End of Year Celebration
LaunchSquad’s annual end-of-year meeting and holiday party were held last Friday. We devoted the afternoon to get together as a group and participate in sessions on the state of the company, a summary of our employee survey, a review of LaunchSquad’s best of 2007, and a talk from Brett that concluded with a Larry Bird quote, the word “mensch” and a company cheer.
Then it was off to Nua, a chic-Mediterrean style restaurant in North Beach. With more than 40 party go-ers, it was a far cry from our first “event” in 2001 at JohnFrank, which totaled a mere eight (including spouses). Since then, we’ve had a string of memorable end-of-year gatherings, including last year’s at Absinthe and the 2005 bash at Cosmopolitan Café. This was a special occasion in that it was the first time all five of our East Coasters (who, led by recent transplant Jeremy Frank, created a hysterical short video about the NY office) were united with the San Francisco crew. The menu and atmosphere at Nua were outstanding and everyone thanked Michele Brusseau for organizing a perfect evening.
The highlight of the night was of course the annual company film, an elaborate 32-minute feature full of hilarious and poignant sketches, co-written, produced and directed by LaunchSquad partners Brett Weiner and Jesse Odell. As usual, this year’s version involved virtually every one of LaunchSquad’s 30 employees, with a few dogs and office neighbors thrown in. It also included some quality “user-generated content,” highlighted by a skit produced by Corey Lewis and Amy Neal, and a touching piece from Katie Cinnamond. Perhaps the funniest part was Jesse’s send-up of the famous Cheech & Chong “Dave” track using our favorite pugs Elvis and Gutterball playing Chong and Cheech respectively. Another favorite was a scene of Jennifer Gazin, Zoe Vandeveer, Jeremy Frank and Virginia Zimpel, impersonating Brett, Throck, Jesse and yours truly in a faux partner meeting.
Here’s to a great ’08.
