From Wow Moments to Inspiring Speakers: Access Envision Does It All (Sustainably)

Each year the Access leadership team brings together the entire company regardless of level, department or role, to celebrate the year, collaborate on future goals, and be inspired.  Yes that’s right, the company with a passion for creating shared experiences for our clients and their program attendees, creates their own shared experience for their employees, each and every year.  Because shared experience inspired people, and inspired people create organizational change.

This year marks the third year of Envision, Access’ companywide conference.  While we’ve held trainings, departmental meetings, incentives for our team for years, this is year 4 of bringing together the entire company for Envision.  From our first Envision in Dallas, Texas, our second in Nashville, Tennessee, our third in New Orleans, Louisiana to this year in Austin, Texas, each year we continue to re-reimagine the attendee experience for our team (just like they do for their clients).  Our internal planning team are the event planners for the event planners and leave no stone unturned as they create a lasting impression, highlighting the best of the destination and our unique culture, and inspiring our team for the year to come.

The annual investment, both monetary and time, is worth noting here, as we believe that our team is our most important asset as a company and we want to invest in them.  This is not a training, or educational in the traditional sense of an annual meeting, we like to think of it closer to an incentive trip for our entire team.  Some key elements this year worth noting were the “WOW” experiences that let the destination and our team shine, inspiration for 2025 goals, both professional, personal and as a team, and sustainability.

We Experienced the WOW

Now if you know Access, you know we make wows… How do you top a tattoo artist at Envision 2023?  You bring in a piercing studio.  While not everyone was ready to go under the needle, we had a total of 102 piercings done.  You could say our team likes to come home with a lasting impression!  Our Welcome Experience opened the conference with a bang… with a Human Claw (yes that’s exactly what it sounds like – reminiscent of your favorite arcade game), personalized trucker hats (because Austin), local music, gifting, a custom jean jacket making station, hair tinsel, temporary freckles and food featuring an all-female culinary staff at our host hotel, the Austin Downtown Marriott.  Now that’s a food concept we can get behind!

Our first night event at the Sign Bar, called “Vintage Tee Party” (get it?) was a casual anything-goes night, filled with delicious food truck fare, custom vintage-inspired T-shirts, vinyl art and dancing, lots of dancing!  (IYKYK) This eclectic venue welcomed our team to Austin in true local style.

For our final night together, we threw the “Envision Social.” Picture your prom, HoCo (homecoming as they call it in the South), winter formal, all mixed into one epic school dance.  But this time you get to pick your era and style and let’s be honest, haven’t we all wanted to redo or relive a part of high school at some point?!  As you might have guessed, there was more dancing, a lot more, powered by a high energy live band - shout out to Moontower Entertainment and Minor Mishap (who were anything but minor) - and all your fave throwbacks.  We won’t list them all but there was a ball pit, bleacher photo ops, custom Ramen “Cup o’ Noodles,” and a photobooth, ala Olan Mills, that had a line all night.  With a balloon drop finale, you could say we were all living out our teenage dreams.

We Got Inspired

Something I’ve always appreciated about Access since I joined the team almost 15 years ago, is how our leadership encourages the team to set goals and achieve them.  A favorite quote: “The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Peter Drucker

At Envision we meet within our territories/teams to create a plan for the year.  We host a Leadership Panel to hear from our all-female Co-CEO team and majority female leadership team about their vision for the future.  This year our keynote speaker, Ben Nemtin, made a huge impact on our team, inspiring us to create our own Bucket List and start checking things off.  When we do what we are passionate about and achieve our personal goals, we fill our cups, giving us more energy to accomplish our professional goals and KPIs. A theme for 2025 for our team, Heart and Hustle, perfectly illustrates this idea.  Ben left us all inspired and thinking about what matters most in life – a great way to go into 2025, both personally and professionally!

We Envisioned a Greener Future

Let's be real, multi-day conferences are essential.  Connecting IRL, brainstorming brilliance, never-ending networking ...it's where the magic happens. But we just can't ignore the environmental impact.  So, while we're all about bringing people together with shared experiences, we're also about keeping our planet happy.

That's why we took a big step and launched our first-ever Sustainability Pledge!  And let me tell you, the results were inspiring.  Our team didn't just dip their toes in the sustainability pool, they cannonballed right in.  Talk about leading with intention!

Some highlights:

96% of our team joined forces in the fight against energy waste, pledging to switch off those hotel room lights. It's a testament to the power of collective action, even in the smallest of ways.

108 eco-fashionistas rocked the themed evening events, proving that thrifting is the new black (and green!). Forget fast fashion; sustainable style is where it's at.

Food rescue heroes! At both our offsite events, leftover deliciousness was rescued and donated. No good grub left behind.

By providing departure shuttles, we slashed our collective carbon emissions by a hefty 0.45 metric tons. Boom.

These are just a few examples of how small, smart changes can make a big difference.  And this is just the beginning.  We're not about to pat ourselves on the back and call it a day.  Sustainability is a journey, not a destination.  As a company, Access is committed to growing this program, getting even better at tracking our environmental impact (because data is our jam), and generally being the coolest, most eco-conscious crew around.  And you know what?  That feels fantastic.

‍

Let me leave you with this.  Access Envision isn't your typical company conference – it's an investment in our most valuable asset: our people. This year's Austin gathering was a whirlwind of "WOW" experiences, inspiring moments (led by keynote speaker Ben Nemtin and our majority-female leadership team), and a serious commitment to sustainability. From record-breaking participation in our first-ever Sustainability Pledge to team-driven goal-setting, Envision 2024 embodied our "Heart and Hustle" theme, proving that shared experiences fuel inspired people, and inspired people drive organizational change. We're not just envisioning the future; we're creating it – one unforgettable event, sustainable initiative, and bucket list item at a time.