Elixir of Youth

I love being around happy people.

Monday was a great day for just that reason…

I’m at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, doing communications for Intel, hoping that by getting lots of attention for the Fair we’ll see more and more kids getting excited about science, math, engineering, and technology.

On Monday, the ‘happy person’ was Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board at Intel.

Our Intel sponsorship started 12 years ago with Craig, and he has attended every year since.

We were making the long trek through the Georgia World Congress Center after a media interview when two finalists approached him excitedly. “Mr. Barrett,” they said, “we met you in Saudi Arabia last month.” http://www.intel.com/intel/citizenship/travelogue/riyadh08.htm They took pictures with him, and the trek lengthened as just this type of interaction happened over and over, including at CNN Center in the security line where one of our Intel Science Talent Search finalists–also a finalist at ISEF– came by to shake hands.

After an interview with Charles Hodson of CNN International http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/hodson.charles.html, Craig met with students at their projects, and a number of other people, before kicking off the open ceremony.

You’ll hear why he devotes significant time to Intel ISEF when you watch the following clip: he calls it the “elixir of youth.”