Peppercom gives employees day off to dream

Off-site ‘Dream Day’ allows employees to brainstorm big ideas for 2008

The idea didn’t come in a dream. It came from Google, actually.

“Peppercom’s Dream Day is basically a riff on Google’s Dream Day,” says the New York communication firm’s managing partner and co-founder Steve Cody. “Google allows employees to take an extra day off each year and dream about Google. We decided to bring everyone together for a full day and try the same experiment.”

Last month the agency held its second annual Dream Day, during which all of its 75 headquarters employees—everyone from receptionists to managing partners—spent a day together offsite dreaming about the possibilities for Peppercom and all its divisions.

“The first Dream Day was all about Blue Sky ideas for what Peppercom could be in the coming year,” Cody explains. “The most recent one was focused on specific new service offerings. Employees were divided into various groups and asked to dream about the specific offerings.”