My second Automattic Grand Meetup is gone already! Can’t believe one week has just passed so quickly.
My first GM has been very different from this one: I was more curious to explore and dive into everything that happens in a 500+ people company annual gathering, coming from all over the world to hang out, work together and have some fun.
This year I was more focused on helping new Automatticians get settled in and not feeling overwhelmed, doing my regular job and spending more quality time with my buddies.
The setting has been again the lovely Whistler, not far from Vancouver BC, Canada. This year I also took the gondola and visited the mountains at 2200mt above the sea level. The weather was glorious and I had a wonderful time.
As Whistler hosted the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, I obviously took a(nother) photo with my beloved five favourite rings. As I love to say – heart is where Olympics are. 
My team within the JPOP Happiness, Team Water, was missing 50% of their members due to different reasons. We didn’t lose our heart though, and although we felt a bit ‘lonely’ we had a great time with the rest of the JPOP Happiness folks.
These are previews of the team Water and JPOP Happy pics by our amazing Jen – check her Instagram as well!
The Automattic Grand Meetup is also a good time to take crazy or funny company pictures. Here’s one I took with all the Steph/Stef/Stev colleagues. Our users stay secure with 12-Ste{ph|f} authentication! (yes, that’s a good pun isn’t it?)
The GM allowed me also to make new friends. And when I say friends I mean it – it’s not just about being colleagues and get along well with each other. Here are Tracy and Joen posing with me at the closing party. We just had 3 plates of beef because we were hungry. The rest of the folks had only one, but you know that when it’s about food I’m always on top of it.
I did say “closing party” didn’t I? I have proof it happened for real – more JPOP Happiness Engineers here – because #jetpackisthebestpack: 
In a nutshell: it’s been a blast! Luckily I don’t have time to fall into the so-called “post-GM blue”, but I am already looking forward to my next team meetup, like the one I had in Madrid last April.
And of course, the countdown for the next Automattic Grand Meetup has started!
Taken at Whistler, BC, Canada
More to follow on my Instagram account!