I met a lot of interesting people at Mixergy and had some great conversations. I couldn’t believe how many people turned out for the first event like this in Orange County. Mixergy was also the first event that we’ve thrown here at our headquarters since I started and it was great to hear how cool people thought our office was and to see how many people we can fit in this space. I can’t wait for the next big event here.

Big thanks to Andrew from Mixergy, the Tia Juana’s staff, and the EMG team for making this so successful.

On October 18^th Earthbound Media Group sponsored 4, 5 person teams made up of EMG employees, friends and family to compete in the Armed Services YMCA Mud Run in Camp Pendleton, CA. The Mud Run is a challenging 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, low sand crawl, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit. EMG teams raced under the corporate team category alongside 364 other teams both competitively and for fun. With a time of 1 hour and 10 minutes, the EMG Bravo team of Damien Navarro, Christine Navarro, David Navarro, John Maas and Anthony Cerche received first place medals. The true reward for most however, was the thought of a nap and warm shower waiting for them at home.

The team got a much needed break from the daily grind to go offsite and attend the first annual EMG summer retreat held in the clubhouse of our very own Amanda Vande Brake’s apartment complex. The day was a good mix between work and play with presentations about what we’ve accomplished so far in 2008, where were headed moving into 2009 and the always popular anonymous Q and A session mixed in with team building games, food and drinks and a special guest appearance from our favorite Texan, Archana. Also making a special appearance was Mr. Business Casual himself Robert Gonzalez reporting for his first day on the job. As a reward for our hard work, and thanks to some speedy presentations, the retreat ended ahead of schedule and the EMG team got to head home a few hours early.

The EMG team had a un-BEE-lievable visit from a large cluster of bees who decided to make their home, over the course of a night, above the front entrance to the Irvine office. Rather than exterminating the swarm, EMG called in a team of pros to collect the hive and relocate them to a safer place. By the end of the day no injuries were reported and everyone had a great time reminiscing about the funny but extremely random bee invasion.

In the spirit of the 4th of July EMG celebrated its first annual Independence Day Ice Cream Social. The event was action packed with tons of ice cream goodness along with a good ole American patriotism contest. EMG employees had the chance to strut their stuff around the conference room in their best red, white and blue outfit in an attempt to be crowned “most patriotic”. With the loudest applause, Aysha was named the winner. Brain freeze and stomach aches were limited to only a few cases.