Bloomberg headquarters, New York Stock Exchange

In what was the last field trip of the year, my business reporting class and I went to Bloomberg and the NYSE today.

Bloomberg, located on the Upper East Side, is a financial information and news provider, maker of these. The building was amazing- it knocked the socks off the WSJ and the NYT buildings. Curved glass, beautiful sculptures and art that actually makes sense to normal people, and koi fish tanks everywhere. Plus, every room is see-through, to go along with the company’s “transparency” theme. This probably increases productivity and cuts back on shadiness. A la Google, all the food is free– including a snack bar with all the vending machine goods and organic yummies  you can ask for- plus GRIND IT YOURSELF peanut butter, Newman’s Own pink lemonade in a pitcher and potato-starch biodegradable silverware. Truly.

The place just smells like innovation. Office environment and culture are much more influential than I ever thought. The dim lighting, cubicles, and walls of the WSJ betray its roots in establishment reporting, while the NYT’s incredibly orange, psuedo-techy (but slightly inefficient- such as weird programmed elevators) pad bespeaks its attempted adaptation to change, while being moored to its Gray Lady persona. Bloomberg is pure progress, though– you can just tell.  It looks like a fraternity house for iPhones and iPods, if Apple products were people. Shiny white plastic is the order of the day. No cameras allowed, otherwise I’d love to have documented this.

Oh, and Beyonce lives in the condos upstairs. No sighting though.

Then we were off to the New York Stock Exchange. The decor could not have been more different- gold leaf moulding everywhere, grandfather clocks, leather chairs, and some urn given by a Russian tsar in the boardroom.

We went to the trading floor (no pics allowed though, d’oh), which reminded me an awful lot of a Vegas casino. No windows, tons of terminals (rather than slot machines), noise and ringing, and lots and lots of men. I didn’t understand why there was so much garbage on the floor though, when there were clearly trash bins in the area. We stayed for the closing bell. The funny thing is I kept hearing AOL instant message sounds-like doors opening and closing and that sound AIM makes when you get a new message. The guide said it was just standard PC sounds for new emails, etc., but it just brought me back to college dorm feel the entire time and I tuned out while the guide was telling us about the floor. So despite having visited their respective trading floors, I can’t tell you what the difference between an option and a stock is.

Here’s a picture of my female-heavy class, in the giant boardroom with the original grandfather clock from the first days of the NYSE. I thought for a moment it woulda been funny if, instead of business wear, we dressed up in proper attire for female casino attendants (short skirts and suspenders?) and handed out gambling chips and alcohol on the trading floor.