In honour of American Thanksgiving(yes, we don’t just celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving), we decided to make this past week as unique and unforgettable as possible for our Candyboxers.
After two years of working from home and creating our sweet magic together through thousands of Zoom meetings, Slack messages and emails, we finally got the chance to meet in person and work as a big, dynamic team in a two-day offsite event!
For extra fun factor, we were each assigned a partner beforehand and tasked to introduce each other on the first day, but with some extra spice added: we had to talk about one thing that they never included on their resumes. Let’s just say I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of secret talents our Candyboxers have.
Our New Oakville Studio
After a round of laughter-filled lightning introductions, we continued our day with something incredibly exciting and highly anticipated by all Candyboxers for over a year now – the grand opening of our new Oakville studio!
It was our absolute pleasure to have a number of honourable guests attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony and witnessing with us the beginning of a new chapter:
- Mayor Rob Burton
- Economic Development, Oakville
- Oakville Chamber of Commerce
- Sheridan Pilon School of Business
- Oakville News
- And more!
We indulged ourselves with delectable treats, engaged in real-life conversations while celebrating accomplishing such an enormous milestone.
Candybox Marketing started in 2008 in a humble yet functional office, with our CEO Darrell Keezer working away every day to bring his vision to life; today, Candybox Marketing is a growing team of over 35 digital marketing experts who’re driven by the same vision – to become Canada’s Premier Digital Marketing Agency and make the web sweet with marketing that actually works!
With the grand opening of our new Oakville studio, we’re beyond excited to bring our game to the next level and create that ultimate Candybox experience for our clients and partners! If you’re wondering what we have in store for you in our brand-new studio, here’s a sneak peek:
Stay tuned for a detailed breakdown of this fabulous studio in the new year!
Team Dinner
After a long day of learning and socializing, we treated our Candyboxers to a wholesome team dinner at Turtle Jacks Oakville, where we enjoyed some amazing food, drinks and more delightful conversations.
Keynote Presentation
Chris Cummins, a professional speaker and seven-time TEDx presenter, joined us on our second day and enriched our morning with a much-needed inspirational speech. He shed light on the importance of engaging yourself in small, kind acts and embracing others’ ideas regardless of your personal opinions towards them.
To collectively thrive in a creative environment, the last thing we need is close-mindedness and unwillingness to think from perspectives different from ours; to illustrate this further, Chris invited us to join a small yet insightful group activity, where we’re split into groups and had to come up with a solution to a specific task as a team within just 30 seconds.
When you find yourself in a semi-emergent setting like this, you quickly realize just how much teamwork and collaboration can contribute to a highly rewarding(and surprising) result and just how creative, adaptable and quick-witted you are.
Shout-out to Chris for all the amazing laughs and truly inspiring stories that helped lay the perfect foundation for our brainstorming sessions later that day.
Corporate Strategy Brainstorming Sessions
Each department laid out on paper what our goals and vision are going into the year 2023 and onward and worked out concrete, executable plans to ensure we’re on track to accomplish them and grow into an even sweeter digital marketing agency.
Time For A Treat!
To reward them for going through an intense brain day and being the awesome team members they are, we surprised our Candyboxers with an afternoon treat – not just any ordinary treat, but Beavertails food truck(to add on extra sweetness, of course)! We even held a little eating contest where we challenged a few of our Candyboxers to chuck down an entire Beavertails as fast as they could!
The Big Candybox Family
This past week has been a week of thanksgiving: I’m grateful for having joined such a warm, goal-driven and talented team and for working with them to bring our company up a notch. As I’m sitting in our new studio now writing away, I’m excited to see what the future holds for Candybox Marketing.
If you’re a fan of an unlimited supply of coffee, candies and sunlight, you should check out our career page and join us as the next Candyboxer.
