BTI360’s Annual Christmas Party
For the 13th year, we celebrated the annual BTI360 Christmas Party. The night was filled with gifts, laughter with friends, and plenty to be thankful for. Our teammates and their dates joined us at the newly renovated Tower Club in Tysons Corner, VA to celebrate another fantastic year with some delicious food and fantastic Christmas cheer.
What is it like to attend the BTI360 Christmas Party?
The night started appropriately with unseasonably cold temperatures and SNOW!!!. That’s right a dusting of the white stuff greeted everyone at the Tower Club. Upon entering the building our teammates made their way to the 17th floor where the elevator doors opened to a large ballroom filled with garland and Christmas trees lit for the occasion.
After checking outerwear at the coat check, our guests entered our party room a dozen tables decorated to the nines. At the front of the room was a pile surrounding overflowing from the Christmas tree. Once situated, our team had a generous meet and greet time to catch up with friends and get their picture taken in front of the Christmas tree with their Christmas best on.
Gifts, Gifts, and more Gifts!
Then it was time for some real fun. Everyone found their seat at their dinner table while BTI360’s leadership team got to play Santa Claus by handing out mystery white elephant gifts. This was followed with every teammate introducing themselves and sharing the gift they received. Now this takes some special skill, especially if you are aiming to trade your gift with someone else. Patrick took the cake this year with his best Billy Mays impression to garner interest in his bright orange luggage. We hear he had his eye on an Amazon gift card or drone outfitted with a high definition camera. Once everyone had introduced themselves the trading onslaught ensued. Imagine a room of about 100 people with wrapping paper everywhere aggressively trying to sway others to trade their gifts. If you have ever played Settlers of Catan, it was like an enormous card trading frenzy at the end of the game when you know someone is about to win the game. It was intense!
A Special BTI360 Tradition
Finally, after everyone was satisfied with their gift we all settled down for an amazing three-course meal capped off by some much-needed espresso. In the middle of dinner we paused to do a BTI360 Christmas tradition. We play a few Christmas carols using real and virtual Christmas bells. That’s right our CTO developed a bells app that everyone downloads to play their assigned Christmas bell from their phone. With about 100 virtual bells scattered across the room, we did our best to collectively play White Christmas, Jingle Bells, and Silent Night. While we’re no symphony orchestra it’s truly a special time that makes it feel like Christmas.
The Best Part of the Night
The biggest highlight of the evening was getting to hear about all the cool things the BTI360 team has done over the year to do good in the community and around the world. Our Director of Serving, Mike, shared the many stories of team orange serving locally through Habit for Humanity, Angel Tree, and Jills House. Additionally, it was awesome to see the lives touched internationally through relationships with Compassion International, Empowering Action, Good Shepherds Fold, and many more.
After some more awards, including tech talk of the year, we wrapped up, said our goodbyes, and headed off into the snowy winter wonderland that made a perfect end to a wonderful night.
A Special Place to Work
We are truly thankful for the amazing team at BTI360 and thankful that through their hard work and generosity we get to make a difference for our customers and for the world. It’s something that makes BTI360 unique and one of the Best Places to Work in Washington DC.
If you’re a passionate software professional, interested in joining a fun company with a heart for giving back, give us a shout. Check out our current Career Opportunities and what Life @ BTI360 is like. We’re always looking for like-minded engineers, with a heart for serving others, to join the BTI360 family.
