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Go Daddy holiday party celebrates 42% sales jump
from: azcentral.com
by Jane Larson, photo by DKPhotographer.com
Video clips from It's a Wonderful Life played on the Jumbotron above the baseball field-turned-banquet-floor. And for employees and guests of one of Scottsdale's high-profile, fastest-growing companies, such was life Saturday night.
Go Daddy Group Inc. threw a $2 million holiday party at Chase Field for nearly 4,000 employees, vendors and guests. With sales up 42 percent this year, the Scottsdale domain name registrar bucked corporate America's Ebenezer Scrooge trend and the otherwise poor economy to treat employees to a bash twice as big as last year's.
Chief Executive Officer Bob Parsons scootered onto the field on a Ducati motorcycle and reminded the crowd that the company had issued no subprime loans, manufactured no cars that won't sell, and hadn't asked for any bailouts.
"That's all part of the old order," Parsons declared. "We're helping put millions of people on the Internet so they can be part of the new order. . . . The new order, the new economy is going to allow America to rise from the ashes of this recession."
Go Daddy's predominantly young workforce traded its usual T-shirts and jeans for suits and satin, even the occasional tuxedo and fedora. Caterers manned half a dozen buffet lines offering grilled chicken, carved sirloin, roasted vegetables, potatoes au gratin and two kinds of pasta.
Scores of tables around the ball field were clothed in Go Daddy's corporate colors of yellow, orange and lime green. Christmas music and Frank Sinatra tunes played over the loudspeakers, and Parsons took the stage periodically to draw names for cash prizes of $1,000 and $5,000 and motorcycles.
Comedian Sinbad entertained after dinner, joking that he didn't know what the company did but signed up for his domain names after seeing Go Daddy Girl Candice Michelle in the company's commercials.
Employees, who said they had been trying to guess for months the names of the two surprise bands, later danced to live performances by .38 Special and JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS.
"I've worked for Progressive Auto Insurance and Pepsico, and I can tell you this is the best Christmas party I have ever been to," said Keith Henderson of Go Daddy's Gilbert office. "And I've only been here two hours."
Other than the 42 percent revenue increase, Parsons would say only that the privately held company's sales this year are more than $250 million and "in the neighborhood of" $500 million.
He defended the cost of the party, even as bigger companies have been struggling financially and canceling their corporate bashes.
"I could have put that $2 million in my wallet," Parsons said. "But to me, the right thing is to have a party."
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