We won An ILEA Esprit Award for our event Masks & Merriment.

Fully understanding the implications of our WorkPlace Safety Plan necessitated some of the feature characteristics of this event: smaller groups, time to sanitize, well-ventilated spaces including the outdoors, and all of the logistics that spring from these. The easy way out would have been to just host 3 smaller individual overlapping events at three locations and never betwixt do the attendees meet.

Instead, we embraced those characteristics and let them shape the rest of the event: several smaller venues suitable for smaller groups but close enough together to be part of a circuit of Stations visited by small Teams rotating through the Stations.

Moreover, a full understanding of what the client wanted in terms of an inclusive holiday event shaped the rest of the event: food and activities that invoked feelings of celebration, togetherness, and tradition, no matter the attendee you asked.

And thus, our theme was born: “Masks & Merriment” became an ode to the general atmosphere of merry-making during the traditional holiday season, by focusing on and showcasing the universality of celebration as represented through great food and beverage shared amongst great company, but with a nod to the current pandemic restrictions requiring masking and other protocols in public places. This became almost a mantra for decision-making through the entire planning phase: “Ok, we’ve made it safe, but is it also inclusive and fun,” and vice versa. As such, this mantra, the very name of the event, became the solution we needed to provide the event that our client had come to us asking for.