Developing Team Culture at Our 3rd Annual Retreat

Team over individual is a core value we hold dear and make daily decisions on. As we have a team spread across British Columbia, how we develop and maintain our company culture has always been a high priority. We do get together as often as possible, but the normal daily office dynamics exist through digital channels alone. The tools available make this quite easy to do (Slack, uber conference, Google Apps). However the energy that flows in a room of like minded people all pushing for the same goals is a powerful force that cannot be ignored.

We started with an annual retreat in our first year as a way to bring the team together and figure out our company mission and values. We just wrapped up our 3rd year of business. A feat we are very proud of as some statistics state that 92% of startups fail within the first 3 years of operations (Max Marmer, CSO Startup Genome). We celebrated this by putting on our 3rd annual retreat and gathering the whole team in SunPeaks resort for a summer weekend. The energy was stronger than ever and the team alignment the most focused since our inception. The formula has not changed much since our first year. A weekend of connection, discussion and fun. Nothing is off the table for discussion and no activity is mandatory. Meal times feel like family get togethers and the road ahead is planned and deliberated. We revisit our core values and company mission each year to make sure we are on track and still aligned.

Working Sessions

The working sessions are the prompts that kick off the discussions of the day.  Topics include personal and professional goal setting to deep dives into company financials. Products are pulled apart and the future of digital marketing for small businesses analyzed and probed.

Team Fun and Games

Each day evolves quickly into fun as we are buzzing off the ideas shared in working sessions. This year we took on Mountain Carting and Golf to name a few.

We combine the fun with incredible food sourced straight from our awesome customers Batch Foods and Vital Supply Co with Liquor Valet providing the beverages. Terra Restaurant also provided us with a beautiful meal on our first night.

Sitting down and eating dinner together is a great way to reflect on the day and share a tale or two.

This year on our final night, the Mayor (Luke) added a little 80’s twist.

let’s just say we never made it to the 80’s rock night as planned. Of course the Snapchats and selfies were flying, we are a digital marketing company after all.

If you have the right people aligned around the same values all pushing towards the same goal then the culture will evolve naturally and no matter how dispersed your tribe is, the energy will be there to maintain your momentum.