How Gremlin planned their perfect Chicago offsite

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Aug 23

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How Gremlin planned their perfect Chicago offsite

Riley Leight · 8/23/2023

Gremlin builds reliability testing and chaos engineering software to drive real availability improvements at enterprise scale. With the help of BoomPop’s event experts, they recently planned an in-person team offsite in Chicago, Illinois.

We spoke to Gremlin’s VP of People, Nicole Berard, to learn more about how she partnered with BoomPop to create an engaging experience for the team.

The complicated work of bringing people together

Gremlin is an innovative startup with a team of about 50 employees who work remotely across the U.S. Many of them—about 90%—joined in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. This meant that even two years later, very few members of their team had ever met face-to-face.

Berard and the rest of Gremlin’s leaders knew gathering in person would be a crucial way to build camaraderie and celebrate their company’s successes, so In 2022, Berard took on the challenge of planning the team’s first offsite. It became Camp Gremlin, a unique and creatively-themed event that took place in Utah. The event required 11 weeks of full-time planning and logistics, like finding the perfect venue, bringing in vendors to provide tents and decor, renting fire pits, and even collaborating with Cotopaxi on custom-branded swag.

The event was a resounding success, but when it came time to plan another for 2023, Berard wasn’t sure she could commit to the daily, intensive work of making another event happen. “I not only oversee our People function, but also took over our Finance and Legal functions,” she explained. “I knew I didn’t have the hours to spend planning an event. That's when I started to look for another resource and found BoomPop.”

Delivering on the details

The company’s 2022 offsite was such a success because it catered to the unique needs and identity of the team, something that was important to mirror in their 2023 follow-up. For Berard, that meant it was crucial to find a planner who could execute on her detailed vision for the experience.

BoomPop’s planning team worked closely to make sure every element was considered, down to planning an advance trip for Berard to fly in and do a walkthrough of all the various locations and activities the team would experience. “We hopped on calls anytime I was unsure about something, but it was quickly very clear the team understood how I wanted the event to feel,” Berard said, “and they were able to take that knowledge and create specific plans for how we could execute on it.”

The offsite itself included a trip to the House of Blues, a river cruise, watching a Cubs game from a rooftop, and many other group experiences that helped Gremlin’s team bond and have fun. “It exceeded everybody's expectations,” Berard said. “We did a post-event survey and an astounding 93% gave the event five stars, and the remaining were at four. Everybody loved it.”

Ultimately, having a trusted planner allowed Gremlin’s team to sit back and simply enjoy their time together without stress-filled hours of planning to get there. “It allowed me to have more normal days,” Berard explained. “I already have a pretty large job, and knowing someone was handling big pieces of this event allowed me to focus on other things.”

Expanding the role of events in Gremlin’s culture

Thanks to the success of these events, Berard and the rest of Gremlin’s leadership envision an even bigger role for offsites by expanding to two per year instead of an annual schedule. In the past, Berard has always planned events in cities where she was confident in her local knowledge, but with BoomPop’s help, the team is ready to cast a wider net: “I feel like I could pick a city that I've never been to knowing that I trust the resources and recommendations BoomPop has,” she said.

As they explore new places, the team is also going to seek out opportunities to use their events as a way to make an impact. “We want to start ensuring that all of our company offsites have an opportunity for some community outreach,” Berard explained. “As we grow, we want it to be exciting that Gremlin's coming to town, because hopefully we’ll be helping make things even better.”

With BoomPop as a trusted partner, the Gremlin team is able to feel confident that they can bring their vision for every offsite to life without the stress of DIY planning. “Working with BoomPop allowed me to feel excited about this offsite and happily take on planning the next.”