Oh What a Night!
Late December back in 2009……..Oh what a night we had last night!!! The First Annual ‘Company Holiday Party For Those With No Company’. That’s right I said First Annual. Last night was such a success I know we will do it again next year but it will be bigger and better (we learned a lot last night about what works and what doesn’t!). We had over 500 people in attendance and most of the people I talked to had a wonderful time and were very happy to just have some fun and forget about the demands of being in transition or under-employed. We ate, we drank, we danced, we gave away cash!
Obviously the list of thank you’s is so long I wouldn’t even know where to start but I do want to thank Linda Kesselman and our legion of volunteers! They worked so hard last night to make sure we were able to take care of people and get them in as quickly as possible. I also want to send out a HUGE thank you to the Mid-America Club for their incredible generosity and accommodations. They really took very good care of us!
Check out the Pics!!
I know we will do a few things differently next time but it would help me tremendously if you could let me know what you loved or hated, what you would change, what we could do differently, etc. That’s how we learn and improve. I take your comments very seriously and try to implement as much of your suggestions as I can.
I want to thank all of you that contributed to our charity drives. We were able to collect a ton of food for The Chicago Food Depository and my van is full to the ceiling with toys for Toys for Tots. Please know that every little bit helps and you just took part in helping a whole lot of people. Those donations will make the holidays better for many families this year.
As Patrick announced last night we have big things in store for 2010!! We are re-branding, revamping, renewing and reconstructing. We will be coming back with more resources, more events, a new name and much more! Once again we would love to hear your ideas – this is a community based group and we can only be successful as long as we offering programs and events that help you. If you have ideas or suggestions please send them along!
Thanks again for coming out and having a party with us. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season, a Happy New Year and we look forward to 2010 with all of you!
Amy Zagroba
Director of Operations
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Amy, sorry I missed the party. It sounded great. I wanted to mention that the Jobs page has some very odd links under Other. Can you delete them?
I enjoyed the party and I have a few suggestions.
The lines for the food and drinks were very long and perhaps there could have been more serving stations.
It was difficult to use the setting as a networking opportunity because of the number of people and the lack of structure. I know it was a party but perhaps the name tags could have designations of categories (such as Health Care, IT, Education, Sales, Finance, Marketing, etc.)in order to make it easier to initially engage with people.
Thanks for the event (and I hope I will not be in attendance next year) but if the situation is such that I am in transition I would certainly attend.
When is the next OWC event?
Paul – we are going to be doing a launch party for our new brand in February – announcement of date and place coming soon!