‘Tis the season to get the team together, snap a few shots — maybe even take one — and close out the year with a celebration of everyone’s hard work. Here’s a look at how five Austin tech companies decked the halls before heading home for the holidays.
Employees at Sumo and AppSumo were joined by significant others for a night out at Pitchfork Pretty. The East Side restaurant specializes in Hill Country cuisine and is about a mile from the Sumo team’s office. While we can't be 100 percent sure, we’re pretty confident the team toasted to reaching over a million subscribers to its AppSumo newsletter.
As a special and timely treat, NSS Labs invited employees and their families to join them for a Star Wars movie event at the Alamo Drafthouse. The company also threw a party downtown at the W Hotel with food, drinks, a DJ and photo booth.
For Aceable, a startup that embraces a casual work environment, office manager Brad Wilkinson said the team looks forward to dressing up for the annual holiday party. This year’s event featured food, desserts, an open bar with specialty cocktails, an interactive photo booth, a DJ, lots of dancing, and games like cornhole, beer pong and flip cup.
“Our photo booth also created boomerang gifs, and everyone was really excited to get pictures with one another looking super fly,” said Wilkinson.
Members from the Austin-based Condé Nast Digital Innovation Center celebrated together last Thursday. The evening included cocktails and dumplings on the private patio at Ah Sing Den, just a short walk from their office on the East Side. Afterward, the team returned to the office for some karaoke after hours.
“The party went all night!” said Kalinda Howe, head of operations and culture. “Okay, it went to midnight, because it was a Thursday and some of us had to work the next day!”
This year, Banker’s Toolbox held its holiday party at Vintage Villas, a villa-style hotel overlooking Lake Travis. Brooke Sudduth, a culture coordinator at the company, said the evening included dinner, dancing and prizes like an all-inclusive getaway to Fredericksburg and Spurs tickets. The company’s annual party also gives employees the chance to meet others not based in Austin, who come into town to celebrate.
“With employees all over the United States, our holiday party is a great chance to connect with our remote Penguins and spend some time with each other outside of work and meetings while squeezing in some photo booth fun,” said Sudduth. “Although our venue changes each year, the festivities and holiday cheer remains the same.”
