Logistics Binge

Operations may be slender these days, but the conference menu isn’t. Low-carb aficionados will cringe at what attendees consumed at this year’s Council of Logistics Man-agement’s conference in Philadel-phia. CLM officials tell us that participants wolfed down 9,000 pieces of breakfast breads, downed 1,400 gallons of coffee, and imbibed 21,000 sodas, bottled waters, and juices — chilled with four tons of ice. (For those of you who collect this sort of trivia, 21,000 soda cans have enough energy to run a TV set for 63,000 hours, or for seven years if you leave your TV on 24/7.) To partake of this feast, CLM registrants used 47,000 china plates and glasses (more than the number supplied on the Titanic), 43,000 pieces of flatware, and 1,100 tablecloths (nearly two miles long, or enough to cover 152 rail carriages lengthwise). But then, you figure they needed all those calories: Attendees trekked 50,000 square feet of carpet each day.