Czech Republic meetup

For the second time in 2022, we had the privilege of spending another week together as a team, this time in Černý Vůl - a misty village just a little outside the beautiful city of Prague. After the success of the Seaton Carew meetup, it was safe to say we were all very excited to see everyone in person again. Nestled amongst trees, the location provided a lovely space to spark environmental discussions, have epic board game sessions and simply gather around a home cooked meal.

We had team meetings twice a day where the overarching theme was ‘breaking silos’ – throughout the week we discussed all of our ongoing projects with the rest of the team and also reviewed our ecocycle diagram to coordinate our intentions for the future. However, we also found plenty of time to make the most of the trip. We had a great time exploring Prague and visiting some of the city’s most famous sights, such as Prague Castle and the stunning Charles Bridge. Aside from sightseeing, we also tried our hand at rock climbing at a local climbing gym – we all had a blast, and some very sore muscles the day after! Luckily, there was lots of delicious Czech food around to refuel afterwards.

At the last meetup, we discussed implementing a carbon budget for ourselves. Although this proved to be difficult to put into practice, it meant we renewed our efforts to minimise our impact on the environment this time around. The location of the meetup meant that many of the team living in Europe could travel by land, however some flights were still unavoidable to ensure we could all see each other. There is definitely room to improve on this next time, but being mindful about the choice of location for these meetups regarding travel is a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, not everyone from the team could make it, so we tried our best to make our meetings accessible via videocall. As we found at the last meetup, this isn’t the easiest. It felt like a slight improvement on last time as we had some different tech to try, but it could definitely be better. As this was the second meetup since the pandemic, it was a great opportunity to compare and see the ways in which we have improved since the first, and also identify the areas in which we have some growing room to keep making these get-togethers better for everyone – and the environment.

We ended the week with a team adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The individual groups had to make their way through a mix of physical obstacles and logical puzzles – navigating a laser maze together was definitely some top-tier team building! Congratulations to the ‘Team who cannot be named’ who can be named as the winners of the challenge. It’s times like these that make the meetups so memorable, and it’s safe to say we all had an amazing time. It was so lovely to see everyone again after half a year, and it really felt like spending time with friends. I personally can’t wait for the next one!