This article was published on March 14, 2013

GE celebrates #PiDay by giving out 314 pies at 1:59


GE celebrates #PiDay by giving out 314 pies at 1:59

General Electric, or most commonly known as GE, is adding a little bit of humor to Pi Day. At 1:59pm local time, the giant manufacturing company will choose from 314 tweets and give out pies to random tweeters in celebration of the day. For those a bit nerdy, today is referred to as Pi Day because it’s March 14, or 3/14. The significance of 1:59 is that it’s the next three numbers of Pi: 3.14159.

Last year, GE says that there were more than 50,000 Tweets for Pi Day and it has jumped on board to help foster the joke and the “geekery”. Anyone who tweets at 1:59pm today in the continental United States will be eligible to receive a pie — the company tells me that the winners will be chosen at random, but they must use the Twitter hashtag #PiDay. Included with the pie is a laser-etched message from the company “congratulating” them on Tweeting and the “achievement”.

Don’t worry if you miss it in one timezone. The company tells us that it will look at Tweets when it’s 1:59 in all four US timezones: Easter, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Since Pi Day already started earlier this morning, pies have been given away already — it’s a random selection so not everyone who posts will get one.

We spoke with Paul Marcum, the Director of Global Digital Marketing & Programming at GE, and he tells me that this is the latest program the company has done to get people’s inner-geek thinking. In February, the company invited people to send it tweets using the hashtag #IWantToInvent and what they would like to create. GE would then take the ideas and send back blueprints — something it hoped would help encourage innovation.

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Two years ago, GE also did a program with 3D printing company MakerBot and invited people to give them ideas through Facebook on what they could print to coincide with an airshow. In doing so, the MakerBot produced quite a few designs and GE says it “held” a mini-airshow.

GE isn’t the only company that is getting involved in the geek “holiday”. Telephony service Twilio is also delivering pies to people:

Here is a shot of the laser-etched Pi Day keepsake that winners will receive from the company:

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Photo credit: Dennis Wilkinson/Flickr

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