Interesting. That’s about the best word for it.
The meeting was held at Safeco Field (Where the Seattle Mariners play). I estimate about 10,000 people were there; some dressed in matching outfits for their specific group. My group had black T-shirt. One of the System Center groups had orange hats, scarfs, and mittens. Other groups had foam noodles, plastic hand clappers, yada yada yada. What really impressed me was that some of the people in my section were constructing paper airplanes and since we were in the "nosebleed" section, they could toss their creations and evaluate how good their design was. Some of those airplanes were REALLY good!!
I think that the meeting should be mandatory for all new hires and that they should have a competition that involves the employees more. The "pump you up" is great, but they could engage the people more. If I had to give it a grade, I’d give it a C+–but bumped to B- since Ballmer got emotional for Bill Gates’ last meeting.