On August 26, over 70,000 business people hoping to advance their careers will gather in Pueblo, Colorado for the annual Nodding Man Festival. The two-day outdoor event – held on 140 acres of pastureland – features agreement symposiums, group and individual boss-praising sessions, naked jello wrestling and more.
Launched as a gathering for people wishing to agree with their superiors 100 percent of the time, the event has seen attendance increase from 25 in 1988 to over 50,000 in last year.
“That more people than ever want to become more proficient at sucking up should come as no surprise,” says Peter Malls, a banking assistant who founded the event and still runs it. “Corporations are becoming less and less tolerant of questioning and dissent, no matter their missions statements say.”
Stockbroker Giles Henning of Omaha believes his attendance at the festival has helped save his job. “Two years ago I made the regretful mistake of disagreeing with my boss’s appraisal of a condensed grape juice stock,” he says. “At Nodding Man I learned that disagreeing is never a good thing.”
“Not only do I have fun, but my skills have improved like you wouldn’t believe,” says Sylvia Reason, who’s been to every Nodding Man since 2008. “I can agree for three hours non-stop.”
The event offers 17 different sessions on nodding alone – how vigorously the head should move based on what the boss is saying, how to keep going without straining neck muscles, etc.
“The bottom line,” says Malls,” is that anytime your boss is saying anything at all, you should be nodding to some degree.”
