InGenius has been growing since its start in 1996, and we recently celebrated the official unveiling of a new office space. Just around the corner from our previous offices, it isn’t a big change geographically, but it does mean the whole team is now together in one consolidated space – a move we’re all very excited about. Last week, we held our grand opening party and it was a great evening.
We got such great feedback from our guests that I wanted to share some photos of the celebration and our new office here too.
To start the evening off, the Mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, and our City Councilor, Jenna Sudds, joined us for the official ribbon cutting. With a little help from the biggest pair of scissors I’ve ever seen, they officially welcomed us into our new location.
Our founder, Rich Loen, and our CEO, Dale Gantous, were presented with a plaque from the city congratulating us on our office.
Our Member of Parliament, Karen McCrimmon, was also able to join us for a tour.
InGenius red jackets and shoes were out in full force on our team as they chatted, ate and toasted our new space.
The team also got to catch up with some old friends and colleagues – some of them couldn’t believe how much InGenius has grown!
Spirits were high all around, even with our team that had flown back from a show the same day.
Our computer museum features some technology that hasn’t been used in a while. And of course, it wouldn’t be complete without Velvet Elvis – a garage sale gem that Rich had been waiting his whole life to find.
With our move, Rich, with the help of colleagues – including Jamie Jones, a member of our Quality Assurance team and Rahul Rallan, our Marketing Coordinator – got to flex some creative muscle. As a result, our office is home to a number of art pieces, including the 20-foot Converse shoe table, an Andy Warhol-inspired phone mural, and an electrical art piece powered by Gumby and the Hulk.
This piece that Rich created with a CNC machine was always being admired. The panels are each made up of 1,152 doodles extracted from Google’s Quick, Draw! and carved into plastic.
Our new space is home to some cool seating areas where staff can go for a change of scenery, to sit and relax or to play some games.
The post-apocalyptic games room (also known as the Beam Room) features handmade beams – an idea Rich has been waiting to bring to life for 20 years. It features an illuminated wire tree made of 100 pounds of cable and power bars, and a wall with quotes from various movie robots and computers. The table was handmade with help from fellow employee and IT master, Derek Cooke. Regis Caron, a friend of InGenius, and Jamie Jones also did design work in this room.
The smiling faces of Rich and Dale sum up the feeling of the grand opening and the InGenius team in general – we’re excited about our new office and can’t wait to continue growing here!
