Paylocity TechCon 2023
Our workers in Product & Tech are fully remote, with the freedom and flexibility to work wherever they want, which means most of their time working together is connected via Slack and webcams. To ensure colleagues have meaningful face time to get to know each other better in the flesh, Paylocity organizes annual, in-person TechCon events. The first such event was held in 2014 close to our HQ in Schaumburg, Illinois, providing a central gathering place for teams to connect with each other in person. Since then the venue has migrated as far away as Las Vegas, but after the pandemic-induced lockdown of 2020, we’ve been relegated to knowing each other only from what we can see through our screens.
Beautiful Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando was a perfect venue for us to reconnect, learn and be inspired! Booking 1,000 4-star hotel rooms, round-trip airfares (from across the U.S. and Czech Republic), Universal Orlando Park passes and a private evening for our employees only at CityWalk with free food and drinks — all this costs a pretty penny, but it’s a relatively small measure of Paylocity’s commitment to invest in our people. We’ve recognized that the unique mix of smart minds and diverse identities that comprise our remarkable workforce is unlikely to be found all in one place — or even all in the eight addresses where we maintain physical offices — so that’s why over 60% of our people are remote and will remain so long after other tech companies have recalled their workers back into their buildings.
For a more personal perspective, here are two attendees to share their TechCon experiences:
Brynn Wharton, Software Engineer
During our time in Orlando, Paylocity treated us to some wonderful activities. On the first night we filed into the courtyard at the hotel to enjoy appetizers and drinks with our coworkers after a long day of traveling. With drinks in hand, we mingled and glanced across the room at someone we thought might look like Bobby from the payroll team but “he just looks different without his glasses on.” Maybe we met our slack pen-pal, or the person on the team with that cool zoom background and woah they are tall in real life.
We started off day two strong with a large group session featuring talks from the co-CEOs Steve Beauchamp and Toby Williams as well as a talk from our CTO Rachit Lohani. To round out the morning we welcomed in our keynote speaker, Sachin Rekhi, the founder and CEO of Notejoy to talk about Influencing without Authority.
After refueling with lunch, we were directed to breakout sessions. Ranging anywhere from personal soft skills, to new company wide strategies we will be implementing, to deep dives on new technologies, there were sessions for everyone’s areas of interest. With the sun setting on the second day, we gathered at Universal’s CityWalk. All attendees were able to pick what suited their fancy, karaoke, dancing, listening to live music, or just talking while enjoying refreshments.
Day three started with a general session of fireside Q&A from our product and technology leaders. They answered questions about the direction of our organization, tackled talking about diversity in our workforce, and gave us goals for the remainder of the fiscal year. We then broke out into our categories for some team time. Teams met with their directors and management teams, but don’t think it stayed all serious. While some groups chose to work on their road maps, others used the time to bask in the sun, head to the pool, or grab coffee before a big afternoon. One group, in particular, honored the start of March Madness with a bracket style trivia game that showcased the creativity and knowledge of the people that work at Paylocity.
After a morning of team activities, we headed back over to Universal, but this time for the parks. The people on your team were no longer the people writing a database query or finding the perfect shade of yellow that will make that button stand out just right, they were giddy kids. Teams laughed together on the Minion ride, screamed in terror on the Jurassic Park roller coaster, and enjoyed a frozen butterbeer together in Hogsmeade.
In closing of a conference, the MC always says something along the lines of, “think of all that you’re taking away from this week and what you’re bringing back to your team.”
So what did we take away from TechCon 2023? A renewed sense of team, a pride in our organization and what we can accomplish given the right tools, and fresh Harry Potter wands (for some of us at least). For many teams this was their first-time meeting since 2019 so with that comes new goals, a deeper understanding of how people function on the team, and a fresh breath of inspiration from planning sessions and breakout rooms. What’s coming next year? With Paylocity’s expansion through the Czech Republic, some are hoping for a CzechCon 2024.
Tyler Clark, Engineering Manager
My team and I had just had a successful on-site at HQ in December, and the opportunity to come back together in the next quarter helped solidify our bond. Monday evening was filled with food, drinks, and many hugs. There were several “Quarterly Values Award Winners” in our group, and they won upgraded reservations from queen bedrooms to suites! Each night, a different suite-holder hosted a party starting after official activities ended going until 1:30 or 2:00 am.
Tuesday was filled with general sessions in the morning and learning sessions in the afternoon. An especially interesting session was “Time Theft: How hidden and unplanned work commit the perfect crime and how to use flow metrics to help minimize time theft.” If you’re left wondering why your work drags on from sprint to sprint and you can’t crank up your team’s velocity, you might look for:
- Too Much WIP (Work In Progress)
- Unexpected Dependencies
- Unplanned Work
- Conflicting Priorities
- Neglected Work
I will be spending some time with these slides, looking for ways to increase the amount of flow time my team is able to capitalize on. But first… karaoke with a live backing band! I came into software development mostly self-taught. My Bachelors degree is in music, so while some might be more comfortable in a hackathon, I am at home on stage. I sang Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”. Screaming out the high notes made me worry I had lost my voice, so I went back to the bar for another beer. And then another. And another. When I got back to the hotel to join some colleagues for a board game (Terraforming Mars), I realized I had gone to the well too many times and needed to hit my pillow.
Wednesday started with focused sessions with our Directors, laying out goals for the coming quarter and year. Then, we split off into groups by team and had a March Madness-style trivia tournament, with real trophies and everything. (e.g., “What is the name of the Data Dog board that tracks our critical uptime stats?”) By three in the afternoon, we were ready to hit Islands of Adventure!
We started out with the longest line (45 minutes), which happened to be the VelociCoaster. It was an insane course of loops, sudden accelerations, and barrel rolls. Absolutely one of the top three coasters I can think of. None of the other lines were longer than 10 minutes, meaning we just walked straight from the start of the line onto the ride! We were each given a $50 gift card to cover dinner, and since my team decided to just swing through a to-go joint for gyros and fries, I had $30 left on the card to go back to Honeydukes in Hogsmeade to get a bunch of candy that I knew our daughter would like (and that I — let’s be honest — probably would not have otherwise shelled out that much cash for). A true win-win!
After we tired ourselves out (my watch logged 15,338 steps that day), we took the boat back to the hotel and got set up for the final party. My favorite story of TechCon is of the band of intrepid adventurers who booked rideshares for the hour drive out to Cape Canaveral for the 12:30am SpaceX launch. You can see by their faces it was worth the trip!
So, that was my first TechCon! Thursday was a closing session in the morning, followed by shuttles to the airport and flights home. I enjoyed lunch with a colleague before we went to our separate gates, and my sense was that everyone came back feeling energized and ready for great collaborations to come. I’m looking forward to next year!
Tyler Clark, Engineering Manager I at Paylocity, and Brynn Wharton, Software Engineer at Paylocity, collaborated on this blog post.
