Welcome
Thank you for your interest
in the Gearworks Butter PDA charity auction!
Please read the item description in the Butter PDA before bidding.
About Gearworks
Gearworks writes
mobile & wireless applications for the transportation & field
service industries. Our application, etrace, allows real-time GPS package
tracking, signature capture & unlimited messaging using an off-the-shelf
device such as a Palm VIIx or Symbol 1733. etrace's functionality is similar
to the recognizable FedEx/UPS tablets, but with slightly different capabilities.
Favorite Links
Gearworks Homepage
St.
Paul Pioneer Press story on the Butter PDA
Unstrung.com's
story on the Butter PDA
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you
expect to get any business out of this?
Today, we expect to get a million laughs, or in Minnesota, polite chuckles.
Tomorrow, we know that this reflects on the spirit and personality of
our company.
When it comes to wireless technology we're very serious,
but it's important to have fun while you're doing it.
Has Gearworks done
anything like this before?
Butter? No. But we have a tradition of off-beat marketing: we've worked
actors from the Brave
New Workshop (a Minneapolis comedy troupe) into seminars on wireless
technology and sponsored a goofy
small town festival last summer. We also have a marketing promotion
where we send a potential customer a really high-end 3 foot remote control
semi-truck, but without the remote. Inside is a "ransom note" saying that
if they meet with us for 30 minutes, we'll give them the remote.
How can I get an "I
visited the Butter Palm" postcard?
Send us a letter or postcard from where you live with your comments on
the Butter PDA to the address below and we'll send you a postcard in return.
Be sure to clearly print your return address.
Butter PDA Fan Club
Gearworks
930 Blue Gentian Road
Eagan, MN 55121
How much does it weigh?
It started off as a "standard" 85 pound butter block & is now about 50
pounds. The standard is because the Midwest Dairy Association has been
doing butter carving so long, there's a "standard" State Fair butter block.
How tall is it?
20 inches tall, approx 12" square at the base.
What kind of butter
is it?
Whey butter, only slightly different in taste than standard salted butter.
The Minnesota Dairy Princess statues are carved out of Grade A salted
butter.
What will you be doing
with it after the show?
What else? Selling it on eBay and giving the money to charity.
Which charity?
The 4-H Foundation. http://www.fourh.umn.edu/foundation/
Who sculpted the Butter
PDA?
Linda Christensen (notice spelling) she has been carving butter for the
Midwest Dairy Association for many, many years. This is her first butter
PDA sculpture.
How'd you think of
this?
We were invited to exhibit at the State Fair--at first we discarded the
idea since our sofware can be pretty geeky stuff and we mainly sell to
businesses. But then we started thinking about it as something fun and
realized that there wasn't anything more quintessentially "Minnesota State
Fair" than a butter carving, and since there are so many Palm VIIxs at
the office, the two inevitably collided. Innovation/creativity are core
strenghts of our developers & marketers.
Does Palm know about
the butter carving?
Yes, they are assisting w/ the promotion of the event.
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