The year has taken quite an unusual turn with a pandemic sweeping the globe and forcing everyone to stay inside in an effort to flatten the curve as quickly as possible. As a result, our beloved Boston Marathon has been postponed to September. While we’ll have to hold our celebrations for a few months, we thought we would honor the day by sharing some of our favorite memories.

Here at Aria, we work hard to achieve great results for our clients, but we also love to blow off steam as a team. Every quarter, our Fun Committee is in charge of putting on a big event for the team to kick back, relax and have a great time. This time around, we wanted to try something a little different. Not only did we want to host an enjoyable event, but we wanted to create something special for the office. And what better place to do that than at Paint Bar!

When we’re not busy scoring homeruns for our clients, the Aria team enjoys getting out of the office for some quality company fun. The most recent Aria adventure was a trip to historic Fenway Park to see the Red Sox dominate the Miami Marlins (I’ll get to the score a little bit later).

The Aria Marketing staff has spent the past seven months supporting our health IT clients from home amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While working remotely has introduced us to many challenges, like issues with internet coverage, Zoom calls, homeschooling, and crowded households, the Aria team has found innovative ways to set themselves up for success at home. Hear from members of the Aria team below on best practices for working from home as well as what they miss most about our office:

It is finally starting to feel like spring in Boston, but for us New Englanders, this past winter felt extra long and cold. So, the best thing to do when dealing with what seemed like the 107^th day of January was to take a cabin fever reliever trip! A few Aria team members took mini vacations across the country and down south to seek a little sunshine, so we thought it would be nice to share these #Instaworthy trips with you.

Every day our primary focus is on getting the best possible PR results and opportunities for our clients; but we make sure to build in various perks, special events, and other activities to help us reach the “Triple Aim of Aria” – increased productivity, improved health and wellness, and reduced stress levels.

Top Tips for Designing a PR Agency Office Space

It seems like just yesterday that I was spending my days sorting through paint swatches and rug samples and testing out the latest ergonomically-designed desk chair (in addition to writing press releases, of course). But in fact, this month marks the third anniversary of our big move to a new office space located in an old mill in Newton’s Nonantum neighborhood. And, even more significantly, it marks three years since we officially became “the New Aria.”

Despite the pandemic, Aria has realized steady growth in terms of adding new healthcare clients to its portfolio and making several new hires. Account Executive Casey Bennett joined Aria’s public relations team in March, and I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Casey to learn a bit more about her.

If there’s one thing my colleagues at Aria know about me, it’s that I love tea.

At Aria, I bring in a “tea of the week” to share the power of tea. Each tea has a story and strikes a different, unique chord. It warms the soul and evokes many of my fondest memories.

This week, I brought in Moroccan Mint tea, a special one for me because of my Tunisian heritage.  Having lived our lives mostly in France and the U.S., my sister and I had trouble connecting with our Muslim family. Drinking traditional sweet mint tea and looking out over the shore together was our way of overcoming that cultural and language barrier. The tea still reminds me of the Mediterranean breeze and the taste of the sickly-sweet Tunisian candies our aunts pushed into our hands.

Anniversaries are a big deal at Aria. We know that working at a PR agency can be challenging and we pride ourselves on offering our staff an awesome work environment and great perks that makes them want to stick around for years. Regardless of whether it is your one year anniversary or your 15 year anniversary, we celebrate our employees – and our anniversary awards program is just one of the many ways we do so!

We’ve had a slew of anniversaries over the last few months (including my own!) as we’ve retained 93% our staff in 2019, so we thought this would be the perfect time to shine a light on some of the anniversary rewards our employees have selected recently.