Fun at Epic Systems

Epic is a software developer that focuses on medical records and information. They were founded in 1979 and have grown since then to be a dominant company in their space. They remain privately held, and have a campus outside Madison, WI.

I recently went there to discuss Redgate partnering with them and while there got to tour part of the campus. This is a bit of a dump of a number of photos, because it’s a cool campus.

When we walked up to the first building, it was reminiscent of Falling Water. I visited that house years ago, and our host confirmed that was the inspiration for this building.

Connecting to that building was one that had quite a bit of a wilderness/safari/African theme. Art on the walls

Images around elevators.

Some fun spaces to sit and work or chat.

Walking from that building to the next, since most are connected, we came upon a mini recreation of Raiders of the Lost Ark. When I pulled on the idol, we got a soundtrack of the boulder rolling playing in the background. Very fun.

The basement of the next building had a recreation of a New York city deli and subway. I caught a shot of the space, where people can hang out with lunch.

I loved this piece of art overlaid on the iconic skyscraper worker photo.

In another building, there was a Hobbit theme. The entrance to one conference room looks like the Shire.

Inside there’s fake grass around the table.

And a space where you can get refreshments or sit outside of the main room,

Even the place where catering or refreshments might be set out continues the theme.

Walking further, this space has a outdoor feeling around the staircase from one floor to the next.

Just past that, there’s a few walls with the handprints of employees who have been there ten years. How cool is that?

We left the outdoors, heading for space. This was a very cool hallway.

And between two buildings, there was a Heaven theme, and a Hell one. If you press the buttons, the elevator doesn’t work, but it does remind me of Dante with some lights and sound.

Our presentation was in the Mos Eisley cantina.

With some statues and reproductions at one end of the room,

Around the conference room, there were various window spaces in the rock, each showing a different galaxy and the distance from Earth.

There was even an audience for my presentation.

Outside, it looked like the spacers were hanging out.

With plenty of art everywhere.

One thing I love is that Epic has maintained a lot of values over the years, and these are posted in every bathroom. I assume elsewhere, but I’d heard this and I saw these three items: commandments, principles, and principles of community.

Our meeting was protected with a notice, and a guard.

Epic has one of the largest, or maybe largest, underground event facilities. It was build into the ground on a former farm.

The elevator and stairs take you down.

Hallways have themes

And there are 11,000 seats. I’ve spoken in a few large venues, but never this large.

Different sides of the facility have different themes.

Do you recognize this?

Or this? In the entrance from above ground, this is near one of the escalators.

This was a fabulous visit, and I wish we had more time to tour other spaces. They have a new Star Wars and (I think) Harry Potter building under construction. Hopefully I’ll get to go back.

If you want to just go and visit, you can.