Companies across the Denver area made special arrangements to let employees watch Barack Obama’s historic inauguration.
Level 3 Communications broadcast the event in the cafeteria at its Broomfield headquarters, where the company planned to serve a lunch menu of roasted duck with cherry chutney, the same meal served at the inauguration.
About 150 Level 3 workers gathered to watch the swearing-in ceremony, and the duck lunch was available to workers for $6.99.
The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s nearly 400 employees in Westminster were able to watch the event in a conference room.
“Just as we do for major sporting events (World Series, Stanley Cup), we typically make a conference-room available to Tri-State employees to view these once-in-a-lifetime happenings,” said Tri-State spokeswoman Karli Nelson.
Even though it’s a busy time of year for accountants, the seven employees of Greenwood Village-based Schmidt & Associates crowded around their 14-inch TV to watch Obama take the oath of office.
“We have a little TV in our office to watch the NCAA basketball tournament every March,” said CPA Dan Rice, adding that it came in handy today.
Some Newmont employees planned to watch live video streams at their computers, said spokesman Omar Jabara.
Bill Moore, president of Sprocket Design Build, said his employees didn’t raise the question of the inauguration, but the company treated the event like March Madness.
“Long lunches, looking at stuff on the Internet and people will take off early,” he said. “It will be tolerated, but it’s not going to be everyone taking the day off.”
Staff writers Steve Raabe, Miles Moffeit and Margaret Jackson contributed to this report.
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com
