At Crossfuze, getting together with colleagues is a leading priority of ours. Being a remote company by nature, we see a lot of our faces through the computer screen. Because of this, each year we gather by business division in fun, new locations around the globe to talk about our successes from the past year, the next year’s vision and how we are going to achieve our goals. This conference is called Crossfuze Way.
Our theme for the 2022 Crossfuze Way conference was Putting People First. We felt this theme was integral to our goals for 2022, especially after almost two years of not being able to gather in person.
What did Putting People First look like at this year’s conference? It looked like volunteering across the Nashville community at organizations such as Mother-to-Mother, the Red Cross, McNeilly Center for Children, and so many others. We also ran two virtual food drives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Buffalo, New York, where two of our other Crossfuze Way conferences were held. It looked like bringing in Hamza Khan, a global keynote speaker and bestselling author that spoke to us about combating burnout before it becomes a reality. It looked like discussing our Family First benefits that were instated in 2022 to reinforce that our people are the most important asset we have. Finally, it looked like recognizing our employees that are leading examples of what it means to live #theCrossfuzeWay.
We often talk about what it means to put people first and live the Crossfuze Way here at Crossfuze, but I wanted to shed light on what that looked like in my experience at one of this year’s conferences. I attended Crossfuze Way in Nashville, Tennessee.
On Friday, I was able to greet my fellow colleagues as they checked in for the conference; the first time I had seen many of our charismatic faces in person due to the global pandemic. Every single person was so excited to be there! The day continued with headshots, an hour of light bites, wine and conversation before we headed over to White Limozeen, a Dolly Parton-themed rooftop restaurant, for a Welcome Reception.
Saturday, we kicked off the day in the main conference room at the Kimpton Aertson hotel. Chris Howard, our CEO, gave an incredible keynote address that had everyone excited for the content to come. Throughout the morning, we continued hearing from multiple different resources from within the company on so many great topics. I, along with five other colleagues, sat on a panel to discuss our Family First benefits and what they looked like in action. The morning conference was rounded out with a guest address from Hamza Khan that reminded us all to prioritize calm over chaos and work smarter to combat burnout before it even begins. After lunch, we all gathered to go to our respective community service activities. Crossfuze in the Community is one of the ways our company commits to tangibly making a difference in the world around us. Saturday evening, we made our way over to Studio A, a historic television studio attached to the Grand Ole Opry, for an incredible awards show. We celebrated our employees and teams that took #theCrossfuzeWay to a new level in 2021. It was an inspiring evening listening to how our employees truly push each and every one of us to be better people, both at work and out in the world. Our Crossfuze Way award winner, Jim Trezza, left us with his final words of “Attitude of Gratitude” and that was definitely something that will stick with many of us as we continue through 2022. The evening ended with a lively show at the Grand Ole Opry and a backstage tour.
Sunday morning, we started the day with divisional breakout sessions, where gathered with our respective teams and go through our 2022 initiatives and action plans. The morning finished out with an executive round table discussion where we could ask the leadership team any questions, both live and some submitted ahead of time (this is one of our employees’ favorite sessions). Quickly after that, our teams were back on their way home, invigorated for a successful year ahead!
The Crossfuze Way conferences always have such a positive impact, being able to come together in-person with our colleagues to fuel the fire for the year.
Cheers to an incredible 2022!
