Thanks to our sponsor
Sojern wraps up its 8th annual Global Employee Conference, or “GloCon” as it is popularly known, today in Omaha.
The conference, held in Omaha for the first time, is an opportunity for the entire Sojern team to gather for training, team building, company planning, and celebrating the year’s achievements.
Sojern hosted employees from each of its offices around the world for the gathering at Omaha’s CHI Health Center. The four-day conference began Monday, bringing employees together from Omaha, San Francisco, New York, Berlin, Dublin, London, Paris, Mexico City, Sydney, Istanbul, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Sojern was founded in 2007 in Omaha and has evolved from running advertisements on the bottom of airline boarding passes to digital advertising through travel data. The company works with 93% of Fortune 500 Travel Brands and has been named a Deloitte Fastest Growing Tech Firm for the past six years in a row. Sojern recently released The State of the Industry: The 2019 Report on Travel Advertising, a comprehensive report on travel marketers. Sojern also produces a thought leadership video series discussing the latest trends in travel marketing and technology.
Monday, the first day of GloCon, was dedicated to team building and service. Employees spent a portion of the day assembling literacy kits containing children’s books for United Way of the Midlands. The employees, most of whom were meeting for the first time, also had fun at the annual Sojern Olympics showing off their competitive chops in soccer, dodge ball, and corn hole.
The conference meetings, held Tuesday through Thursday, were designed to facilitate discussion and planning around the company’s role in the rapidly changing ad tech travel industry. Participants in the conference sessions were encouraged to share their ideas about the company’s product roadmap and product vision.
The week’s jam-packed conference agenda kicked off with a keynote address by Sojern CEO Mark Rabe, who spoke about the company’s strategic vision, the changing landscape of the travel industry, and how the company’s customer-centric approach helps drive its strategies.
In the spirit of the conference theme “Always Onward”, Tuesday’s discussions with Sojern’s regional leaders explored changes in its go-to-market strategies, as well as the future of Sojern as shaped by the company’s strategic framework.
Employees participated in a number of panels, roundtable discussions, and LifeLabs sessions. LifeLabs provides training courses developed by researchers and experts in organizational psychology on topics such as conflict resolution, problem-solving, and emotion regulation. Other conference topics ranged from career development and mentoring to product design, sales, business development, and diversity and inclusion.
“A special highlight of this year’s conference was the first meeting of our Sojern Women’s Group (SWG), which was formed to help develop future female leaders in business, tech, and travel,” said Brent Brummer, Vice President of Business Strategy and Operations. SWG aspires to create business growth, by making community connections and influencing the next generation of Sojern leaders.
SWG’ mission is to foster professional and personal growth for women through mentorship, training, and events. The SWG provides a peer-2-peer network of resources to support Sojern women across the globe through shared knowledge and experience.
“The establishment of SWG has garnered a lot of interest among both Sojern leadership and employees, and we’re excited to see the forum evolve,” said Brummer.
The conference concludes today with an awards ceremony.
Sojern opened a 40,000 square-foot office space in Omaha last November and has added 43 employees since January, accounting for almost half of total company-wide hires in 2019. The company currently has 15 open positions and expects more hiring beginning in the third quarter.
Visit https://www.sojern.com/ to learn more about this company.
