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Last week I spoke at P&G. This was my first trip to Cincinnati, and I was delighted with what a colorful city it is. Here are my pictures from the visit.

The city skyline.

Cincinnati Music Hall.

Union Terminal. It was originally built in 1933 as a train station, but it’s a museum today.

If you speak near this fountain on one side of the building.

The sound travels along the ceiling.

People at the other side of the building can hear what you say.

Sampling what I was told is the best ice cream in the Cincinnati: Graeter’s. This is black raspberry chip, and it’s right up there!

This the fountain that was shown at the start of the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati.

Loved this hat shop.

I asked the salesperson if I could take pictures inside the store. The conversation went like this. Me: “Can I take pictures?” Salesperson: “Sure, go right ahead.” Me: “I’ll make your store famous.” Salesperson: “We’re already famous.” In other words, she pwned me.

The colorful interior of Koch Sporting Goods.

The building where P&G first manufactured soap.

This is a tank at the Crisco factory next door. I was told that it contained 80,000 gallons of animal fat.

You don’t see conference room names like this everywhere.

My enchanting guides at the research facility: Mary Barnabas and Bernie Durham.

P&G geek art.

Bernie showing me how to use a ten liter glass batch recirculation loop mixer.

This is how you make a prototype detergent.

Moving up the chain: making an intermediate continuous process batch sample from 1-40 kg/min.

I forget what this is.

This is for making a large batch of 6,000 liters.

Doing my Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs impersonation.

Checking the wash under ultra-violet light.

Racks of Dawn going out for testing with consumers. The people I met there were rather surprised that I swear by Dawn as a good contact-lens cleaner, but I digress…

As you can imagine, there are a lot of washing machines to test new formulas.

This controls a row of “mini” washers to test various conditions.

The inside of a mini-washer.

P&G measures everything.

These rooms simulate various conditions in which detergent might be stored around the world.

Special edition of Swiffer to commemorate, I think, the 100 millionth sold.

Flexible office space.

The building on the right side is the P&G corporate headquarters.

Lobby of the headquarters.

P&G product family.

They like Apple there.

Hanging with Edward Rider, the corporate archivist.

That’s William Procter and James Gamble. They knew each other because they married sisters: Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. The company started on October 31, 1837.

This was their idea of a cute baby advertisement!

I like Cincinnati so much that I bought this pair of Bengals pants for my son. My thanks to Marilyn Teal, Nick Geary, Dave Cohen, and Mike Dipaola for making this trip so enchanting.