Camp Cadence 2020: How We Used Cadence at Our Quarterly Meeting

Who said camp was just for kids? Find out how we structured the weekend of fun and how we used our own platform to help us experience every moment.

Last weekend, many members of our team packed up their duffle bags and hitched rides into Peru, Vermont for our first annual Camp Cadence. This weekend served as our quarterly meeting to align and discuss the future of our company as we head into Q4. The people who chose to attend in-person followed all safety protocols to do so, and the other company members joined us virtually. But is it really a quarterly Cadence meeting without some fun? Read on to find out how we structured the weekend and how we used our own platform to help us experience every moment.

But all work and no play makes Cadence a dull team!

As this was the first time that we have traveled together all year, we had to have a little fun too! About a week before the event, the Cadence family was split into four teams and assigned a color. Point opportunities were scattered throughout the weekend with one big finale on the last day called the Cadence Games. And even though the teams were in friendly (fierce 😉) competition, it only ended up bringing everyone closer together.

Now let’s dive into how Cadence used Cadence:

Registration

A headcount is crucial when putting on a company event, especially when there are plus ones in the mix. How much food do we need? How can we split up the teams for the Cadence Games? And the list goes on… That’s why we used the Registration feature for Camp Cadence.

We were able to invite all of our employees and their plus ones both by email and the registration link. This would prompt new attendees to make a profile, which we were all able to reference on the People page. It was a great way to put faces to names before the event even began!

Schedule

Everyone loves a good itinerary. Shout out to all my type-A people out there! Regardless of whether or not the schedule is followed perfectly, it’s great way to let people know what to expect for the weekend to come. People can pack and plan their day accordingly. For example, if people wanted to take advantage of the numerous hiking trails in the area, they knew that they could use their Saturday morning free time.

Throughout the weekend, it was helpful to know where to be & when. For example, the guacamole and margarita competition started at 7:15pm in the main house. This game was a HUGE hit! We had each team nominate someone from their team to sit on the panel of judges. Then each team worked to transform a table of random ingredients into the best margarita and bowl of guacamole that they possibly could. The judges scored based on three categories: taste, presentation, & creativity. It was a blast!

You also can add in some optional activities for your guests. We held a HIIT workout class on Friday morning. Add some incentive to these optional activities by awarding points to teams that show up!

Materials

While we loved partaking in the fun and games, the main purpose of this event was to wrap up our Q3. For the entirety of this quarter, we had been split up into groups to produce our OKR presentations (Objectives and Key Results). We presented our findings with the group, and we each shared our presentations on the Materials page of the platform. This is a great way to keep all of the information in one place and makes for easy access after the event.

Notifications

Things change. It’s inevitable! Sometimes schedule items run long, weather changes, people hit traffic, you get the idea. We used push notifications throughout the weekend to communicate these changes to our team. It also doesn’t hurt to send out a reminder from time to time, like “Family meeting at 7pm on the deck!”

Live Feed

Throughout the weekend, everyone was posting pictures, videos, and gifs to our Live Feed. Our most favorite memories of the weekend now live on the Live Feed, so we can go back to relive the event over and over!

We got great use of the bonfire. Nothing’s more bonding than sitting around a campfire just chit-chatting the night away. And one of our team members tried a s’more for the first time! Can you believe it?

The final competition was an egg toss, and boy it got competitive! Win or lose, we all ended up making a new little friend, Mr. Smiley.

In the end, it was the purple team who took the prize!

Moments

We said our goodbyes and hit the road. But all of those incredible pictures we took throughout the weekend are wasting away in our camera rolls. Enter Moments. This is your event’s digital photo album. All of our team members added their unique photos to the Moments page, so we can relive the event whenever we want!

Until Next Time

We feel so incredibly blessed to have this experience in the current climate. While we love and encourage virtual events, if possible, it’s incredible to get everyone under one roof (safely, of course). As we head into the last quarter, we are feeling energized, refreshed, and ready for what’s to come!

Want to create your own company event? Schedule a demo or get started building your event here!