Detroit’s Legacy of Innovation

Detroit earned its reputation as the Motor City through decades of automotive innovation and manufacturing leadership. By the mid-20th century, the region was producing roughly half of all cars made in the United States, establishing itself as one of the country’s most important industrial centers. Today, that industrious spirit extends far beyond automotive manufacturing. From a vibrant art scene and a growing technology campus, Detroit is investing in its future like never before.

Finding the Right Office Location

That’s why when Andy Femminineo first got the idea for a Detroit-based DMC office, the city’s rich manufacturing past and emerging technology sector felt like a natural fit. Andy immediately started looking for spaces in the Detroit area and landed on Green Garage, an industrial coworking building in Midtown. “I wanted a space that we could just get started in with two, three, or four of us and then find a full-time lease.”

DMC has long been committed to creating workspaces where people want to be, and for Andy, that meant finding a location with plenty of natural light, architectural character, and, of course, in-office perks.

Green Garage Coworking Space in Midtown, Detroit

“I looked at about four or five places, and I knew right away that Green Garage would be perfect. The building itself was built using a lot of the reclaimed materials from the businesses that had been there before: an old manufacturing building, an automotive shop and garage.”

In addition to its sustainability focus, Green Garage is also deeply invested in the surrounding community, offering coworking residents a pantry stocked with locally sourced snacks and food. “The little market sells locally produced, Michigan-made goods. It’s very community-driven,” Andy shared.

While the team may eventually move into a larger, dedicated office of its own, Green Garage is currently providing an ideal place for the Detroit team to work in person while enjoying everything Midtown has to offer.

Establishing Office Culture

Creating a workplace people enjoy starts with culture. Through after-work activities, mentorship programs, and team lunches, every DMC office is encouraged to build relationships and connect beyond day-to-day project work. Although the Detroit team is small, they regularly explore the city’s attractions and bond outside of the office.

“Spencer was one of our first new hires, and he has been the driving force behind many of our team outings,” Andy remarked. This past summer, for example, the team spent an evening at Full Throttle, driving go-karts and playing VR games together. The team also regularly takes in Detroit sports, visiting Comerica Park for baseball games and Little Caesars Arena to watch the Red Wings (RIP, The Joe). Thanks to the office’s location, almost all of these attractions are little more than a short walk or bike ride away.

DMC’s Detroit team members at sports games, go-karting, and an archery range

“My favorite event so far has been our first Tigers game as a team,” Spencer explained. “There was a fan who wore ten jerseys to the game and took them off as different players came to bat. Then afterward we all rented scooters and zipped through the city back to the office. It was so fun getting to know the Detroit office outside of work.”

As for future events, Spencer has a few fun and very Michigan-themed ideas. “I think it would be fun to go to the Michigan/Michigan State game—preferably football, but basketball would be fun, too! There’s so much history behind that rivalry, every game is electric, and now we have University of Michigan alums and Michigan State alums on the team.”

When it’s time to collaborate on client projects, Detroit’s diverse industrial landscape provides no shortage of engineering challenges. As Andy explained, “Detroit is the Motor City, of course, but our office does a lot more high-tech work, SCADA projects, and general manufacturing because there are so many industries here, including aerospace and pharmaceuticals throughout Michigan.”

What’s Next for DMC Detroit?

Detroit’s history and momentum make it an exciting place to work, but it’s the people who have made the office feel truly special. From finding a workspace that meets the team’s growing needs to building connections through after-work events, Midtown has proven to be an excellent place for DMC to lay down roots in Michigan and continue delivering the engineering expertise and partnerships DMC is known for around the country.

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With 43 employees joining DMC since May, this summer has been packed with opportunities to celebrate. Across the country, teams gathered to introduce newcomers to their coworkers, communities, and company culture. Take a look at how our offices welcomed their newest teammates this season.

Welcoming New Hires

DMC places a strong emphasis on onboarding and helping every new employee have their “Best First Day” (BFD). From day one, anyone joining the company can expect a fully prepared workspace, a ready-to-go laptop, an activated key card, and a lunch hosted in their honor.

But the celebration doesn’t stop there, because each employee is also welcomed with a team event designed to help them get to know their colleagues and city. Think escape rooms, happy hours, and city tours; offering new team members an opportunity to build connections from the start while experiencing the fun, community-focused culture that makes DMC unique.

Exploring Architecture in Chicago

In July, members of DMC’s Chicago team took the world-renowned Chicago Architecture Boat Tour. The boat tour starts at the end of the river that opens into Lake Michigan. From there, it travels up the Chicago River while a tour guide points to famous buildings along the riverfront, explaining the year in which they were constructed, their architectural style, architect, and historical significance.

The tour began near the mouth of the Chicago River, where it meets Lake Michigan. From there, the boat traveled along the river as the guide highlighted some of the city’s most iconic buildings, sharing details about when they were constructed, the architectural styles they represent, the architects who designed them, and their historical significance.

The eras of the buildings run the gamut with some dating to the early 20th Century, like the Wrigley Building, and others built much more recently, like the sleek Apple Store Building sitting in front of the Tribune Tower. There are always a handful of historical facts that stand out on each tour, and each DMC Chicago team member, especially those new to the city, had their own takeaway:

Axe Throwing in Denver

Denver found a unique way to welcome one of its newest engineers, Jaron O’Grady, to the team when the office headed to an axe-throwing venue. “We were divided into two teams and competed against each other,” Julia explained. “It was tied most of the time!”

Teammates took turns hurling axes at targets, with points awarded based on accuracy. While everyone had their moments of success, no one on the Denver team will be quitting their day job to become a professional axe thrower anytime soon.

The group also had the chance to try throwing knives, and opinions were evenly split on which activity was more fun. Whatever the preference, the event gave the team a memorable way to spend time together outside the office getting to know Jaron.

A Tiki-Themed Party in Cincinnati

In Cincinnati, the team also took a boat tour, swapping architecture for a tiki theme complete with drinks, music, team bonding, and, of course, Hawaiian shirts. The Cincinnati office wanted to do something original to welcome Rob Orr, who joined the Automation team.

“Everyone got in the spirit! Almost everyone had floral or island-themed shirts, and the boat offered leis and hats, too,” Dylan remembered about the day. The boat took the team up the Ohio River, approaching downtown. They got to see views of the Cincinnati skyline and stopped for food at a waterside restaurant on the way back.

Hiring Continues This Fall

From architecture cruises and axe-throwing competitions to tiki boat tours on the Ohio River, each welcome party reflected the unique personality of its local office while sharing the same goal: helping new hires build connections from day one. As DMC continues to grow, employee connection remains an important part of what makes our culture special.

Looking ahead, we’re continuing this hiring momentum. In the fall, DMC will be traveling to career fairs and events across the country to meet the next generation of engineers. These events are a great chance to connect with talented students and discuss professional opportunities that define a career at DMC from day one.

Whether we’re welcoming new teammates at a local office event or meeting aspiring engineers on campus, we’re always looking for talented people who are eager to learn, grow, and have fun along the way. We can’t wait to see who the guest of honor at the next welcome party will be.

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DMC’s night out at Casa Bonita.

The Denver office headed to the famous Casa Bonita in Lakewood, Colorado, with a few plus ones in tow. There was fantastic food, a plethora of performances, and, of course, camaraderie among teammates.

Why Casa Bonita?

Casa Bonita is a Mexican restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado, that opened in 1974. It was originally part of a chain of restaurants that started in Oklahoma City.

What’s so special about this Mexican restaurant, you might ask? Well, Casa Bonita is a highly immersive dining experience. Picture tableside magic shows, puppet theater, hidden rooms and explorable caves, arcade games, and a 30-foot indoor waterfall with cliff divers, and you’ll start to understand a fraction of the spectacle that is Casa Bonita.

Casa Bonita’s star has also risen in popular culture! In recent years, it was purchased and restored by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. What began as a passion project turned into a roughly $50 million investment to revive the iconic restaurant, preserving a uniquely Colorado experience for future generations.

Max Domenech summed up the experience perfectly: “For those who know Casa Bonita, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, no explanation will suffice.” And off to Casa Bonita the Denver team went.

The Crew

The team started throwing around the idea of going to Casa Bonita as an Activity Fund event back in 2022, but it wasn’t until this year that the Denver team was finally able to make that dream a reality. “We waited months to be able to get a reservation,” Andrew Williams noted.

But secure a reservation, they did!

When a spot opened on March 12^th, the team jumped on it, and 12 teammates headed to Casa Bonita for Thursday night dinner with friends and family.

First Impressions: Walking Into Another World

When you first arrive at Casa Bonita, one of the first things you notice is the building’s cotton-candy pink façade and iconic Spanish colonial-style bell tower. This appearance is completely intentional and meant to start the immersive experience before restaurant-goers ever step through the door.

But even the outside of the building has treasures hiding in plain sight.

At the very top of the iconic pink bell tower sits a 22-karat-gold dome and statue of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor of Mexico. It’s such an iconic piece of architecture in Lakewood that the city designated the Casa Bonita building a historic landmark in 2015.

And that’s just the exterior. The immersive adventure really begins once you find your table.

Casa Bonita By the Numbers

We’ve covered the pink façade, the classic Mexican architecture, and the 22-karat gold dome, but Casa Bonita is a 52,000-square-foot restaurant with treasures galore. There are arcade games, performers, stunts, music, treasures, and caverns scattered throughout the restaurant—not to mention a 30-foot waterfall.

Let’s take a look at some of the impressive stats this restaurant puts up on a yearly basis:

The team walked into Casa Bonita for Thursday night dinner and was taken to a table large enough to accommodate a party of 12+. “Entering the building is like going into a different world. Our table was located in the caverns,” Andrew said, “complete with the sound of dripping water. We also passed a jungle area on the way to our table.” Casa Bonita creates an experience for diners the moment they walk through the front door, and it certainly doesn’t end when the food arrives at the table.

Every 15 minutes, restaurant-goers can expect to see cliff divers, sword fights, puppet shows, and magicians throughout their dining experience. “It’s an experience. Dinner is just an excuse to be there!” Andrew also added.

Once everyone got their fill of Mexican food, it was time to explore. The team spent plenty of time around the famous Casa Bonita pool and Acapulco-style cliffs, but they also explored the caves, a wishing well, and haunted trails.

Why Events Like This Matter at DMC

Experiences like this go far beyond the run-of-the-mill team dinner. Stepping away from project work and into a shared, unique experience gives DMC team members the chance to connect and enjoy each other’s company. Whether it’s watching cliff divers while taking a second helping of nachos or exploring hidden caverns after a puppet show, DMC after-work events help strengthen the relationships that carry into everyday work and allow us to crack a smile while solving a complex problem.

At DMC, collaboration is at the core of everything we do. Events like this create opportunities to build trust and communicate more openly. That foundation translates directly into stronger project teams, more effective problem-solving, and ultimately better outcomes for our clients.

Just as importantly, it reflects DMC’s culture. We take our work seriously, but we also recognize the value of having fun. A night at Casa Bonita is a reminder that great teams are built through genuine connection just as effectively as they’re built through sharing technical expertise.

We’ll let Julia Cherkasskaya have the last word: “Three hours flew by!”

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Organizing the Event

2026 was DMC’s second year hosting SWE externs, but the organization itself has a storied history. For over seven decades, the organization has centered itself around giving women engineers a voice and opportunities in STEM, and today the organization has 21,000 members and 300 student sections around the country.

DMC engineers and the Recruiting team first came up with the idea to partner with SWE in 2024. A few DMC engineers participated in SWE events throughout their college careers, seeing firsthand the impact an organization like SWE can have on professional growth.

They reached out to prominent universities in the Chicago area, invited students to apply for an externship, and designed a series of hands-on activities for groups to complete over the course of two days. It’s a great opportunity for young engineers to gain hands-on experience with tools they may not see in the classroom and to solve real engineering challenges they might encounter in their careers.

DMC’s 2026 SWE Externs & Itinerary

Students in the 2026 SWE Externship came from the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The eight participants took part in the two-day program on January 6 and 7, where they were split into groups and guided through hands-on lab experiences by members of the Automation and Test & Measurement teams.

After completing the labs, the students networked with team members of the DMC Chicago office over lunch, attended a demo of our custom-built “Drop Bot”, and listened to project presentations created by DMC engineers. The event concluded with a 30-minute Q&A session with DMC CEO Frank Riordan.

Automation Lab

The Automation Lab was designed to show externs how to work in TIA Portal to program a Siemens 1212 PLC using ladder logic to control a two-way stoplight at an intersection. After reviewing the P&ID and functional specification, they structured the code by defining inputs, building a state machine for reliable operation, and setting outputs to control the lights.

They then downloaded their program to the PLC and tested system behavior using physical lights and a TP700 Comfort HMI panel, verifying that the stoplights responded correctly. The lab mirrored the planning, programming, and commissioning processes used in DMC automation projects.

Test & Measurement Lab

The Test & Measurement lab introduced the externs to industry hardware. Using an NI cDAQ with digital output and analog input modules, they sent signals and collected data from a simulated four-way intersection, applying their knowledge of signals to understand how the system responded. They began by using NI MAX to identify which signals corresponded to specific outputs, mirroring a common troubleshooting approach.

With this foundation, externs transitioned to programming in LabVIEW to build a more customized simulation of the intersection. They explored the graphical programming environment and considered ways to improve usability, gaining insight into how DMC consultants approach projects by first understanding existing systems and then enhancing them to better meet user needs.

Conclusion

The 2026 SWE externs made valuable connections with DMC engineers and gained hands-on experience with tools they may not encounter in the classroom. Just as importantly, the externship gave DMC engineers the opportunity to mentor and support the next generation as they prepare for their careers. We’re excited to continue building on this experience and look forward to hosting future SWE externships, creating even more opportunities for students to engage with our team, explore engineering in practice, and see what it’s like to be part of DMC.

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Find out more about the team’s fun night out on the town, DMC’s commitment to company culture, plus a few details about Ragtime’s award-winning revival.

The NYC Office’s Outing to the Theater

The show itself went off without a hitch, and the team sat back and watched Broadway stars like Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy, Brandon Uranowitz, and an ensemble cast trip the light fantastic. Everyone who attended the show had great things to say about the performances and production, “The show had so much talent! I was so excited to see Shaina Taub because I loved Suffs,” Megan added. For Leo Herman, the show’s staging really stood out: “I really enjoyed the staging—there was one part where the entire back of the stage opened up to reveal this huge space, and it was super cool!”

In true New York fashion, the nine team members hopped on the uptown 1 train after work to the Lincoln Center Complex. They stopped briefly at the theater’s pond to snap a picture (see if you can spot the DMCer who accidentally fell in). And then it was curtain call, and the team took their seats in the Vivian Beaumont Theater’s mezzanine. “The Lincoln Center is cool because it’s small and round, so you’re always pretty close to the action,” Megan Flynn remarked about the iconic venue.

The NYC office is no stranger to evenings out at the theater. At least once a year, they try to come together to see a show playing at one of the many theaters in New York. It just so happens Ragtime has received some real critical acclaim this time around, including a few Tony awards.

Ragtime

Ragtime is based on the 1974 book of the same name, written by E.L. Doctorow. Set in the early 20th century, it weaves together the stories of three distinct groups in the United States. African American life reflected through the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a talented Harlem musician. The white upper class represented by Mother, the matriarch of a prosperous family in New Rochelle, New York. And a story of the immigrant experience told through Tateh, a Jewish newcomer from Latvia. “We had no idea what to expect, but we all thought the show handled its themes very well,” Megan remembered about the production.

Alongside these fictional narratives, the musical also features prominent historical figures, including Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, and others.

The 2026 revival stars Caissie Levy as Mother, Joshua Henry as Coalhouse, and Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh, and was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning four, including Best Revival of a Musical. The cast even performed the show’s opening number at the 79th Tony Awards this year.

DMC’s Commitment to Culture

From catching the train together to taking in an award-winning performance, the NYC team’s night at Ragtime is a great example of how DMC team members make time for connection beyond the office. Events like these highlight the importance of building strong relationships across teams, creating shared experiences, and celebrating the vibrant cities where we work.

Whether it’s an evening on Broadway, a cake tasting, or a day of skiing, DMC’s commitment to company culture fosters collaboration, creativity, and camaraderie. And as this memorable night at the theater shows, sometimes the best way to strengthen a team is to enjoy something extraordinary together. And despite the little mishap, falling into the fountain before the show, Jackie still had a great time.

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New Faces at the Party

Naturally, our guests of honor and newest team members were in attendance, including: Systems Engineer Luke Horwath, IT team members RJ Hughes and Conor Mitchell, Annabel Tevonian from Recruiting, Kaitlyn Heistand from the Chicago Admin team, and me, Hannah Overhiser, the newest addition to the Marketing team.

The rest of the Chicago office came out in full force to put their skills to the test, and by the end of the evening, everyone walked away with a sense of accomplishment, new connections, and a favorite immersive game.

What Your Favorite Game Says About You

When I started at DMC, I was surprised that my packed onboarding schedule didn’t include a personality test of some kind. Yet, as I moved between different groups of DMCers at Activate throughout the evening, it became clear that different people naturally excelled at different games—revealing interesting aspects of each of our personalities.

It’s possible that DMC’s Spring 2026 new hires may have participated in personality tests without even knowing it. Find out which Activate game resonates with you in the descriptions below.

Laser

Laser is a tactical game requiring players to move quickly through a laser maze or shoot a series of targets with laser guns. Players successfully reach higher levels when they clear mazes and hit targets.

If Laser was your favorite Activate game, you likely have a flair for the dramatic and a love for being in the action. Beneath the excitement, though, you’re thoughtful and deliberate, watching closely and moving with purpose once you spring into action.

Key Traits: Dramatic, Thoughtful, Agile

Mega Grid

The Mega Grid room featured a floor with 500 touch-sensitive LED tiles and light-up buttons along the walls. As the floor tiles light up, players must step on or avoid certain tiles to complete levels in the game.

If Mega Grid was your favorite game at Activate, you are great at making the quickest and best decision when faced with multiple choices! Your ability to pick a direction and stick to it is your superpower, and others recognize your intuition and integrity.

Key Traits: Decisive, Collaborative, and Fast-acting

Pipes

Pipes is a game of collaboration. The room features 24 pipes with NeoPixel screens and touch-activated buttons. Players have 5 seconds to identify the correct pipe, toss the ball to their teammate, and put it in the correct portal.

If you liked Pipes, you’re an effective communicator, highly strategic, and agile. You’re good at making quick connections and finding the right person to help you achieve a task—a real team player.

Key Traits: Communicative, Strategic, Purposeful

Press

Press features a room full of light-up, interactive buttons. Players must collaborate to memorize color sequences, scan the room for the correct buttons, and press them all before time expires.

If you excelled at Press, you are detail-oriented, collaborative, and communicative. You are comfortable working in a group setting, sharing your ideas, but you also aren’t afraid to lead when the opportunity arises.

Key Traits: Detail-oriented, Collaborative, Discerning

Scan

Players interact with touch screens to move digital objects between portals. Progressing to higher levels requires matching the objects on each player’s screen with the objects shown on the room’s hub screen.

If Scan was your favorite game, you excel at creating order out of chaos. Highly organized and analytical, you spot connections others might miss and act decisively once the solution becomes clear.

Key Traits: Organized, Analytical, Quick-thinking

Strike

Players throw balls at targets as they appear on a wall-sized screen. As levels progress, the targets evolve in shape, size, and speed, challenging players’ reaction time and precision.

Players who gravitate toward Strike are fast, focused, and precise. Once you lock onto a goal, you don’t miss. You’re driven by determination and know exactly which steps to take to succeed.

Key Traits: Precise, Determined, Focused

Conclusion

During my interviews with DMC, I kept hearing how much the company values its culture. After just a month on the team, that commitment is already clear. The effort that goes into bringing people together is genuine, and the Activate Welcome Party was a perfect example of how DMC regularly invests in its culture, encouraging everyone to connect, experience something new, and, most importantly, have fun.

And if you’re wondering what my favorite Activate game was, it was Laser.

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This feedback was important for us to receive because it highlighted a key difference between how DMC is viewed from within and from outside the organization. When someone hears that DMC has offices across the country, it is reasonable to assume these are sales offices. Many companies start up this way: a central office where the technical work takes place, with satellite sales offices for relationship building and sales generation.

More Than Pins on a Map

As DMC expands to open and grow offices in new geographic regions, it isn’t because they want another dot on the map or a statement of presence in those locales. Rather, the intention is to establish engineering presence in the area – offices that provide a location to do actual engineering work to solve problems, develop systems, serve customers, and help deliver projects.

This distinction makes all the difference. Offices of DMC aren’t just a place where you meet someone and talk about business or make introductions. They are places of active technical development. In DMC regional offices, engineers are actively designing automation systems, writing software, setting up test equipment, creating manufacturing processes, integrating hardware, addressing customer needs, and more.

Chicago

Austin

Boston

Cincinnati

Dallas

Denver

Detroit

Houston

New York

Raleigh

San Diego

Seattle

St. Louis

Tampa

Washington, D.C.

Local Presence Still Matters

Even in an age where virtual collaboration is commonplace, there are times when physical presence cannot be overlooked. Seeing a piece of equipment, touring the manufacturing floor, observing the testing apparatus, reviewing the assembly of a control panel, or sitting down with a customer’s team to troubleshoot an issue may present challenges that cannot be fully understood from a diagram, specification, or teleconference call.

That is where the regional presence provided by DMC becomes useful. For many of our clients, our engineers are just a few hours away from their facilities. We can respond to their needs more quickly, build stronger personal connections, and provide the human touch that is so essential to creating a successful technical solution.

It is particularly important for projects involving actual machinery, equipment, limitations, and operating environments. Often, the most effective solution may not be reached from afar but will require the presence of someone with a direct and personal understanding of what the challenge entails.

That said, the regional nature of DMC’s operations does not preclude clients from choosing engineers from any office outside the nearest one. That is where DMC’s approach truly shines.

OneDMC: Local Connection, National Depth

DMC’s office locations are our engineering teams, but they are not necessarily isolated from one another. We have very much embraced the OneDMC approach, meaning that our regional presence is backed by the complete technical expertise of DMC on a national level.

While a customer might work directly with the engineering teams in a local office, there will always be many more layers of technical knowledge backing that local team. Whether a customer’s project requires test automation knowledge, control systems expertise, LabVIEW programming, embedded development, manufacturing automation, cloud, data systems, or even just complicated multi-disciplinary engineering, DMC can bring in the appropriate experts.

And that is what makes our office model quite different from a standard sales office location approach. It combines the benefits of proximity with access to all the knowledge necessary. Customers don’t need to settle for proximity or specialization; with us, they can have both.

That is one of the reasons why we chose to establish offices rather than just sales offices in certain locations. While other companies may only put sales representatives in convenient locations, our office approach allows us to build engineering teams to serve our clients locally while remaining part of a national organization capable of tackling any problems.

Telling the Story More Clearly

The feedback from our partner was a helpful reminder that how we tell our story matters. We know what DMC’s offices are because we live it every day, but we cannot assume others see it the same way. If someone hears “national footprint” and thinks “sales coverage,” then we have an opportunity to better explain what makes our footprint different.

DMC’s growth has been intentional. We have invested in engineering offices because we believe technical work benefits from both local relationships and national collaboration. We want to be close enough to our customers to show up when it matters, while still being connected enough internally to bring the right expertise to every challenge.

So when we say DMC has offices across the country, we are not just saying we have places to meet. We are saying we have engineers across the country. Engineers who are working on real projects, solving real problems, and building real relationships with customers every day.

That is the reality behind DMC’s national footprint—and it is a story worth telling more clearly.

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Our adventure kicked off at Urban Family Brewing, a welcoming spot with a relaxed atmosphere. Its taps are constantly rotating, so there is always something new to sample. While Urban Family Brewing is known for sours, our favorite pour of the day was the Raccoon-Level Dexterity, a New England IPA. 

Next, we made our way to Wheelie Pop Brewing, a newer addition to Ballard’s brewery scene. Wheelie Pop favors crisp, clean beers like lager and pilsner. However, its Green Sector IPA was the crowd favorite from our team.  

We strolled through the neighborhood until we reached Reuben’s Brews. The family business has been brewing in Ballard since 2015. It offers a wide range of styles and has won many awards for its delicious brews. On this visit, we opted for the summery sour ale Fresh! Watermelon Lime. 

Our last stop was Stoup Brewing. Its founders have a background in chemistry and biology, so its beers balance science and art. You’ll find many lagers and IPAs on tap at Stoup Brewing, but we voted for the Wheat the Rich raspberry wheat. 

The Ballard Brewhaha was a fun way to step away from the office and connect as a team. From exploring the historic Ballard neighborhood to sampling its craft breweries, it was great to spend time together outside of the workday. What Seattle neighborhood should we check out next? 

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Team Huddle 

At DMC, we value having fun and sharing information, so it should come as no surprise that we chose a holiday party activity in the most democratic way possible.

Past favorites included a cooking class where everyone learned to make a component of a meal that we all then enjoyed together, and a glassblowing lesson where everyone in the office took home a handblown ornament.

This year, we all agreed to prioritize good food and a fun activity over a sit-down dinner. We narrowed our choices down to curling or an elevated game night, and game night won the coin toss.

Preparing the Field

To select the perfect venue for this event, we balanced a casual vibe with a space that would allow mingling, conversation, and the flexibility to accommodate various forms of gameplay. We ultimately settled on the Alibi Room, a speakeasy-style bar tucked into Seattle’s Gum Wall (if you know, you know) at Pike Place Market. This spot checked all the boxes with brews on tap, classy cocktails, and a selection of elevated comfort food—think Greek-inspired appetizers, Neapolitan-style pizzas, and fancy mac and cheese.

For games, we opted for some office favorites like One Night Werewolf, classics like Taboo, a mini Hook-and-Ring game, and even a Metagame where party guests won points for sneakily completing conversational challenges throughout the evening, like getting someone to show someone else a picture of their pet or having someone define random objects written on cards. Once a player completed a challenge without getting caught, they could enter their card in a raffle for the chance to win a prize. The field was set.

Game Night ≥ Game Day

The evening kicked off with appetizers as guests trickled in. We kept the bartender busy as the appetizers, salads, and mac and cheese made their appearance. The Hook-and-Ring game saw some action while half a dozen DMCers and their plus-ones played Taboo. The rest of us opted to mingle, drink, and nibble until the main course arrived.

Halftime Show

About halfway through the night, Dan Freve, DMC’s Chief Operating Officer and head of the Seattle office, gave a rousing speech reflecting on the growth of the Seattle office from a small team into one of the company’s largest offices outside of Chicago. He was followed by managers Steven Fuchs and Phil Schaffer, who thanked the team for their contributions throughout the year. We were also able to show one of our new hires how the Seattle office lives by one of DMC’s core values, Have Fun. The evening wound down with the announcement that Meghana Annamaneni had won the Metagame.

Fourth Quarter

The end of our time at the Alibi Room did not mean the end of the night. Many DMCers kept the party going at a local barcade, Jupiter Bar, for a different sort of game: Killer Queen. This strategy arcade game is a DMC tradition, played by up to 10 people on competing teams of 5.

This capped off the night with a bang, much like the annual DMC office holiday party caps off a productive year and gives us a moment to reflect on and celebrate our team’s outstanding work.

Holiday parties are just one of the things that make DMC a special place to work.

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A Sweet Sampling

Systems Engineer Wen Deng knew the high-quality bakery’s innovative flavors would be a hit with the adventurous eaters at the Seattle office. She “Made Things Happen,” per DMC’s core values, and arranged a company-sponsored activity fund event. Wen ordered several of the most exciting flavors to arrive after the workday wrapped up.

Analysis and Assessment

As often happens when you “Hire Smart People,” the DMCers who stuck around naturally engaged in a spirited evaluation of the various cakes and “Told it Like it Is.” Here are some of our findings.

• Coming in at the top spot, the mochi were universally enjoyed.
• The pistachio raspberry cake had a great balance of mild sweet pistachio fragrance contrasted with tart raspberry bites.
• The saltiness of the Oreo Basque cheesecake helped bring out the flavor
• The Earl Grey jelly proved polarizing. Some loved it while others thought it was “mid.”
• The sweet meat cakes, featuring pork floss and duck respectively, were worth trying but did not top anyone’s list.

In the interest of “Sharing Information,” hopefully, our findings can help guide you if you’re ever looking for a sweet treat in the Greater Seattle Area.

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