Christmas Around the World: John Clements Consultants Virtual Christmas Party
The pandemic has grounded all of us, literally and figuratively. I planned to visit Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics. But as we all know, Covid happened. All our travel plans for the year flew out of the window.
And then the JCCI-EDI Christmas Party happened!
We got to travel to six continents — Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Europe, North and South America — all in one night! Isn’t that amazing?
Amazing though would be an understatement. Everyone had a blast! Where else can you travel worldwide without a visa during the pandemic? Only in John Clements — where the magic happened with the help of efficient committee members and a supportive ManCom who put together a virtual party to exceed all other parties!
Everyone On Board Via JCAir
All members of the JCCI-EDI team were given a boarding pass upon registration on Zoom. The boarding pass allowed us to fly JCAir where magical things happened, starting at 6:00 pm until almost midnight on December 4, 2020.
After the opening prayer, rendered by the angel-voiced Lawrence, the party officially started with an opening speech from our fabulous CEO, Ms. Carol Dominguez. Ms. Carol also shared a fun video showcasing the dancing talents of the ManCom!
After the CEO’s opening remarks, everyone was transported to different continents (via Zoom Breakout Rooms). While enjoying our inflight food (delivered right at our doorsteps before party time — thanks to Ms. Lou who made it all happen), videos with fun facts about each continent were shown.
The Breakout Room also allowed us to catch up with colleagues whom we missed a lot, as almost everyone in the company is working from home. Other than learning more about Africa (where I was assigned), watching top destinations made me and my colleagues wish harder for Covid to go away soon so we can travel already!
The Fashion Show in Milan
Because it was a virtual party, we flew from Africa to meet our other colleagues in Milan to watch a fashion show! Each division sent in their most fantabulous representatives to showcase their continent’s colorful outfits.
It was so much fun watching the video of each model doing the catwalk in the vicinity of their homes — or in a parking lot at that! Social distancing, remember?
After the fashion show, the judges randomly asked the models some not-so-serious questions to lighten the mood.
Eventually, Alexandra of JCLI won the Best Female Fashion Model who sashayed in her winter clothing, while Albi, who did his catwalk in a parking lot, won the Best Male Model.
Service Awardees
Several loyal members of the JCCI-EDI family were also recognized for their 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th years of service to the company. Each awardee was introduced by their respective manager/team lead/colleague.
The introduction part made me tear up a little. We all know that the awardees love the company so much that they dedicated most of their life working in John Clements, contributing to the progress of the company, etc. But little does anyone know that other than their dedication and hard work, they are great friends as well. And these little acts of thoughtfulness were revealed during the introduction portion. It was touching beyond words. (I wonder who will say something nice about me after 10 years. Hahaha.)
10 Years Service Awardees: Eden I. Corres, Henry S. Mediante, Emerlinda M. Nueva, and Cleofe B. Quiblat
15 Years Service Awardees: Pershing N. Dumanil, Jr. and Maritza C. Najafi
20 Years Service Awardees: Aristotle M. Metin, Alina M. Manaig, Ma. Tracy F. Piamonte, and Maria Lourdes L. Sulit
25 Years Service Awardee: Felicitas M. Corpuz
Thank you all for your hard work and dedication!
Inflight Entertainment: Division Performance Presentation
Now, this was the part that everyone was waiting for — the inflight entertainment!
Each division presented a video performance (singing/dancing or both). The presentation’s concept must be aligned with the continent they are representing.
With just one week to prepare, it’s astounding how each team came up with a 5-minute video presentation! With our busy schedule, it was a nightmare rehearsing, scheduling practice sessions, and recording. I mean, how awesome can we all get?
EDI, representing Asia, showed a video on the benefits of meditation (India) with some dancing from the team members. JCLI was represented by Lawrence singing a beautiful rendition of Winter Wonderland and the breathtaking landscape of Antarctica. Chad of SBA showed his solo Flamenco moves. A collage of greetings in different European languages capped their video performance. ESSD, assigned to South America, was represented by Philip and LA singing songs by famous Latin singers Shakira and Ricky Martin.
PS chose New York as the main focus of their presentation. Vea’s on-point rendition of Alicia Keys’ song “New York State of Mind”, with PS recruiters Jaceline, Jeng, Judy, and Eunice providing the dance sequence, blew us all away! I should mention here that the very enticing choreography was provided by Judy P, video editing by Jaceline, and song and outfit concept by Jeng! These talented ladies won the grand prize! Congratulations, PS aka #TeamNewYork! I am jealous of their moves. Seriously.
Our team, representing the continent of Africa, did a mash-up video of Do They Know It’s Christmas with the original members of Band Aid.
Band Aid (a supergroup composed of the biggest British acts in the 80s) recorded the song on December 4, 1984, which coincidentally is the same date as our Christmas Party! The group started the trend of recording charity singles for the victims of famine in Africa.
Elvin, aka Paul Young, put together the video with Jenny as Boy George, Mon as George Michael, Brian as Bono, Jason as Sting, Jett, and Jai providing the solo vocals, and the rest of the Services team for the chorus part. Thanks to our dear colleagues at Services for their cooperation, although each practice session would turn out to be a laugh trip kind of break from work. We all had fun. I guess at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
We clinched the first runner-up place, which is not so bad, considering that the other entries were absolutely magnificent and entertaining as well!
Yes, Maximus! We were entertained!
The Raffle Prizes
And of course, what is a company Christmas party without raffle prizes? Thanks to our generous ManCom and donors, some passengers took home fabulous prizes! Some of the prizes raffled were: the latest Samsung phone model, Samsung tablet, cordless JBL Headset, and 42" Smart TV!
Congratulations to all the winners!
(I didn’t win any, but my heart was full that night. That to me was like winning a sick gadget altogether!)
The Captain and the Cabin Crew
Let me take a moment here to thank the awesome team who put together the JCAir experience.
The party was a huge success thanks to the Christmas Party committee and the management who gave their all-out support. Quoting here some comments on social media on the #JCHoliday posts:
“There was so much participation and smiles and enthusiasm. I’m astounded at a company that will go through this extra effort to plan and pay for a virtual party. That is seriously unheard of. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of everyone and how they dressed up…”
“Oh, wow! Sounds like fun, and a lot of work to put together!…”
I have to agree with them. Putting together an actual party is hard, sure. But a virtual party is 10x more challenging!
Hats off to the following who made it all possible!
Chairman/Captain: Carlo Lao
Co-chair/Co-pilots: Charu Misra/ Treasure Rosaria
Cabin Crew:
Technical
Lawrence Iliscupides, Mylene Samonte, Div Chauhan, and Juls Taniog
Marketing Collaterals and Registration
Elvin Nabua, Charu Misra, MJ Navida, and Cyril Dela Rama
Content for Breakout Rooms
Frank Banaria, Josh Matundan, Carlo Lao and Charu Misra
Program
Gabriel Munchua, Patricia Mendoza, Camille Estanislao, and Carmina Villamin
Performances
Christine Buguina and Nikka Breboneria
Service Awards
Malou Antonio and Cyril de la Rama
Prizes/Raffles/Food & Delivery
Lou Sulit, Treasure Rosaria, and LA Montanez
Production
Gelay Arce and Elvin Nabua
And lastly, a big thanks to our virtual party hosts: Philip Omictin and Ruth Barbon, who both did a splendid job of making sure everyone was having a good time with their spontaneous spiels!
Seeing the happy faces, the endless cheering, supportive messages on the Zoom chat board, and the cheerful posts on social media made it all worthwhile.
Thank you all for flying JCAir. Hope to see you again on our next flight!
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About the author:
Mary June, or Mj, loves traveling, collecting shoes, writing poetry, and watching reruns of CSI. She hopes to witness the aurora borealis and meet Stephen King in person someday.
