12 Days of Data Intellect Christmas

Mollie Brown

Having returned from my holiday break, it’s time to recap the last month of social activities at Data Intellect. I hope everyone has had a chance to recharge and enjoy the holiday season.

Unsurprisingly, most of this month’s social activities were dedicated to Christmas festivities, with a lot of mulled wine, festive cocktails, and naff jumpers.

We put our feet up, with hot chocolate stations and craft nights in the office, and then we let our hair down, in Belfast and in our other locations around the world, with dinners and parties galore.

12 drinks at the National

We capped off the another year of monthly free drinks in the National!

After all it was the most wonderful time... for a beer, and the time had come to grab ourselves some brew-dolphs, sport our own frosty red noses and have a ho-ho-w(ho)le lot of craic.

Here's to 12 more in 2024!

11 Football Goals

Another year, another festive 5 a side tournament and it was a great success! It was fun, competitive and fast paced, with a high quality of football for casual players. Tiarnan, James, Jonathon and Alexander were this year's winners.

10 teams of bowlers

We've had a few more teams out to join in with our quarterly challenge, submitting their bowling scores to see who comes out on top, usually with some dinner and drinks to refuel afterwards.

The Hong Kong team have completely blown away the rest of the competition and have ended the quarter on top! This makes them champions of a quarterly challenge for the second time this year - what a talented bunch!

FINAL Q4 LEADERBOARD

HK Pintellects - 134.50
The Bowling Stones- 113.57
Data Pintellects - 101.00
Pin Pals - 98.50
10 Gin Bowling - 90.20
SE Team 3 - 86.00
SE Team 1 - 80.80
Singapore National Bowling Team - 80.00
SE Team 2 - 79.00
TBA - 65.00

9 views of London

For everyone in the UK, travel was available to our biggest Christmas party in Belfast, but for anyone who couldn't make it to Belfast (or just for anyone who prefers to party in London), there was also an event in the London hub.

The various teams in London gathered at the Sky Garden Bar, which is a great spot around Christmas time! The building is known as the walkie talkie due to its unique shape, and features London's highest public garden with stunning sunset and skyline views.

There was twinkling lights, cheerful carolers, and the warmest of holiday spirits!

8 bags of presents

Data Intellect signed up to collect gifts for Mission Christmas - a seasonal drive by Cash for Kids. Cash for Kids is a grant-giving charity helping the children that need it most across the UK. Mission Christmas is here to make sure that children living in poverty can have a great Christmas.
We were collecting new and unwrapped gifts suitable for children and young people, with collection bins in the office and also had some group shopping trips at lunchtime.
We delivered 8 large bags full of gifts for kids of all ages, just in time for the big man (with the help of the Cash for Kids elves) to organise and distribute them on Christmas Eve!

7 bottles of wine

Our New York group had a cosy Christmas get-together in the Rake Wine Bar.

Disclaimer: I don't actually know how much wine they drank, I'm just working with the numbers I've got here.

6 festive diners

Season's Greetings from Hong Kong, where the team headed down to The Tai Pan in Central. There, they availed of a set 5 course Christmas dinner, including Foie Gras, Scallops, Patagonian Tooth fish, beef, and Santa hat ice cream! There was a lot of variety, and wine pairing to boot.

The set was very much a marathon which caused them to miss the fireworks at the harbour. Nonetheless they made their way to the pier and began a search for drinks.

5 gold ducks

IYKYK

5 gold ducks

5 gold ducks

5 gold ducks

5 gold ducks

4 Fancy Wraps

Thank you to our very own origami master Kent for hosting our Christmas craft evening, teaching everyone how to beautifully wrap presents.

We elevated our wrapping game with 3 different style - classic, windmill, and smart styles. Why settle for ordinary when you can give Santa a run for his money?

Thank you for everyone who attended, hopefully you enjoyed a very wholesome and cheery evening.

Check out the finished gifts!

3 magic tricks

Our biggest celebration was in Belfast at Cyprus Avenue with people coming from far and wide to join in the festivities.

We got ready to jingle and mingle, with a cocktail reception featuring the smooth tunes of our very own Jason McCoubrey. Then, a scrumptious 3-course before hitting the dance floor.

There was lots of other entertainment, including a MAGICIAN, a photobooth, and Santa even turned up with a sack full of presents.

2 matching jumpers

December is the most important time of the year for themed knitwear, so a Christmas jumper day (ugly or otherwise) is a key part of our yearly calendar.

This year's Christmas jumper day had a special twist as there was a themed murder mystery event in the office after to work!

So after a day of work, if you had any interest in murdering or being murdered, you could continue to wear your best Christmas knit after the work day and partake in some festive drinks, festive snacks, and festive murder fun!

The mystery was solved by our jolly crew of detectives, with a stapler being the dastardly murder weapon!