Warmth, coziness, belonging and spark created without an actual campfire...

What started out as an enormous bummer - RAIN - that prevented us from lighting up our traditional campfire on day #2 of LinkedIn's Culture Camp - became one of the warmest, coziest, belongingist (not really a word, but you know what I mean!), and spark-filled experiences I've had at LinkedIn that I felt compelled to document it. Let me bring you in to the experience...

Imagine you are in a cozy lodge in the middle of the redwoods with 67 new friends from, literally, all over the world. It’s raining outside so you aren’t able to be around a real campfire as planned, but this in no way dampens the energy & excitement of the group. The “campfire” gets started with some silly camp games to get everyone moving around & in the mood (A rousing rendition of “Head and Shoulders”, thank you Mountain Camp) – and then it moves into the Talent Show portion. 

You begin to witness the amazing talents of your new friends….from splitting an apple with his hands (George, Detroit), ear-wiggling (Alex, Amsterdam & Reba, San Francisco), hula hooping (Nicole, New York), balloon animal making (Andree-Anne, Dublin), juggling (Billy, Chicago) and professional hair flipping lessons (Sean Cervera, Sunnyvale) to William Tell overture being played on his face (Seth, San Francisco) and some serious flexibility skills with bending her thumbs back (Maria, New York) and the ability to lick her elbow (Kara, Detroit) – WHO KNEW??

You even get to hear some good ole fashioned story-telling with a scary story from Bhavna (Mumbai) & an original poem by Leah (Dubai)! 

Then the global nature of the event starts to become EVEN more apparent as it moves into the dancing portion of the evening – there’s a salsa lesson (Nicole, Omaha), a Bollywood lesson (Nikhita, Mumbai) and you get to witness some Palestinian Folk dancing (Bahaa, Dubai/Nawal, New York) Capoeira (Cara, San Francisco) and an energetic Dance Dance Revolution routine (Shu, Tokyo).\

You then learn how to make it rain as a group with some snapping, clapping and stomping all around (thank you Camp Che-Na-Wah).

The final portion of the talent show begins with some wonderful singing from around the world – there’s a French rap (Francois, Paris), a Bollywood song (Lavanya, Bangalore) and not one, but TWO Chinese songs (Gene Lim, Singaore & Ryan Dai, Shanghai). Everyone joins in to sing Flashdance (Jen Joynter, Home Office in Boston), Always Be My Baby (Lauren Dawson, San Francisco) & an amazing mash-up of Third Eye Blind’s Semicharmed Life and Salt-n-Pepa’s Shoop (Colin, Chicago) – who btw, also played guitar as he sang!

You wrap it all up by singing Lean on Me as a group – everyone swaying and smiling – knowing that you had just experienced an incredibly special evening together.

Culture Camp 2019 was such an amazing experience. It was 2.5 days filled with leadership & skill building sessions, idea sharing, meeting and connecting with colleagues from all over the globe….there was so much goodness across all of the days, but if I had to pick ONE highlight, it would have to be at the end of this amazing “campfire” when we all stood arm in arm in a circle in that cozy lodge with our colleagues/new friends who had just shared their many talents from all corners of the globe. We took a moment….took a few breaths together to really take it all in…and then we closed out it out with “Day is Done”. I may or may not have gotten choked up. :) This was an experience I will never forget & I’m beyond grateful that I was able to be a part of it! Thank you to everyone who demonstrated their talents and truly brought their authentic selves– and thank you to all the other campers for providing such a warm, welcoming environment for the performers to make this all possible.

For those of you who know me, know how much I love CAMP and how much I love LINKEDIN. The fact that I’m able to do this as a part of my job is really insane & is not lost on me. So much love to the dream team of Nawal, Kristina & Rebecca who made Culture Camp possible – to Aoife, Archie, Chris & Lauren – our extended counselor team, and to Dana, Michael, Lauren, Seth – our awesome partners and of course to Nina and Jackie, for your love & support of this program!

#CultureCamp #belongingmoment #LinkedInLife #iheartmyjob