For years we’d have (and often not have) traditional company meetings during which someone would talk about the schedule, who’s working on which project, and tick the box of having a meeting… but enjoyment and engagement levels would be low. So, since everyone’s time is valuable, and we talk and think about work so much as it is, we decided that instead of having traditional corporate monthly or weekly meetings, we’d try to make them fun and focus on what interests us individually. This translated into a company lunch once a month in which two randomly selected people talk individually about something they enjoy, or find interesting.
Usually, if they find it interesting, it’s going to be interesting to the rest of us, and it helps us get to know the people with whom we spend so much time. Having different personalities in the form of architects, civil engineers and structural engineers in the same office, you could think we’re all fairly different, but whenever we get together we realize how much we have in common. Company culture isn’t an easy thing to navigate, but this has been great for us, so we thought we’d share… it’s been going strong for 5 years now!
For fun, here are some examples of past talks:
- Fishing in Alaska
- Hot Springs
- Trip to Italy
- South Utah Trip
- Bioretention: Rain Gardens
- Chinese New Year
- Lake Oroville Spillway Failure
- Europe Trip to France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, Switzerland
- “Comparison of Shaking Table Experimental Results for Different Aspect Ratios of Dry Storage Casks” (master’s thesis)
- Floating Houses
- North-South Water Transfer Project in China
- Family Trip to the Bahamas
- The Evolution of Exercise Science: Adaptations, Ways to Measure and Improve
- Cliff Jumping and Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT)
- Sune Ecology
- Tunguska Event
- Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
- History of Indian Cuisine
- How Carbon Fiber Bikes are Designed and Manufactured
- History of the Corgi Dog Breed
- Night Vision
- Van Gogh and the Immersive Experience
- Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication by Vanessa Van Edwards (book review)
- Rolex Learning Center
- Yerba Buena Center of Art
- Hangzhou Urbanization
- Bamboo and Architecture
- Chinese Breakfast
- Base Jumping
- Skydiving
- Slacklining
- Kelly Slater’s Wave Machine
- Zaha Hadid
- BIG Architecture
- Sleep by Matthew Walker (book review)
- Commercialism vs. Our Health
- Outlive by Peter Attia (book review)
- Winchester Mansion
- Analemma Tower – A Building Hanging from an Asteroid
- NYC’s Highline
- Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Art Installations
- Triathlon
- Trip to India, Japan, Morocco and Jordan
- History of Wooden Boats – Lake Tahoe (dad’s model)
- History of Electric Vehicles and Musk
- Villa Savoye – Corbusier
- World’s Fair Architecture
- NYC – The Shed, The Vessel and High Line
- Iconic Architecture – Pyramids to the Sphere
- Doghouses for Charity – Children’s Cabinet
- Metropol Parasol Sevilla – “The Mushroom”
- Race Cars and Tracks – Slot Car Exhibition
- Legos – Star Wars Starship and Saturn V Rocket Exhibit