High School Themed Company Holiday Party

 
Marshall High School in SE Portland closed last year due to budget cuts, so what better place to hold a company holiday party with a high school theme than this vacant building. My wife graduated from Marshall in 1987 and I couldn’t help but picture a young Jill causing all kinds of trouble in the lunchroom 🙂
 
This event was opening night of a near week-long sales conference for about 350 KEEN Footwear employees from all over the world. With most guests in their late 30’s to early 40’s, music from the late 1980’s to early 90’s was appropriate to give this function a high school reunion feel. I played some songs from that time period that haven’t been heard in awhile, including En Vogue’s ‘My Lovin’, Milli Vanilli ‘Blame It On The Rain’ and ‘The Look’ from Roxette. I’m not sure these tracks would succeed on the dance floor, but it’s always fun to dust off some of the older songs to take people back to their youth and the response was very positive.
 
After a cocktail hour in the cafeteria, guests were directed to the auditorium for a company presentation, before returning to the cafeteria for dinner. There wasn’t much time allowed for dancing at this company holiday party, plus everyone had to be up early for Monday’s events, but they were there in spirit and some couldn’t help but move to the beat right where they were standing, while visiting with co-workers and friends.