It's official! DMC is now legal to vote, join the military, and gamble - not that we are really planning to do any of these things, but all the same it's an exciting and transitory time in the life of DMC.
Last year, on the edge of seventeen, we opened our Boston office on the east coast. Over a year later, the Boston office is growing rapidly with 4 new employees, its own holiday party, grand opening party and a host of activity fund events, including heading out to a shooting range. With the opening of the new office DMC also initiated recruiting at six elite East Coast campuses.
At age eighteen, DMC is heading out west and opening an office in Denver's LoDo area! We are sending four hardworking engineers to lead the office as we continue to build the DMC family across the U.S.
Over the course of this year, DMC hired 17 new employees. We threw welcome parties ranging from Whirly Ball to fiestas, bowling, and a Tesla concert
We lived up to Core Value #6: "Have Fun" with a host of Activity Fund events. We went to Pitchfork Music Festival, heard the Zelda Symphony of the Goddess, feasted during Restaurant Week, hosted company poker nights, and drank cider. We even started an Outing Club that went caving in Kentucky and to the Maker's Mark distillery.
Teambuilding is just as important as celebrating, and we did both this year at our All Day Company Meetings. In Chicago we focused on customer service followed by bowling and laser tag last fall as well as communication and cooking skills this spring. The Boston crew emphasized core values and enjoyed a day of kayaking the Charles River.
DMC kids and families got in on the fun with our first company picnic and holiday cheer event. The grown-ups enjoyed an elegant evening at the Crystal Gardens for Chicago's holiday party.
DMC welcomed customers, vendors, and friends to our annual open house events during our 18th year. We celebrated Oktoberfest, threw a Spring Carnival party complete with fire performers, face painters and two deep fryers, as well as the previously mentioned Boston Grand Opening. We also hosted the students of After School Matters, hoping to inspire future engineers.
For all of our celebrating, DMC still made sure to get down to business in the past year. Addressing the rising popularity of Office 365, we hosted a workshop and webinar on the platform and even recorded an Office 365 video series
In addition to maintaining its status as a Microsoft Gold Partner, DMC achieved Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partner status and was recognized as a Microsoft CRM Certified Software Advisor. DMC also earned National Instruments Vision Specialty Partner status.
DMC's staff hit the books to earn a number of new certifications this year, including AIA's Certified Vision Professional - Advanced and a number of new Professional Engineers.
We were fortunate to have our project work featured by Control Design for Machine Builders, ISA's InTech Magazine, and North Branch Works.
DMC expanded our family of partnerships, joining ICONICS System Integrator Partner Program. We also expanded on our Siemens Automation Solution Partnership by joining the Siemens SIMATIC IT Partner Program.
DMC led presentations at the Siemens Automation Summit, Control System Integrators' Conference, and Chicago Share-A-Pint roundtable. We had a great time learning and connecting at NI Week and the first annual NI Days. We also hosted the Chicago LabVIEW User Group.
Despite the threat of Chiberia, we stayed active and healthy this year with the Hot Chocolate 15K, the Shamrock Shuffle and Chicago Bike to Work Week, as well as yoga and walking sessions. Plus, we added a fourth Ski Trip to our DMC ski tradition. We've also kept active with soccer, tennis, and golf clubs.
Perhaps the most rewarding part of the year was being nominated by Crain's Chicago Business as one of the Top 10 "Best Places to Work" in Chicago. We ranked "Best Place for Employee Engagement", "Best for Millennials" and "Best for Gen X" employees in three sub categories of the contest. These awards reinforced our efforts in fostering a positive work environment and emphasized our ability to keep building and fortifying our values, company culture, and initiatives. Recently, DMC was also named on the list of Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. If you have any feedback on how DMC can continue to be one of the best places to work with, please let us know.
Although we keep ourselves busy with work and fun, DMC never stops innovating. Check out a few videos from this year's FedEx Day:
All in all it's been a great year for DMC, and we look forward to putting our all in into making this year even better than last. For a look back at how far DMC has come over the years, check out the video below. As always, thanks for your support and we welcome your feedback!