Close your eyes and picture this. You’re in the middle of a swanky dance hall that’s pulsing with music. Sparkling lights are all around you making everyone around you look like a million bucks. 

 

You have a glass of wine in your hand and smile on your face. You’re shoulder to shoulder with the people you work with day in and day out and everyone looks great. But wait...who are those ladies that just swayed past you trailing a delicious perfume scent? It’s a closed party so you should know everyone. 

 

You do a double take and take in their A+ style, heels for days, sparkling lips. Could it really be? Are those the QA ladies who, up to know, you’ve only ever seen in their natural habitat - next to computer, working hard?!

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It wasn’t the only thing that night that made me do a double take. Let’s just say, we know how to throw a New Year Party...and I’ll show you more pictures later on in this article. 

 

But first: Business 
To start the night Ivan Norgaimer took the stage to present a 2016 Achievement Summary. How many new, attention worthy projects we won, and the people involved. Twenty sixteen was great, but 2017 is going to be magic.

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Ivan has a saying “people are everything”. He says it all the time. That night, however, he had a little something extra for the top performers. In recognition for being irreplaceable, loyal team members, the chosen few received certificates. 

 

For example: Alla was titled “Drupal Queen” for being a Drupal specialist who goes the extra mile...and then some. Nice job, our Drupal Queen!

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Introducing: Yuriy, the “Angular Sprinter” who gets front-end results faster than you can spell “front-end results”. Yuriy has even helped me with some technical stuff this year. To me sign of a true genius is someone who can translate technical language to plain English. 

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One more award to tell you about. Bytebrand also named me (yes, me, Julia, the author) “Customer’s Darling”. While it means a lot for me, the truth is I just love my customers and I honestly believe they help me as much as I help them! (By the way, dear reader, you may be a customer one day as well and I’ll be glad to help you soon!)

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Now, out of the meeting and on to the party like I promised. The agenda for the second portion of the evening: dancing, drinking, singing, talking, joking. 

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With such a beauty around it was almost impossible to stop making photos! Our competitive spirit even took over for a bit when we declared a selfie contest. (No official winner was announced.)

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Once again Bytebrand showed that we know how to show our people that they are respected.  All our employees are talented and we each have our own tastes and beliefs that influence the company culture and growth. And of course, we showed once again that we like to have fun. 

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