Work hard, play hard: 2017 Bay Area Summer Celebration

More than 2,000 Visa employees celebrated the summer and a year of hard work and success at the Bay Area Summer Celebration at AT&T Park in San Francisco last Friday.

The home of the San Francisco Giants proved to be a “home run” for employees, as they toured the ballpark and took turns in the batting cages. They also heard to the sounds of three different bands: local favorites Tainted Love, Mustache Harbor and Harmonics Band.

CEO Al Kelly opened the event by thanking employees for their contributions to Visa, and also introducing special guests: The Go Beyond Award winners, Visa employees went above and beyond to drive success for the business while demonstrating Visa’s values and leadership position, and students from the Springboard Initiative, a program to help students from underserved communities who are interested in technology careers and join Visa as “Apprentice” employees. Springboard Initiative student Aphiffany Sailors answered three questions about innovation at Visa to win a Visa-branded bike.

But it wasn’t just fun and games, as representatives from Corporate IT, Innovation & Strategic Partnerships, and Corporate Social Responsibility set up booths allowing employees to see innovation demos, ask questions and donate money – cashless! – to charities via the Visa Gives! terminal.

“We always had a line of people who were excited to give,” said Eric Warfel, who helped at the Visa Gives! booth. “They wanted to know if they could give more and if they would see these machines at more locations around our campus.”