- Every year, twice a year,
the remote company that I work for
puts on a team retreat,
which is a chance for everybody in the company
to fly to one place, gather together in person,
and spend a week bonding, hanging out with each other,
planning for the future, dreaming,
getting excited about our future plans.
It's a really important week for us as a remote company
because so much of success as a remote company
relies on the relationships
that you have with your teammates.
And these are weeks where those relationships
are really formed and strengthened,
where we can all get on the same page
and feel super excited about the work we're doing together.
Now obviously because we are in
a global pandemic at the moment,
our team retreat this week is having to go virtual.
This is the first time we've done this,
and I wanted to vlog it
so I can show you how our company is adapting
our wonderful in-person retreat experience,
to capturing as much of that
as we possibly can in a virtual setting.
Now, obviously it's not gonna be the same.
First of all, because it's hard to capture
an in-person experience virtually,
as we've all felt during the various lockdowns
that we've been in throughout the world this year.
But there's also been a lot of changes that they've made
to adapt the retreat schedule to a virtual setting,
we're not just trying to do the same thing but virtual,
if that makes sense.
At our in-person retreats,
we stay together in these big houses or cabins
and we spend like breakfast, lunch, dinner together,
in sessions, hanging out,
doing activities all day, basically.
And in a virtual setting that'd be really exhausting,
to be all doing calls all day.
So the first major difference
and what I really appreciate is the fact
that our operations team has set up the schedule
so that it will end up with us being
energized by the retreat instead of drained by it,
I hope at least.
Normally these retreats are a week long.
We arrive, all fly into the same place on Sunday
and then leave on a Friday.
But this one is just three days in the virtual setting.
Right now it's Monday,
and because I'm based in Europe,
my first session for the day doesn't actually start
until like 1:30, I think, my time.
And so I've had the morning off, which has also been nice.
They told us that we're not expected to do our regular jobs
as well as our retreat stuff this week.
Which is how it goes in a regular retreat setting anyway.
So that's nice that they've kept that.
So, I've had a very chill start to my day.
And my first session actually
is gonna be a really fun activity.
So during a regular retreat,
we normally have two main activity times per week,
where you pick from like one of a couple of options
of things to do.
On the last one, for example,
we went kayaking in the Pacific, that was really fun.
For this one, we got to pick from some like,
online live classes that we're gonna take together.
And one that I'm doing today is hand lettering,
which is gonna be very fun.
It's gonna be me and three of my workmates in it.
So it's gonna be a very small class
because we've chosen like the earlier activity option.
That's another thing that they're doing for time zones
because we are spread out all over the world.
I probably should have said that at the start.
Most of the company is based in the U.S.,
I'm in Europe.
We've got someone in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand.
And so there's just like, a very wide range of time zones
to consider when setting things up.
And so they've done a good job of being aware of that.
We're all gonna have to make a few sacrifices this week,
in terms of our regular schedule,
but not too much which is good.
Anyway, just wanted to set that up for you,
tell you a little bit about how we're achieving this.
Our retreats are honestly
some of my favorite weeks of the year,
so I'm very sad to not be together in person
with everyone this week, but I know our operations team
has done a good job of trying to capture as much
of the experience as they can.
So let's get into it and do some hand lettering.
(upbeat bright music)
That was really fun.
We had just a small group of us
doing a hand lettering class.
This was my finished product.
Boop, boop, boop.
Cheating slightly to use the iPad
because Procreate has like a feature
that kind of neatens up your stroke a little bit,
but I didn't have it set to overly a lot.
So, you know, this was still me drawing this,
which I'm really proud of.
This is a style that I've never managed to do nicely before,
so that was really fun.
And she was a really good teacher.
We hung out for a little bit afterwards,
like after the class ended,
I dropped another Zoom link.
Us three hung out on the call,
did some more drawing and chatting, you know.
Now I have an hour before our next session.
There's only three sessions per day,
like three Zoom calls a day.
They're only like an hour and a half per call
so it's not too bad and we're not gonna be too overloaded
with Zoom calls, but I will be hungry if I do not eat,
because it's three o'clock.
So I'm gonna go eat some lunch.
(bright electronic music)
We are about to have our first all team meeting for the day.
Normally this session will happen
on Sunday night at our retreat
and sort of like kick the whole thing off,
but obviously because we're doing it virtually,
for me, it's happening in my afternoon.
For others, it might be the first thing in their morning.
I don't actually know what we're gonna be talking about,
but I do know that at the start of it
we're gonna be opening gifts that got sent to us.
This is another way that they're bringing in
some of the in-person experience virtually,
is sending us a gift for us to all open
together on the call, which will be fun.
(upbeat bright music)
So, yesterday, we had an all team session
where we did an activity breaking into groups
which is something we often do in person at a retreat.
Like we'll break into groups and everyone will go to
like a separate part of the houses
to like have a discussion, brainstorm something.
And for this one, we were brainstorming
how we would pitch ConvertKit, like a five minute pitch,
in the year 2023.
So it sort of involved thinking ahead to what features
we're gonna have available then
and how we want to be describing ourselves
three years into the future.
And also some refining of how we talk about our product
to people who don't know it yet.
So yeah, it was a really great activity, super fun.
And we got put in random groups,
which is always good to like spend time with people
who you perhaps don't work with on a daily basis.
And we use Zoom's Breakout Room feature for that.
Then I had a one on one with my workmate Isa,
which was really nice.
One of our favorite parts of the retreat is like,
just the individual conversations that happen
when you're like, I dunno, getting lunch together,
getting a coffee, going for a walk.
I don't know.
And so yeah, we put a one-on-one in our calendar
and just sat and had a chat, and dreaming big,
and you know, talking about stuff, which was really cool.
And then the last session of the day
was individual team sessions.
So for me, that was a marketing team session.
And we did sort of like a get to know you thing,
'cause we've had someone new join the team
since the past retreat.
And we talked about what we would do
if we were independently wealthy,
how would we spend our time?
And it was a fun exercise
to see what people dream about,
and what's important to them.
And I like that we spend the time on that sort of thing,
because like I said at the start,
the relationships with the people on your team
are vital for success in a remote company.
So that was really good.
So that was just a quick catch up on yesterday.
Today, first session of the day is another activity again.
For me, I'm going to be doing an online yoga class,
but it's like a live one,
so it's gonna be weird, I guess like watching a yoga video,
but the instructor is gonna be doing it in real time
with a couple of people
who were also in hand lettering one yesterday.
So I am going to go put some workout clothes on, I guess.
And get ready for that.
(upbeat bright music)
That was such a lovely yoga class, it was really cool.
Sometimes honestly, I forgot that she was teaching us live.
And then she would say something like,
just straighten your leg a little bit more,
and I was like, oh yeah, she can see me.
But yeah, that was a nice way to start off the day,
'cause often on our real retreats,
we'll have like a range of activities in the morning
for like different exercise sessions,
if people want to join in.
Like, got a couple of workmates
who are actually yoga teachers
and they will run a class or something like that.
So yeah, that was really nice.
Something I didn't mention yesterday is that
we got given $150 budget to buy ourselves meals
throughout the retreat.
So we can like order in food
and not have to like worry about cooking it
and things like that, which has been really nice.
So we got a Poke bowl yesterday like you saw.
I had a chicken wrap lunch today, it was really good.
Next session that I'm going into is unsolicited feedback.
If you've watched past retreat vlogs,
you will have heard me talk about this before,
but this is a thing that we do,
normally you're in person, you're like just sort of sitting
around in a living room or something like that.
And it's called unsolicited feedback
because we take it in turns for like one person to be quiet
and everyone else in the room sort of talks about them
as if they weren't there.
Saying what they hope for them, what they are like,
have really admired about them recently,
but talking about them, not to them, if that makes sense.
I don't know, it sounds weird to explain
but it's really, it's a great activity.
You feel, you end up feeling really like seen
by your work mates and you also get a lot of really good
candid feedback of stuff you need to work on as well.
I know for sure it's helped me to progress in my career
having these sessions.
So I'm not quite sure how it's gonna work
having it online instead of in person.
Like, I don't know, just, for unsolicited feedback,
the personal care side of things has to be there.
And you have to know that everything you say
is like coming from a place of love
and support for each other.
And it's harder to like feel those vibes virtually.
But I'm sure everyone will do great,
and it might take awhile for us to warm up to it
but we'll get into it.
Anyway, gonna do that.
But before I do,
there's like 10 minutes before that session.
So they've setup one Zoom link as like the kitchen,
which is where like you'll often run into people
in the houses on a real retreat to grab a drink,
grab a snack or something like that.
And so it's this open Zoom room
where people will be hanging out randomly
and you can just pop in and see who's there
and have a chat.
So, I'm gonna go do that.
(upbeat bright music)
- Now, let's hear more about these innovative
life changing products from today's startups.
The first startup to present are the entrepreneurs
from startup one, Dog Doo.
- [Presenter] Everyone has them.
Specifically, dog lovers obviously have this problem
as well, is cutting their hair during a pandemic.
- I can't remember where I left off filming yesterday
or what I even talked about and like told you all
was going on, you're probably very confused,
so we had our unsolicited feedback session,
I did explain what that was, I'm pretty sure.
That went on for almost double the time it was supposed to.
We always stay a long time with that.
We did have a lot to say to each other
and there is nine of us on the team,
so, you know, that was a lot of people to go through.
But that was really good.
That was one part of a virtual retreat
I was kind of worried about,
because to give that kind of feedback to people,
it feels nicer to be able to do that in person.
And then you can all hang out afterwards
and like nights after unsolicited feedback,
everyone always sort of has this like,
(sighs) like a sigh of relief sort of thing.
And you all just feel much more connected.
But it did go really well doing it over Zoom instead.
It was just a shame that we couldn't all then like,
hang out afterwards.
But what we did do was this group activity
called patent pending or patent pending as I've learned
Americans pronounce it.
We're all on a Zoom call,
got put into random breakout groups
and given key words that we had to develop
an infomercial type product for.
So something dumb but like kind of useful,
but you don't really need it.
My group was making something for bakers
to solve their problem of having wet feet.
So that gives you an idea of the like level of weirdness
that was going on.
And some of those clips, you're probably not understanding
but that's because like people had weird phrases
they were having to work with.
But it was really fun.
It was really fun to do it altogether, had a laugh.
And afterwards got on a Zoom call
and just sort of like chatted about a little
before I got off and had dinner.
All the others because there's two times for activities,
I think I explained that at the start.
A lot of people did some whiskey tasting last night,
which looked super fun.
I have a little bit of FOMO about that,
but also I didn't wanna stay up till 11:30 doing it.
Tonight, I am gonna stay up late though,
because it's our last like team activity for the week,
it's a trivia night.
It's at 10 o'clock my time, but I wanna be there.
Gonna make that happen.
It's really fun though, waking up for the day
and like seeing, you know, Slack messages from people
of what they were doing in the whiskey tasting,
screenshots and things like that
because we have a retreat channel in Slack,
which is where we're like putting all of our random thoughts
this week.
Right now it's about 10 o'clock for me
and I'm going to go and do my 5K run.
So this is something I talked about in a previous vlog,
we're running a virtual 5K together this week.
So it's like at any time you go out and do your run,
you track it in Strava and like name it CK5K run.
And it gets counted, and there's like prizes
for the fastest as well as best outfit and scenery
and all that.
I'm not particularly going for any of the prizes
'cause I don't wanna wear something dumb out in public.
And I'm just gonna run on the riverbed here in Valencia,
but hey, there's already been some people doing it.
And Grant our Director of Engineering
has a time of running 5K in 19 minutes and 38 seconds.
What, yep.
My time's probably gonna be about double that, we'll see.
I'm gonna get ready and go on that now.
(upbeat bright music)
Oh my gosh, so I ran the full five kilometers
without stopping, which is a huge achievement for me.
I've not run that far for, oh geez, I don't know,
like maybe since 2013, something like that.
So I'm really proud of myself for doing that.
And also I managed to do it much faster
than any of my training like run/walks.
Just did it in 33 minutes.
So, definitely not as fast as Grant,
but very pleased with that.
(upbeat bright music)
Okay, so I don't think I updated much today at all
but how do I catch up?
Okay, we had an all team session
where we sort of got presented the mission, vision, values.
This is a session we usually have at retreats,
that Nathan, our CEO presents.
And that was talking about like, the future of the company.
We did some Zoom Breakout Rooms to discuss that.
It was really good.
Then on the marketing team meeting,
we were talking about like, marketing we've loved seeing
other companies do, just like inspiring stuff
and having a general conversation
about where things are going for us.
So it's been a day of that sort of forward thinking.
Had a couple of good, like random chats in that Slack room
that just like anyone can join at any time
that I talked about the other day.
And now, I have myself a bourbon,
and I'm gonna join the team for a trivia night,
which is gonna be fun.
It's like 10 o'clock here.
So normally I'm going to bed right about now,
but this is gonna be good,
and it's gonna be worth it, for sure.
(upbeat bright music)
Basically Caitlin has set up different Slack channels
for each group, so we can like discuss our answers in there
but we're altogether on a Zoom call
and it's going pretty well.
I'm mostly saying that because my team
is coming in the lead so far.
I was up until midnight the night of the trivia,
which is why I did not end this vlog
on the actual day itself.
But I'm pleased to report,
my team won the quiz with the bonus round.
Yes, thank you, we all have little trophy emojis
in our Slack statuses now.
Just to remind everyone that we won, you know?
All in all, it was a really good virtual retreat.
I was surprised at how much of the in-person atmosphere
they managed to capture
with the things that had been organized.
It definitely felt like a break from the regular work
to like take you out of that,
to have you thinking about bigger things,
thinking about making connections and all of that,
which is the point of the retreat.
And so yeah, for that, it served its purpose.
It's really interesting
because after a real in-person retreat,
the day after you like feel really sad and you miss everyone
and myself and a few other people
said that they were feeling that
about the virtual retreat as well, which makes no sense,
because we weren't like together in the first place.
And you know, we could talk to people the same way
we were talking to them during the retreat anytime.
But yeah, I think that just shows how much
of that atmosphere that the ops team managed
to put in place, so that's really cool.
I'm glad they managed to do that
because we're supposed to have our next retreat in February.
And I don't think the world is gonna be in a place
where we can do that in person.
So I'm bidding it's gonna be another virtual one,
not sure yet though.
Thanks for watching this vlog.
I hope you enjoyed seeing
what it's like for a company to run a virtual retreat.
I thought this was a particularly good one.
And so yeah, I hope you enjoyed seeing it.
And that maybe if you work for a company
and you're trying to do something similar,
this might have given you some ideas.
Give the video a thumbs up if you did enjoy it,
help it out in that YouTube algorithm.
And I will see you in my next video.
Bye.
(upbeat electronic music)