I first want to start by saying Chime’s workplace team led by Jackie absolutely nailed our new New York office. It’s the prettiest office I’ve ever seen and is on brand, intentional, warm and inviting, hip. It’s an office you would LOVE to go to. It’s been fun watching her and the team build the space and I’ve loved being able to share an opinion on a shade of green or a type of wood. The best part is my team got to join the fun and collaborate on the opening day experience.

I’m here to share details on what we ended up doing and give some practical tips that’ll hopefully help with your next office opening or any event in general. We grounded ourselves in the goal to connect employees to the new office, each other, and the neighborhood. And lucky for me… it’s my old hood! Two avenues from where I spent my last four years in NYC.

I think about the hours I spent at Haven’s Kitchen journaling. Snow days in my teensy studio. Soul Cycle, Union Sq Farmer’s Market, and Breads ruggelach. But this article isn’t about my nostalgia for my 20s NYC—it’s about the opening!!

Our theme was Next Stop: Chime NYC, which made for very cute branding and swag. For this event we partnered with Nadel who helped bring the vision to life. I’ll share what we did for office connection, swag, events, and neighborhood connection.

Office Connection

We printed “first ritual” tickets that looked similar to Madison Square Garden tickets (timely with the Knicks win! 🏀). We placed them at the coffee machines, in tech spaces, and around the office saying “first to sit here” or “first meeting in here” and those winners won a gift card to a neighborhood coffee shop! We also put together a bingo card to help folks explore the office and neighborhood.

Swag

Nadel has a great creative team and they helped us create a few images that ended up being printed on signage and most of our swag.

🚃 Desk Memento: We wanted the July opening to feel special for our local team so we created tiny 3D printed subway cars. We created alphabet stickers (CHIME letters in Chime green) so employees could personalize each car for their desk. I’ve always been a fan of having little desktop mementos that you keep from company to company, so I hope people want to keep this!

🍏 Enamel Pins + Stickers: Is it really an event if you don’t have a sticker or enamel pin?

🖊️ Fancy pens because why not?

🖱️ Mouse pads specific to NYC

✉️ Stationery + NYC postcards

Event

In the morning employees got to enjoy their new breakfast service with Bon Appétit and we brought in Anecho Coffee who we love working with. My favorite part of the cart was the custom NYC coffee cups similar to the classic cups served in bodegas. We wanted it all to feel NYC-centric without feeling cheesy.

We brought in Alchemiq for our happy hour for food and beverage! They were wonderful—amazing food, drinks, and service and really easy to work with. I know the SF vendor landscape so well but I’m really just learning the current NYC vendors so I was pleasantly surprised our first partner was spectacular. We based the food offerings off NYC neighborhoods to go along with the “Next Stop” theme. We ordered custom cookies from Funny Face Bakery that resembled our stickers and brought in Morgenstern’s Ice Cream with signage that read “The Sweetest Stop Yet.”

Neighborhood Connection

This was my favorite because we connected this experience to our business and the neighborhood. I reached out to a bunch of local spots and secured deals at Maman and Breads Bakery! We also wanted our employees to use their Chime card so we said “use your Chime card to get a discount at this local spot!” Our intention paid off and people loved it! I especially loved our Breads Bakery promo because every day they provided a surprise treat so it got people going back day after day. (Also, Breads’ babka is just SO GOOD.)

Overall

Overall it was a hit! I love seeing the delight on people’s faces as they walk up to the swag table or realize they’re getting a rad promo at their favorite bakery. Each element was intentionally planned and it made the overall experience work. We achieved our goal and connected employees to their new office, each other, and the neighborhood!

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I totally thought I sent out a May “Inside the Event” but nope, time just flew by and here we are in June. At Chime we decided to push Immigrant Heritage Month to July to make sure our ERGs have equal time and energy to host their heritage month! We’ll end Pride month with an intersectional event with our Immigrant community to then kick off their month.

☀️ What’s the latest?

I attended Epoch Connect and it was fantastic! Epoch Connect is an annual employee experience conference that Epoch hosts and they have panels and talks about EX, engagement, workplace, DEI, and more. It’s a wonderful place to learn and connect with like-minded folks! Here are some top learnings and takeaways:

Custom fortune cookies as icebreakers! Each message inside was a conversation starter. Such a good idea!

Jeffrey from Salesforce shared a way to engage employees around AI: DIY AI Quest where for one week employees accomplish a variety of tasks. Simply tell Slackbot “I want to do the AI Quest” and add 25 minutes to your calendar each day. I’m excited to share this idea with our AI team!

Interview for taste and judgment. I enjoyed hearing about the importance of this—something that takes years to build. YES.

“Measure impact not just activity.” I wrote that one down. We’ve been talking a lot about this. Rather than just the number of people attending, what’s the actual outcome? Sounds simple but definitely something that escapes my mind sometimes!

WEX folks are experience designers, not just space managers. An interesting panel on workplace and metrics focused on understanding the quality of in-person interactions and meeting effectiveness. 68% go in to collaborate. A CBRE study says space is built for seats, not collaboration, and 1/3 of spaces have not been redesigned since the pandemic. I will say our WEX team at Chime is definitely ahead of this and creatively thinking of ways to best use our space based on data and how employees are currently using it.

ERG panel stats: 50% longer tenure for ERG versus non-members (Teleskope 2025) and 57% of Fortune 500 companies report ERGs have directly influenced innovation. I learned that at some companies a large percentage of ERG leads get promoted! What are the skills ERG leaders walk away with in their first and second years? I’m excited to evolve our program into more leadership development and skill building.

$154B lost annually to stress-related absenteeism tied to loneliness and isolation.

🖤 Chime Prime + Swag Drops

What a hit! This was a prime (no pun intended :) ) example of creating experiences for outcomes, not just attendance. We wanted employees to feel the product in an experiential way. Prime is all about unlocking extra perks, higher APY savings, luxe Onyx cards. One of the perks is Priority Pass so we created an airport lounge vibe with Onyx care-inspired drinks, juices, candles, and swag. Exclusive swag for those employees who were signed up and dogfooding, plus raffles to win sports event tickets and Away luggage.

What was most exciting was... we did our first swag drop! Inspired by Canary Marketing’s swag drops (that sell out immediately) we wanted to create a cool moment-in-time item that only 200 people could get. We’ll do more so everyone has a shot to win at least one thing!

These are those surprise and delight moments that have a major impact! Connecting to a product, feeling what it means to exist as that product, and having a rad gift to show for it. I also love love love brainstorming and cross-collaboration so while it was a lot of planning it was energizing!! Check out Chime’s LinkedIn post sharing more on the experience.

🌈 Happy Pride

Our Pride ERG is hosting Pride happy hours across all offices and doing their annual Drag Bingo virtual event. Drag Bingo is one of my favorite events of the year and always a hit. Yolanda had a wonderful idea to move Immigrant Heritage Month celebration to July to make sure both ERGs have space and a captive audience for all of their events. We’ll end Pride month with a cross-functional event between the two groups as a nice hand-off into the next month.

We are realizing how easy it is for ERG leads to fall into the event planner role. I’m excited for what the future holds for our ERG leads—career development, consistent exec sponsor connections and experiences, engaging communities in more ways than just events.

🖤Juneteenth

Our Black ERG hosted the coolest event: Boots on the Ground—a Southern rodeo and backyard BBQ to honor Juneteenth where they taught everyone in person and virtually to line dance. I joined virtually and had a blast dancing around my room. Huge shout out to our Black ERG for creating such a meaningful celebration of freedom, culture, and community.

😄 Vendor Highlight: Flowers by Grey

Need beautiful and creative flowers for your events in SF? Look no further. Greyson is incredible! Lovely to work with, beautiful designs, responsive, on time, and creative.

🎉 In Other News…

✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

I sold THREE custom hats on my Etsy store! It’s been fun to get back to embroidering a few times a week.

Also, Brilliant the swag company hosted an intimate dinner at Birdsong and each course came with a swag item and a story to go along with. I was surprised and delighted. I used to looooove going to all networking events and it’s honestly where I learned a LOT of what I know today. Shout out to Culture Club—I went to LifeLabs Learning and Exubrancy’s first (of many) culture meetups on a boat with about 10 other EX people and now their Slack community is thriving! I am so grateful for those early meetups.

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next month’s edition. Until then—surprise, delight, and take care. 💫

We’ve Been Here Before

I love the NYTimes documentary “Page One” about when they went digital. It shows the evolution from the highly manual work where printers physically assembled the newspaper letter by letter, to clicking publish. We’ve endured change. My friend Lindsay Kiesling who is the VP, Northwest US at Otis shared an interesting fact that when the elevator button was created there was pushback and people didn’t feel safe not having the elevator attendant in the elevator even though it was much safer the new way. Change is hard and we are facing a lot right now.

What We Risk Losing

I’ve been thinking a lot about what humans bring... taste, craftsmanship, innovation and ideas, community and human connection, energy exchange, laughter and joy to name a few. I think about the times I’ve watched presentations on brand refreshes where the designer goes through the thought process, inspiration board, what they tried and didn’t go with, then the inspiration around the concept and even highlighting how the sizing around the logo is the same size as the fonts so it matches. These thoughtful approaches where you learn, think, absorb, feel awe. Lately I’ve been thinking about ways we exchange energy— like chanting om in the yoga class I took last night to looking at the brushstrokes of the art pieces at the Monet exhibit at the De Young. I think about just... being stumped. Wondering. Not knowing. Talking through a problem or gut checking. Thinking while not having immediate satisfaction.

But back to craftsmanship. I’m married to an artist and product designer and we’ve been talking a lot about that world. A world where someone may say “oh that’s so easy I can totally design that” and it’s a 20-year career of knowledge. Years to develop a point of view, years to develop judgment. I LOVE working with designers. I love learning about their process and seeing the outcome. My heart hurts a little for the care and craft. I keep asking myself... do people care anymore?

The Mental Load Is Real

And as I think about all of this I think about everyone’s mental state especially as we close out Mental Health Awareness Month. To say there is a lot going on in the world is an understatement. I asked someone how they were doing recently and they said “I’m surviving.” :/ Different from the “I’m fine!” We have 80 tabs open (I know I know… I can fix that), we’re being asked to learn and unlearn, creating GPTs then moving to agents. And some companies are laying so many people off. I read in a Forbes article that “It’s reshaping identity, eroding purpose and quietly redesigning what it means to be human.” Some may be struggling with purpose, grappling with the change and new norms, rewiring thoughts. It’s a big plot twist!

I’m here to say... you can have a growth mindset and be excited and experiment and create cool shit and innovate and learn all the things we need to (and want to) learn AND you can feel unwell.

I’ve always loved that concept of “and”... “both can be true”... to feel excited about the unknown and what’s to come AND mourn the loss of what you thought would be. Yes we can all be on board with this change and change can be very good but I hope we can also acknowledge that adopting the change and the transition is hard. And change is hard in general. I’ve always reminded myself of that: change is good but the transitions are so dang hard (moving to SF after living in NYC).

Connection Over Everything

So as I think about how folks are going through their own change journey with how they feel about all of this—the highs, the lows, the I’m on board, the I’m pretending to be on board—I think connecting with each other is number 1! Asking how folks are actually doing, laughing about something in the kitchen, teaching a coworker how to steam milk, reenacting dozens of emojis in a team meeting, pushing back on an idea, brainstorming ideas, doing fun human things. Being the taste makers, the crafters, the ideators.

This is why we’re doubling down on Chime Connections, our quarterly program to connect employees in office and remotely. While we do a lot of programming to connect employees to the product, part of our charter is focused on connecting employees to each other. I’ve always believed in the importance of stepping away from your desk to connect, to build trust, to then be a better collaborator and build stronger relationships. Whether it’s crafting together, happy hours, or any form of connection—these moments matter more than ever right now.

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What I’m Actually Building

I have a growth mindset, I’m curious, I’m excited to see how this unlocks our work. In the EX world specifically, I’m thinking about how AI can automate more of onboarding and personalize it. I’m exploring our current tools and figuring out what’s best, helping take away those annoying tasks of downloading a report, sending it to a vendor.

Manager onboarding is top of mind as well. When a manager hires someone, making sure managers have everything they need at the time they need it—tasks when and where they need them, messages on their new hire joining, where is their new hire, all that fun stuff. I’m thinking about automating tenure/recognition and making it more personal. Onboarding and offboarding ERG leads and all of the current manual tasks that happen.

I’m excited about creating agents to guide people for planning consistent and epic events. “I’d like to host an onsite for 30 people in SF” and they are guided through picking the best room, connected with L&D tools, swag vendor recs, preferred vendors are shared, local team building activities shared and an offer to email them! This can now happen right!?

I’ve built a few things that are actually helping. A task that writes up my 1:1 doc with a recap of what I’ve been up to the past week, risks, priorities, look ahead, etc. for my boss. And a “Don’t miss a beat” agent that checks Slack and docs I’m tagged in so I actually don’t miss a beat.

I have so much to learn and I’m trying to dedicate Fridays to learning, taking trainings, exploring. I recently took the Introduction to Claude Cowork on Anthropic’s site and it was SO helpful and helped me actually understand what it is.

What Keeps Me Human

Things that have nothing to do with AI that I love:

Reading - I’ve read 11 books this year I can’t believe it!!! (I know some people read 60 books a year but I’m usually a book a month type of person so I’m proud). Finally read The Nightingale and wow it was incredible. SF folks—Kristin Hannah is speaking 9/23 at the City Arts & Lectures! I also loved Dave Grohl’s autobiography. I did get swept into the wonderful world of ACOTAR which consumed the start of the year.

Writing - THIS. Fun fact: I write every post because I love writing and the reason I started this was to write more. Yes I edit them with Claude but mainly for grammar and any sentences that don’t make sense.

Embroidery! I will say... AI has actually made making patterns easier! My husband has created my patterns on Midjourney and then traces them in Illustrator for me so it’s a mix.

Watercoloring at home and in the wild. I have an Etsy store too :)

Working out - I love love love moving my body.

Laughing over drinks and good food at a new restaurant with good friends.

I try to remind myself that in SF we are in a bubble and it is a little monoculture (my friend reminded me over drinks and good food in NYC the other week). There is so much in life that has nothing to do with AI and I don’t think ever will have anything to do with AI.

Both Can Be True

I have a growth mindset, I’m curious, I’m excited to see how this unlocks our work, I think it’s cool that we are living in this historic time of change and innovation AND I feel sad for the thousands laid off, the unknown of AGI, the fact that data centers are consuming so much water which makes me wish even more that billionaires would help solve the lack of clean drinking water in our world. Isn’t what we have enough?

I hope those college grads booing AI use that energy to double down on what matters. And I also think back to dial-up internet and chat rooms, to when Slack was invented and we switched from AIM, to when if there was a snow day you just had the day off work because Zoom and WFH didn’t exist, to being weirded out that you could share photos on Facebook, printing MapQuest directions to using Google Maps. Maybe it’s worth acknowledging all that change. This feels bigger and faster, I know, but it’s still change and we’ve always evolved. I’m also trying to just sit with the unknown. My latest challenge for myself is if I don’t know something or something random and not important pops into my head I’ll write it down and won’t Google it or ask AI immediately and I’ll just... wonder! My challenge to you—can you just stand in line at the grocery store and wonder?

A few resources: I loved the AI Doc movie and this recent podcast on World’s First Podcast with Joanna Stern who wrote “I Am Not a Robot”. I want to read it!

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And just like that Q1 is over. Get all your vendors paid?! 😅 San Francisco has been unseasonably warm and beautiful. We’ve been able to eat on the roof at work, I’ve been gardening (basically just loading up bags with leaves and weeds), and enjoying lots of walks and outdoor workouts.

Let’s jump into what’s ahead this spring!

🌷 There Is a Lot Going On in April!

🌎 Earth Month offers lots of ideas for happy hours and activations around the office.

♻️ Recycling & Composting Refresh – Use Earth Month as an opportunity to re-educate employees on composting and recycling practices at work.

🥕 Farmer’s Market-Style Happy Hour – One of my all-time favorite events was when Twelve Top Catering hosted a spring-forward farmer’s market happy hour. They brought tons of fresh veggies for employees to take home. The best part? No waste— the goal was for everything to go! 🌽🍅🥒

🐝 Honey Tasting with Carmel Honey Company – In the past we brought in Jake from Carmel Honey Company for an in-person and virtual class. 🍯 I learned SO much about bees, honey production, and the company’s incredible backstory (he started it as a middle school project!). Highly recommend him for an Earth Month event.

🌱 Confetti has a ton of virtual events including Compost Basics, Plant Care and Zero Waste 101, Earth Day Trivia, Terrarium Workshop, and more!

💛 Bring Your Kids to Work Day

BYKTWD is always the last Thursday in April and every year it gives me so much empathy for parents! I’m filled with joy but also drained by the end of these energy-filled days.

🎨 Craft: This year we are working with Forager Crafts to do both an in-person and virtual craft, decorating coin pouches (and shipping out kits to remote parents!). We’re also bringing in balloon animals to our offices, which was a huge hit last year.

🌭 Food: Kid-friendly breakfast and lunch, which is typically the adults’ favorite day of food as well. We bring in a coffee cart with hot chocolate and have a hot chocolate bar.

💰 Work Connection: We are bringing in a designer to host a session. Our Social Impact team is joining the fun and the kiddos are able to drop their coins into a few containers deciding what they want to donate (like a shirt or backpack). And our coin pouches connect to financial progress for the audience!

😄 Vendor Highlight: Two Dudes Photo

I don’t think I’ve highlighted them yet but wow they take the BEST photos! They even made me look great after 3 hours of sleep on IPO day. My new LinkedIn photo is from our latest experience with them! They do an antibooth and a partybooth and just not your typical photo booths. We brought them in for our ERG Summit and had the first 2 hours be for a classic photo booth and then the last 2 hours for headshots for our ERG leads. Folks ended up using the classic photo booth time for headshots, which reminded me that employees love a headshot moment! 📸

🎉 In Other News…

I’ve been on a memoir kick and finished Strangers by Belle Burden and Jessica Simpson’s Open Book and now onto Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller.

We’re getting into the Glean agent world and it’s fun! It’s a little scary to have all of the AI tools connected to Slack and every single thing you do but it’s all pretty efficient and there are lots of oohhs and ahhhs and aha moments.

We have some fun surprise and delight swag moments coming up. My latest realization is not everyone needs everything. Get 200 items of this and 200 of that. Do a raffle. Things can sell out. There are moments to give the entire company something and there are moments for hype and excitement. I’m most excited about doing swag drops (since swag is employees’ currency) and similar to how Canary Marketing does a swag drop or like a sneaker drop—exclusive, limited, exciting.

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✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

I’m in the Waymo freeway test group and I love Waymo so when I needed to get home from dinner the other night I thought sure let’s just go for it. Waymo at 65 MPH at night is a little different than stop and go 25 MPH in the city 😂 so this is more of a surprise... a little terrified... then delighted!

The surprise I’m really waiting for is the duckling sightings at Stow Lake!! My favorite day of the year. Hopefully photos to share soon.

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next month’s edition. Until then—surprise, delight, and take care. 💫

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Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are essential to building community, lifting up voices, celebrating culture and diverse perspectives and backgrounds. This summit was a beautiful reminder of the power of community. This work matters and I’m grateful to be a part of it. Annually we bring together our ERG leaders (we have 6 groups and 4 leads per group). We are lucky enough to partner with Maceo Owens, the founder of The ERG Movement, who facilitated and helped plan most of our summit.

I’m posting this to share a few practical tips, learnings, and surprise and delight ideas for your next onsite or similar summit.

Small Group Dinners Are Always a Good Idea

Years ago (maybe 2018) at a company kickoff I had this idea to break everyone up into small group dinners. We made like... 30 reservations or something but it was SUCH a hit. I think people just really enjoy connecting with one another on a smaller scale. When there are too many people you may only talk to one end of the table or at a bigger event you may just stick to your team or 1-2 people you feel comfortable talking with. Small group dinners really give you the time to get to know five or so other coworkers. At each company since I’ve recommended this and time and time again folks love it.

Surprise Breakfast

No bandwidth to order catering and let them in the freight elevator and no time to get to the office early to set up? Is there a coffee shop/cafe in your building or near it? Put your card down at a local cafe and then give the event attendees a fun password to use so breakfast is on the house! It’s not very pricey, it’s a fun surprise for attendees, and it takes one email to set up. Who doesn’t love a free latte?!

Swag Bags + Handwritten Note

We put together a small swag bag with a sling bag, journal, pen, Dandelion chocolate, and a handwritten note. I wanted to do something local from SF and something you can actually enjoy throughout the summit. I also wrote thank you notes for each leader. Seems small but multiple people acknowledged the handwritten note. I think it’s these small details that end up having a bigger impact than you know. And hey, maybe it sparked them to write their friend a note or put a thank you note in Slack. Gotta keep spreading joy and positivity!

ERG Fair

Each year we host a fair with booths for each ERG. This year's theme was "what makes our community shine" and we made signs that said "ask us about..." and had each group fill in the blank. We left it up to the group to decorate their table and bring other treats. It's a great opportunity for employees to come through, grab swag, get to know the leads, and take action on the spot! We also brought in a dessert bar with desserts representing our communities. We had a photo booth for employees to enjoy during the fair and then kept it around to do headshots for our leads.

Cross-Company Mixer

I’ve heard time and time again how community leaders want to meet leaders from other companies, connect, network, hear best practices, feel supported. There were a lot of moving pieces with this summit and my role and I needed help! This was an amazing reminder of the importance of your network because I sent an email off to my friends at Epoch and Maceo and did just that. I asked if they could moderate a panel, find the panelists, and help invite people. They did just that!

Next up we are figuring out the best way to host a remote ERG fair to make sure the whole company has the ability to meet the leads and learn more about each community. Planning ERG summits or onsites can feel overwhelming, but remember: the small details matter, your network is your greatest resource, and people genuinely crave connection. I hope one of these ideas helps you create those moments for your teams!

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I hope you all soaked up your holiday break. I’m grateful our company shuts down between Christmas and New Years and people really take the break. I don’t know about you but I needed this and from what I gathered from friends and coworkers, they did too. My rose colored glasses had me peering into 2026 starting the year with ease, casually getting up to speed, luxuriating in the start of the year. NOPE. I’ve had back to back meetings and we are full speed ahead. Guess that’s tech right?! It’s all good stuff though. I know I’ll get back into the groove and all of my work is GOOD and exciting work. Hiring someone to program manage our employee resource groups, planning our ERG summit (shout out to Maceo Owens and The ERG Movement), starting to plan our NYC opening, BYKTWD in April, and lots more!

🔍 A Packed Full Q1

We’ve got a lot to plan!

📝 January Was Lots of Admin!

All the admin stuff (goals, performance, etc.) and each year I love to help employees ease into the year. We’ve brought in Kelsey Lettko (booked through Within) to host a “Draw your Garden” workshop and this year we are bringing back Dr. Ellen Vora to do a workshop on resetting and starting fresh this year. In the past we’ve brought in smoothies and promoted the year in a healthyish way.

🖤 February

Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, Lunar New Year! There is a lot to celebrate this month.

Our Black ERG is in full swing hosting events and sharing history facts and engaging the community. It’s the 100th anniversary of Black History Month! Our APISA ERG is planning Lunar New Year festivities. In the past we’ve done origami workshops and partnered with culinary for cafe takeovers. Dragon performances from local schools are always exciting and energizing.

💗 Valentine’s Day is always a fun time to bring in treats and offer festive desserts. ♥️ I’ve loved offering Valentine Grams (remember in high school!?) but have employees write what they are grateful for and give shout outs to employees. If you are a super small company you could even hand deliver it like they did back in the 2000s (do they still do this!?)

😄 Vendor Highlight: Dr. Ellen Vora

Dr. Vora hosts incredible workshops, has a calming voice, practical takeaways to reduce stress, and is a favorite. Think about booking a workshop with her for Mental Health Awareness month in May! You can book through Exubrancy.

🎉 In Other News…

After completing Susannah Conway’s Unravel Your Year, my 2026 word is: Trust (and flow). At first I thought… cliche… but it’s exactly what I need both personally and professionally. At work I trust I’m in the right place at the right time, trust my instincts, trust my stakeholders, trust my voice. Trust means I don’t grip, I guide. Set direction, remove friction, and let the work move.

On a personal note just trusting that life will play out how it’s meant to and I’m exactly where I’m meant to be! I saw this quote “allow life to rearrange itself” and “detours are part of the design” which I loved. Trusting the flow even when I want to grab the wheel and trust the timing so I stop over planning.

And I want to acknowledge it’s a heavy time in the world right now. I acknowledge that with my team, reshare our benefits, and remind them to take care of themselves and give themselves grace. I hope you all do too.

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✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

My husband and I went to Maui for a few nights. We realized we hadn’t taken any relaxing vacations in 2025 so we wanted to start the year on the beach. I’m a virgo event planner… and this was the first trip where we made NO plans. We did the same thing every day: beach walk, mac nut latte, acai bowl, find our favorite pool chairs, read, play in the ocean, hop from pool to pool to hot tub, lava flow, read, lunch, play in ocean, pool repeat, drink, eat, happy hour sunset, dinner. DREAM.

The surprise and delight though were the whales! It was whale season and from shore we could see them jumping out of the water, flapping their tails, and playing. It was really cool swimming in the ocean and watching this in the distance.

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next month’s edition. Until then—surprise, delight, and take care. 💫

And just like that… 2025 is wrapping up! I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older and this is how the concept of time works... but this year flew! I’m at the start of two weeks off, which is very much needed, and it seems like the general sentiment that everyone needs this break to reset, recharge, and spend quality time with friends, family, and themselves.

2025 was a career highlight for me. A year of immense learning, growth, celebration, and recognition. I think back to when I graduated college and everyone was sooo stressed out about getting that perfect job. For me I just needed any job that would pay my rent and wasn’t even thinking about what my superpowers were, what I wanted to do, what I was passionate about. This year, eighteen years after I graduated (wow), I feel like I’m doing some of my best work, doing my dream job, and feel recognized for it.

If anyone newish to their career is reading or anyone who is at a career fork in the road, I write this to be a reminder that the best could be yet to come! I never would have guessed that this year would come with a meaningful promotion or this year would be one where I learn more than I have in a decade. Just a reminder that you don’t need to have it all figured out and just continue doing good work with good people.

Here’s a holiday party recap and overall 2025 recap.

🎁 Holiday Party Recap

We ended up going with a classic holiday party theme: Gather & Glow (think classic winter wonderland meets Ralph Lauren cozy by the fire). Yes this is different from my other post talking about holiday party themes. We pivoted and that’s ok! The best part about a fully thought out theme is we can use it again—hello next summer.

In every office and remote we did Snow Globe crafting. It was easy, cute, total crowd pleaser. We love working with Forager Crafts!

In SF we had 200 more people than expected. Based on past data, headcount growth, typical RSVP show rates, we made a pretty good estimate. With onsites and excitement our numbers were way off. For an event planner this was slightly stressful as it caused longer lines, we were maxed out with budget, and it felt like 1000 people were in the room. BUT when I flip the narrative and look at it from an experience lens, people were SO excited about the party they wanted to be there. I heard people who weren’t going were connecting with coworkers at the office and wanted to continue connecting so they showed up at the last minute. 90% of the company attended a holiday party—same stats as our IPO.

I’m asking ourselves a lot of questions for 2026 planning but the main one being: “what’s the goal of the 2026 holiday party?” Is it to connect locally with your local office? Is it to say thank you to plus 1s? Is it to connect cross functionally? Is it to connect with your team? Stay tuned for how next year plays out!

🎉 To Surprise and Delight: My Substack Recap

• 18 published posts including this one

• 6k views

• 121 subscribers

I created this Substack for two reasons:

1. I love writing and I wanted to write more and talk about the work I love

2. I hoped that something here would spark an idea, help an events or employee experience team of one, spread joy and surprise and delight others!

My favorite moment was when an older coworker told me she used one of my posts as a brainstorm topic! What! That is so cool and exactly what I hoped for this blog.

This Substack has been fulfilling to me and has let me express myself in a creative way, different from some of my other hobbies.

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☀️ Some Highlights and Learnings

The IPO
The first six months of the year was all things IPO. Wrote about all of my learnings here! Career highlight.

Getting Promoted to Director
Getting a promotion to Director meant a lot. It means our company cares about the Employee Experience. And I feel recognized for the work my team and I do. I received simple but impactful coaching when I received my promotion to Director: how being a Director is about directing the work versus managing the work.

Boundaries and Flexibility
I broke boundaries but brought them back. I realized flexibility is key. I can’t be too rigid or controlling (virgo hi 💁‍♀️). Sometimes it’s okay for me to break my boundaries knowing they will be back. There are seasons of work that will be more intense than others. There will be changes and challenges and unexpected moments. Going with the flow, staying positive, and being flexible is important. BUT no matter what I’ve kept my morning routine and I do think that kept me sane during a very intense work year.

Relationships and Connections Are Number 1
I think I am where I am today because of my relationships. And I truly do this work to connect people. If we can create a program or experience that connects employees to the mission, product, and most importantly each other, then trust is gained and we can help employees do their best work.

Other Memorable Highlights
Some other memorable highlights are our BTKTWD event where we taught kiddos how to save and spend and gave out coins to “spend” on ice cream or activities. I loved that this year for holiday gifts we offered an opt out and donate option! I appreciate that Chime is still fully dedicated to our Employee Resource Groups and membership continues to grow. Very proud of my team and the work we accomplished this year and excited for what’s next!

😄 Vendor Highlight: Fez Coffee

We needed a last minute coffee vendor on one of the busiest holiday work days and Fez pulled through! I had never worked with them but will definitely bring them back.

• Easy communication, easy to work with

• Delightful staff

• Amazing syrups and holiday drinks

• They work with all the tech companies so they get it

• Fast COIs

🎉 In Other News…

😯 Low Lift Surprise and Delight Idea
We had our annual values award show in December. We were brainstorming extra surprise and delight moments for the winners. We have a cafe in the main building lobby so we reached out asking if we could put down a credit card and if the winners came with a password breakfast was on the house! Cheap, easy, high impact.

Journaling Recommendation
If you like reflecting and journaling I highly recommend downloading Susannah Conway’s Unravel Your Year! I’ve done this the past eight years and absolutely love it. It takes hours but it’s worth it.

I’m hiring a People Experience Lead focused on program managing our Employee Resource Groups and building community!

✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

Saint Frank, an amazing coffee shop, recently opened in my neighborhood in SF. After a few times I realized they are very intentional about how you wait in line. I learned that you will only wait in line once and you’ll never hear your name called. You wait in line (that goes quickly), you give your order and chit chat with the barista (what a lovely connection point, how rare), then your drink is ready as you’re paying. I love the intentionality and it makes me think about lines... How can we be intentional with every touchpoint throughout an event or experience?

Wishing you all a healthy and happy new year full of adventure, joy, laughter, and quality time with those you love!

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✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next month’s edition. Until then—surprise, delight, and take care. 💫

Chime IPO’d June 12, 2025. What a meaningful moment for everyone involved. A huge round of applause to former and current employees who helped build Chime and continue to build Chime. Seeing Chimers wipe tears away and smile bigger than ever was wonderful to watch. We were all united as one team.

I wanted to write down all the lessons while they’re still fresh (written freshly after but posted a few months later... where did this year go?!). Maybe something here will spark an idea for you too or help you navigate a big project.

My Role

I co-led the Employee Experience workstream, leading the planning and execution of listing day celebrations in San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, and remote locations, the NYC after-party and executive dinner, and our swag strategy, sourcing, and delivery. It was a lot, and it was so worth it.

IPO Watch 2025: While You Wait

At the red light—waiting for approvals, final decisions, and direction—I knew from experience (shoutout to Blend’s IPO) that some things could and should get moving early. We didn’t have a date. We didn’t know the exchange. We didn’t know who was going to ring the bell. But I did know a few things were going to be true no matter what: there had to be rad swag in-office and boxes delivered to remote Chimers, there needed to be incredible experiences to mark the moment in each office and virtually, and whoever was ringing the bell would absolutely want an after-party.

So I got started. I researched NYC venues. I scrolled through swag sites. I searched past IPOs. I pulled together rough budget estimates. I even started conversations, some vague, some under NDA. I’m so glad I did. Because when things were finally decided (some just two weeks out!), I didn’t have to start from zero. I could sprint because I’d already laid the groundwork.

Wellness, Morning Routine, and Boundaries

I’m BIG on boundaries in my personal life and at work. And over the last year and a half I’ve developed a morning routine that I wanted for years. When work adds up, hours add up, you feel anxious waking up… a morning routine could be the first to go. I’m glad I just woke up earlier and stuck with it day after day. It kept me sane because I knew the second I jumped back into planning it would be non-stop until the next day. I think sticking to meditation, tea, journaling and gratitude lists, the NYT mini, and daily movement kept me sane. Drank less, ate healthy, stayed grounded.

Safe Spaces

In the first meeting hosted by IPO exec leader and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Jennifer Kuperman, I thought wow, she’s REALLY good at what she does and this project is going to be incredible. She was inspirational as she set the stage and she created a safe space from the start. I remember thinking back to Blend and how safe that was and how vital it is. The safe space allows you to be creative. Flag anything. Ask any question. Offer strong opinions. A safe space is essential for success.

It sounds like duh but it could have been totally a different direction. Setting this tone early on was essential. Jennifer set a high bar and earned trust early on. Sarah Wagener, our Chief People Officer, also played a vital role in creating a safe space and being my cheerleader throughout. Sarah was calm and motivating, brought levity to our meetings, and had a steady presence that brought ease to the chaos. The working group became so close. We were in the trenches together. We wanted to show up every day putting our best forward for each other, for Chimers, and for ourselves. A big shoutout to Molly Payton, who PMed the employee experience piece of the IPO, and Annie Ward, Head of Employee Communications. Within our safe space we had an even safer space—a place to gut check, ask questions, and joke.

Stakeholder Management and Sign-Offs

Stakeholder management and roles and responsibilities is always important but for this we had 8 versions of a deck with images approved over time. I wish I were more crystal clear about sign-offs and who was approving them. A logo goes from design to the group to a few different decks to execs and you think something is clear only to realize there is a different logo to be used. It was a reminder to be crystal clear: is this approved? Sign off on this approval. THIS is going to print.

Design Partnership from Day 1

The importance of the design team partnership cannot be overstated. Design should be a partner from day 1, not day 5 or day 20. Understand the design workstreams, vision, tap into their creativity. Align messaging early. Get design approval. But also if something is design approved it may not be approved by other stakeholders—understand who the final decision maker is. Shout out to Tyler Bass, one of the most creative and insanely talented designers out there.

The Event Partner Who Showed Up

None of the events would ever be possible without working with Glow Events, our trusted, creative, and best event partner. They were with us in Slack, sitting through the unhinged meetings, showing up, and never dropping the ball throughout. So grateful to them.

Swag: Start Early

Swag—start early and get an early understanding of everyone’s opinions and expectations and decision making. I also learned that not every swag vendor has the same stuff. In an ideal world you use one vendor, but when you want the best experience for the employees, I had to mix and match. If you mix and match, be transparent with each vendor—something I learned. Ship with at least 5 days buffer.

Thank you to Canary Marketing, Corporate Couture, Lahlouh, and Creative Promotions.

Give Yourself Grace

Grace was my 2024 word of the year and I’m glad I had it in the toolkit. My deep perfectionism, high bar for myself, being too hard on myself started clouding my mind. It was so important to remind myself that I need to give myself grace. I was able to be vulnerable with coworkers on the project if I was stressed about something not going right or whatever that weekly speed bump was and they reminded me to give myself grace. We all reminded each other and we stuck to it.

While planning another big event in the midst of the IPO a teammate said something will slip and it’s OK. Honestly if we are 80% of the way there we succeeded. So when there were a few miscommunications or pivots I gave myself grace. Something I hope to keep close to my chest.

Influence and Trust

So much of this project was like being a sales person. So many experts are in the room and the decision makers need to trust. I really learned how to structure updates, pitch ideas, hold strong when I cared and was flexible when lots of great options and open to pivots. And sometimes you see your idea go in a big loop then back to being the direction we’d go in. Sometimes you wish it were faster but also interesting to observe the influence path and learn along the way. Show confidence.

The Unsexy Admin Work

Stay on top of the admin stuff and carve out time for it. We had 50 vendors with contracts and about 80 payments. Does anyone else really dislike submitting a PO and making sure everyone gets paid? The unsexy behind the scenes work is time consuming! Making sure I tracked everything in real time made it so much better.

Have Fun, Laugh, Be Silly

HAVE FUN, laugh, be silly. I sat in a LOT of IPO planning meetings and I will say our employee experience workstream was unhinged in the best way possible. We laughed SOOO hard. It was silly. It was so fun. We saw each other a lot and I was so happy it was flat out fun.

Yessssss it was also extremely stressful and long hours and nights and weekends and thinking the impossible isn’t possible but then it works out. But these things are time bound, thank goodness! It’s tangible. Sure planning can be a windy road but you have this date you are aiming toward. All events come and go—it’s what I tell myself and the team every time.

This was the coolest most fun project I’ve worked on. At the end I kept saying wow I’ll really miss this meeting and this group and all the inside jokes. I loved it.

To everyone navigating a big milestone right now: Keep your balance, trust the process, and make space for joy—even in the wildest moments. These are the projects and the people you’ll remember forever.

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About two left in the year?! How’d that happen? I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Our work Halloween was festive and laid back. Our costume contest is always a huge hit—we keep submissions open through the weekend to capture all costumes (pets, families, house decor, etc.) and vote the following week. In person, we did cookie decorating. It’s always nice to have something to do while getting to know coworkers. Step away, use your hands, feel recharged (maybe it’s just the sugar high).

🎁 How is holiday party planning going?!

It’s about that time and we’re about to send out our official invitations through Epoch (we love that you can submit the registration form directly in Slack). Menus and headcounts are due. It really snuck up on me this year!

As we plan our big events like holiday parties, we really keep inclusivity top of mind and think through access to the event, noise levels in different spaces, types of activities, and of course food that everyone can enjoy with all dietary restrictions. We also like adding a common thread across all parties often in a mocktail/cocktail name, music playlist, or activity. We want to make sure each party is unique but has that common thread connecting them all.

🦃 Giving back and giving thanks

Every November we team up with our social impact team on Chimesgiving during an initiative we have called Chime it Forward. This year we’re partnering with our Veterans group and hosting a panel for Veteran’s Day and packing snack kits to donate. With our volunteer activity, we’ll have fall-flavored treats and coffee (honestly any excuse to get fall flavors).

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😄 Vendor Highlight: Twelve Top Catering

They make magic happen. Raymond and his team are beyond creative whether it’s in-person catering or kits to ship out. They partner with incredible companies and are always thinking about sustainability, good ingredients, and partnerships with small businesses. Any time we need something unique or just delicious and pretty to look at, we call them. Not only is their food incredible, but their displays are wonderful as well. Here is something they did for us last Halloween!

🎉 In Other News…

I got my screen time under 2.5 hours and my goal is 2 hours. Remember just staring off into space? For me, it started to feel like a distant memory. I feel like I’m always plugged in…I have my Apple Watch (bff), all my podcasts I love, and even Peloton talking to me any time I work out. Okay, I can never give up listening to my Peloton friends, but I’m trying to catch myself in those in-between moments.

I wrote about the magic in transitions earlier this week, and there are so many transitions in day-to-day life.

Not staring at your phone but saying hi to the barista and starting a conversation. I recently talked to a barista about being a Costco adult convert and my love for our Costco trips instead of staring at my phone (thrilling), but it was human connection.

Trying to just be with my thoughts instead of constantly finding the next source of entertainment. And hey, maybe some creative ideas will come of it including the next post here!

✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

A recent moment of joy? I went to Belvedere Street in SF for Halloween and WOW surprise and delight left and right. My favorite was this modern house with huge windows that jet out, and there were people dancing in full costume like a giant chicken. It was hilarious and reminded me how wacky and cool SF is.

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next month’s edition. Until then—surprise, delight, and take care. 💫

When we create run of shows, we focus on the big ticket items: Who’s on stage? What are they presenting? Do they want a lavalier or handheld mic? Is there Q&A? Who’s passing mics? What time is lunch? Where’s the happy hour?

Sometimes, we skip right over the transitions. Even during a live run-through, people jump from section to section. I’ve had to pause and ask: Who’s handing the mic to the next person? Are they giving it back to the main host or not?

There are so many in-between moments—transitions, awkward lulls, brief pauses. If we put just a little energy toward them, they can become magic.

I recently stepped in to oversee our onboarding program. The program is fantastic—people often say it’s the best onboarding they’ve been through! But as I reviewed each moment, I paid attention to the transitions and found some sessions were missing a greeting and rushed too quickly into content. Some presenters didn’t know what was next or that the day was ending.

So here’s my question: Where can we elevate the transitions? Where can we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and walk through the experience to make sure each touchpoint is accounted for?

Some in-between moments to think about (and possibly elevate):

• Entering a room, meeting, Zoom, or event – What do people hear and see?

• Between speakers – Not just the mic handoff, but the physical transition. Do they cross paths on stage? Is there applause? A moment to reset?

• Breaks – How do you signal a break is starting AND when it’s ending? Music cues? Timers? Someone actually calling people back?

• Onboarding content transitions – Equipping everyone with the schedule, not repeating intros, knowing where new hires go and when

• End-of-day wrap-ups – Do people know they’re done for the day? What’s coming tomorrow?

• Virtual to in-person transitions – When someone needs to join a Zoom for one session, then head to a conference room for the next (and sometimes people don’t join the Zoom at all)

• Tech transitions – Switching from one presenter’s screen share to another or telling folks to stay on the same Zoom

• Offsites – Who’s introducing who? Who’s physically handing the mic? Is there music?

• Waiting on a Zoom before a presentation begins – Music? Icebreaker? Welcoming people as they join?

• The very end – Not just “thanks for coming!” but a thoughtful close that sticks with people

You may be thinking, “duh, this is so obvious.” But I will never forget feeling panicked by that lack of transition at that offsite. Even if it seems obvious, where can you fill in the gaps and elevate the experience?

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Okay summer just flew by! You know when someone asks you what you did the past weekend and you can’t recall anything? That’s kind of how I feel this summer went! It was amazing, but I had to think long and hard about what happened!

Personally, there were lots of summer celebrations– birthday celebrations from 1st to 40th, lots of quality friend time, and catching up on life admin.

In employee experience land I’ll highlight three awesome things:

🤖AI Recognition
We are now recognizing bold and innovative AI projects. As we integrate AI into the way we work we want to make sure employees feel recognized. We recently launched a nomination based (self nominations welcome!) award celebrating projects that are bold, innovative, push the limits, unlock capacity, save time. In a month we’ve received over 20 nominations and are excited to celebrate our first winner this week.

👋AI in onboarding
If we are asking employees to adopt AI, be fluent, and truly embed AI in how we work then we need to teach new hires! We spun up an AI onboarding session to add in week one to get new hires practicing using the tools.

💚Social Hour with Purpose
We hosted an incredible end of summer social hour in partnership with our Social Impact team. We packed backpacks in all of our offices to help out local teachers and school kids. Many of our Chime members are teachers and often say they need to spend their own money to stock their classroom. It was such a lovely connection to our mission and was an easy way for employees to get involved and feel connected.

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🍁 Festive Fall (the best season)

I love fall. My birthday is in the fall. I love pumpkin lattes and Starbuck’s pumpkin cold foam (yes basic, yes so good). I love the cozyness and knowing the holidays are around the corner. Some fall event ideas:

🍪 Cookie decorating - we are doing this for Halloween! In SF we love Space Cadet and City Gal Bakes.

🧘Fall reset with a meditation or wellness workshop with Within.

🍂This Pumpkin Spice Treats class with Lila Volkas caught my eye!

🎃Pumpkin decoupage crafting - we did this with One Strange Bird in Chicago.

It’s Latin American Heritage month! And speaking of One Strange Bird, we are bringing them in for a networking event in Chicago in partnership with ALPFA. They are hosting a craft activity painting Mexican tiles!

😄 Vendor Highlight: Vibe Events

We brought in Vibe Events for the bar at our social hour in SF and they do a fantastic job. The drinks are great, open bar, really good pricing, on time, wonderful service. Highly recommend if you’re looking to add a bar company to your roster!

🎉 In Other News…

I recently finished Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara and it was sooo good!
He was the owner of Eleven Madison Park where they surprised and delighted diners all day and night long. The book is about leadership, hospitality, and the importance of adding that extra sparkle for the team and those around you. I’m planning to type up all of my favorite quotes to share, but here is one for now:

“Without exception, no matter what you do, you can make a difference in someone’s life. You must be able to name for yourself why your work matters. And if you’re a leader, you need to encourage everyone on your team to do the same.”

Being more intentional with ChatGPT

I also started realizing I’ve been relying on my chief of staff ChatGPT a little too much. I was crafting a few too many Slacks then paused and though I KNOW how to write a Slack message. And following that, this month’s Inside the Event edition– I am just going to publish as is. No need to edit this one. It’s my voice, a few em dashes the way I would use them, some emojis because I actually like that ChatGPT adds some fun, and I do appreciate the paragraph breaks from past posts.

✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

A recent moment of joy? It’s my birthday this week and my husband surprised me with a book with letters and pictures from all of my friends! Tear jerker. I feel so grateful to embark on a new decade with so many incredible friends and doing work I LOVE to do. Like for real, I love my job and I love bringing joy to people’s lives and destress a little. Immensely grateful.

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next month’s edition. Until then—surprise, delight, and take care. 💫

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Do you already have a holiday theme nailed down? Or are you just starting to brainstorm? We recently had a super fun and productive cross-functional brainstorm, and it got me thinking about how our approach to theme development has evolved over the years.

We’ve gone from the random fun party theme → to a theme meaningfully tied to the business. And I’ve loved being part of that evolution.

A few years ago, we had Chimerstellar, a galactic, space-themed party inspired by our Be Bold value—a theme that had come up again and again in conversation and resonated deeply at the time. The next year, we leaned into The Soundtrack of Chime, celebrating all our greatest hits (aka product launches).

A New Way to Brainstorm

Historically, my team would brainstorm a few ideas, share them for approval, and then start planning. But our recent IPO taught me a lot of things (I promise that post is coming soon!), including this:

There's magic in cross-functional brainstorming.

This year, we brought in folks from product, marketing, design, and internal comms to help generate ideas. Why? Because if we’re tying themes to the business and product… who better to co-create with than the people closest to them?

In just one hour, I learned so much— what matters most to the business right now, the phrases our CPO keeps repeating, the tone of upcoming marketing campaigns, and even the buzz behind recent company meetings.

And somewhere in that brainstorm, I knew our theme was in the room.

It might sound obvious, get a smart group together and brainstorm, but this was the first time I’d done that for a holiday party. And I’ve planned a lot of holiday parties!

We’re now narrowing it down to one recommended theme, with two solid backups. But what I loved most wasn’t just the ideas, it was how aligned and connected I felt coming out of that room, to the business, product, and teammates.

We had cross-functional buy-in, fresh perspectives, and I truly believe our theme will be stronger and more impactful because of it.

🎉 Can you believe holiday parties are around the corner?!

They’ll be here before you know it. Happy planning and happy brainstorming! ✨

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June was big. Chime’s IPO was what I lived, breathed, dreamt about, and thought about nonstop the last few months—and then I jetted off on PTO. Truly wild timing… my redeye flight took off the night of the IPO. 🤪 I’m just so glad it wasn’t the night before!

While I didn’t get to do a full Pride Month and Immigrant Heritage Month recap like I hoped, I really hope you all found moments to celebrate and reflect throughout the month.

I’m planning a separate post on the IPO experience—so many lessons and reflections to share. I honestly thought helping produce Blend’s IPO in 2021 was a once-in-a-career moment. That alone felt lucky and surreal. But to do it twice? Definitely didn’t have that on my bingo card. It was the most detail-oriented, high-stakes project I’ve worked on… and also one of the most rewarding.

Yes, I’m happy to have my brain back and no longer dream of V8 of a deck, swag, or the run-of-show, but I’ll also miss it. 💚

The long 4th of July weekend was all about rest, stillness, and getting my stressed-out cells to chill out a little. 🧘‍♀️

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🍉 Summer Is Here: Fun Ideas for July

A few years ago, we realized summer was already packed with events– so we asked, what if we gave it a name? A theme? Prizes? A beginning and an end?

And then SunChime was born—a summer event series bookended by the summer solstice and fall equinox, filled with joy, creativity, and just the right amount of extra.

☀️ A few ideas if you want to build your own series (even if it starts a little late):

• Brand it! Summer of Snacks, Summer of Slack Channels IRL, Summer of Volunteering, Summer of Trivia…

• Add an incentive. Raffle prizes, surprise treats, or a grand prize at the end.

• Create a passport. Stamp it at each event—physical or digital!

• Exclusive swag. Summer-specific giveaways like beach towels, hats, handheld fans, EOS lip balm, water bottles, or water bottle holder/slings always land well.

More July Event Ideas

🧋 Cool Treats:

• Boba Bar: Try Gather’s in Chicago or Phin Bar in SF for Vietnamese iced coffee.

• Bliss Pops is perfect for those (rare) warm SF days.

⚽ Games & Happy Hour:

• Go full summer carnival: dunk tank (!), corn hole, giant Jenga.

• Plan-it Entertainment has you covered for outdoor games.

🍦 National Ice Cream Day – July 20

• Customize your Donut water cooler to ask: What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

• Sweet vendor recs:

  • SF: Smitten

  • Chicago: The Rainbow Cone (haven’t tried but it looks amazing!)

  • NYC: Van Leeuwen

😄 Vendor Highlight: Zazzy Machines

I’ve loved working with Zazzy Machines in SF—they bring in all the fun carts: cotton candy, popcorn with a toppings bar, churros, pretzels, and more. You can even customize the carts with your logo or event branding. They’re playful, professional, and a total crowd-pleaser.

🎉 In Other News… AI and Events!

AI is top of mind for… well, everyone. Here’s how I’ve been using ChatGPT in events and employee experience work lately:

• ✍️ Punny event names + descriptions (because I am not punny and I’ve accepted that)

• 💡 Creative brainstorm buddy – I share an idea and see what it spits back. It always helps spark more ideas.

• 🧾 Swag spreadsheets – Give it two lists and ask for duplicates. I love this for last-minute pivot checks.

• 👒 Hat mockups! I was scrambling for a swag switch for the IPO and ChatGPT helped me generate a mock up for Custom Ink (who, by the way, works 7 days a week—very helpful).

• 🧭 Org structure, job descriptions, leveling conversations – so useful when thinking through team planning.

• Editing this blog! I love writing and write 100% of these blog posts but then I have Chat GPT edit/organize the structure.

I’m also curious how AI might complement onboarding in the future. Always learning. Always exploring.

✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

A recent moment of joy? I was lucky enough to go on safari in Zimbabwe and South Africa—and I got to watch lion cubs play for like 45 minutes. 🦁

It was such a surprise and an absolute treat. I felt completely in awe of nature—how wild animals coexist, how the system just works. It reminded me how important it is to pause and observe.

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next month’s edition. Until then—surprise, delight, and take care. 💫

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🌼 Room Setup
We worked with Sparky’s Balloons for a balloon arch and columns to add color and energy to the space. The room has a lot of white, so we brought in bud vases with fresh flowers from Nigella to warm it up and placed notebooks and pens at each seat. One person even said, “It’s so nice to look at something alive all day”—honestly, same.

🥑 Breakfast – Avotoasty catered with all the good stuff: avocado toast with toppings (lox! egg! radish!), GF bread options, and build-your-own açaí bowls. Such a refreshing, healthy way to kick off the day. (Highly recommend!)

☕ Coffee Cart – Hedge Coffee is always a win. There’s something about having your coffee made for you that just makes it taste better. ✨

🍴 Lunch – Mendocino Farms. Always reliable, always great for a mix of sandwiches, salads, and dietary needs (GF, V, Veg). Learning: iced tea in a bag = not a crowd-pleaser.

🎉 Afternoon Surprise and Delight
When a teammate said, “We need a surprise and delight moment,” I couldn’t have agreed more. YES, we do.

We planned a surprise cocktail + mocktail bar and wanted it to appear out of nowhere—which meant it had to be mobile and stealthy. Enter: Bar Car!

They set up a full bar on wheels and a prep cart that we staged nearby. After the break, we rolled it over to the meeting room for a total “wow” moment. Add in a trail mix bar and popcorn from Twelve Top Catering (seriously, their snacks are next level), and it was the perfect pre-wrap-up treat.

🌆 Evening Dinner / Reception
We explored two options:

• A restaurant/bar with an added activity

• An activity-based venue that includes food (like Mission Bowling, Urban Putt, or Thriller Social Club)

We chose the restaurant route and, knowing folks had been sitting all day, opted for heavy apps and mingling over a sit-down dinner.

📍Starlite Room – Absolutely stunning views of the city—180 degrees of sparkle ✨

🎁 Swag Activation – Canary Marketing helped us bring in a debossing station where employees could personalize DOPP kits with their initials. Big hit.

🎩 Entertainment

• The Foodie Magician – A friend from NYC and wildly talented mentalist. He guessed my favorite restaurant (Pearl!) during a 1:1. Everyone was blown away.

• DJ – Because live music always > a playlist.

• Fashion Sketch Artist – We worked with Entire Productions to bring in Caroline So, who sketched portraits on the spot. Such a unique, personal takeaway

Day 2

We were intentional about pacing and energy on Day 2, especially after a late night out.

🌮 Breakfast – Breakfast taco bar from Early Bird Tacos. So good. Learning: not everyone eats breakfast (noted for future headcount—I had a whole tray of eggs left over 🥲).

🧋 Coffee – Phin Bar brought Vietnamese iced coffee with creative specials (banana peanut butter this time!). Their team is so passionate, and it really shows.

🍴 Lunch – A smaller subset closed out the onsite at Wayfare Tavern’s beautiful new space, complete with private rooms that are perfect for group gatherings.

It’s not just about the agenda—it’s about how people feel while they’re there and when they leave. With a little intention and creativity, you can design experiences that spark connection, build energy, and leave a lasting impression.

Plant Pros 🌱

All month long, we hosted a Plant Pros series and employees loved it! Folks took home clippings and mini plants, planted herbs in our office garden, and asked all the best questions.

Our building also got in the spirit—seed ball-making and plant-based ice cream for the win. 😋

Bring Your Kids to Work Day

This event is always magical. Every year, kids’ faces light up as they walk into their parent or caregiver’s workplace. Over the years, I’ve learned that kids are pretty easy to please—but the real fun is in the surprise and delight.

This year’s theme? Financial literacy for the kiddos! We gave out piggy banks and taught them what it means to spend and save. They could “buy” hot chocolate, balloon animals, raffle tickets—or save their cool coins.

We also interviewed the kids: “What does your parent do at work?” The answers were hilarious and adorable.

Next year, we’re excited to add a panel and more educational elements. I always leave BYKTWD with extra empathy and appreciation for the parents and caregivers in our community. You’re doing amazing. 💜

🧠 Mental Health Awareness Month

I’ve always been deeply passionate about wellness (shoutout to my Greatist days 💪), and Mental Health Awareness Month is a reminder of how much this work still matters.

At a wellness company, it was easy to get buy-in. But at companies outside the wellness space? It takes a little more storytelling, a little more ROI. Still, we spend a third of our lives at work—and that means companies have a real opportunity (and responsibility) to support employee well-being.

Simple ways to show up:

💜Ask coworkers how they’re really doing. Not just “how are you?” but really ask.

📩 Send a newsletter reminder about your company’s benefits. So many people don’t know—or forget—that they have access to mental health support.

🧘 Invite employees to share. You never know who on your team might want to lead a meditation, host a journaling session, or share their favorite mindfulness tool.

Some of my favorite ideas + vendors:

💤 Dr. Ellen Vora – Her workshops on anxiety and sleep are incredible (and her voice is instantly calming). You can book her through Exubrancy You can listen to her on a Move With Heart podcast episode here.

🎧 Sound Bath Meditations – These are always a hit—virtual or in-person and so calming

🖊️ Zen Doodling – We’re trying this soon and I can’t wait

🧘‍♀️ Within Meditation – Great virtual meditation sessions and wellness workshops; we’ve loved working with Kelsey Lettko

Health Kick has a free mental wellness toolkit you can download.

🧋 AAPI Heritage Month Ideas

We’re gearing up to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month in thoughtful, joyful ways:
🥤 Boba bar happy hour

💐 Flower arranging with AAPI and Women ERGs (a lovely Mother’s Day tie-in!)

🥟 Dumplings classes - or chai tasting — Kola Goodies is incredible. My friend Sajani is the founder!

📚 Book club featuring AAPI authors

☕ SF-based team loves Phin Bar —definitely worth checking out

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🎉 In Other News...

I’m planning an onsite, and I couldn’t help but smile when a leader said, “Let’s surprise and delight the group with an afternoon treat!”

At our 3:30/4pm break we’re bringing in:
🍹 Mocktail & cocktail bar
🍬 Candy bar
🍿 Popcorn machine

It makes me so happy to hear “surprise and delight” naturally show up in conversations with XFN partners. Music to my ears.

💖 A Few Things That Support My Mental Health

Since this month is about awareness, I wanted to share a few things that have helped me—just in case it helps someone else:

🧠 Therapy – It’s been my anchor through the highs, the lows, and everything in between. It helps with relationships, career clarity, and staying grounded. I meet with my therapist every other week and have had a therapist since 2008.

🏃‍♀️ Movement – There are so many studies out there on how endorphins impact mood, and for me, it rings true. Movement helps me feel grounded and connected to myself. I love Peloton, yoga, running, pilates, all the things!

🌳 Nature walks – I’m lucky to live near Golden Gate Park, and I head there often. It’s the best mental refresh and a wonderful place to start my day.

🧘‍♀️ Meditation – I’ve wanted to develop a meditation practice for years. It wasn’t until I started drinking tea in the mornings that it finally stuck. I needed to let the tea cool, so I used that time to sit, breathe, and check in with myself. I use Headspace or Peloton. I also love Calm.

💌 Close relationships – I feel incredibly grateful to have wonderful friends and family nearby. They are everything. The support, laughter, and presence they bring into my life is invaluable. Tell the people you love that you love them 💜.

📓 Journaling – Sometimes when something feels off inside, I just need to write it out. I’ve started adding journaling into my morning routine after meditating, and it helps me process and feel lighter.

🎨Art – I find painting, especially in nature, so lovely for the soul! I’ve also been very into embroidery and love having this as a project. I’m grateful I married an artist who brings out my creative side regularly!

🤍 Grace – Giving myself grace. This one is hard for me. I dwell. I’m too hard on myself. Perfectionism sneaks in. But I’m learning to pause, soften, and remind myself: life can be tough, and I’m doing my best. We all are.

✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

A recent little moment of joy?
I spotted ducklings at the lake near my house—and yes, they are just as tiny, fluffy, and adorable as you’re imagining, I wish I could take one home. 🐥 One of my favorite moments every spring.

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more creative ideas, vendor recs, and inspiration next month. 💫

I’ve (luckily) always found joy and purpose in my work—but of course, sometimes it’s just... work! At a recent brainstorm, we were asked:
“Why does employee experience exist?”
“Why does this work matter?”

And wow, what a question. Here are my thoughts.

Because We’re Human (Not Robots... yet)

We have emotions. We build relationships. We crave connection. That alone means the employee experience (EX) has to matter. I see this work in two main buckets:
🧠 The human-centric side, and
📈 The business outcomes that follow.

Let’s start with the human side:

Creating Opportunities to Connect

So much of our work is about building trust through experiences—trust that pays off when you need to Slack someone for a gut check or a quick favor. It’s just easier (and more enjoyable) when you know the person beyond their Zoom square or Slack emoji.

Fueling Passion, Motivation & Retention

A strong employee experience—from onboarding and recognition to swag and events—makes people love where they work. They feel connected to the mission, values, and community. They refer great talent, stay longer, and walk away saying, “That was a career highlight.”

Reducing Stress & Managing Energy

Work can be... a lot. Performance reviews, shifting priorities, politics, team dynamics. Great EX anticipates that. We can plan experiences around the natural rhythms of the business—times to rest, rally, reflect, or recharge.

Creating Moments of Joy

Life is short (and long), and we work hard. Often more than we realize. So let’s create opportunities to laugh, play, and just have fun. Those are the moments people remember most.

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Now Let’s Talk Business

Trust → Better Work → Business Impact

All of that human connection? It builds trust. And when teams trust each other, they do their best work, collaborate more easily, and move the business forward.

Living the Culture

Through intentional EX programs, people live the company’s values and understand the mission. From Day 1 to their last, they’re engaged. And yes, the swag is so good they can’t wait for the next drop.

Celebrating Product & Business Wins

We get to bring our ✨magic✨ to launches, milestones, and company moments. While other teams build and ship, EX gets to hype it up—through events, visuals, food, storytelling, and shared experiences.

I could keep going. Honestly, I believe EX is the foundation of a company—it’s the story that’s told from onboarding through offboarding.

We’re not just planners.
We’re storytellers, camp guides, cheerleaders, consultants, and active listeners.

We surprise and delight.
We bring moments of awe to the everyday.
We reignite passion—and we have fun doing it.

So now I’m turning the question to you:
Why does employee experience work matter to you?

🥧 Pi Day (March 14)
We had someone recite 115 digits of Pi on Pi Day! 🤯 Since the holiday fell on a Friday when everyone was remote, we hosted a Zoom Pi-reciting competition followed by a Kahoot trivia game all about Pi and pie. 🍕🥧 The winners got to choose from pie-themed gifts or a Raspberry Pi—such a fun way to let coworkers shine! 🌟

💜 Women’s History Month
Our Employee Resource Group hosted its annual brunch and volunteer event, which is always a highlight—a perfect blend of connection and giving back. Throughout the month, we also enjoyed:
✨ Virtual panels featuring inspiring women leaders
🍷 Happy hour to celebrate together
📚 Book club discussions

We’ve found that books are a wonderful way to connect across teams and communities. Plus, book clubs are a great async-friendly event option! 📖

🌎 Looking Ahead to April: Earth Month & Financial Literacy Month

🌿 Earth Day (April 22)
Earth Month is a perfect time to bring creativity and sustainability into events. Some ideas:

🥕 Farmer’s Market-Style Happy Hour – One of my all-time favorite events was when Twelve Top Catering hosted a spring-forward farmer’s market happy hour. They brought tons of fresh veggies for employees to take home. The best part? No waste—the goal was for everything to go! 🌽🍅🥒

♻️ Recycling & Composting Refresh – Use Earth Month as an opportunity to re-educate employees on composting and recycling practices at work.

🎨 Recycled Art Show – A former coworker, Ariana Davi, once hosted a month-long art show featuring artists who work with recycled materials. It was creative, inspiring, and such a cool way to celebrate sustainability.

🍋 Zero Waste Workshops with Lila Volkas – Lila recently shared some Earth Month ideas in her newsletter, and they’re so good! Last year, we brought her in for Zero Waste Kitchen Hacks—it was a huge hit. She’s offering these classes as well:
🍹 Zero Waste Lemonade
🍵 Kombucha-making
Both are fantastic interactive experiences for teams!

🐝 Honey Tasting with Carmel Honey Company – Last year, we brought in Jake from Carmel Honey Company for an in-person and virtual class. 🍯 I learned SO much about bees, honey production, and the company’s incredible backstory (he started it as a middle school project!). Highly recommend him for an Earth Month event—educational and delicious.

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💰 Financial Literacy Month Ideas

April is also Financial Literacy Month, which offers a chance to focus on education and volunteerism. Some ideas:

✍️ Financial Words of Wisdom for Students – We’re partnering with a local organization to write financial advice for our high school selves.

💡 Educational Talks – Reach out to financial vendors like Fidelity or Origin for a lunch-and-learn or virtual session. Topics could include budgeting, investing, or financial wellness.

✨ Over the weekend, my friends and I were talking about how we wished there had been a required finance class in college—covering taxes, budgeting, and saving. I didn’t grow up learning much about money, so I’m super grateful for the tips I picked up from my first bosses at a hedge fund—especially the importance of building a six-month rainy day fund 🌧️💵.

🎉 In Other News…

🎁 Holiday Party Venues Are Booking FAST!
It seems like holiday party venues in SF are filling up way quicker than last year. 😬 I hadn’t felt the stress of another company challenging a date since pre-COVID.

🗓️ My hot take? 12/11 is the perfect holiday party date this year. It gives people enough time after Thanksgiving to avoid the rush, but still early enough to account for holiday PTO or potential sick days. Mark your calendars!

✨ My Personal Surprise and Delight

A recent little moment of joy?

🎨 I recently sold a watercolor painting to a local cafe, and they featured it during a recent art walk! 🖼️ I love having this as a side hobby—it’s such a creative outlet and a fun way to connect with people in my neighborhood. 💙

✨ That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more creative ideas, vendor recs, and inspiration next month. 💫

Swag—it’s a complicated relationship. On one hand, there are so many positives:

✅ Representing where you work
✅ Showing pride
✅ Free PR
✅ Feeling a sense of belonging and being welcomed into a new company and team
✅ Getting rad stuff
✅ And, of course, free stuff (who doesn’t love free stuff?)

But on the flip side… I’ll speak for myself here—I’ve received a lot of swag over the years. Like, a lot a lot. And when spring cleaning rolls around, it’s decision time: what to keep and what to give away.

For those managing swag budgets, running company swag stores, pitching new ideas, or selecting holiday gifts, there’s a real opportunity (and responsibility) to make thoughtful choices. We can support local businesses, minority-owned brands, and sustainable vendors. The way we spend these budgets matters.

Things to Consider as a Chief Swag Officer

• Pick a vendor that prioritizes sustainability and diversity. I love Canary Marketing and Corporate Couture—they make the impossible possible while keeping values in check.

• What’s the purpose of the swag? Is it a commemorative, personalized keepsake? A wearable for company pride? Should the swag be personalized? Understanding the why behind the gift helps ensure the item is valued.

• Is there a connection across the swag? I’ve had some interesting conversations lately about how mementos tie into product launches, anniversaries, and key milestones. Is there a way to create a cohesive connection across the swag? For example, what if the core item reflects something unique about your company, and then you add to it over time—like building a LEGO office or adding new blocks to a growing structure. This approach could turn swag into a meaningful, evolving experience.

• Drop-ship or office pickup? If employees are heading back to the office, bulk shipping saves a ton of money. Plus, you can turn pickup into a fun event!

• Offer an opt-out option. When possible, let employees opt out or donate their swag budget to charity instead (if that’s something your company offers).

• Bring swag stores IRL! Pop-up swag shops at events are so much more engaging than just handing out items. Think: an interactive sunglasses bar.

• Interactive swag: For your next event as you think about activities you can think about what swag activations to bring onsite like embroidery, heat press patches, or screen printing.

• Support local, minority-owned, or give-back brands. Every purchase is a chance to align with your company’s values.

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Swag I Actually Love

Despite my love-hate relationship, there are some items I’ll always say yes to:

🎒 Brevitē backpacks – I spent months sampling backpacks and finally found the one. Light, water-resistant, travel strap included, and so many secret compartments. Plus, Brevitē uses sustainable materials and has donated $500K in backpacks + $30K to support COVID relief and AAPI communities.

👜 Cotopaxi hip pack – Obsessed. 100% of their products use repurposed, recycled, or responsibly certified materials.

🚰 Owala water bottles – I don’t own one yet, but they’re everywhere and I get the hype.

🌱 Sustainable swag guide from Kotis – Check it out here.

Making Responsible Choices

With every swag budget, there’s an opportunity to make responsible, sustainable, and meaningful choices. Even small steps—choosing better vendors, reducing waste, and supporting brands that give back—can make an impact.

This portion of my Substack is where I’ll share timely updates, monthly themes, favorite vendors, trending ideas, and upcoming events. Unlike evergreen posts, these newsletters are packed with fresh inspiration to help you create meaningful connections and moments of joy.

February: Valentine’s Day & Black History Month

Anyone else feel like this short month is flying by? 🚀

💌 Valentine’s Day Recap

We had so much fun celebrating Valentine’s Day in a thoughtful (and delicious) way! Here’s what worked well:

❤️ Valentine’s Day Cards – We provided employees with cards to write thank-you notes to each other both in-person and digitally, and they were a hit! A simple but impactful way to spread appreciation.

🌿 Aromatherapy Bar (booked through Exubrancy) – This was a HUGE success! I wasn’t sure how many people would participate, but it ended up drawing a big crowd. Pro tip: Host this after lunch and in an open area away from desks—while the scents are lovely, they can be strong!

🍫 Dandelion Chocolate Virtual Tasting – For our remote experience, we partnered with Dandelion Chocolate, an SF-based chocolatier, for a virtual tasting. Their kits are so beautifully packaged and their chocolate is top-notch. Highly recommend for remote teams!

🎁 Custom M&Ms for Company Meeting – I completely forgot that M&Ms does custom printing! We did a collab with our company meeting, and they disappeared fast. Now I want to do these for every birthday going forward.

Share To Surprise and Delight

Black History Month Highlights

Black History Month is in full swing, and we’ve loved celebrating through engaging experiences:

📝 "Things I Love…" Wall – A Valentine’s Day collab, we created an interactive wall where employees shared what they love, alongside a candy kit assembly volunteer event.

🎬 Cinema Night & Black-Owned Marketplace – Still to come, and I can’t wait! I love incorporating local Black-owned businesses into events, whether it’s through food, vendors, or shopping experiences.

Looking Ahead to March

March brings Women’s History Month, Employee Appreciation Day, and Pi Day—so many fun ways to celebrate!

🥧 Pi Day (March 14!)

One of my favorite tech traditions! I’m always in awe of people who can recite over 100 digits of Pi—very impressive.

💡 Pi Day is a great hybrid event idea:
📹 How to set it up: Have one Zoom room for virtual participants and book a conference room for in-person attendees. Gather a list of participants ahead of time, and they can either unmute from home or recite in the room.
🏆 Prizes? Raspberry Pi starter kits, fun Pi-themed swag, and of course… actual pie! 🥧

Speaking of pie, there are so many great local vendors to partner with:
🥧 Petee’s Pies in NYC
🥧 Three Babes Bakeshop in SF (bonus: women-owned, so perfect for a Women’s History Month collaboration!)
🥧 Here is a list of Chicago pies for takeout and delivery

🎉 Employee Appreciation Day Ideas (March 1)

💜 Async: Sometimes, all employees need is a simple thank-you. A thoughtful note can go a long way.
💆 Wellness: Chair massages, yoga class, or a sound bath meditation in the office.
🍨 Food: Ice cream sundae bar, DoorDash gift vouchers, or a SnackMagic box.
🎶 Music: A virtual DJ to add energy to the day—DJ D Sharp is always a hit!

Women’s History Month Ideas

🌸 In-Person or Virtual Flower Arranging – Partner with Alice’s Table for a hands-on, creative experience.
🎨 Crafting Workshops – Think candle-making, watercolor, knitted pillows/blankets, or block printing with a company like Forager Crafts.
🍹 Women-Owned Business Happy Hour – Highlight local women-owned vendors at any in-person gathering.
🍽️ Lunch & Learn – Host a conversation with a women-owned business founder for an inspiring, insightful session. Shout out to my friend Asha who started See Me Index, a company that brings objective measurement to brand inclusivity efforts by leveraging responsible AI.

In Other News… ✨

I was honored to speak at two Epoch events recently! (Epoch is the event platform we use and love!)

1️⃣ The Playbook for High-Impact Internal Events
We covered how intentional event strategies can foster connection, boost engagement, and create meaningful employee experiences.

💡 Check out the key takeaways here!

2️⃣ Lunar New Year Dumpling Making + 2025 Employee Experience Hot Takes
We dove into the future of workplace culture, from data-driven event planning to hybrid strategies and leadership buy-in.

🔥 Two hot takes:
📌 Mocktails & nostalgia are trending.
Throwback events—like ‘90s-themed parties or Scholastic Book Fair-style pop-ups—have been bringing co-workers together in a big way. There’s something about nostalgia that helps break down walls and spark deeper connections.

📖 Read the full blog here!

💡 My Personal Surprise and Delight

A recent little moment of joy?

I wouldn’t say I love Valentine’s Day buuuut… I do love a good excuse for a fun, thoughtful surprise. My husband was at a work offsite and flew back on Valentine’s Day, so I decorated our door with heart-shaped post-its and stocked up on our favorite treats—a Tartine chocolate croissant for me and a maple buttermilk donut for him. 🥐✨ A small moment of joy and surprise!

That’s it for this month’s Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendor recs, and creative ways to surprise and delight your teams next month. 🎉

A few successful (and not-so-successful) events immediately came to mind, and one theme that has stuck with me over the years also came to mind: It’s okay if every location doesn’t do the exact same thing. In fact, maybe they shouldn’t.

I’ve believed that while company traditions are important, not every office—or every group—needs to celebrate in the exact same way. Take a recognition program, for example: in San Francisco, the team might celebrate with tacos, while the New York office goes for pizza. Or maybe SF loves food tastings, but the Chicago team prefers crafting—so instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all event, you host the same umbrella social hour but tailor the activity to what each team enjoys.

A wise manager once shared a fruit analogy with me: Everyone gets fruit, but not everyone needs an apple. 🍎 And that’s exactly how I think about events—unique traditions should be celebrated across different locations. How can our team honor and celebrate the culture of each office in a way that feels authentic and meaningful?

So, should an event be hybrid, in-person, or remote? Here are some questions I always ask myself when deciding:

Key Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Format

• What’s the goal? Is it to connect the entire company? Foster a shared experience? Strengthen culture in a particular office?

• What’s the experience like for different attendees? Picture the person at home on Zoom and the person in a conference room. Do both feel engaged?

• Where will the presenter/host be? Will they be remote, in-person, or both? How does that affect the energy of the event?

• What’s the camera situation? If hybrid, will remote attendees feel included, or will they just be watching a room full of people having fun without them?

• How will people participate? Will there be a lot of chatter in the room? Will remote attendees feel left out?

• Does the event require kits? If so, how feasible is it to send them?

• Will employees need to carry something home? If people are commuting, avoid giveaways that are heavy or awkward to transport.

Event Ideas

What Works Well for Hybrid Events?

✅ Pi Day (March 14!) – In tech, Pi Day is a fun tradition where employees recite as many digits of Pi as they can (which is always impressive!). People can join virtually or in-person in a conference room to recite on camera, making it a shared company-wide experience.

✅ Learning + Observing Events – One Valentine’s Day, we hosted a virtual tour of a llama farm (yes, it was adorable) and then learned how to draw a llama. These types of events work well both virtually and in-person.

✅ Kahoot + Trivia Nights – A great way to bring people together around a theme and give away prizes! It works equally well in a conference room or from home.

✅ Speaker Series – Easy to host in-person while streaming virtually for other locations.

What Works Well as Either In-Person or Remote (But Not Hybrid)?

🎨 Crafting Workshops – Keep in-person crafts simple for commuters (think candle-making or painting) and reserve more complex projects (like LEGO-building) for at-home participants. Taking a large LEGO home on a commute seems… quite difficult.

🍽️ Food & Drink Tastings – Works well for both, though in-person is cheaper since you don’t have to ship kits. There is a great opportunity to support local businesses in person!

🧘 Wellness Activities – Sound baths, yoga, and guided meditations translate well in any format, but journaling-based workshops often work best remotely for deeper reflection.

🎶 Music Experiences – Whether it’s an in-person concert or a virtual DJ closing out an event with a dance party, music brings people together no matter where they are!

📚Asynchronous Experiences – Book clubs, podcast discussion groups, and movie watch parties with Slack threads make great remote-friendly culture moments.

💐Flower decorating – A great activity for both in-person and remote participants! I’ve tried this in a hybrid setup with the instructor on Zoom, but the in-person group found it tricky to follow along. It tends to work best when fully remote or fully in-person.

Experiment & Iterate!

The best part of event planning? You get to experiment! If you start by thinking about the why behind an event, choosing the right format—whether in-person, remote, or hybrid—becomes a piece of cake. 🍰

What’s an event format you’ve seen work really well? Let’s keep surprising and delighting together!