To Surprise and Delight

Welcome to my Substack on all things events and employee experience!

I have journals going back to 1996. I love writing! I love what I do! I want to write more! I'm excited to start sharing some learnings on events and employee experience. I loved being able to plan an offsite for a bunch of football players at my first job at a sports agency. After that I made sure to thread events throughout all of my jobs. Office management and investor dinners at a hedge fund in New York then led me to a wellness startup where I led people operations and dove into all aspects of people ops. From there I fell in love with the employee experience and have continued diving deeper into that world and events!

I've always appreciated tangible work advice from events and panels. I hope this reflection is similarly insightful! I hope something I share sparks an idea, expands your creative mind, or kicks off a brainstorm. At every big event or offsite, I intentionally incorporate a "surprise and delight" moment—a moment of awe, connection, and joy. I love seeing someone walk into an event and watch their face light up with pure happiness.

Maybe they're grabbing a mocktail served in a small glass jar by a hand emerging through a hole in a wall, like at our garden escape summer party. That shared moment of joy with a colleague is something they might remember forever. These are the moments, the memories, the brief interactions that build connections with someone new, deepen friendships, or even introduce you to an executive.

I fondly remember bobsledding with my colleagues in Park City. I recall the Test Kitchen at Greatist, laughing over food presentations that were taken so seriously and often delivered in exaggerated foreign accents. I remember Aperol spritzes by the pool and team bonding with the planning team before an offsite began. I remember walking the streets of Lisbon, filled with uncontrollable laughter.

Recently, I was startled to realize I had forgotten a co-founder's name from a company I was deeply invested in for four years, where I had made some of my closest friends. When I look back, I don't dwell on or even remember many of the details of performance reviews or everything that might have gone wrong—well, mostly (I am a Virgo, after all). Instead, I remember the lessons learned, the overall sense that everything was okay, and most importantly, the friendships, connections, and camaraderie.

If we take the wide lens and look back 30 years from now, we'll cherish the connections we've made and perhaps still maintain. This is why I love what I do. If something I'm part of building can bring joy to someone's life and allow me to continue doing meaningful work with good people, then I know I've done my job well and made a positive impact.

I hope you enjoy these musings about our shared work experiences and feel inspired to spark joy and spread positivity. Let's continue to surprise and delight!