2023: SiteCrafting’s Year in Review
What will you remember most about 2023? Twitter turning into X? Generative AI making it into the mainstream? Rihanna’s performance at the Super Bowl? The Barbie movie? Whichever milestones you reflect on as the year ends, we hope they bring inspiration and optimism for 2024.
2023 was kind of a big deal for SiteCrafting. It marked our 25th year in business. We celebrated as much as possible over the year — a timeline and a party even — and we hope that you were part of our festivities in some way.
I turned to one of my most trusted companions in preparing to write the last blog post of the year: The Harvard Business Review. From the summary of the article I skimmed:
“While the reality of work can feel especially overwhelming at the end of the year, reflection is the key to doing things differently in the year to come.”
In the spirit of reflection and to wrap up our annual Countdown Calendar, here are a few 2023 highlights.
We cleared out our storage unit at Tacoma Self Storage.
Items found in our storage unit included a small Christmas tree, one piñata and boxes (and boxes and boxes) of project files, press clippings and awards. We also found so many copies of the Book of Lists from so many years past. Do you remember the Book of Lists? It was the search of its era — in print form. Sifting through the boxes of archives gave us much to reminisce about and inspired a webinar about the future of search.
We renovated the office.
We renovated our office to better accommodate the post-COVID working culture where some folx work from the office, others work from home, and we all are on Zoom calls during the day. Changes included adding more conference rooms and focus spaces and adding shared spaces for in-person collaboration. We worked with Center Peace Interior Design to build on our conference room naming convention (Star Wars planets) throughout all of our office space. Pictured here: the Ahch-To lounge with moss panels and other design touches inspired by the lush, green planet.
Reena Hensley was named 40 Under 40.
Our Front-End Development Manager Reena Hensley was named one of the South Sound’s 40 Under 40. If you’ve ever registered your child for an activity with Metro Parks Tacoma, searched for a doctor at MultiCare, or planned a visit to a local children’s museum, your experiences have been impacted by the work of Reena and her team. She was hired as a receptionist 16 years ago and taught herself how to code between answering phone calls and intercepting office deliveries. We’ve always known Reena was a gem and it was great to share it with the rest of our business community.
We hosted in-person meetings, kickoffs and workshops.
After a few years of being fully remote, our team hosted a variety of in-person meetings, workshops and kickoffs. From goalsetting to brand strategy workshops to weekly check-ins and quarterly reviews, the return to face-to-face interactions reminded us of the value of real-time engagement, spontaneous creativity, and dynamic collaboration that comes with connecting in person.
We launched 22 websites and product improvements.
The list of new websites includes many local organizations and businesses in our community including Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital & Health Network, Tacoma Community House, The Puyallup Tribe of Indians, Darigold FIT, Risen Devices and Heidelberg Beer.
For all the celebrating and reflecting we do, we always find that our biggest wins are our client wins. Thank you for your partnership and support. Here’s to sharing in our successes and making the web better for everyone.
