Taste of the Timberwolves

Last night we donned our finest fine finery and hobnobbed with the T-Wolves. Taste of the Timberwolves is an annual gala to raise money for the FastBreak Foundation, the Wolves’ youth community program, and we were lucky enough to be invited. Hosted at the Target Center, we played meet and greet while noshing on tasty snacks from area restaurants. There was a silent auction loaded with goodies and the live auction included such prizes as a road trip with the team or an afternoon fishing with Nikola Pekovic. The players were gracious, the food was delicious and good times were had by all. Now we’re just excited to hear the results of how much funding the event raised for Minnesota kids.    Mike practicing his benevolent face,  Chris practicing his happy face and Mitch…. well, we’re not sure what Mitch is thinking.  A quick sales meeting before the gala.  Todd looks happy to be bidding at the live auction. Er, wait – that’s because he’s using Tricia’s bid card!  Our sales team never gets a break –  they’re always networking.  Ricky giving the coach some pointers.  Tricia and…a really tall guy who plays ball…  In line for the Wheel O’ Prizes! Ricky wanted Ricky’s autograph but we said we don’t let our sales guys sign autographs unless they’re on ADS-branded merchandise…  Getting a little...

Bowling for Bragging

Anybody who is anybody was at Brunswick on Thursday night, for the fourth annual ADS Group Bowling Tournament. Our office staff faced off against our operations staff in two games of cut throat bowling with absolutely no smack talk because we are mature professionals. The Warriors (operations) and the Blu Rays (office) quickly established their dominance and clinched title spots. After a quick break to stuff our faces with sliders, we cheered like maniacs during the championship game. We’d like to tell you it was a nail-biter. It was not. The operations team smoked the office team, which may or may not have earned them three trophies out of the total four since this event’s inception. But we’re not bitter. If anyone knows what our operations team is capable of, it’s our office staff. Without operations, we’d have nothing to sell, nothing to invoice and the phones wouldn’t ring. So hats off to the Warriors, for representing operations as the 2012 Championship Team. And next year? The office is totally taking that trophy back. Seriously. We mean it this...

Hearts

Last night we celebrated. After a heart attack nearly killed him last year, seeing Bobby Z take the stage at First Avenue was truly miraculous. The Revolution unleashed on a packed house in support of the American Heart Association and My Purple Heart. Last night we celebrated. Bobby wasn’t the only one there by grace, or even the only coworker of ours we’re lucky to still have in our midst. Two of our people photographed in this blog post have also suffered heart attacks in the past four years. Last night we celebrated. We celebrated Bobby’s recovery. We celebrated his choice to use his name and his talents to raise funds for the research and treatment of heart disease. We celebrated the recovery of our colleagues, our friends. We celebrated life. You may have missed the show, but you can still support the cause. Give generously to the American Heart Association and to My Purple Heart, so that we can all continue to celebrate...

Studio 120: Behind the Dreams

We have state-of-the-art equipment at The ADS Group.  High speed molding lines… Automated packaging… In house mastering…  A full-service studio… But our passion – and our purpose – has always been people. The ADS Group boasts a very low turnover rate. Once you’re in, you’re family. Like family, we butt heads from time to time and we definitely don’t always agree – but there’s never a question that we support one another – both professionally and personally. Just right now, our folks in Studio 120 are helping two of our employees chase their dreams. Jac Cornelius is an account manager by day, but by night he’s on stage with The Union Suits. This year will be The Union Suits’ first appearance at SXSW. We’ll be exhibiting at the trade show, and our executive producer will be filming some rockumentary footage of the Union Suits and their SXSW experience.  We also have a talented writer in our midst. Tez Eady from our replication department has written a gritty feature film entitled Sadness. Studio 120 is filming a seven-minute pitch segment to help Tez raise funding to shoot the full-length film. Everybody has a day job, and everybody has a dream. When you encourage people’s dreams, you foster incredible positive energy that bubbles over into everything. Will we ever be watching Jac rock out in an arena show? Will we munch popcorn in front of the big screen watching Tez’ film? Who knows? But we’re all better people for chasing our dreams, and helping others follow...

The Graphic Art of Dale Flattum

You may not know Dale, but if you know us you’ve seen his work. He’s a graphic designer in our COPYCATS office, and he’s the mastermind behind several of our design projects. He created the artwork for our holiday mailings the past couple of years, and this year he also designed pint glasses for COPYCATS – nothing says cheers like a glass ready to be filled. His talents, though, extend far beyond the reach of his desk and art aficionados will be excited to know that Dale recently released a full-length book of his artwork – called, inexplicably – TOOTH. Here’s what Dale has to say about the book: “When I was 16 years old, I tore a weird looking poster off a telephone pole near my house. It was crudely assembled, cheaply reproduced, and probably the greatest thing I’d ever seen. Later, when I started to play music, the poster for the show became almost as important as the show itself. It was proof that something had happened. It was subversive propaganda. It was fun. It was addicting. And what did you need to do it? Scissors? Glue? A Xerox machine? And 8.5 x 11 piece of paper turned out to be a very powerful thing. The possibilities were endless.” More information about Dale Flattum, his graphic artwork and his book can be found HERE. COMPANY PROJECTS WITH ARTWORK CREATED BY DALE FLATTUM...

The Secret Skills of our Super Staff

Company potlucks are a long loved tradition. Who doesn’t enjoy sampling so much homemade food? Yesterday we held a Holiday Potluck for all of our employees and the usual (delicious) suspects were there – spicy tamales, a pot of fragrant Mexican soup, and every appetizer and sweet under the sun. We had an Ugly Sweater contest and a White Elephant gift exchange, but we didn’t think to make the potluck itself competitive. And that’s probably good, because none of us could have held a candle to Pilar, a woman who works in our assembly area. These are frosting flowers encased in flan. Each one was the size of a baseball and she made two platters full of them. Entirely edible, totally creative and absolutely stunning. When asked how long it took? Oh….just two or three DAYS.  The incredibly talented Pilar, and her supervisor Linda So even though we didn’t have a Most Creative Contribution contest for the potluck, we all know that Pilar is the winner! Thank you, Pilar, for taking the time to make our party so...