Happy New Year! We’re only a few days into the new year, but we’re already excited about what 2020 holds. At the same time, we’ve been looking back over 2019 and some of the great things that happened during that year. It was a year with lots of exciting events, beginnings, and projects. Join us on a recap of the highlights and standout moments!
1. We built a container bar.
It might seem odd that a single project warrants its own spot on a year-in-review list, but creating the Drydock Beer Garden was pretty special. In the first place, it’s a bar made out of a repurposed shipping container — how cool is that? For another thing, it has a great purpose. Its proceeds support a variety of local nonprofits, starting with two organizations involved in Bay City’s independent arts scene (the State Theatre and the Hell’s Half Mile Festival). And on top of all that, its industrial style looks pretty cool, if we do say so ourselves.
2. You got a behind-the-scenes perspective from our new videos.
Speaking of Drydock, we made that project the subject of its own video. We’ve really done a lot with our YouTube channel this year, launching not one but three new video series. The ZENTX Transformation Stories showcase our most impressive projects, like Drydock, through conversations with our clients. You get to hear about the work our clients do, the things they’re passionate about, and the ways our work helps them. (We also transcribe those conversations and post them on our blog so you can hear all of what our clients have to say — it’s always more than would fit in one video!)
The second video series dives into our own story, following ZENTX from its earliest days through to the present. Mike and Mark Wenz, our founders, are your guides through ZENTX’s history, and they also find time to talk about some of our core company values. And the last series just launched a few months ago. Its videos accompany our Signature Solutions blogs and provide extra photos of the nifty projects we highlight in those articles.
3. We enjoyed some fun team activities.
One of our core values reminds us that there’s a lot in common between a team of employees and a family. It’s no surprise, then, that ZENTX’s leaders make a point of creating time for team-building and fun. So this year, we celebrated the Fourth of July together with a cookout and some competitive outdoor games involving water pistols and tennis ball launchers. Then in October, we took an afternoon off to challenge ourselves with the ziplines and high-ropes course at Frankenmuth Aerial Park. And just like last year, we commemorated the holidays with a day-before-Thanksgiving brunch and a Christmas party at Stardust Lanes. As another one of our core values puts it, we think it’s important to both “work hard” and “have fun.”
4. A lot of companies asked us to show what makes them special.
We mentioned how Drydock helps some local nonprofits, but they aren’t the only Mid-Michigan organizations we served this year. Sometimes that meant smaller projects with a big impact, like refreshing some offices for the Mackinac Center and Frankenmuth Insurance, or installing an interactive map so Mid Michigan College can celebrate the geographic range of its community. Sometimes it meant projects as involved as creating a postcard display to showcase the history of local icon Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth, or designing a frame full of artificial ice cream for Bay City’s new ice cream shop, Cream & Sugar.
We had projects for larger companies outside of Mid-Michigan, too, but there does come a point where it’s time to focus on the future rather than the past. Right now, we’re working on several exciting projects that we can’t wait to share with you over the next couple months. We’re also looking forward to the projects we don’t even know about yet, the opportunities we’ll have to support and promote new organizations — maybe even yours! So here’s to an outstanding 2020, for us, for you, and for the amazing things we might create together.
