The Automattic Grand Meetup has been a grand success for me. Being almost 498 Automatticians gathered in Whistler, BA, Canada, for one week has definitely paid off for me in terms of many aspects.

The workshops and the classes we attended during the retreat are going to have a huge impact in my daily job. We’re there together to have fun, to better know each other, and to learn something new that maybe we don’t have time to expand or study during your daily routine workload.

Group photos = good energy to bring home

Mostly, what I’m going to keep and treasure from now till the next meetup with my colleagues are the group photos we took.
It might sound a bit silly, but I do see a great value in the group photos.
As we work remotely, we never (or rarely) see each other – and the weekly video chats don’t count much.
Being together and feeling the need to shoot group pics is a healthy feedback for the teams.

Whenever I feel alone, working in my daily routine, or in distress because there’s no one online and I need help with an issue, I can have a look at those pics and not feel the burden of this anymore.

One of the main takeaways of this meetup is the energy and the positive vibes I’m bringing home. The people I work with are even kinder and nicer than when i interact with them online. It looks like there are not horrible people working at Automattic! If you don’t believe me, check out this photo gallery I put together with all the group photos we took!