Win With WIT - The Inaugural Summit
The 6th Annual Awards
- Best Employee Engagement
ABOUT THIS ENTRY
WIT is committed to fostering a strong company culture of innovation, collaboration, and empowerment. 2023 brought exponential growth for the business and these tenets offered invaluable guidance throughout the hiring process. In just one year, the WIT team jumped from a scrappy startup of four to a vibrant diverse team of over 25 passionate employees. Our fully remote, people-first approach drew in the best talent available nationwide and allowed us to power some of the most exciting, turnkey experiences in sports! WIT put a bow on this banner year with the first ever WIT Summit to celebrate these accomplishments, develop deeper connections, and brainstorm for an even bigger 2024.
How does this represent “Excellence in Engagement”?
As a fast-growing, fully-remote company, creating opportunities for in-person collaboration and connection is incredibly important to us. The 2023 WIT Summit showcased the professional and personal value in coming together with intention. Every detail was arranged to allow WIT employees to focus on meaningful discussions and fun activities, from fruitful brainstorming sessions to bowling and karaoke to speakeasies and cupcakes, it was a blast from start to finish!
Everyone went home with a personal award, a bundle of company swag, a full heart, and a mind itching to bring our fan engagement platform to the next level in 2024. Based on the team excitement before and after, WIT is planning to make the summit an annual tradition in a new city each year. WIT’s successes are a credit to our team of passionate, wonderful people and the summit allowed us to reward that excellence with an experience to match. We can’t wait for the next one!
Objective
As a fully remote company, WIT has had the unique privilege of hiring diverse talent from across North America. To maintain the open, communicative, and fun environment established in the early days, we had to get creative. Digital tools already allowed us to connect and collaborate freely, and adding company-wide access to coworking spaces brought regional pockets of the team together.
As the team grew and cross-country friendships blossomed, the idea of bringing everyone together in-person started to solidify. Success after success for ourselves and our partners sealed the deal, and a celebratory team meetup became too exciting to delay!
In December of 2023, WIT held its first in-person summit in Orlando, Florida. We brought 21 of our 23 full-time employees together from across the country for several days of workshops, meetings, and fun group activities. Location selection started with employee home cities and was narrowed down by factors like winter weather and accessibility. It was a phenomenal experience meeting everyone in person after months or years of working together via online video calls. From Topgolf and karaoke to billiards and bowling, there was plenty to discuss at each dinner and we parted ways with stronger connections than ever!
Strategy & Execution
Planning the summit took an incredible amount of organization to balance timelines, budgets, and logistics. After choosing Orlando, we set out identifying hotels, restaurants, and activities that were centrally located with the help of our local boots on the ground.
After establishing shortlists of activities and options, we launched polls and surveys to get anonymous preferences from the whole WIT team. We then contracted our selected hotel for lodging, meeting space, and supplies, and set up reservations with several restaurants and venues so nothing would be left up in the air from the moment we all touched down in sunny Florida.
To keep the entire company in the loop and on schedule, we provided personalized itineraries to each individual. Our days were largely spent in group meetings and activities, but we also split into smaller groups for fun department outings and team dinners. We also organized a special breakfast for our internal Women of WIT ERG at a women-owned and operated restaurant featured on several shows including “Diner Drive-Ins and Dives”!
No summit would be complete without the merch! Our creative team designed WIT swag for all employees that we wore throughout the week.
Organizations
- WIT
Links
Credits
Vaidhy Murti
CEO
WIT
Stephi Blank
Vice President, Marketing & Service
WIT
Ashley Mannion
Manager, Marketing & Service
WIT
Celebrate in NYC
Join us for the 6th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 6, 2024 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.
