One thing we do really well here at I Love Rewards is our monthly Rewards and Recognition (R&R) Luncheon.  The purpose of this event is to take a step back and recognize all the hard work that people have done over the past month.  This month, the CUTO (Culture up the Office) Committee was in charge of R&R, and we chose the theme of House Party (based on Kid n’ Play’s 1990 movie).  It was the first R&R in our new space, and it was nothing short of a success!  Like always, the food was great, the energy was high, and we shared plenty of laughs!

If you remember a while back, Naomi Simson - founder of Red Balloon Days - came in to to give us a talk.  We even blogged about it passionately.  People around here have been buzzing ever since, so we decided to give everyone a little treat at R&R… we brought her back.  Well, it wasn’t the “real” Naomi, but we had someone dress up like her, and included her in the skit :P  But to make it even more exciting, we gave the entire company a copy of her book, I Want What She’s Having. Talk about leaving your mark on a company, Naomi!

It’s that time of the month again! Our Developers have created some great functionality for our customers. There’s alot of things that are in the “backoffice” that help us service our  customers better, and we’re very excited about that. Things like better tracking, easier user management etc. But on our blog, I want to concentrate on the customer facing stuff!

Let’s get to the highlights…

• Amazon: We’re now shipping our American customers’ products using Amazon. This means a richer catalogue for them!  This is a great win for our team. Amazon has alot of products, and we’ve got the luxury of shopping for the best of them for our American customers. Why not for Canadian Customers you ask? Amazon doesn’t ship out of Canada, so we are at the mercy of the border crossing… have you shopped in Buffalo lately? :)  But don’t worry,  we’re always on the search for newer and better products for all of our customers so our catalogue continues to evolve every month.
• Claim Tool: We now have a claim tool that works for all sorts of our customers, some that sell in a dealer channel, others who record volunteer days worked, you name it, if you want to recognize & reward a behaviour, you can capture it! I am very happy how this tool was built, it allows customers to create their own form, with checks in it, and drop downs, it’s good for any type of customer. We’re continuing to evolve this one, but it’s ready for the prime time!

If you are a customer today, this functionality went live July 2nd… Contact your Client Development Manager to get started…

Today marks the end of our first week in the new office.  The response from the company has been great… everybody seems to be enjoying the open space, large windows, and 25-foot ceilings!  I thought I’d write a quick post highlighting the things the CUTO (Culture Up The Office) Committee did to make this place suitable for our CULTure.

• We painted the walls with our brand colors (gray and blue).
• The center of the office is marked with a rectangular blue meeting room, that we have coined ‘The Cube’.  It’s kind of like the energy box from which everything gets it’s power
• Street signs have been put up to mark each department.
• We’ve left a large open space at the back of the office to facilitate our daily company-wide meeting: TTP (To The Point).
• Inspirational quotes chosen by our employees have been placed all over the office in large blue and white text.
• We’ve taken the RedPoint lounge from our old office and re-created it in a more spacious area with comfortable seating and a library.
• In I Love Rewards fashion, we’ve installed numerous first-class whiteboards to capture the creative thoughts of our employees.
• We’ve named a lot of our smaller meeting rooms after office locations we’ve had in the past (e.g. the 99 Atlantic Room) to ensure we never forget our history.

There’s a lot more, but it’s probably just better if I show you pictures instead.  (I know there are still some loose wires and boxes around, but hey, we’ve only been here 5 days )

Business / Client Development

Lots of open space

The RedPoint Lounge

Finance from the Mezzanine

TTP area

Information Technology

The Cube from a distance

Presentation Room

Inspirational Mahatma Gandhi quote

Memories from our old company…

The Values Wall

The EatIn Center (cafeteria)

The I Love Rewards Family

One of the best things about people here at I Love Rewards is just how driven everyone is. People here are continuously motivated by different goals, whether at work or in their own lives. Recently, I have become more and more involved in competing in various runs such as the Toronto 5 k run or Auckland Quarter Marathon, motivating myself to do better in each race I compete in. So when I was asked to head up a company running club as my task for the Life vision committee, I jumped (or ran) at the chance. I have always wanted to share my experiences with other individuals and help them achieve any of their own individual running goals. And since running helps promote a healthy lifestyle, the running club went hand in hand with the goals of the Life committee.

The I Love Rewards running club helps create a healthy, friendly team atmosphere to help individuals reach their running goals. Currently, the running club meets every week on Tuesday after work where I Love Rewards employees of different speeds or running backgrounds can run together side by side. One of the main things I’ve tried to enforce in the club is that not everyone necessarily has to run together, but no one ends up running alone or is left behind. So far, everyone who was come out running with the club has had a great time.

The Toronto Marathon runs every October and the running club is helping to increase company wide participation in the event. We are hoping to get competitors in the 5k run and even the half marathon. I am beginning to track running club members progress and help push them to be prepared when October comes around. But I hope that after the marathon ends, that people still want to get together after work some days and just go for a run.

Thanks for checking in with us today- we finished the move in record time and will be out of the office until Monday! Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you again soon. Liveblog out!

As we’re cleaning up the last things left behind from our new office’s former incarnation as the Sony/BMG building, Tim was thrilled to discover a memento from his past as a beloved entertainer…

As leader of the CUTO (Culture Up The Office) committee, I was given the task of making this place breathe our CULTure. One way our committee did that was to put up inspirational quotes all over our gray an blue walls. One quote in the I.T. area is by Robin Sharma, and it says, “The person who tries to do everything, accomplishes nothing.” This couldn’t have proven truer today. We were initially supposed to take 2 days to finish off this excruciatingly painful move. 12 hours in, with unremitting teamwork, we’re almost done! Everyone has decided to gear up, and do whatever it takes to finish this thing off today so that we don’t have to work through the weekend. I can’t wait to post pictures of the final result. Bravo I Love Rewards… Bravo!

When I used to hear ‘the wall’ I used to think of Pink Floyd’s top selling album. From now on, I’ll think of our reception wall in the new InCentre.

Of all the things that had to be moved, assembled, plugged in, there is one wall that I think has got the most attention… and is taking up WAY MUCH MORE time than I’m sure we all expected! It is well worth it though, as it’s our PR wall in reception highlighting all the media and press received by I Love Rewards (then again, being in the Marketing Department I’m a little biased!)

Poor Mike, Chris, Rachel and Amanda have been working on this all day and I’m sure they’re realizing now that maybe they shouldn’t have gotten involved! So as I sit on the other side of ‘the wall’ hearing them hammer away, remove hooks, and hammer away to get it just right, I’m so happy with how it’s all turning out! Thanks!

Along with our wonderful new table (as mentioned in the previous post), and ‘the wall’ in our reception area, our first impression to all of our guests will definitely impress!

…I’m looking forward to when we get MORE PR and we need to find another wall!

Rob Catalano

Manager, Marketing

Okay, maybe just til 9pm…

So the exciting news is that we might NOT have to come in tomorrow (a SATURDAY) to finish the move because we are ahead of schedule! The game plan: we’ve decided to divide and conquer - draft a list of everything else that needs to be completed and split ‘er up til it’s all done.

Maybe it won’t quite be no sleep til breakfast, but you get the point

Guest reporter: Cathy Chin-anaka reporting

Looks like Will is getting kicked out of his desk…

…but who’s calling the shots?

IKEA, is obviously an integral component to any move in the ‘modern’ era, and at ILR, we’re no different. Stretching out, putting our feet up and moving into spacious new digs means that there’s some gaps we need to fill and inexpensive Swedish pre-fabricated furniture certainly fits the bill!

I’m proud to blog that not long ago (who am I kidding, I’ve completely lost track of time) I completed the assembly of a luxurious wooden coffee table for our new and improved In Centre! While it may seem that putting together eight pieces of pre-fab particle board is a job for one, at ILR the team spirit extends well beyond our day-to-day office work. Along with the collaborative services of Mike “your pliers make a better hammer than my pliers” Shaw and Chris “this is like the time I helped my girlfriend move into her apartment” Kemp, we have successfully ensured that visitors to the new ILR offices will have a place to set magazines, bottled water and and any number of other objects under twenty pounds on each and every visit.

Of course, we can’t take all the credit as a full team of helpers delivered us everything from pliers to hammers (a little late though, Zak) to witty remarks. My personal favourite? “What is Zye’s desk doing in reception?”. Classic. Anyways, it looks like my desk just came off the truck so it’s time to get busy again. A movers work is never done…

Here’s Jenna’s experience so far with the move:

“The move so far has been successful…there haven’t been any objects dropped or broken…YET.., surprisingly! Everyone has been really helping out and working hard to get the 4 trucks emptied and all the stuff into the new space!

It has been a little bit of a slow move with different zones and departments spread over and breaks being taken but things are coming together and the new InCenter is starting to take shape.

When carrying boxes off the truck into our storage area, I somehow ended up with a foreign liquid “slime” all over my arms and had black spots smeared up and down my arms! Apparently working hard and pitching in, you end up with slime all over that isn’t the easiest to get off!

It is exciting to finally be in our new space and to have a change but it will be more exciting when the moves over and we are all settled.

Stop by and come visit the new InCenter!! ”

The move is well underway! The movers are slowly bringing our furniture in, we’ve got Matt’s laptop with cellular wireless up and running (Jerry’s busily setting up the network as we speak) and we’re ready to go. Pictures to come very shortly. Stay tuned!

Unrelated note: Cito Gaston is rehired as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays! OMG!

We’re scheduled to meet at our new office at 1pm. Movers have been taking everything from 99 Atlantic all morning, while all I Love Rewards employees got the opportunity to take the morning off to prepare for the big day. I’m grateful for it, as a few of us were toasting the move a bit late at the Madison last night.

First Date Dress Code is mercifully suspended for today’s activities. It’s going to be a lot of running around and heavy lifting- “first impressions” are not so important today, though it is a big first for the company.

I’m off to meet some of the IT guys for pre-move Roti Friday- if there’s a wireless connection at Island Foods, we’ll see you there.

Twas the night before the big move, and all through the office, everyone was stirring (to make the 5p.m. packing deadline!).

Laptops, folders and books were placed in big blue boxes with care;

In hopes that the movers would soon be there;

Down went the whiteboards and network in a flash;

Out came the bubble wrap and packing tape so nothing would smash;

Razor whistled, and urged, and called them by name;

Waiting until everyone finished their RedPoints and came;

“On IT, Marketing, Member Experience, Growth, Finance and Sales;

To 190 Liberty Street (where we will get all our new mail!)”;