Another year has drawn to a close, and while it may not have run its course like we thought it would, our team is thankful once again for our continued success. Below are some of our most memorable highlights of the past year:
January:
We started the year mostly working from home (WFH) again. Some of us had to juggle the “hybrid” model between work and kids’ schools, but we still got through it healthy, happy, and getting work done! We revamped and planned an ENTIRE year of webinars, Matt and Hunter both had birthdays, and in addition to continuing services for our recurring clients we added work in Wood County, Wisconsin.
February:
February looked a lot like January, except that by now everyone was really getting good at WFH and many conferences transitioned to a virtual space. While we all can agree that these worked in general, it is definitely not a preference. However, we wanted to put our best foot forward and engage as much as possible: at the Wisconsin Land information Association's virtual annual conference Jon presented on Indoor Mapping, and Erin and Hunter talked about Attribute Rules for NG9-1-1. Internally, WLIA’s Zoom trivia night prompted us to have our own contest (which Jon has continued to put on to our delight), Bill had his one year work anniversary, and Erin had a birthday!
March:
March started with Jon’s birthday, continued with the hiring of Virginia, and ended with an actual in-person conference. Virginia, who resides in Michigan, was a welcome addition to our growing team, and was our first foray into having fully remote employees. We can all say it has been a resounding success. Getting back out in public, Matt and Bill were able to attend the Illinois Property Assessment Institute’s annual conference in Bloomington, IL and talk Land Records.
April:
This month highlighted the year in sales by bringing in a huge slate of not only yearly service renewals, but new, large projects as well: North Park Public Water District field data collection, ArcGIS Enterprise Services for Jasper, IN, and managed services for Bloomington, IL. Tyler had a birthday, and Erin had her four year work anniversary.
May:
On the project side, May brought a lot of project closeouts for our NG9-1-1 team, and continued multi-phased, data collection work for the village of Minooka, IL. We celebrated Sam’s birthday, Small Business Week, and National Public Works Week, brought in an intern for the summer months to help with marketing and administrative duties, and exhibited at another virtual conference, this one for the Indiana Geographic Information Council. Our big team building activity this month was lunch with a golf outing (scorecards remain mysteriously misplaced…) and Virginia came down from Michigan to join in!
June:
As June started, we dove into to new Enterprise clients, Bill was able to exhibit at the Illinois Cemetery and Funeral Home Association’s spring conference and do some prospecting in the ‘burbs, and Tyler and the asset management team continued work with Illinois American Water on various projects throughout the state. At the office, Jon brought in his Blackstone grill that he had won from a raffle and treated us all to a cookout for lunch. For celebrations, Mike had a birthday, and Tyler, Jodi, and Matt all celebrated their five year work anniversaries.
July:
July expanded Cloudpoint’s portfolio with us picking up a new client in South Carolina. Almost the entire office attended the Esri User Conference virtually, and learned a ton of great information and insights into the future of GIS. Jon and Matt got a round of golf in for the Illinois Association of County Engineers scholarship fundraiser golf outing. We celebrated Hunter’s one year work anniversary and Jodi’s birthday.
August:
August was busy, busy, busy, and dominated by public works. Preparations were finalized for the Public Works Expo in St. Louis, MO, put on by the American Public Works Association. PWX was Cloudpoint’s first national conference, and it was a fantastic experience. We exhibited at WATERCON, normally in March, for the Asset Management and Ongoing Services Teams, and Jon and Bill got a hot round of golf in with the AWPA Chicago Section. Outside of the office, Jon treated employees and their families to a local Class-A minor league team baseball game, we had a previous client turn to coworker as Daniel started, Bill had a birthday, and Cloudpoint celebrated 10 YEARS IN BUSINESS!
September:
We started the month again broadening our reach by picking up work in Oklahoma and Texas. Stark County, IL entrusted us with their sign inventory and management through SignOps, and Tyler traveled to Texas for ADA compliance data collection work at a college. Internally, Jon and Bill conducted numerous virtual interviews in our search for a marketing coordinator, and the team got lunch for a local fish fry fundraiser.
October:
October brought conference season into full swing. Cloudpoint was represented at conferences for the Illinois Association of County Engineers, the ICFHA fall conference, the Illinois Public Safety Telecommunicators Association, and we brought two-thirds of the office to the Illinois GIS Association for presentations, exhibiting, and trivia night (which you may have heard we sponsored). Jon went with Tyler back down to Texas to complete their ADA project, and we secured our first project in Wisconsin for their Next Generation 9-1-1 implementation. The team was treated to a tour of the headquarters for Lifesong for Orphans and their adjoining coffee production plant for Gobena coffee, and Sahara started as marketing coordinator.
November:
A few more conferences occurred in November with the WLIA fall regional, and Jon and Bill exhibiting ArcGIS Indoors for healthcare at the Midwest Healthcare Engineers Conference in Indianapolis. We picked up more ArcGIS Enterprise work in Iowa, and contracted with another Illinois township for mapping their cemeteries (gotta love referrals). In-between celebrating GIS Day, we also tooted horns for Virginia’s birthday, Sam’s one year work anniversary, and Mike’s three year workiversary.
December:
We closed out the year with our continual work at our home county of Woodford and their massive asset management program, created a fantastic “commercial” for our indoors solution, and Jon presented at the Illinois Department of Transportation GIS Day. Of course, the holidays brought some much needed rest and time with families, but we could not forget some of our most cherished clients by sending them tons of goodies in Christmas baskets made by our local bakery (shoutout to Caleri’s), and Jon took out employees and their significant others for a wonderful Christmas dinner.
