My First Employee Off-Site Event

Ocean Spray Bog at Patriot Place

Week 1 of Summer Term
(May 7-13)

Monday marks doomsday; the start of what will be the most challenging two months of my graduate school career. If you recall, I now work full-time, as well as take a full course load in the evenings. I am more than a little nervous about the whole thing.

My first day of my first full-time week opens up with some budget reviews. I had set up a meeting with someone in sales to help me understand some of the program budgets that pertain to her work with stores such as BJ's, Sam's and Costco.

After that wraps up I head to a meeting to discuss some new packaging options we are working on. I make sure to take notes and understand all of the elements of the program as best I can as this will be one project I will be expected to eventually take over.

After the meeting lets out I have just a few minutes at my desk before a group 'Meet and Greet' with the commercialization team. We all gather in our cozy Marketing lounge area and I get to meet several of the members of the commercialization team at once . They are all super nice and the meeting is a great way for me to see who I might be working with in the future as each new product launch and even package redesign requires a commercialization manager. In fact, I already know one of the attendees from meetings for a new foods product we are trying to launch.

After lunch I head to the Board Room (a quite fancy looking conference room with paintings of important-looking executives placed on every wall) for some more training on our budget management software. It's pretty complex and my notebook looks like a mess of notes when I leave.

The rest of my afternoon is spent working through all of my projects, with a nice break around 3:00 pm for another 1:1; this time with a Senior Marketing Manager that I had met previously during my interview process. I use the opportunity to hear all about her work at Ocean Spray over the years and the several new products and package redesigns she has worked on. She had amazing insights into some of the projects I'm working on as well.

Leaving the office. Isn't it pretty?

After work I head right to campus for my first night of class of the Summer Semester. I'm taking Marketing in the Service Sector on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tonight we get the general overview of the course and I start to adjust to what my schedule will be like for the next two months.

Tuesday is a day of 'Meet and Greets'; I have three lined up! These meet and greets include meeting with a Social Media Specialist (which is right up my alley!), a session with the Manager of Digital Media (another topic that I adore) and finally a meeting with the Senior Manager of Product Development, where I even get to try some prototype Ocean Spray food products (super win!).

In between all of these awesome meetings I attend training on a new Material Request Form process (e.g. how to request UPCs for new products and packaging), have my weekly 1:1 with my Manager to check in on how I'm doing and a group meeting with the sales team to discuss merchandising vehicles for Craisins^®.

That night is my first Consumer Behavior class of the semester. The professor seems great and tells very entertaining stories - essential when your class is from 7:30-9:30 pm after a long day of work.

Wednesday is the start of my very first off-site work meeting ever! I'm super stoked for the two-day event at Patriot Place with the Marketing team at Ocean Spray. Plus, I get to sleep in just a tad longer since the commute to Patriot Place is slightly shorter than to our corporate offices. When I arrive, I slide into the meeting room in time for some mingling, Ocean Spray juice and coffee.

The kick-off to the two-day meeting has several marketing managers presenting trends and recent findings for each product segment. This is then followed by the Innovation Team presenting on competitors, trends in the market and more.

Scavenging: Me with Toby Keith's Guitar (and an Ocean Spray juice, of course)

We break after about three hours for lunch in the Renaissance Hotel's swanky lounge. We make sure to eat up because next is a professional scavenger hunt game put on by Cashunt. The game is super fun and involves two hours of locating 100 items, gold coins, getting video footage of bystanders doing conga lines with us and more! My favorite part? Getting to see, first hand, the Ocean Spray sponsored bog behind Bass Pro Shop. It was simply gorgeous. I just wish I could have taken my time to explore it- but scavenger hunt duty calls!

After the hunt, we get the results on the rankings from the eight teams, and would you believe it, one of the Ocean Spray teams turned out to be the highest scoring team of the year for Cashunt and are now invited to their national competition! How fun!

Signature Ocean Blue cocktails made with Ocean Spray Blueberry Juice

After our fill of scavenging, we have about an hour to go up to our rooms (did I mention this is an overnight event and I get my own room? Fancy!) and prepare for our mixology class and awards dinner. We spend the next several hours learning about the Foods service business of Ocean Spray, as well as indulging in H'ordeuves and signature Ocean Spray cocktails ranging from the 'Ocean Blue' to the 'Classic Cosmo'.

Dinner follows as does the awards ceremony. It was a perfect event and wonderful way for me to casually mingle with all of my new coworkers. I simply loved it!

I end my night with some textbook reading before passing out, exhausted from a great day.

Thursday I'm up early for breakfast at the hotel and to start our Marketing Department engagement survey discussion. You see, Ocean Spray conducts employee engagement surveys every couple of years and now we are looking at the most recent set of data. I think it speaks volumes that a company is willing to truly invest the time to take in employee feedback.

This all wraps up around 12:00 pm and I head home. I am told that I can had a free half-day (oh the glory!). In that extra few hours I am able to finish up my homework for class this week, do a ton of errands and other such things. My productivity made me happier than you know.

In Consumer Behavior class that night we discuss a case on Volkswagen's 'New' Beetle and have some friendly debate on how it should or could have been positioned to the market to successfully leverage the brand's history.

Friday I'm back in the office. I close out my week by continuing to review budget items and trying to figure out our budget management system. Fortunately, my day is broken up with a meet-and-greet with the sales planning manager (I love meeting all these new people!). It's super informative and opens my eyes to all the complexities that an agricultural cooperative must consider in planning (hint: fruit availability and usage is a huge factor).

I go home that night and just lounge. I promise I tried to do some homework but I was just too worn out from my first of many long weeks during the Summer Semester (but hey, I survived!).

A slightly less appealing view than the bog...

Saturday is the start of a less-than-fun weekend for me. On the menu: five textbook chapters, three cases to read and prepare for class, a project proposal, topic talk presentation, a paper on consumer self perception and an additional case with a 6-7 page write-up attached to it - and two days in which to do all of it. Cue panic.

I'm into the library that morning by about 10:00 am after running a couple of errands. I stay in that library until 5:30 pm, breaking only for a quick respite at Au Bon Pain for lunch.

Mint Julep at Citizen Public House (in honor of the Derby last week)

After 7.5 grueling hours, my library study compatriot and I decided that another break is needed so we make  our way to Fenway for drinks and appetizers at Citizen Public House and Oyster Bar.

Sunday morning I'm back at Snell Library for some more powerhouse studying. But besides all that homework stuff I also manage to return some old textbooks for refunds, order a delicious pasta take-out meal from Black Jack Pasta using Seamless and enjoy it while doing my laundry at the laundromat.

* The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern University, Ocean Spray Cranberries, either entity's staff or affiliates.