Utah Report Part 4 – Grand Vacation Day 3

After another yummy breakfast (did someone mention Pain Au Chocolate?) we loaded onto buses to head to Stampin’ Up!’s Home Office in Riverton, Salt Lake City.  I think all the demonstrators were super excited to be heading to home office, possibly not so much excitement from the husbands 😉

And here is the welcome we received when we walked in the front doors  -ALL of the home office & distribution centre staff clapping and cheering for us.  It was completely overwhelming and humbling, and I know I wasn’t the only demonstrator with tears in my eyes.

After the excitement of our welcome, we were separated into groups to be given a guided tour of the whole facility. Here’s the atrium in the main entrance of the building – this also doubles as the lunchroom for all the staff and is truly the most beautiful space!

The Legacy Rooms.  This is an area at Home Office that documents the history of Stampin’ Up! but also showcases the products and how they can be used with a series of themed rooms – the details in these displays was just amazing! Honestly I could have spent all day just in this area!

I was in tears for the second time after seeing this cabinet.  Why? You ask.  Well inside this cabinet was the original cast, matrix plates and rubber for the very first SU stamp set I received when I joined the company 6 1/2 years ago.  It was one of those full circle moments – standing at home office and seeing where it all started for me – I was rather surprised by how emotional that moment was.

Some of the product development team talking about the process for designing new products/colours, how they name them and how the products get produced.The distribution centre where all of the orders for North America get picked and shipped.  When the picking line is in full steam they can pick over 13000 boxes an hour!

We also met the concept artists who create all of the projects you see featured in our catalogues etc – WOW what an awesome job!  They have every single product in their office and spend all day creating!!

This is the ideas room – all the walls are lined with whiteboard so any and all ideas can be written up for future use!

After the tour we enjoyed a fabulous lunch – pizza fresh from an outside pizza oven, salad, cake and more.  Once again SU had all the little details taken care of:After lunch it was time for the achieving demonstrators to do some stamping with the SU staff.  We created 4 projects and then had the opportunity to try out a new product line that will be launching here soon.  I will share the projects with you next week.

While we were stamping, the partners were whisked off for their own secret activity – bowling:

Before leaving there was just enough time for the obligatory photo at ‘the rock’

and then a little farewell gift for each of us too – our own personalised stamp

It was at this point that it was announced that Shelli Gardner (Co-founder and CEO of Stampin’ Up!) would have to leave the trip due to an unexpected (but exciting) business development.  She was very upset about having to abandon the rest of the Grand Vacation so ensured that we all had the chance to chat with her and have a pic taken before she left

After a wonderful day it was back to the St Regis for a wonderful dinner, and another pillow gift.  This time it was a gorgeous Stampin’ Up! handbag:

What really struck me the most on this visit today, was how important people are to Shelli and how she has made that a part of the culture of Stampin’ Up! The home office has been designed with lots of natural light and nice vistas for the staff to look at, there are homely touches such as antique furniture and cabinets full of crafted items everywhere, the staff are treated well and genuinely LOVE what they do – it sure would be a wonderful place to work!

Part 5 (also known as ‘the longest day ever!’) coming up tomorrow!