VIDA 2025: A Year In Review

Can you believe it’s already the end of 2025? It seems like just yesterday we were kicking off the year in great spirits for what lay ahead.

Now I’d like to take an opportunity to look back at all that VIDA was in 2025…

Team VIDA

We welcomed two new members to #TeamVIDA this year: Emily Cabrera at VIDA Portland and Katie Morales at VIDA Beaverton (with some help from Emilie Portell at VIDA Portland as needed!). We have an outstanding team, and we love working together to help Make Life/Work for each of you. The team feels very complete, and it’s such a joy to come to work together each day.

Our team took some well-deserved time to rest and play this year, with Kaitlyn traveling to Korea and Hawaii, Emily exploring Paris and Italy, Melanie and Ellie visiting Paris and enjoying a Disney cruise, Alex attending approximately 1,000 weddings across the country (maybe it was 10?!), and Katie seeing her family in California and enjoying weekend getaways. And of course, we all celebrated our birthdays with PTO!

Internal Innovations

We developed a VIDA LLM (Large Language Model), which will be put into action in 2026. We’re excited to see what kind of applications it can have for both the operation of the company and to support members too. Big shout out to VIDA Portland member Addie Olson of Cascadia Solutions, who helped us design and develop the secure platform and train our special VIDA model.

We also transitioned our internal operations fully over to the Airtable platform, which you’ll notice in the new VIDA Café form and billing process, as well as in how we manage member information and leads. Shout out to VIDA Portland member Heather Brown of Brown Bird Consulting, who helped us imagine, design, and transition over to it.

Infrastructure Upgrades

We upgraded all of our Wi-Fi systems to the newest UniFi systems and equipment and added fiber internet in both locations, with DSL and cellular backup systems — we have so much internet bandwidth for all of your Zooming, streaming and AI query-ing!

Community & Accessibility

To ensure that our community is accessible to all, we welcomed five members at no-cost to make sure VIDA is as inclusive and welcoming as possible, even for those whose financial situations made it difficult to pay for a membership. We also donated memberships to four local fundraising auctions, including Laurelhurst Elementary School, Irvington Elementary, Tucker Maxon School, and to the Northwest Association for Blind Athletes.

Space Improvements

We updated many of our spaces this year too! The Conference Room at VIDA Beaverton was moved to larger space, and has been fully redone and updated – and the Visionary Conference Room at Portland has been completely refreshed (and soon to be moved as well!). Both look beautiful and are completely functional, and we welcomed several new groups. VIDA Portland also got an update to its Fitness Studio, with a brand new Peloton Treadmill to join its Peloton Bike cousin, plus a new weight bench + free weights, plus a fully updated Patio Space that saw much love and use this summer!

Nonprofit Partnerships

We had several nonprofit partners this year, with VIDA financially supporting several organizations including Greater Than, EMERGE Oregon, Xcelerate Women, Momentum Alliance, and Wonderfolk — four current and one former VIDA-member organizations. We also supported Willamette Week’s Give!Guide — and there is still time to contribute before the end of the year (VIDA will match your contribution to Xcelerate Women or Momentum Alliance!).

We’re also a corporate sponsor of the nonprofit Hollywood Theatre and the Lovegood Performing Arts Company, the Rose City Rollers, and we are members and annual supporters of the Portland Thorns. In addition, we supported the Transgender Day of Remembrance & Resilience, PRIDE Beaverton, plus donated 500 pounds of clothes from our VIDA Portland clothing swap to Dress for Success Oregon.

We also supported 10 nonprofit organizations (voted by our members!) this year through the donation of our BottleDrop funds, including Rose Haven, The Pixie Project, Dress for Success, New Life Dog Rescue, the Oregon Food Bank, an all-women’s Paddle Boat Team, and the Beaverton Cat Rescue.

Programming Highlights

Programming-wise, we hosted four Lunch & Learn sessions, three different VIDA Masterminds cohorts, a Clothing Exchange, 22 community lunches across Portland and Beaverton locations (Frito Pie was a top winner for favorite menu!), plus two super fun community potluck events at Beaverton, a Soup Exchange event at Portland, a community-wide Pickleball Party at The People’s Courts — and of course, we celebrated with two fabulous holiday parties. 

Our The Happiest Hour events clocked in at 21 across both locations + 16 VIDA Wellness Days, which included Chair + Table Massage, Aesthetics, Fairy Hair, Nails and two Spine Assessments. VIDA members were also represented at the Portland Book Festival, Beaverton Pride, and both No Kings marches.

By the Numbers

This year we had a high of 350 members across both locations. Members booked more than 1,200 hours across all conference rooms and rode thousands of miles on the Pelotons, plus walked and ran many miles on the treadmills.

Looking Ahead: VIDA Virtual

And finally, we end the year with the launch of VIDA Virtual, our new online community and virtual coworking space for both current members and new ones we haven’t yet met! Current VIDA members receive VIDA Virtual access as part of their current memberships, and new members will be welcomed on February 1, 2026.

This will be our primary new initiative in 2026 — bringing the VIDA community to new folks across the country — and we look forward to seeing you all there! Learn more and join the waitlist here.

Reflecting on Our Year

Sometimes it feels like time can breeze by without much to show for it, but as we take a look back at this year, we recognize how many special events we hosted, conversations we had, projects we completed, and the impact on our community that we made.

We know that if you take a moment and map out your 2025, you’ll see that you probably have done the same. As we look back at the end of this year, we sometimes wonder what all got done or accomplished, but when we take a moment to think about it, there’s really so much we’ve done — personally, professionally, for our families, and for the greater world.

We wish you a wonderful last week of 2025, and the most outstanding launch to 2026 – we look forward to seeing you at VIDA again very soon!

With gratitude,
#TeamVIDA