Learnings from CSG’s Summer Gather 2021
Wherein We Go Way Overboard with Fishy Metaphors, Alliterations — and Em Dashes
Just how much fun was the Summer 2021 Gather? Well, it was more fun than the Summer 2020 and Winter 2020 Gathers — although, given the circumstances, those two get-togethers were amazing!
But let us count the ways we especially loved this summer’s Gather and the lessons we learned:
At long last, we were gathered together in all our glory and it was pretty fabulous to once again see CSG IRL. We met the many team members who’ve joined CSG since COVID-19 — hello, Abby, Kyleigh, Moira, Zoe, Tammy, Madison, Cate, Corbin, Peter E., and Tatiana! We attached bodies to Zoom heads and personalities to new positions. And we were reminded how lucky we are to work with super smart, talented, driven, quirky, funny, kind people.
We listened while Steven, RJ, Molly, Dan, Shannon, Erik and Brooke explained not only the metrics but gave the measure of our success in terms of where we were, where we are and where we hope to be in the coming year. It sounded almost unbelievable — we did all that? — but in fact, we knew we’d done it because we’ve learned how to do it even better for the next time. Some of us thought ahead and got Starbucks gift cards.
We found out that all our hard work, crazy hours, smooth talk, fast moves, incredible creativity and faking it til we made it had paid off — in spades. CSG is proof of Dory’s timeless words of wisdom: “When life gets you down, do you wanna know what you’ve gotta do? Just keep swimming.” Turns out that over the past couple of years, we’ve become the Caeleb Dressels and Katie Ledeckys — hell, we’re the Michael Phelps — of marketing and communications firms. Gold medals all around!
We went fly fishing and not only did that not suck — as some had feared it might — but it was unbelievably cool and beautiful, exciting, inspiring and frankly, kind of transformative. Thank you, RJ, for the single most wonderful day of — dare I say it — any Gather. Ever.
Finally, on our last day, we broke into teams and explored our visions and views for the future of CSG, our practice groups and our careers. What kind of clients are we looking for? What industries or services do we want to add to CSG’s portfolio? How should we grow our teams? How can we address work/life balance issues? Lots of questions. Lots and lots of different answers — but all of them pointing in one direction.
We just keep swimming.