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SWAG fun and infrastructure news

Posted: January 18, 2010 at 12:15 PM CST

I’ll share a secret about the office here at BBI International. We writers collect SWAG. You know, Stuff We All Get at conferences or in the mail. Some of us have quite a collection of bags of various colors and dimensions with logos plastered all over them. I confess, I find those bags most handy.

It’s a confession you see because I normally avoid becoming a walking billboard. I won’t buy T-shirts or sweatshirts with brand names plastered on them. My husband isn’t as fussy—he will wear baseball caps emblazoned with logos. Of course, when you’re given something, it’s pretty hard not to take it and wear it (as opposed to paying someone for a piece of clothing that advertises their wares for free.) However, he has been known to carefully choose which cap he’s going to wear for which occasion. Most of the time his cap is so dirty from working around the farm that you can’t see what’s written on it anyway. And, my name is mud whenever I sneak it into the laundry.

This week a coworker got a most clever SWAG. An invitation to the grand opening luncheon for Blendstar’s biofuel terminal in Collins, Miss., came as a one-quart paint can, with the invitation as the label. Inside the can there are Legos, and encouragement to build something with the Legos, snap a picture and email it to the company. The best will be posted to the Blendstar Web site.

Blendstar’s grand opening is good news for the industry. Infrastructure developments continue to be announced. We had the announcement of another terminal in California a week or two ago. This week Poet and Magellan gave more details in an article about the pipeline feasibility study they have underway. And, the EPM staff is following up on another story to be posted this week about new infrastructure grants for E85 pumps. Watch for that in the few days..

By the way, the Legos aren’t the first toy SWAG in the office. We have a toy truck, a little drum, an inflatable globe that doubles as a volleyball when the quiet in the news room erupts. Oh yes, and little vials of algae oil that came in handy to lubricate a squeaky chair.

-Susanne Retka Schill