My actual real-life job title is People Ops & Culture Lead, and if you’re wondering what that looks like in practice, the annual ITS Company Kickoff is a great example.
Every July, I coordinate our company-wide anniversary celebration. It’s a tradition that lets us pause the day-to-day, connect with teammates, and take a moment to reflect on where we’ve been and set our intentions for where we’re going.
This year’s theme was Summer in Baltimore, an homage to our beloved HQ city and a perfect primer for employees visiting in September.
Our ITS USA team met in person at the Vollmer Center with pink flamingo décor, picnic lunches, a tour of the historic Cylburn Mansion, and Baltimore lemon peppermint sticks. (If you know, you know. If you don’t, there’s a video below.)
We streamed the event for remote employees, while our ITS India team hosted an in-person viewing party of their own. In total, more than 200 ITS employees came together to celebrate 28 years of delivering innovative, secure testing solutions.
We love a good theme, but at the day’s core was a series of inspiring presentations from our Sales & Marketing team (Brodie Wise, EVP, and Pat Hughes, VP), Technology team (Trish Thomas, EVP), and CEO/snowball aficionado, Pat Ward. The details are internal-only, but I can say that hearing candid updates directly from leadership is one of the things that, in my opinion, sets ITS apart.
You can’t sit through three presentations without a brain break—and, as is tradition, the ITS Creative Team likes to provide them in the form of video hijinks. (Full disclosure: I am the lead culprit of the ITS Creative Team.)
This year, we explored three of the most beloved Baltimore summer traditions. Very professionally. With the company card. For science. 😉
If you want a laugh, or a primer on Baltimore culture, grab some Old Bay chips and enjoy our very serious field research below.
It was a lot of moving parts to pull together, and I ended the day sweaty and tired, but also incredibly proud of the people I work with and the company we are.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to focus on our next event, Bark & Bond Week… It’s a lot of work, but when you love the people and the place, it feels more like a passion than a job.
About the Author
Maili joined the ITS team in 2010. She is our Employee Event Planner, Creative Lead, and People Person. Maili holds a BA in Visual and Performing Arts from UMBC and maintains the SHRM Certified Professional certification. (We aren’t sure how she does it, but she somehow uses both of those accreditations in her role at ITS!) When she isn’t designing one of our famous ITS T-shirts, you can find her helping our team with their benefits. Outside of ITS, she is a professional photographer and a mom to one tiny human and two tiny cats. Maili loves coffee, CrossFit, and meeting new people.
Leave a Reply