How meez Creates a Recipe for Culture Success
How meez Creates a Recipe for Culture Success
BoomPop Team · 8/5/2024
meez, a company providing smarter recipe management for culinary organizations partnered with Boompop to successfully plan their most recent offsite in Miami, Florida.
We were thrilled when meez’s Operating Manager, Maria Mackie, sat down with us recently to discuss how BoomPop saved her countless hours in planning their full company retreat. We wanted to hear about Maria’s experience working with us and how retreats play into meez’s approach to gathering a distributed workforce.
With colleagues working remotely from all around the world Maria understands the essential component of being together in person. We couldn’t agree more. Connecting with colleagues in person leaves room for spontaneity as well as dedicated conversations you can plan ahead of time. When teams can cross-collaborate with other teams and get to know them on a personal level, it strengthens the overall culture, not just on the team level.
Overcoming Retreat Planning Challenges
But planning an in person retreat isn’t always easy, especially when event planning isn’t your full-time job.
Like many of the clients we work with, those tasked with planning a team retreat often have other job responsibilities. Finding a supportive event planning partner is instrumental to their success in continuing to juggle all their other responsibilities.
Maria is no different. Her role at meez includes running payroll, accounting, managing team meetings, supporting executives, and managing various other internal operations that allow team members to succeed. In other words, she does everything, which means she needed an experienced event planning and design team to take retreat planning off her plate.
The BoomPop Difference
When asked why meez initially wanted to work with BoomPop, Maria shared her frustrations with venue research and price comparisons. “What takes the most amount of time is narrowing down hotel venues. Then I have to wait for responses from 20 hotels that will all get back to me at different times; it won’t be consistent,” said Maria. But Maria turned to BoomPop to take care of all of this time-consuming and frustrating work.
Our events team knows that hotel and vendor research is one of the most time-consuming parts of retreat planning. It requires combing through countless responses and recontextualizing data in a way that allows for easy comparison.This is exactly what BoomPop did for Maria.
Relieving the Planning Burden
Our team took on the challenge and was able to remove the weight from Maria’s shoulders. Reflecting on the planning process, Maria shared how the BoomPop team does everything for her, “I like the help [from the BoomPop team]. Looking into restaurants, getting menus and pricing, dealing with payment; I like that.”
At BoomPop, it brings us immense joy to take the reins and help sculpt an itinerary that reflects the clients needs. It isn’t just about sourcing places, but laying out an agenda in the right order and at the right pace.
Creating the Perfect Retreat Experience
This began with finding a centrally located hotel, close to restaurants and activities, at a boutique hotel in Little Havana. Location was important as meez wanted to ensure their swift getaway was filled with quality time for meeting, activities and delicious meals, without the headache of long commutes.
With a mix of dedicated working sessions and team bonding activities like an escape room, gathering each evening over a delicious meal would be non-negotiable.
For their welcome dinner, BoomPop found the most intimate Latin American rooftop restaurant with tropical cocktails and breathtaking Miami skyline views. Maria shares, “It was completely our vibe.”
Another favorite highlight? Discovering the hidden talents of their team during a spontaneous evening of karaoke on their final night in Miami. Witnessing colleagues confidently sing in front of everyone after a week of bonding perfectly illustrates the benefits of dedicating in person retreat time. “We have some really good singers! Maria reveals, surprised to learn this about her coworkers.
Because when colleagues get to know each other in new environments, this builds trust, which allows colleagues to be fully themselves. When they can fully be themselves, well, that sounds like a recipe for business success :)
