On May 4th, 2012, a handful of Bronto engineers walked into the T4T space and were warmly welcomed by Al Reynolds, who manages the day-to-day operations of refurbishing computers and guides volunteers.  After assuring everyone that no technical prowess was necessary, Al brought each volunteer to the different stations of the refurbishing process and instructed everyone on what they needed to do:

• Strip out hard drives and blow dust out of recently donated computers
• Wipe and reimage hard drives with Microsoft Windows XP and Office
• Assemble and test functional computers
• Salvage non-functioning donations for valuable parts

Brontos were also fortunate enough to hear first-hand how their efforts are making a difference when Denise Rodgers, Executive Director of Girls Incorporated of the Albemarle, picked up several laptops.  Denise explained how with a limited budget, T4T helps her organization immensely.

It is easy to take the technology we use on a day to day basis for granted.  I hope other Brontos really consider participating in the next T4T event as the work is easy, fun, and important.  Anyone at any skill level can help out, and as some of us have seen first-hand, we all have the potential to really make a difference.

Andy Feller
Development Team Lead
Foosball Master
Devoted Husband

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The aptly-named Bad News Brontos were a little rusty from their winter slumber. Many players had not seen a fly ball or swung a bat in years, but there were several plays throughout the year that probably could have qualified for SportCenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Week, including a nifty Willie Mays-style over the shoulder catch made by COO Chaz Felix. With plays like these, the team stayed competitive in several games and even managed to eke out a one-run victory on a walk-off single.

Despite the tough competition and many weather cancellations, the squad had a lot of fun both on and off the field. At Bronto, we not only like to be active but social as well which meant that games were often followed by a round of beers at the Sunset Grille. However, the season is winding down and the playoffs will soon be upon us. I know Joe and Chaz are eager to bring home a city championship (perhaps to win a million dollar bet with a rival ESP?), so any ringers are encouraged to apply for one of the many jobs Bronto currently has open.

Chris Van’t Hof
Financial Analyst
Active Committee Member
Flying Dutchman

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In addition to two and a half jam-packed days of content at this year’s Bronto Summit, our annual user conference, we had three evening events that gave attendees a chance to network with peers, meet industry partners and relax a bit. Our Wednesday night event was the crown jewel of our Summit networking events. It was held at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC and featured excitement such as:

• Vintage arcade games (air hockey, foosball, Fast and Furious)
• Beer tasting from Fullsteam Brewery
• Wine tasting from Wines for Humanity
• The first ever Bronto chandelier
• Amazing prizes

Bronto Summit 2012

Missed the Summit? Check out the pictures here.

At Bronto we like to give out prizes. The usual gift cards, iPads and such are good but we like to take it a step farther. Sure attendees won $250 gift cards and 6ft. inflatable Brontos but where else could you win a chance for the entire Bronto office to raise a glass in your name? Or memorialize our entire application in your honor for a day? At the Bronto Summit…that’s where!

Here’s a review of our contest winners and an explanation of their winnings:

Life Size Picture at Bronto

We love our customers. So much that we want to look at a life size picture of them on the walls of the Bronto offices everyday. Congratulations to Michael McClung from Dungarees.net who won the honor of watching over our office beer keg for the next year through a 5 ft Fathead.  He will be like a guardian statue that keeps watch over Bronto’s Friday enjoyment.  And every once and a while someone will raise their glass to the man who’s expression will never change.

A Toast in Your Honor
Every Friday, Bronto employees get together and share a beer from our taps in celebration of the week.  This Friday, April 27th, we’ll open up the taps at 5pm as we typically do, but this time we’ll celebrate in honor of Deston from Burton and Burton. We will raise our glasses, of the beer of his choosing, and say “here, here” to Deston!

You’re Awesome!
Congrats to Bronto’s very own David Albert for the honor of getting a phone call everyday from a person who will tell you “David, you’re awesome!”  David won the honor by winning a pizza eating contest which morphed into a drinking contest, the activity was orchestrated by Bronto CEO, Joe Colopy.

Memorialized Bronto Log In Page
Certainly one of the highest honors available from Bronto would be to have the thousands of people who log into the Bronto Marketing Platform see your smiling face next to their username and password. 3 such people will have that honor: Melissa from iGT, Martin from PartyCity and Renee from Communications 21.

I’m sure that now you have witnessed the amazing time you could have at the Bronto Summit you will be looking forward to next year’s event. Once we have locked in that date and location we will be sure to let you know.

Mike Ballard
Customer Marketing Manager
Percussionist
Father of 3

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Tony was assisted during the challenge by two fellow Brontos, VP of Client Services, Carolyn Sparano and Software Engineer, Paul McCall.  Paul and Carolyn helped pace Tony during the grueling run.  Pacers serve an important role in motivating and focusing the runner during the latter hours of the race.

Some highlights:

• Paul paced Tony on lap 6 (mile 62-75).  They ran a 2:57 split
• Carolyn paced Tony on lap 7 (75-88). They ran a 2:53 split (Carolyn has bragging rights for the fastest lap)
• Tony’s brother Alex paced him on lap 8 (88-100).  They ran at 3:20am.

Tony noted that Carolyn, Paul and Alex:

“.. played a huge role in getting me to the finish line by making sure I was getting enough food, water and electrolytes in my body.  I can’t thank them enough.”

Morning rain, humidity and rising temperatures into the 80s was just a taste of tough conditions throughout the day, as thunder, lightning and a down pour of rain closed out the last two hours of the race.  But that didn’t slow Tony down – he ran the first 50 miles in 8 hours 45 minutes, 1 hour faster than his best 50 mile time.  Tony’s goal was to finish the race in 24 hours and he finished in 20 hours 30 minutes!  By running for that length of time, he burned an estimated 20,000 calories, so what did he eat?

• 4 PBJ’s
• 4 turkey sandwiches
• a handful of vanilla oreo cookies and chips
• 2 bowls of cantaloupe
• 2 hot dogs
• 2 slices of pizza
• 10 GUs
• 3 Mojo Bars
• And plenty of water

Through sickness and fatigue, Tony endured through the pain and continued running.  However, 100 runners (out of the 283 participants) dropped out of the race due to the taxing demands.  Tony’s persistence not only helped drive him to the finish, but he finished strong, coming in 22nd place out of all the runners.

The Bronto team congratulates Tony on his amazing accomplishment.  We’re also happy that he gained support from his fellow Brontos.  Both Paul and Carolyn volunteered their time and energy to help Tony in completing this momentous goal. Congrats Tony!

Caroline Riddle
Marketing Communications Manager

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In a supportive team environment, we started meeting once a week in February to weigh in and discuss tips, tricks, and challenges of weight loss.  During our last meeting on March 30th, we calculated a total weight loss of 123.6 pounds as a team since February – that’s nearly four pounds a person!

The Bronto Belly Busters have encouraged each other to stay active through daily walks and gatherings at the on-site YMCA – which, of course, Bronto makes easy since we have free membership as long as we visit eight times a month. We also promoted healthy eating, not only in our weekly recipe swaps and by simply shaming our colleagues who tried to steal from the candy basket, but also through our weekly salad bars. When we have a salad bar, each person brings at least one item to add to a salad, from delicious locally grown lettuce to deli meat, from fresh artichokes and tomatoes to creamy feta cheese and healthy almonds. As a team, we create nourishing, yummy lunches to enjoy together.

As we enter the next phase of Belly Busters, we’re ready to look great for bikini/speedo season!

Stephanie Grohoski
Sales Training Manager
Yogi
Cheese Fan
Foodie

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Central and Eastern NC Food Bank:

A group of four Brontos volunteered for four hours at the local food bank in Durham.  In addition to serving many local agencies, the food bank also facilitates food donations for area schools.  During our recent visit, we helped with this initiative by filling bags of food (2 granola bars, 1 box of cereal, 1 juice box, 1 fruit cup, 1 can of lasagna, and 2 cups of pasta to be exact) to be distributed to area schools.  The bags go in the hands of children who receive food supplements during school hours, but need the additional food to help bridge possible gaps between school weeks.  These meals are essential to bettering their welfare and nutrition. In the course of only four hours, four Bronto volunteers stuffed 370 bags!

SEEDS:

Bronto continues to schedule regular volunteer outings to help SEEDS, a local non-profit community garden.  Recently we’ve had a volunteer event each month, where Brontos have helped out with a range of projects from pruning to planting.

Habitat for Humanity:

Some of the more handy Brontos flock to this volunteer opportunity which puts their building skills to use.  In early March a crew from Bronto divided up tasks, one group cut siding to measurement and the other team installed.

Frankie’s Challenge

As if volunteering on company time wasn’t enough, the Bronto community committee decided to add a competition to further encourage the team to volunteer.  In 2011, the community challenge was introduced.  The team with the highest volunteer participation percentage was treated to an afternoon off work to have fun at Frankie’s Fun Park.  Bronto’s platform team was victorious in the challenge with 100% of their team volunteering for community events!  They enjoyed an afternoon of go-carting, mini golf and beers as their reward.

Thank you to all the Brontos who volunteer for our great partner organizations.  We’re looking forward to continuing this great tradition of giving back and having fun in the process!

Caroline Smith Riddle
Marketing Communications Manager

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The office is in a premier location, Covent Garden, London, with easy access to the European mainland and the rest of EMEA. With this big news came celebration!  On Tuesday, Feb 28th the Bronto team celebrated the opening of the office along with a farewell to Tim Dorris, Regional Sales Manager for EMEA, who will be based in the London office.  As with any milestone at Bronto, we wanted to celebrate in style with a day long celebration while enjoying foods of Europe. 

The team started the day with a French themed breakfast snack of crepes with a lovely accompaniment of Nutella and fruit spreads.

Next, the team took a culinary journey to Deutschland where they enjoyed over-sized, soft pretzels and hearty sausages.  Capping off the afternoon, the team landed back in England by diving into a spread of cucumber sandwiches, tea, crumpets, clotted cream and jams.  The team ended the day with a group picture touting our new, snazzy Bronto Union Jack shirts and European football regalia. As luck would have it, a collection of Mini Coopers were parked on the watertower stage at American Tobacco Campus, a fitting backdrop to the day’s theme.

We wish Tim Dorris the best in his new, exciting role for Bronto EMEA sales.  We’re also looking forward to all the great things to come with the expansion.  As Chief Bronto, Joe Colopy, would say “Onward!”

Caroline Smith Riddle
Marketing Communications Manager

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As a member of the 2011 Bronto Community Committee, I had the opportunity to send a survey to my fellow Brontos at the year’s end. The committee was looking to establish what community involvement had worked well over the past year and also to gather feedback from everyone on what they wanted to see in the future. During this process, many Brontos let us know that they were interested in pursuing more “green” or environmentally conscious initiatives. This was something that the community committee had discussed off and on and it seemed the interest in this topic was growing. After bringing this up to our Executive Sponsor, Chaz Felix, we discussed the concept of forming a new committee focused solely on this topic alone. Through conversations and looking at what the mission would be for this new group, as well as the consideration of our ever-growing size as a company, the Bronto Green Committee was born! But this isn’t Bronto’s first foray into green living. For example, our new office space was built for LEED certification. By using recycled materials, like old blue jeans as insulation or the use of existing materials whenever possible, Bronto has been true to our green company colors.

The new Bronto Green Committee is comprised of Suzanne Creekmore, Drew Dahlke, and myself with Chaz Felix acting as our Executive Sponsor. So far, the Green Committee has had meetings to establish our purpose as a group and also to plan initiatives for the coming year. After evaluating what was important for the committee to accomplish, we devised the following list of purposes:

1. Identify and act on opportunities to reduce our environmental footprint at the office
2. Provide education on ways to live a “greener” more environmentally sustainable lifestyle
3. Join campus and community efforts to be more environmentally responsible and sustainable

To start in Q1, we will be focusing on what we are currently doing in terms of office & kitchen supplies (and how we use them) to identify areas in which we can decrease our environmental footprint. Also a large component of the initiatives for Q1 will be educating Brontos on environmentally conscious best practices and looking at opportunities to participate in events supporting this cause. Overall, the Green Committee has been met with support from the entire team and we are happy to pave the way for this new focus! Stay tuned to hear more over the course of the coming year and feel free to let us know any tips or tricks you may have for maintaining a green office space by commenting below.

Anna Pfeiffer
Marketing Strategist
Green Committee Member
Saxapahaw Resident

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Although games were a bit sloppy at times, they were competitive and new players joined as Bronto continued to expand.  Eventually, we transitioned to full court (at least for a few minutes until everyone was winded) and started to feel confident in our ability to compete with the big boys of the Durham Parks and Rec League.  Bronto COO, Chaz Felix, generously agreed to pay the league fees and provide jerseys as a way to encourage employees to stay active and socialize outside of work, so we pulled together our roster and signed up.  As a Bronto Active Committee member, forming this team has been yet another way Brontos can stay active and get to know colleagues better (communication is key on the court).

Bronto is located in the middle of Tobacco Road, which lends to tough competition.  Expansion teams typically struggle, and the Green Machine has not been an exception.  Even though we’re not having a winning season, the players have enjoyed the chance to play competitively and get some exercise.  As for next year, Bronto is still hiring a lot of new people, so anyone over 6’3” is encouraged to apply.

Chris Van’t Hof
Financial Analyst
Active Committee Member
Flying Dutchman

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What is the Krispy Kreme Challenge you ask? On Feb 4, 2012 7,700+ runners:

• Ran (or walked) 2.5 miles from NCSU’s Bell Tower to the Downtown Raleigh Krispy Kreme
• Picked up a dozen glazed Krispy Kreme donuts
• Ate one, two or all the donuts
• Ran (or walked) 2.5 miles back to NCSU’s Bell Tower

A dozen glazed Krispy Kreme donuts = 2400 calories, so no self-respecting Active Committee member recommends participants eat the full dozen!  How many calories are in just one Krispy Kreme glazed donut? 200  How many calories can you burn walking to claim a dozen of those delicious doughnuts?  300-400+!!  So, it’s possible to justify eating one or two donuts for the challenge!

We had seven Brontos run the KKC.  None of the runners actually ate the entire dozen, but rather ate one or two and brought the rest home to share with family and friends. Three Brontos sported our signature Traveling Bronto on their hats and one Bronto wore a snazzy Bronto cape!

To encourage and reward participants, the Active Committee awarded each runner a $10 gift card to Saladelia, where they could choose a reward of healthy food options. The KKC is a fun race that promotes activity (5 miles is nothing to scoff at!), and benefits a good cause as proceeds go to NC Children’s Hospital.  Many more fun events to come from the Active Committee, so stay tuned to BrontoNation.  A hint of what’s next…a great way to lose some of those holiday/donut pounds.

Mary Gelfand
Account Executive at Bronto
Bronto Active Committee Member
Green Album Songstress

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