' Tis the season to be celebrating and giving, and I thought it would be insightful (and fun!) to ask each of our team members what they thought would make great gifts for their departments. Once we got past the “an office with a view of the ocean” and they realized that it was something that would help them with their work life, they all had some great ideas. If you have a friend, spouse, or coworker in the same field—it could give you some last minute ideas.
For the Sales Person - Kim Williams is our Sales Director and is an uber power-user of LinkedIn. He immediately said that if you're in sales, upgrading to the premium version of LinkedIn is a sound investment. The Sales Navigator upgrade will run you $79.99 a month, or you can pay it annually and receive a discount.
For the Project Manager - Erinn Carey is our project manager which means that she's the one who makes sure we're all on track to meet our deadlines for our clients. Her choice of the RealTimeBoard came as no surprise to me as it fits her department and her personality to a T! The RealTimeBoard is a service that lets you store all your ideas on an endless online board and share them with the entire team! You can manage projects, brainstorm, and discuss ideas together with the colleagues anytime, anywhere.
For the Digital Marketer - That's me! Many of you may know that I have been working on video a LOT this last quarter and will carry that into 2015. I would love to have a basic light kit and video-editing software (or some lessons in using iMovie which is on my MacBook). Don't laugh, but a selfie stick would be handy for when I'm filming myself, or a tripod for my iPhone. I'd also like to not have people in the office run from me every time they see me pull out my iPhone...
For the Developer - Jason Turner is our senior developer—one of the team who makes things go. We make a great team! He makes things go and I make them pretty. He speaks in a language that I can't understand, and I talk in vague, colorful terms that drive him crazy. Jason talked about continuing education and conferences as a great gift for his field. Like most of us in the digital world, things change all the time, and staying on top of the latest trends and techniques is critical to staying in front and being the best developer for your clients.
For the Designer - Steven Doyle is our Director of User Experience and Interface Design (which means he makes things go AND he makes them pretty!) and didn't waste a second in responding Adobe Cloud. In the past, in order to work with the Adobe products, you had to buy the software (which was wildly expensive) and install it on the computer you work on, and that was it. If you needed to access it from home to work on a project, you had one of three options: 1) hope you work on a laptop, if not, then 2) hope you can “dial in” to your computer at work, if not, then 3) hope it can wait until tomorrow. With the Adobe Cloud, and your Creative Profile, all of your assets are at your fingertips. You can access your brushes, graphics, text styles, and more across your desktop and mobile apps, so you can work wherever work takes you.
For the Office Manager - If you've ever visited our office, chances are pretty high that you have been greeted by our office manager, Brenda Cregar. Brenda is the one who keeps us organized, is a fierce editor and grammar cop, and ensures that our guests are catered to. She also has her hands on more paper than anyone else, so her idea was one of complete logic and need, a desk fan that wouldn't create a virtual tundra and blow her papers around. Come to think of it, I think we can all use one of those!
For the Business Owner - Adrienne Cregar Jandler is the President of our company, and like most business owners, is in constant motion. Whether it's working with clients, working with staff, or working on winning new business—she does not stop. Ever. So, no surprise when she offered up TWO gift ideas for the President, executive, or owner of a company. The first was an Amazon gift card—then the person can get whatever he or she wants (usually books and things to help them grow as leaders or business people). The other was surprising but made perfect sense—a massage. Adrienne's logic is that few people will gift that to themselves, and even fewer will actually slow down long enough to take advantage of it.
We hope this list will give you some ideas for the creatives and geeks in your life!! And while it's coming out here at Christmas, these ideas are definitely timeless! Let us know what would be a great gift to make your job better!
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