This past week, we enjoyed having our annual Lullabot retreat. Lots was done, great conversations were had but, here are the highlights.
Where We Stayed
We stayed with the beautiful people of Whispering Pines who gave us amazing service. The rooms, meeting places and food was first-class and we can't thank them enough for being hospitable with us.
As a distributed company, it's important for us to have time to talk and socialize. The great people at Whispering Pines made this easy and seamless. We didn't worry about a thing.
It Was High School All Over Again
While the parties were fun, what really made the "high school" feeling was the group photo! It's not often that all the 'bots are in the same place so, we took the opportunity to get new awesome pictures of ourselves! We've added nine new people in the past year so getting everyone in the group picture took some creativity. Stacey Doyle took our photos and it was a great experience; she made us all feel comfortable being in front of the camera!
Company Presentations and Discussions
We had quite a few of presentations on the inner workings of Lullabot and they were very educational. It helped us all learn about the processes involved in the jobs of others and to appreciate all of their hard work. As developers or designers, we sometimes forget all of the hard work that goes into making Lullabot work like a well oiled machine.
We also had time to have what we call LullaBOFs, where we got together in small groups and talked about new ideas, our future and other interesting internal projects. These sessions were so productive! We were able to come out of most of them with clear action items or at least an idea of what we should do next. It was truly great to see all of our minds work together.
Ignite Talks and the 2nd Annual Talent Show
Many gave 5 minute ignite talks on things they were passionate about or a funny topic. All of them were so interesting and it was great to get to know each other in other aspects of life. It was awesome. Really awesome. Awesomely awesome.
We also held our 2nd Annual Talent Show where the 'bots showed off amazing talents. We were all surprised at the many hidden talents of the 'bots. We could totally start a band and make it big.
Wrap Up
All in all, it was a great week. We were extremely productive and had a lot of fun. A big thanks to Chelsea Barwald, Haley Scarpino and the brilliant owners of Lullabot, Matt Westgate and Jeff Robbins who worked so hard to make this retreat possible. Can't wait till next year!