We’ve had the privilege of facilitating the BioWare Edmonton holiday celebration for several years. Twist… This year, we were tasked with facilitating EA’s holiday event across all of their Canadian studios. This included EA Vancouver, Metalhead Studios (Victoria), BioWare Edmonton,  Glu Toronto, EA Montreal, and EA Kitchener. This Canada-wide event was unlike anything that Tycoon has ever done before.

Objective: Our objective was to curate and execute a holiday event that was fun, engaging, and completely virtual, spanning across 5 different time zones.

Our ‘December to Remember’ theme was inspired by the advent calendar and having 5-days of different activations during both the day and evening, incorporating bilingual programming throughout. 

Themes for each day included connection, relaxation, competition, learning, creating, and celebration!

Outcome: The event spanned the course of a work week (Monday – Friday) and included employees being sent an ‘Advent(ure) Gift Box’ curated package, based on an advent calendar, with 5 different mini ‘day of’ packages to be opened each day. Each package of items complemented the virtual events, games, classes and activities that took place each day. Attendees had several options to choose from to ensure that a variety of interests were met. Programming was offered over lunchtime and during the evening to adhere to employees’ schedules and preferences. Tycoon had 6 weeks to plan the event.

Digital programming components included a virtual walking tour of New York, baking and cooking classes for each studio (including a separate delivery of ingredients and alcohol), competitions, a pub trivia night, charcuterie board making classes, plant classes, and calligraphy classes. The final day featured a grand finale show of full-on energetic entertainment that encouraged all of the attendees, across all five provinces, to join together! Throughout the day we had trivia and prizes.

The national event catered to 3,500 employees across 5 different provinces. This also meant we were essentially planning 5 different events. We had 3 weeks to have custom branded items manufactured and shipped to us and a single week to package over 18,000 boxes (each mailing box had 5 individual boxes inside). This took over 600 hours, and approximately 30 volunteers to execute. It’s also worth mentioning that severe weather conditions impacted BC and the East Coast, which impacted supply shipments coming in as well as interfered with our shipping packages out to attendees.

An overview of each day’s theme and activations:

  • Day 1 | December 6, 2021 | Local Comfort and Joys – Kick Off Day
    • Staff received an email in the morning with a surprise video that unveiled the week’s holiday celebration campaign and instructed them to open their package for Day 1.
    • Staff were encouraged via Slack to submit their favorite ‘joys’ with a conversation about their favorite holiday tradition or their favorite part of their Day 1 box.
  • Day 2 | December 7, 2021 | Fireside Roasting and Toasting – Movies and Entertainment
    • Private New York virtual walking tour of holiday film sets and iconic NY holiday spots.
    • Home movie party package with s’more kit, popcorn, and movie rental.
  • Day 3 | December 8, 2021 | Crafty Crews and Culinary Do’s – Making and Learning
    • Live ‘how to’ classes.
    • Baking and cooking classes.
  • Day 4 | December 9, 2021 | In It to Win It – Competitions
    • Festivus Dresstivus all-day competition.
    • Virtual games and competitions.
    • Pub trivia night.
  • Day 5 | December 10, 2021 | Rock Around the Clock – Finale Day
    • Video teasers and a countdown to finale with prizes given at each hour.
    • Finale show.
    • Virtual photo booth.
    • Bites and bevies.

Platform: Zoom for livestreams and each studio’s Slack for engagement, communication, etc.