# How Lithic Turns $1M+ in Company Gatherings Into Strategic Business Wins _By Sarah Maloy — March 11, 2026 · Playbook · 6 mins read_ > Morgan Stanley, Lithic's Head of People, shares her 4-step process for turning $1M+ in company gatherings into strategic business wins with structured events, transparent budgeting, and intentional design. [Lithic](https://hubs.li/Q046ng_Y0) started 11 years ago as [Privacy](http://privacy.com), with just a handful of people working in one room. Now they number 170, with employees across the globe. Having a distributed workforce (some hybrid, some remote) works for them – but they also believe in-person moments are extremely important for company culture, growth, and momentum. Morgan Stanley, Lithic’s Head of People, knew that gathering their hybrid and remote teammates across 26 states and 7 countries would be a costly challenge. And they needed to make sure the cost and effort paid off – people-wise and pocketbook-wise. When you’re designing and hosting big team events, you need to justify the costs, get team members on the same page, and be able to point to better business outcomes. Here, Stanley shares her 4-step process for getting a distributed company together (and aligned on business goals) with structured in-person events, budgeting, and intentional event design. ![](/blogpost11-1.gif) ## Bridging Geography Gaps with Real Connections Lithic, the leading card issuer processing platform powering next-generation financial experiences, has 170 employees across the world. More than 120 are fully remote, and roughly 40 work from their NYC office three days per week. So how could they get cohesive across the board? Bring everyone together. > "We’re really lucky to have a leadership team who understands the value of in-person time and the value of remote work – and how they play together," Stanley says. It’s not just about strategic alignment – they also wanted to make sure that remote employees felt connected to the company culture. A generic trip wouldn’t cut it. Lithic needed a systematic approach to make sure relationships got deeper, and work did too. An approach that drives business outcomes and justifies a $1M+ annual investment. When an in-person meetup is strategic and well-budgeted, it can drive even more value than it costs. > "Any person who’s working in a startup knows how fast you’re moving and how important every single person that works at your company is to that mission," Stanley says. "Getting folks together as often as feasible is important." That’s not a nice-to-have. That’s essential business infrastructure. (With a bit of happy hour mixed in.) ## Stanley’s 4 Steps ![](/blogpost11-2.png) ### Step 1: Give People Clear Planning Roles On the People team, Stanley says, “we try to support managers from a logistics planning perspective so the manager can really focus on the content, why they’re getting together, and what their goal is.” That way, unrelated questions – like “Where are they staying? Where are they eating?” – don’t get in managers’ way. It’s all about assigning specific responsibilities. For example, People Ops can cover logistics (flights, hotels, A/V, F&B, venues) and managers work on the agenda, objectives, and post-event goals. ### Step 2: Build Transparent, Repeatable Budget Models “It’s north of a million dollars a year that we’re spending on in-person time, which is a huge investment to make,” Stanley says, “but it’s really important to us.” One way they standardize budgets: by making employee location tags and auto-calculating costs. For example, their math: - $350 domestic flights / $1,000 international - $450 × 3 nights hotels - $79/day per-diem - $100 ground transport That equals a $2,300 per-person cost for team events. And with that number in hand (which will, of course, differ by company and locations), you can build a reliable budget. ### Step 3: Design Different Gatherings for Specific Outcomes With money worries out of the way, it’s time to make the event. Lithic’s approach is to have three different types of events: ![](/blogpost11-3.png) ### Step 4: Make a System for Execution and Iteration Stanley’s background is not just in people ops but also in event planning, which trained her to understand the value of a great venue setup. For the all-hands retreat, her team creates minute-by-minute run-of-show sheets, crafts the perfect soundtrack and walk-up music for speakers, and even uses lighting cues to direct participant attention. They also make sure that the sessions are live-streamed and recorded to include those who couldn’t attend. > "The annual retreat is my team’s Super Bowl. We spend at least 9 months preparing for it each year and we want these events to be insanely memorable and impactful. We want them to be well worth the almost half a million dollars we’re spending." For events, she creates repeatable checklists, making what could be complex into a clear process. That might mean a tech stack of Notion playbooks, single-use Ramp virtual cards for logistics, dedicated Slack channels for coordination, or Google sheets for gap coverage. Whatever keeps you the most organized is the right tool – and key for repeated success. ## Building Better Events With Stanley’s process, you can keep your eye on finances and strategic goals. Here’s what you’ll see: **The C-Suite Setting the Stage:** Lithic always kicks off their retreat with their CEO setting the stage. It’s important to think about where you came from and how far you’ve come – but it’s even more important to hear from your C-Suite about what’s next and why they’re personally excited about the future. One of the biggest returns you can get from high-production value retreats is getting your teams excited and hyped. That energy fuels innovation. **Enhanced Strategic Decision-Making:** In Lithic’s Fireside Chat sessions, they bring key customers on stage for strategic input, feedback, and conversation. Those events – as well as the executive retreats – make long-term planning possible. **Justified Financial Investment:** No more questioned invoices. With a flexible (but defined!) budget approach, companies can tackle directional accuracy and keep to their projections – which supports the investment in events as essential to business, not just fun. By implementing Stanley’s systematic 4-step approach – clear role assignment, transparent budgeting, outcome-specific event design, and repeatable execution processes – distributed companies can transform expensive gatherings into strategic business investments that drive real results. They won’t just justify their budgets; they’ll become essential infrastructure to build up company culture and success.