The end of the year isn’t just a time to celebrate with friends and families. It’s also a time to celebrate with the team. After a year of hard work, lots of Colorado companies took some time to kick back, throw on their ugliest holiday sweaters and pour a round of eggnog in celebration of the year’s biggest wins.
We asked three local tech companies how their teams celebrated the season this year and how their unique company cultures played a role in shaping the festivities.
Granicus’ cloud platform and software suite helps government organizations modernize and digitize their operations to better reach, inform and engage with the citizens they serve. Senior Recruiter Lalita Raman explained how the company’s holiday traditions show off its fun, community-driven culture.
How is your team celebrating the holidays this year?
As a tradition every holiday season, Granicus does a “Givicus” drive. Givicus is our impact team that spearheads all philanthropic community events for the company. This is a tradition that a lot of Granicus employees across our offices in Denver, St. Paul, Washington D.C. and the U.K. love and participate in. We also love our Secret Santa tradition and ugly sweater competition, in addition to our yearly holiday party. Our “Funicus” team puts in a lot of effort to organize a holiday gathering with all the bells and whistles! We exchange Secret Santa gifts and give prizes to the ugliest sweaters.
A part of our culture is to give back to the communities we serve. One way we do this is through volunteer drives during the holidays.”
What parts of your holiday party and/or traditions are reflective of the larger culture of your company?
A part of our culture is to give back to the communities we serve. One way we do this is through volunteer drives during the holidays. The offices host friendly competitions that result in big wins for our local food banks. We are thankful for the opportunities we have to serve our clients and our communities!
Four Winds Interactive combines a cutting-edge software platform with digital signage to help organizations — from airports and hospitals to corporate campuses and sports arenas — deliver interactive and useful visual communications to their visitors. Director of Organizational Development Tor Stenbakken shared how his team celebrated a year of hard work this holiday season.
How is your team celebrating the holidays this year?
Like many Denver tech companies, Four Winds Interactive gets busy in November and December — which brings a fast-paced atmosphere to the office. And after those busy months, the communal, reflective and celebratory nature of the holiday season is exactly what we need. We see the end of the year as an opportunity to come together, celebrate our wins and have some fun.
One of our favorite traditions is the sticky-note art we put up on our windows. Just take a stroll by our office on Broadway this holiday season and you’ll see a waddle of colorful penguins in snow hats! Fun things like that, coupled with multiple team events, really bring a festive atmosphere to the office.
Then, there’s our annual holiday party. This year, we celebrated at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which gave us the chance to explore exhibits after hours and experiment with virtual reality (provided by Wildlife Protection Solutions, a nonprofit we support). Along with drinks and food, we also had a photo booth, games, a DJ and even a virtual reality area.
Our ‘night at the museum’ party is a great reflection of our overall culture — an environment of curiosity, continuous learning and fun!”
What parts of your holiday party are reflective of the larger culture of your company?
Our “night at the museum” party is a great reflection of our overall culture — an environment of curiosity, continuous learning and fun!
A self-described Multi-Cloud Platform as a Service provider, Faction helps businesses customize, implement and manage hybrid and multi-cloud storage solutions from a single integrated platform. Senior Marketing Manager Brittany Gunter explained how each of the company’s core values is on display at their annual holiday party.
How is your team celebrating the holidays this year?
Each year Faction hosts two holiday parties. The first is a pre-party in December that is either at 1Up or a casual bar for just the Faction team members. We head out of work early and spend some good bonding time over drinks, eats and games! Then in January, we go much bigger and host a holiday party for the entire team and their families at a cool or unique location. Last year, it was at the Broncos stadium, and this year, we’ll be at the aquarium for dinner, drinks and animal shows! As our company grows, our parties get bigger and bolder each year.
Each holiday party is held in a unique environment for a professional team that facilitates genuine experiences with a shared beverage.”
What parts of your holiday party and/or traditions are reflective of the larger culture of your company?
The January holiday party is reflective of the culture at Faction because our company values strongly influence the planning of the event. Each holiday party is held in a unique environment for a professional team that facilitates genuine experiences with a shared beverage. This party spotlights the year’s successes around innovation and client delight and is CEO Luke Norris’ favorite event of the year because he gets to address not only the team but our families during his famous “radically transparent” speech on the big wins of the company and team members.
Each year, employees are nominated for big awards and winners go home with big-ticket gifts like an all-expenses-paid vacation or a Rolex. Faction employees who are relentless problem solvers tend to win it all!
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