highlighted by discussions about the challenges of bringing a company public and, according to the company’s CFO, the difficulties in choosing the right investment bank.
Monday began with an inside look into the uncertain dot-com world. Retailexchange.com, an e-marketplace for surplus goods, was surviving on seed money and a strong relationship with liquidator Gordon Brothers. Following this visit, the “128” van traveled west on the Mass Pike to Bedford for a presentation at Aware, Inc. We arrived early enough to take in some sun at the Burlington Mall – a must-see for all visiting the Route 128 area. JGSM alum Dave Benini and the Aware president and CEO spent the afternoon talking to us about the Intellectual Property Model.
After getting lost with the help of long-time Boston resident Pat Milligan, we arrived back at our hotel and decided a celebratory drink was in order. “Dick’s Last Resort” on Huntington Avenue was the venue of choice. It took about two hours for the group of first-year Johnson students to make their presence felt at Dick’s. A bachelorette party made the mistake of including some of us in their mischief. While all of the participants will remain anonymous, the culprits were eventually escorted away from the scene.
So far, we had experienced two fabulous days of sunshine and fun in Boston. Tuesday didn’t disappoint. The entire group was up early that morning excited about the day ahead. Well, almost everyone. The previous night’s activities had obviously taken their toll, with the usually chatty and affable Will Hargett among the victims. Despite our suffering, we began the day with a visit to Speechworks, a voice-recognition software company. At Speechworks, JGSM alum Mike Thompson arranged for presentations by the company’s CEO and CFO. This exceptional visit was highlighted by discussions about the challenges of bringing a company public and, according to the company’s CFO, the difficulties in choosing the right investment bank.