Getting 65 People to Connect
I just returned from yet another Giant Swarm onsite. Most of you might wonder what this “onsite” is supposed to be, well, we are a fully remote company and hence doing an offsite really makes no sense, as we are finally meeting with everyone in one location, onsite.
So it happened again this week, and as we have grown to close to 80 people, and 65 showed up, we needed a new system. The old system sadly does not work anymore. We used to rent one or several large houses and cook our own food, but while being a great social glue, it is too hard when you get to more than 30 people (but there are some ideas ;)). The last few events we have taken to renting a small boutique hotel, an island in croatia, and now, the Mas Salagros EcoResort.
It was a great choice of venue, with wonderful rooms, great staff and food, and settled into a mountain valley. It had an amazingly tranquil vibe to it that rubbed off on everyone. But I thought I’d quickly write down what we do at these events and if you have questions, reach out.
People come mostly on monday, by train, plane or automobile, depending on where you live and what your preference is. Taking that monday as a day or arriving is actually good, because being a fully remote company, when suddenly everyone sees loved collegues in flesh, they want to talk and need time. So there is much rejoicing that first day and it is soooooo lovely to see everyone. On the first day I held a presentation before dinner showing lots of old photos and telling a bit about the history of Giant Swarm, which is fun for everyone, but insightful for all the new faces. The night continued with chats and dancing until well after midnight.
Tuesday is where the work starts… and at 10:00, right after breakfast, we met in our biggest meeting room, and started our Open Space. This time we had a big wall of subjects and a great mingling of groups, which is really what a well run Open Space helps to achieve: people that otherwise don’t talk to each other suddenly do, as the subject is interesting for both. We want people in the company to meet and form bonds and an Open Space is the perfect setting for that.
We had sessions on CAPI and how to work with Upstream projects of the CNCF. But also on how to make decisions, how to improve support, how to become a platform, leveraging our community approach, and many many more. I think the first day alone we had close to 20 sessions alone.
For the fun and games, we then, before dinner, had a runway show of all the old swag and to launch our newest items. Boy do we have some good models … I am wondering if the golden shorts need to become a swag item in general.
Wednesday is another day of Open Space and after dinner, at 21:00, we had a game of fun facts. Everyone needed to submit fun facts about them selves, one person gathered those and put them on slides, always giving an option of 4 people where that facts might fit. I now know who split their head open as a kid, recorded an album, got 3rd place a pole-dance competition, and many more. It’s a perfect setting to getting to know your team mates again.
Back on Thursday, we close the Open Space and everyone went back into their original teams that they normally work in to gather all the feedback and information and continue along their way. As a side note, the entire time, we are taking care of our customers, answering support requests, working on features, … we just do talk to our customers and ask if something can take until next week, and as we are just transparent and honest as we always are, this really works.
Thursday afternoon we had some events people could choose, like a wine tasting, nature walk, golf, … and then we had a nice last evening and with conversations and hugs and on friday, starting very early, the first people traveled back. A few are staying a bit longer as a holiday, but most are probably back home with their families by now.
All in all, it was a great success and I am feeling humbled to work with many so great people and am looking forward to many more onsites.
