Throwback Thursday: This blog was written in January 2020. Four years (and a pandemic) later, here I am getting ready for another Gibson State Of The Company meeting - this time with over 170 employees tuning in from offices in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Utah! It has been exciting to see these meetings evolve with our organization, but even if some of the elements have changed, the essentials are the same – we are paying close attention to the details to make this meeting a great experience for our people, employee recognition is a BIG part of the day, and we always try to have some fun!  

Earlier this month I attended my first Gibson State Of The Company (SOTC) meeting. All 140 Gibson employees gathered in South Bend for the day to reflect on the past 12 months and ignite our energy for the year ahead.

I was born into a Green Bay Packers family. I have cheered for the Packers my entire life. There were even a few childhood birthday wishes centered around Green Bay’s success…or Chicago’s failure. I’m proud to say I have successfully made my two daughters into Packers fans. It has been 26 years since I’ve missed watching a game.

So, why the passion…or is it obsession? And what does it have to do with business?

Earlier this month I attended my first Gibson State Of The Company (SOTC) meeting. All 140 Gibson employees gathered in South Bend for the day to reflect on the past 12 months and ignite our energy for the year ahead.

I set modest goals for my first SOTC. I didn’t want to trip when walking on and off the stage and wanted to limit my creative pronunciations of names when announcing work anniversaries. I even got some laughs during my presentation – I think the laughs were of the “at me”, not “with me”, variety!

In all seriousness, I found this day to be incredibly valuable. Being relatively new to Gibson, the opportunity to meet fellow employees and put names with faces was a big part of the day for me. The energy and pride everyone had about Gibson, their clients, colleagues, and community was very evident and exciting to see. There was no doubt leaving the meeting that the Gibson culture is strong.