Inside the Event: Issue #11
ERG celebrations, Epoch Connect learnings, and swag drops that sold out
đ Happy Pride Month, Immigrant Heritage Month, and Juneteenth!
I totally thought I sent out a May âInside the Eventâ 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! Weâll end Pride month with an intersectional event with our Immigrant community to then kick off their month.
âď¸ Whatâs 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. Itâs 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 âI want to do the AI Questâ and add 25 minutes to your calendar each day. Iâm excited to share this idea with our AI team!
Interview for taste and judgment. I enjoyed hearing about the importance of thisâsomething that takes years to build. YES.
âMeasure impact not just activity.â I wrote that one down. Weâve been talking a lot about this. Rather than just the number of people attending, whatâs 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? Iâm excited to evolve our program into more leadership development and skill building.
$154B lost annually to stress-related absenteeism tied to loneliness and isolation.
đ¤ 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 Marketingâs swag drops (that sell out immediately) we wanted to create a cool moment-in-time item that only 200 people could get. Weâll 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 Chimeâs LinkedIn post sharing more on the experience.
đ 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. Weâll 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. Iâm excited for what the future holds for our ERG leadsâcareer development, consistent exec sponsor connections and experiences, engaging communities in more ways than just events.
đ¤Juneteenth
Our Black ERG hosted the coolest event: Boots on the Groundâa 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.
đ 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.
đ In Other NewsâŚ
⨠My Personal Surprise and Delight
I sold THREE custom hats on my Etsy store! Itâs 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 itâs honestly where I learned a LOT of what I know today. Shout out to Culture ClubâI went to LifeLabs Learning and Exubrancyâs 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.
⨠Thatâs it for this monthâs Inside the Event! Stay tuned for more ideas, vendors, and inspiration in next monthâs edition. Until thenâsurprise, delight, and take care. đŤ