Welcome to Zurich, Apple Store!
May 22, 2009
In Zurich, today was a day of joy and celebration for those who follow the Apple. The company and producer of such ubiquitous gadgets like the iPhone, the iPod or the iBook, in short, all things i, opened its own store on the fancy downtown Bahnhofstrasse. Since we, just like Apple, are an international corporate giant (well, almost), we’d like to welcome Apple to our lovely city. We sent two representatives with salt and bread (traditional gifts for new neighbors) to the store, one of them almost first in line to get into the store, the other taking a couple of pictures along the way.
Back from the mountains
May 14, 2009
Twice a year we take a time-out from the busy day-to-day work at the office, for various reasons. And upon coming back from our spring retraite, as the French say, I can highly recommend this practice. Let me point out, why.
1. Team building. Okay, this may sound cheesy and a bit old-company-goes-wannabe-modern, but the team building aspect of such an off-site event must not be underestimated. I don’t think a company needs to organize over the top high-adrenaline action events like indoor climbing, where one has to support the other. First of all, the psychological aspects of this are all too obvious, secondly you always run the risk of embarassing. I, myself, with my very prominent vertigo, wouldn’t feel well at all hanging from a rope by the hands of one of my colleagues. And thirdly, something like this can backfire. What if I drop somebody, what if I let the gang down? Team deconstruction rather than team building. Nevertheless, I think, we found a very good way. We were in Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland, so, naturally, we went for a hike on Sunday. Nothing special, but suddenly the path ended and we were faced with a little river and a torn-down bridge. So, what did we do? Some went to look for a place to cross while others brought wood and stones to build a tentative bridge. Okay, not everybody worked on this, but everybody gave moral support and good opinions. After all, we went across the river safe and dry. Nice one, bridge and team built.
2. Getting to know your co-workers. This maybe only works in small teams, but one of the true benefits of getting out of the office with your co-workers is that you get the chance to talk about private stuff. Nevermind, this must be alright with everybody, there is no sense imposing a talk-about-intimate-things-rule during off-site events. There are still things one doesn’t want to know about the other and most of us tend to respect that. But when you work together and you have amicable feelings for your co-workers (which for me has become a must over the years, I must admit, and I find it hard to work in an environment where there is no personal relation with each other), you can sometimes talk about other stuff than just beer, football and the occasional politic rant. Which we did. And it doesn’t put anybody in a position where he or she can use that given information against one self. At least I hope so. And it is of course not only just the conversations, it is the daily habits – coffee or tea?, who reads, who’s on the computer all the time? and such.
3. The Work. Of course we also went to the mountains to put our collective foot down and tighten the screws on that little business called Amazee. Working off-site brings a lot of benefits. First of all, there are certain strategic decisions which can’t be made between writing a news post and replying to an email. Especially as a startup team, you have to stay flexible. At random intervals you have to be able to step back, look at your masterpiece and maybe re-evaluate, re-design, re-shape. Even if it’s only about fixing minor tweaks, it is utterly important to do this thorough. And if you are working on this as a whole team, two hours on a Thursday afternoon in the office just won’t do. I’ve been on two off-site workshops with Amazee now and both times I was amazed at how much work we did get down and how intense (in a positive way) the atmosphere was. In a well-running team any idea can be voiced, but this tends to be more easy in a two or three day workshop than in a team meeting after lunch. This year again, no cow was too sacred to be at least reconsidered, and I think we made a few pretty good decisions.
4. The scope. As I’ve said before, it is important to take a step or two back every now and then and to look at what you and your team have done over the last months. This is not possible when your are in the midst of running a new project at work. Taking a few days off the everyday office hustle and bustle helps to put things into perspective, to draw new breath and motivation in order to get running again. Taking your mind off the little things and look at your business as a whole helps.
Just a few random thoughts on doing off-site events. What are your experiences? What do you think?
Great booster party success!
May 10, 2009
What a great first fundraising event we had on Friday night! The Amazee Booster Party went down well in every aspect. There were loads of people, everybody was having a good time, the collaborative wine-cooler worked well and we raised quite a bit of money for four projects on Amazee. An all-out success, in other words, and certainly not the last party we had!
To be honest, when the first guests arrived, we weren’t quite sure if the collaborative wine-cooler would work. We had asked the Ladies to bring cut fruit and the Gentlemen to supply us with the alcoholic ingredients. But soon we had a nice wine-cooler going which actually tasted quite well. Only that it turned into more of a vodka-cooler as the party proceeded.
The fundraising part, the centerpiece and primary reason for our party, also worked very well. We had asked everybody to leave a few quid for a project of their liking. Four projects were selected by us before the party and they received quite nice amounts of donations: Water for Dixie, Abolish The Death Penalty, Mosquito Nets To Fight Malaria! and Mission Moonbear.
We thank everybody for showing up and hope you had a good time. We woke up with slight headaches and our office looked like it was fun the night before. After cleaning up we took the chance and rearranged our workplaces. Come by and have a look! Or just visit the project and enjoy Danny’s nice party pics we posted there.
Are you a digital immigrant?
May 4, 2009
Yes? Then there’s a handbook we can recommend to you!
It’s John Palfrey and Urs Gasser’s 2008 publication “Born Digital“: A guide for all teachers, parents and “the myriad of confused adults that want to understand the digital present” and its first generation – the digital natives (born after 1980).
The authors explore questions like: What does identity mean for people who have dozens of online profiles and avatars? Should we worry about private issues – or is privacy even a relevant concern for Digital natives? Are the new media killing the old media? Should we allow notebooks and internet access in classes?
Thumbs up from the Amazee team!
