Food days and potlucks are a regular part of agency culture here at Element. Any time there’s an excuse to eat, we’re ready to stuff our faces and fill our bellies.
But this time … we decided to do something a little different and added technology to the mix.
We called it Element’s Apps & Apps Day! 20 of us brought in our favorite appetizers and also dished on our favorite mobile apps. It made for some great conversation. That is – when our mouths weren’t full of delicious food.
Keep reading to find out what we devoured during this feast, and discover some mobile apps that are both fun and useful!
1. Derek Blaszak – Director of Digital Marketing
The Appetizer: Mini quiches
The Mobile App: SMS Rage Faces
The Story: We started off this food day with a delicious breakfast, thanks to Derek. His mini quiches and a cup of coffee were a nice way to start of Wednesday. Derek’s app of choice is SMS Rage Faces, which is based on the popular internet memes from Rage Comics. The app is a hilarious way to express emotions in text messages. Derek decorated each quiche with a rage face, and we picked the one that matched how we felt.
Download: iTunes App Store
2. Lori Schwartz – Senior Graphic Designer
The Appetizer: Meatballs
The Mobile App: Vivino
The Story: Lori brought the protein to our appetizer buffet with some meatballs covered in a sweet sauce. Her favorite mobile app, Vivino, is a great tool for wine lovers. It lets you compare different wines with reviews and pricing while keeping track of what you like best so you’ll never buy a bad bottle of wine again! Maybe a Malbec would pair nicely with Lori’s meatballs.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
3. Bill Miston – Content Marketing Specialist
The Appetizer: Guacamole
The Mobile App: Hotel Tonight
The Story: When we walked into work Wednesday morning, Bill was busy in the kitchen chopping peppers and mashing avocados for some fresh guacamole. The jalapeños gave it just the right amount of kick. Bill’s favorite mobile app is Hotel Tonight, which lets you book rooms at impressively low, last-minute rates. It’s a great tool for deal-seekers and world travelers alike.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
4. Shawn Williams – Art Director
The Appetizer: Fresh veggies and dip
The Mobile App: Candy Crush Saga
The Story: It wasn’t all junk food on the buffet table. Shawn sliced up some crunchy peppers, radishes, and carrots for the crew. Somewhat ironically, Shawn’s favorite mobile app went in the opposite direction. He picked the insanely addictive and extremely popular game Candy Crush. We bet his high score is way better than yours.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
5. Sue Barrett – Business Manager
The Appetizer: Crackers, pretzels and dip
The Mobile App: ipiit, The Food Ambassador
The Story: Speaking of healthy food, Sue’s favorite app was created to help people navigate the world of the grocery store. With ipiit, The Food Ambassador, you can determine what food to buy based on your dietary restrictions, food allergies, and personal preferences. You’ll notice Sue brought along some gluten-free pretzels for herself.
Download: iTunes App Store
6. Ann Behling – Director of Publications
The Appetizer: Cucumber sandwiches
The Mobile App: Retype
The Story: Ann’s appetizer was light, refreshing, and classy – cucumber sandwiches sprinkled with dill. The mobile application she likes using is called Retype. It gives you the ability to add stylistic text to your photos – the perfect app for a designer! Ann was the not-so-lucky person to have kitchen clean-up duties on Apps & Apps Day, but she stayed cool as a cucumber. (See what we did there?)
Download: iTunes App Store
7. Jamie Weidman – Traffic Manager
The Appetizer: Cheesecake-stuffed strawberries
The Mobile App: GIF Keyboard
The Story: Jamie brought a sweet summer treat to the potluck. Her strawberries stuffed with a cheesecake filling were a big hit! Jamie likes to add goofy GIFs to her emails and instant messages to lighten the mood around here. So it’s no surprise she picked GIF keyboard as her favorite mobile app.
By the way … in case you’ve been wondering, it’s GIF with hard “g,” because the acronym stands for Graphic Interchange Format. And you thought you weren’t going to learn anything in this blog post!
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
8. Joel Haase – Art Director/Designer
The Appetizer: Cinnamon pretzels
The Mobile App: Simpsons Tapped Out
The Story: Joel whipped up some tasty cinnamon pretzels for us to snack on and told us about a cool app that lets fans of The Simpsons take their love of the show to a new level. Joel says he’s hooked on Simpsons Tapped Out, which follows a storyline that has users rebuilding Springfield following a nuclear meltdown that was all Homer’s fault. Joel says writers of the show are involved with updating the game’s content, too. So it’s a very authentic Simpsons experience.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
9. Lisa Gaup – Director of Business Development
The Appetizer: Caprese skewers
The Mobile App: Audible
The Story: Lisa’s delicious caprese appetizer was lip-smackingly good. She actually bought a basil plant at the store and trimmed the leaves just before she made the little skewers with grape tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. So it was super-fresh … just like Lisa. Lisa’s favorite mobile app is Audible, which is the best way to buy and listen to audiobooks. As our resident road warrior, Audible lets Lisa stay on top of her “reading” while she drives around.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
10. Kara Lichtenberg – AE/Brand Strategist
The Appetizer: Pimento Spread
The Mobile App: SoundHound
The Story: Kara’s homemade pimento spread was a scrumptious topping for crackers at our party. If you’re unsure what pimentos are, you’ll have to Google it. But if you’re unsure what a particular song you hear is, you can use SoundHound, which is Kara’s favorite app. SoundHound is music recognition technology you can use to identify a song’s name and artist no mater where you hear it! It makes you look like a musical genius, and it also does voice recognition.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
11. Ryan Hebl – Senior Web Developer
The Appetizer: Buffalo Chicken Dip
The Mobile App: Navionics
The Story: Ryan helped spice things up during our Apps & Apps Day with his creamy Buffalo Chicken dip served piping hot in a Crockpot. As an avid outdoorsman, Ryan likes using Navionics. Their various mobile apps help users navigate the open water, the wilderness, and even ski hills! However, we had no problems navigating Ryan’s dip directly into our mouths.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
12. Katie Braun – Account Executive
The Appetizer: French bread and dipping oil
The Mobile App: Cartwheel
The Story: Katie just completed her first marathon recently, so she probably figured she deserved some carbohydrates. Nothing makes bread taste better than a nice olive oil and balsamic to dip it in. Katie also knows nothing goes better with shopping at Target than the Cartwheel mobile app. There’s no clipping coupons with Cartwheel. Instead, it lets you save on the things you regularly buy when you scan a barcode on your phone at checkout, unlocking more savings as you shop! It’s like a sale that goes everywhere with you.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
13. Kasey Steinbrinck – Content Marketing Specialist
The Appetizer: Caesar salad
The Mobile App: Evernote
The Story: Kasey brought caesar salad with a homemade dressing his mom became famous for. It’s his fault if your spouse came home with garlic breath. He has the recipe memorized now, but if he didn’t, he could use the Evernote app to help him out. Evernote is basically like a digital notebook that syncs up with all your devices. Kasey uses it to keep track of links and documents for creating web content. But, you can use it to keep track off just about anything! It’s an effective way to keep ideas and projects organized.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
14. Molly Wentworth – Account Assistant/Receptionist
The Appetizer: Crack dip
The Mobile App: Fitbit
The Story: Don’t let Molly’s friendly face fool you … she’s a pusher. What Molly pushes is cheesy “crack” dip with green onions and crumbled bacon. Your mouth is watering already isn’t it, you junky? It goes without saying that this appetizer gets its name from being so addictive. If you eat enough of it, you’ll need Molly’s favorite app, Fitbit, to help you count the calories you’ll be trying to burn off later.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
15. Jess Brisson – Web Developer
The Appetizer: Shakshucka
The Mobile App: Fallout Shelter
The Story: Jess definitely gets the award for the most unique appetizer of the day. It’s a dish his wife’s family introduced him to. Shacksucka is made with a poached egg in a tomato sauce with onions. Jess served it up on some bread with hummus. It was fantastic! As for his mobile app, Jess picked the award-winning game, Fallout Shelter. It’s a tongue-in-cheek post apocalyptic game that lets you design cool shelters inhabited by your team of underground dwellers.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
16. Nikki Peroutka – Director of Account Services
The Appetizer: Dirt cake
The Mobile App: Think Dirty
The Story: Nikki brought out the kid in all of us with yummy dirt cake served up in individual cups and leaving us in a heaven comprised of gummy worms, Oreo cookie crumbs, and chocolate pudding. Fittingly, her favorite app is Think Dirty. It’s actually a mobile app that helps you shop clean. Nikki uses it to find cosmetics and beauty products that are free of toxins and other potentially harmful additives. As for the cleanliness of the thoughts running through Nikki’s head … we have no idea.
Download: iTunes App Store
17. Tara Brzozowski – Director of Public Relations
The Appetizer: Graham cracker mix
The Mobile App: Instagram
The Story: Tara brought in another fun treat perfectly coordinated with her favorite mobile app. She made a tasty snack with Golden Grahams cereal, pretzels, nuts, and M&Ms. Of course, her app of choice is Instagram – a cool way to get social with your personal photography. You can also use Instagram for social media marketing. Check out Tara’s advice on How Your Business Can Rock on Instagram!
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
18. Mike Tessmer – Senior Art Director
The Appetizer: Pound cake
The Mobile App: Scoreboard
The Story: Mike brought in some lemon and chocolate swirl pound cake, which was very moist, and we snacked on it throughout the day. If you’re a competitive person, you’ll love Mikes favorite mobile app. No one will ever be able to fudge a score on you again. Scoreboard is a mobile scorekeeping tool that helps you keep track of the score for just about anything. You can use it for your kids’ soccer games, family card games, or games of rock, paper, scissors. It’ll definitely come in handy during our heated ping pong matches here at Element!
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
19. Aaron Graff – Art Director
The Appetizer: Jalapeño poppers
The Mobile App: Map of Life
The Story: The jalapeño popper should certainly be on the short-list of most adventurous appetizers. Seriously, have you ever burned the roof of your mouth on one of those things? Aaron’s favorite app is ideal for nature-loving adventurers who are curious about this diverse world we live in. Map of Life puts biodiversity in the palm of your hand. Users around the world track and report on the range of different species while also learning more about the natural world. Map of Life is a global guidebook that fits in your pocket.
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
20. Kate Shropshire – Digital Marketing Specialist
The Appetizer: Salmon and crackers
The Mobile App: Timehop
The Story: A big thanks to Kate for taking the lead on organizing Element’s Apps & Apps Day! She brought in some succulent smoked salmon and crackers. And just as the salmon hops back up the river to spawn, Kate’s favorite mobile app lets you hop back in time. Was that too much of a stretch? Timehop is a fun way to relive memorable moments from the past by compiling your iPhone photos and social media posts, turning them into a digital time capsule that’s all about you!
Kate took all the Apps & Apps day photos you see here on her iPhone (except the one of herself). That means years from now, she’ll be fondly remembering all of her fellow employees and their delicious dishes. Have fun with that, Kate!
Download: iTunes App Store, Google Play
What’s Your Favorite?
Tells us about your favorite appetizer and/or mobile app. We’re always looking for new technology to try (and new food to eat). Leave us a comment below!
