I must have been destined to ring a stock market bell. Yesterday I participated in the closing bell ceremony at NASDAQ in New York City Times Square.

I was there with Convio, now a public company listed on NASDAQ (before anyone asks, no I do not own any Convio stock and have no plans to make any purchases…my investment in companies is on behalf of my organization, not personal). I was honored to be one of 5 or so client representatives Convio invited to join executive staff, long time employees and their families for the ceremony. Convio has been incredibly supportive of the Coalition the last 3 years, and I was thrilled to celebrate their success with them.

At the NYSE, it appears that the closing bell happens on a podium above the action. At NASDAQ the ceremony happens in a studio in Times Square, not a trader in sight. 

The studio is street level, so folks can watch from the outside. It was a miserable, rainy day yesterday. Not many folks outside seemed to care. 

Essentially, aside from some short speeches, ringing the NASDAQ closing bell is one long string of photo opps. It starts with green screen photo of small groups. Very touristy.

Then you’re led into the studio for the speeches and actual closing bell. More photos in small groups. At this point, Gene Austin, CEO of Convio asked the clients in attendance to come up one at a time to have their photos taken with him and Vinay Bhagat, Co-Founder. I have to say, Vinay’s kids are adorable and stole the show.

Once the bell ceremony was over (aka everyone stand on the platform together, wave and clap and feel a little silly) we headed outside for more photos under the large video tower. At this point, the video wall is showing all the photos taken inside, a few seconds each. Here’s where I got lucky. I just happened to have my iPhone in my hand, camera app open when my picture taken with Gene and Vinay rotated through:

Pretty cool picture to send to Grandma. 

Thank you to everyone at Convio for a fun break from the routine.