The end of the year is rapidly approaching, but not fast enough to deter these tech teams from a good celebration. See how these eight Austin companies celebrated the holidays, and a year of hard work.
“The Austin Blackbaud campus recently enjoyed holiday celebrations hosted in our offices at The Domain. They included a holiday cookie and ugly sweater contest, a performance by Blackbaud’s own employee-led choir and a fun holiday gathering with catered food, drinks, and a photo booth. Most importantly, we celebrated the season of giving with an awesome toy drive for ‘Operation Blue Santa’ with over 200 donations from our own Austin employees. Happy Holidays from everyone here at Blackbaud!” — Blackbaud Austin Culture Team
“The Duo Austin office holiday party was an evening of food, drinks and games to celebrate each other and 2018! It took place at Saengerrunde Hall, where employees and their guests mingled over delicious barbecue, bowled at the venue’s vintage bowling alley, danced to ’90s music and took advantage of the holiday-themed photo booth. Ten points for anyone who can spot the beard ornaments!” —Whitney Tellache, Employment Brand
“We celebrated an amazing year at TrendKite by giving back and then kicking back. This holiday season, our team raised more than $7,500, collected 150 pounds of clothing and donated dozens of hours of our time to a number of local organizations, including the Ronald McDonald House in Central Austin. We also came together for a festive holiday party at Fair Market with a fun Marfa theme, lots of delicious food and drinks, a photo booth and dancing. We’re looking forward to a productive 2019!” — Carrie Carroll, Office Manager
“When you think of a company holiday party, the first thing that comes to mind is standing around discussing boring work stuff. This year’s ShipStation holiday party was anything but that! From a full 10-piece band, The Nightowls, playing ‘Brick House,’ putting on panda claws and taking a fun gif in the photo booth, enjoying yummy food and libations all night, and getting a chance to win the Willie Nelson raffle gift basket — among other fun raffle prizes — it was a great time to celebrate the holidays with co-workers.” — Charla Session-Reed, Director of Partner Marketing and Events
“There’s always something to celebrate at Kendra Scott — especially during the holidays! No matter the occasion, every event we host is designed with our three core pillars in mind: family, fashion and philanthropy. This year at our Home Office holiday party, we honored our family and fashion pillars with a little friendly competition. Our departments were challenged to a gingerbread decorating contest — with a dress code of tacky holiday sweaters, of course. We paid homage to our philanthropy pillar with a raffle, where 100 percent of the proceeds benefited Toys for Tots. All in all, the festivities were as fun as they were impactful.” — Jocelyn Yang, Recruiting Coordinator
“The Aceable team celebrated the holidays by getting together for food, dancing, drinks and camaraderie. Music requests were taken so everything from Whitney Houston to Disturbed made the playlist — a true representation of the diverse personalities we have in the office. One of the highlights was definitely the photo booth where friends and teams could document the night with fun props and poses.” — Amanda Hagley, Organic Marketing Specialist
“We made 90s CD covers.” — Blake Garrett, CEO
“Since moving to Austin in 2001, we have made Trail of Lights a tradition, and experiencing it as a Liquibase employee was icing on the holiday cookie. My 9-year-old daughter loved being able to play with kids her age in the lovely Liquibase tent. Her favorite was being able to draw on the velvet couch; she played a game of tic-tac-toe. My 11-year-old son had plenty of other kids to run around with in the open spaces between the tents in the hospitality area. My co-parent said she loved being able to see the trail early and not so crowded. I want to give a big thank you to Liquibase and Trail of Lights because of the unfiltered looks of joy and wonder I got to see on my family’s faces. Truly grateful to be a part of the Liquibase family and to experience a unique and special Trail of Lights experience.” — Ronak Rahman, Professional Services Engineer
“It was a great evening. Between the dancing, karaoke, games, photo booth, food and drink, there was a little bit of something for everyone. The best part, though, was the people. Our team has grown quite a bit this year, so it was great meeting new people and sharing stories with those who have been here a while. Oh, and our CEO’s sweater and white shoes made the party!” — Joel Hendershott, Test Architect
