Global company culture organization relaunches Tampa Bay chapter

Culture Amp, a global employee engagement and culture firm, has relaunched a chapter of its free programs in Tampa Bay. 

The new chapter is led by Natalie Johnson, the chief visionary officer for Manatee County-based ViDL Work. Johnson, also a keynote speaker and consultant on culture for a variety of organizations, has long held an interest in rekindling the local chapter of the organization, dubbed Culture First Tampa Bay. With more than 30 years of teaching, training, coaching and consulting on a variety of leadership performance programs, Johnson is also certified to facilitate Brene Brown’s culture-focused Dare to Lead program.

“Everything you do at your company comes down to culture,” Johnson says. “It’s an overused word but not very well-defined” by most organizations.

Culture Amp, according to its website, has more than 100 Culture First chapters in 25 countries and 90 cities, with over 16,000 members. The “topic-based chapters are volunteer-led, creating inspiring experiences and purposeful connections through both in-person and virtual events,” the company says. 

Culture First Tampa Bay’s first event of the year under the chapter, Culture First Tampa Bay, is a virtual conversation scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 29, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Renee Hood, corporate HR director at breakfast-brunch-lunch chain First Watch, is scheduled to talk during that event about how the east Manatee County company’s "You First" culture creates an “award-winning workplace where employees thrive and customers shine.” 

There is no cost to join the community or the events. Johnson expects to have three more events in 2025, two in-person in the region and one more virtual.

Johnson, in a LinkedIn post on the event, says there “are no sponsorships or business pitches here — just real conversations about building culture-first environments.”