Obrigado! (Thank you!) Rocket.Chat Summit 2018, Bonito, Brazil
In March this year, Rocket.Chat's 41-strong team and significant others travelled to Bonito in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul for its 2018 Summit, a week-long adventure filled with incredible activities, company-wide meetings and, most importantly, the chance to spend time together.
All the fun caught on camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKDwl2xZH5g&t=5s
Thank you to Arthur for putting together such a great video!
Meaningful Encounters
As a company with remote teams located worldwide, our Summit was a crucial opportunity for us all to meet and get to know each other in person.
Team members were able to hang out while discovering ancient caves, trekking through lush forest, swimming in the scenic Estância Mimosa waterfalls, and exploring the Pantanal on a wildlife safari and piranha-fishing trip!
The moments we spent together between activities and meetings, at breakfast, over caipirinhas or with a beer in hand at dinner time (and in the swimming pool!) were also invaluable. We discovered that Rafael is very, very good at ping pong, that Bradley is a gifted horn-player, and that Gabriel loves his gadgets ('GoPro: take a photo' will stay with us forever). Things we could never have discovered over a conference call.
Meetings and team challenges
During the Summit, we also made time for meetings, presentations, brainstorming sessions and team challenges that helped us to develop our company values, goals and vision.
First up was the Marshmallow Challenge, which tests how teams face the tough task of having 18 minutes to build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string and one marshmallow.
We mixed participants from different Rocket.Chat departments to ensure that skills and talents were evenly balanced before getting stuck into the challenge with enthusiasm, lots of concentration and a healthy dose of competitive spirit!
As well as being fun, the Marshmallow Challenge gave us insight into how we work collectively when faced with a problem and reminded us of the importance of testing as we work rather than over-plan and end up with issues.
We talked, debated, and thought about where we want to be in the coming years and what we have to act upon now in order to enable that roadmap. During our discussions on company values, it became clear that we all wish to encourage experimentation, pro-activity and open-mindedness in order to empower our team members to own and champion their projects.
Gabriel's presentation on Rocket.Chat's history reminded us all of how far Rocket.Chat has come and also motivated us to carry on making Rocket.Chat the leading FOSS chat platform.
All in all, the Rocket.Chat Summit was an incredible way for everyone to meet, get to know each other and openly discuss how the team collectively wants Rocket.Chat to grow.
Last but not least, a huge thank you goes to Marcelo Schmidt, our COO, for organising and championing our 2018 Summit!
