Clark's Exotica
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Open-Silicon shuttle to Clark's Exotica is now ready for departure. Passengers are requested to proceed for boarding through the main gate. Seating is on a first-come-first-serve basis and hence we encourage you not to delay too much."
Give me the controls to the P.A system of a company and 'a conventinal' announcement is the last thing that you will get out of me!!.......and that's how the half-yearly employee outing of Open-Silicon was kicked off.
The organizing committee, headed by Anoop and Victor and comprising of Manjula, Kiran, Kalyan, Pinkesh and me, had worked overtime to prepare for this event for a little over one week. A weekday was choosen to maximize the attendance. Four of us even spent half a day (to the scourn of our managers') to go select a suitable resort to host this function that occurs once every six months.
Invitations were sent out to all employees a few days before-hand and two buses were arranged to carry people to and fro. On D-day i.e October 9th 2009, the official outing began when I made that courageous announcement at 9am in the morning. I wasn't sure how people would react, but a few employees strolled out in front of me followed by the top management, they simply smiled and popped the question
"We expected a few air-hostesses here"
Somehow, I knew then that our day was off to a positive start. Around 75 employees turned up, which was a big surprise, compared to the last event that was organized back in March.
As the two buses headed to our destination some 40 kms away, breakfast made of a veg sandwich and a cold drink was served and most of the engineers' who has bunched themselves up in one bus indulged themselves in a nice long game of 'Antakshari'. Pinkesh and me who headed the first bus, couldn't really take part since we were more busy in guiding the driver properly.
At around 11:15am, we touched down at our destination and were greeted with a welcome drink. As the employees looked around and took stock of the resort, we could only see smiles on their faces and we knew for sure that they had taken a liking to the place. The second bus arrived some 30 mins later and from 12pm to about 1:30pm, Kiran, who had gladly volunteered to be our 'Event Manager' for the day, took over and showcased a wonderful plethora of games that all took part in with active interest.
From shouting out like the animals assigned to you from a little sheet to passing a thread, attached to a spoon, through your shirt to form a scan-chain......everyone present laughed, joked and truely enjoyed the spirit of 'team-work'
You may refer to all this as a 'Team-building exercise', but to be honest the smile on everyone's face just told me that they were more than glad to get away from their PC's for the entire day wothout a single worry in their mind.
Lunch followed at 1:30pm. Manchow soup, Chicken in black bean suace, Grilled fish in mustard sauce and White pasta are only things I remember from the menu as those were the only things I ate!!
Post lunch, we had an award ceremony which started with us ragging the RCG's or 'Recent College Graduates' who had joined us last quarter, followed by awards handed out to winners of the TT tourney and special recognition to employees who had completed 3 and 5 years in the company respectively.
Once the award function was done, Kiran released everyone to enjoy all they wished to do with the facilities provided by the resort. This meant that the badminton court, tennis court, basketball court, TT tables, squash court and swimming pool were buzzing with people enjoying a game or two. I myself enjoyed the basketball and a few games of badminton, before all the guys hit the pool to play an interesting game of 'Water Polo'
Snacks was served along with tea and coffee at 5pm and most of the people left the place at around 5:30pm. A hand-ful of us stayed back to inaugurate what we called the "Toast-masters' Club". More about this club later, but an eventful day ended with 19 founding members enjoying a couple of glasses of beer, hosted by the VP of Engineering.
When we returned from office on Monday, all of us were curious about what kind of feedback we would get from everyone. Some friends just walked by and said:
"Friday was enjoyable man.....We should have this thing more often"
"Sahi resort tha yaar....when are we going back there??"
These words were really encouraging, considering that it was just us employees from Engineering / Finance and HR that had put forth just an event. However, the highlight of the day were the following emails we got from the repective people:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Team,
Putting this together above your normal work schedules was a real feat;
you guys have indeed set a high benchmark.
I have been to in Bangalore. There wasn’t a single dull moment in the entire program.
Things just kept happening. You had thought through the day very well.
- Vice President
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess this meant that all-in-all it was a great event and I look forward to organizing many more such events for my company in the future.
Give me the controls to the P.A system of a company and 'a conventinal' announcement is the last thing that you will get out of me!!.......and that's how the half-yearly employee outing of Open-Silicon was kicked off.
The organizing committee, headed by Anoop and Victor and comprising of Manjula, Kiran, Kalyan, Pinkesh and me, had worked overtime to prepare for this event for a little over one week. A weekday was choosen to maximize the attendance. Four of us even spent half a day (to the scourn of our managers') to go select a suitable resort to host this function that occurs once every six months.
Invitations were sent out to all employees a few days before-hand and two buses were arranged to carry people to and fro. On D-day i.e October 9th 2009, the official outing began when I made that courageous announcement at 9am in the morning. I wasn't sure how people would react, but a few employees strolled out in front of me followed by the top management, they simply smiled and popped the question
"We expected a few air-hostesses here"
Somehow, I knew then that our day was off to a positive start. Around 75 employees turned up, which was a big surprise, compared to the last event that was organized back in March.
As the two buses headed to our destination some 40 kms away, breakfast made of a veg sandwich and a cold drink was served and most of the engineers' who has bunched themselves up in one bus indulged themselves in a nice long game of 'Antakshari'. Pinkesh and me who headed the first bus, couldn't really take part since we were more busy in guiding the driver properly.
At around 11:15am, we touched down at our destination and were greeted with a welcome drink. As the employees looked around and took stock of the resort, we could only see smiles on their faces and we knew for sure that they had taken a liking to the place. The second bus arrived some 30 mins later and from 12pm to about 1:30pm, Kiran, who had gladly volunteered to be our 'Event Manager' for the day, took over and showcased a wonderful plethora of games that all took part in with active interest.
From shouting out like the animals assigned to you from a little sheet to passing a thread, attached to a spoon, through your shirt to form a scan-chain......everyone present laughed, joked and truely enjoyed the spirit of 'team-work'
You may refer to all this as a 'Team-building exercise', but to be honest the smile on everyone's face just told me that they were more than glad to get away from their PC's for the entire day wothout a single worry in their mind.
Lunch followed at 1:30pm. Manchow soup, Chicken in black bean suace, Grilled fish in mustard sauce and White pasta are only things I remember from the menu as those were the only things I ate!!
Post lunch, we had an award ceremony which started with us ragging the RCG's or 'Recent College Graduates' who had joined us last quarter, followed by awards handed out to winners of the TT tourney and special recognition to employees who had completed 3 and 5 years in the company respectively.
Once the award function was done, Kiran released everyone to enjoy all they wished to do with the facilities provided by the resort. This meant that the badminton court, tennis court, basketball court, TT tables, squash court and swimming pool were buzzing with people enjoying a game or two. I myself enjoyed the basketball and a few games of badminton, before all the guys hit the pool to play an interesting game of 'Water Polo'
Snacks was served along with tea and coffee at 5pm and most of the people left the place at around 5:30pm. A hand-ful of us stayed back to inaugurate what we called the "Toast-masters' Club". More about this club later, but an eventful day ended with 19 founding members enjoying a couple of glasses of beer, hosted by the VP of Engineering.
When we returned from office on Monday, all of us were curious about what kind of feedback we would get from everyone. Some friends just walked by and said:
"Friday was enjoyable man.....We should have this thing more often"
"Sahi resort tha yaar....when are we going back there??"
These words were really encouraging, considering that it was just us employees from Engineering / Finance and HR that had put forth just an event. However, the highlight of the day were the following emails we got from the repective people:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Anoop, Victor,
Last Friday’s offsite event was really enjoyable and was wonderfully planned.
The venue was good, food was tasty and all games were highly refreshing.
My sincere thanks to all the members of the organizing committee for their superb efforts.
Please forward this mail to all of them.
Best regards,
C.O.O
Team,
Putting this together above your normal work schedules was a real feat;
you guys have indeed set a high benchmark.
Thanks to the entire team.
Thanks,Human Resources
Open-Silicon Inc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I want to just add that this was by far the best organized Open-Silicon event thatI have been to in Bangalore. There wasn’t a single dull moment in the entire program.
Things just kept happening. You had thought through the day very well.
- Vice President
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess this meant that all-in-all it was a great event and I look forward to organizing many more such events for my company in the future.
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